Organizational Development Church Succession Planning

Succession planning is an ongoing process that designates and prepares individuals to assume key positions in an organization as they come open, either through unexpected vacancies or planned changes.

Think of succession planning as insurance against disruption when the occupant of key positions changes. 

Sound succession planning begins with identifying mission-critical key positions.  Some are obvious, including all of the senior management positions, but other positions reporting to those C-suite people, and even farther down the org chart, might also appear on the list of key positions.

Next, the organization designs a process for defining the essential skills, abilities and attributes required of each key position.  Using that data, the organization designs another process, to identify those with high promoteability and potential for success in those key positions. 

Succession planning, like so many other methods on this list, is more effective when linked to other methods listed here, especially leadership development, training, education, executive coaching and mentoring.

​Organizational Development of Recruitment, Selection, and Hiring

Too many organizations devote too little effort to ensuring good outcomes from their processes of filling open positions. 

OD experts emphasize starting with a clear set of skills, knowledge and attributes required of a specific position.  Next, they deploy multiple methods and sources of attracting qualified applicants, and screening applications for suitability.

However, the most frequent mistakes – and poor practices – occur in the interviewing and selection process.  OD experts know which methods yield the best results and how to deploy them at this stage.

​Church Succession Planning - Compensation and Benefits

Beyond the obvious goals of attracting and keeping top talent, compensation and benefits involves much larger issues of expense control, legal compliance (ranging from retirement plans to equal pay) and budgeting.  For example, retirement plans, like 401(k) plans, come with extensive and detailed regulations.  

Experts in this field use market studies of salaries and benefits packages to evaluate an organization’s standing with comparable organizations.  Studies show that working adults see fair compensation and a good benefits package as basic expectations.  However, in fields where the supply of labor does not meet the demand, qualified people often get recruited aggressively and expect highly lucrative compensation and benefits packages.  Comp and benefits experts advice management about reasonable levels of compensation to attract that talent without unnecessary spending. 

Compensation and benefits professionals also monitor the inevitable annual increases in health insurance costs, and the nature of the benefits provided.  They advise management on options for meeting employee expectations while minimizing cost increases.
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Organizational Development Church Succession Planning

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