ImagesMagUK_September_2020

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT www.images-magazine.com 26 images SEPTEMBER 2020 ■ The number of employees on UK payrolls has fallen by 730,000 since March 2020, reported the Office of National Statistics in August. For May to July 2020, there were an estimated 370,000 vacancies in the UK, which is 10% higher than the record low reported between April and June 2020. The increase was driven by small businesses (less than 50 employees), some of which reported taking on staff to meet coronavirus guidelines. www.ons.gov.uk ■ A new UK law ensures that furloughed employees who are then made redundant will receive redundancy pay based on their normal wages, rather than a reduced furlough rate. The legislation, which came into force on 31 July 2020, will also apply to statutory notice pay and other entitlements. Employees with more than two years’ continuous service are usually entitled to a statutory redundancy payment based on length of service, age and pay, up to a statutory maximum. www.gov.uk The pandemic has made me realise I need to seriously consider succession planning. How do I start the process? S uccession planning is a process for identifying and developing new leaders and those in key roles. It is having the right people in the right roles with the right skills doing the right things that are going to make your business successful. It is no more complicated than that. However, what a lot of small businesses do is create complex processes that put them off understanding their talent pool. Ask yourself this simple question: “If X left tomorrow, how gutted would you be on a scale of 1-10?” If your answer is anywhere near 10, then you need to look at your succession plans. Here are the top three questions that will help you work out how to get started and where you may need some external help. 1. Will we be fully open and transparent, or more reserved and discreet? No, this isn’t a trick question. We all know the box we should be ticking is the open and transparent one, but the reality is that not everyone will have the means to implement this in a concrete way. Available resources, business size, your business plan and gaps in your leadership capabilities may dictate discretion. 2. Will we adopt the same assessment methods for all or be more rigorous with managers? This is where you need to look at your most immediate talent gaps and future roles and assess your strengths, weaknesses and risks. To do this, first look at the performance and potential of your people. This process can be as simple as taking performance management scores and using a simple potential model, which looks at characteristics like drive, insight and curiosity. What you will be looking for is the difference between performance and potential – it is this that shows you what have you got versus what you need to go forward. You may want to run a pilot with a few people. For example, your immediate focus could be on your leadership team successors. If you don’t want to look at performance and potential, you can buy in assessment methods tools such as Saville Wave or Hogan, or work with a talent consultancy to build you something bespoke, which may be more cost- effective in the long run. 3. Will we invest in everyone in the company equally? We truly believe everyone has talent. As such, and in an ideal world, all staff would receive customised career planning training and advice in order to prepare for the next stage of their professional life. But whether it’s due to limited budgets, resources or other factors, this is rarely the case. Succession planning does not have to cost the earth though: mentoring, for example, is a cost-effective way of developing someone’s career, while other companies may be able to invest in coaching or more formal business school programmes. In our experience, time is the biggest investment and this can be short – say a day of your leadership team’s time – although setting it up will take a little longer. Remember, it does not have to be a complex initiative. Ultimately, what you are seeking is to drive good conversations about your people. Expert advice on the business of running a garment decoration company Q&A Jo Taylor is the MD of Let’s Talk Talent, an HR consultancy for growing businesses that “challenges businesses it works with to create world-class experiences for their people, and helps organisations identify and nurture potential into performance”. www.letstalktalent.co.uk