Succession Planning
Also known as التخطيط للإحلال الوظيفي
Definition
Succession planning identifies the critical roles an organization cannot afford to leave vacant, assesses who could fill them and how ready each candidate is, and puts development in place to close the gap before the vacancy occurs. It covers senior leadership and any position where scarce expertise creates operational risk.
The scope error is limiting it to executives. A single specialist engineer, regulatory officer or systems administrator whose knowledge is undocumented can represent more concrete operational risk than a vice-president role with several plausible internal candidates.
Readiness assessment is what turns the plan into action. Classifying candidates as ready now, ready in one to two years, or ready in three or more implies different development for each, and the assessment is only credible if it is based on demonstrated capability rather than tenure or the visibility of the individual to senior management.