Managing your workforce more effectively than your competitors can give your organization a competitive edge. Putting the best people in the most critical positions means that better decisions are made more quickly, and this leads to better bottom line results.

Effective succession planning means that critical positions are not left vacant for extended periods and transitions are made smoothly. Organizations like General Electric have put a huge emphasis on succession planning over the years. Jack Welch attributes much of GE’s success to having the right people in the right slots. Unfortunately in many organizations succession planning is somewhere on the back burner.

Here are three important considerations for developing an effective succession planning in your organization:

• Find, assess, develop, reward, and retain “super keepers”—those employees who greatly exceed organizational expectations and are the backbone for current and future organizational success.
• Identify and have backups for key positions with the best candidates. Key positions are critical to the organization’s success.
• Invest resources in employees based on their current and potential contribution to the organization’s success.

This is not rocket science you might say — so why do so many organizations fail to put succession plans in place? In many cases succession planning is seen as a non-critical activity and is not given sufficient focus, energy, and resources. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to build a great succession plan, after all, NASA is not noted for its succession planning and they are rocket scientists.

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