Factors related to succession planning in a government department in Gauteng

One of the challenges facing government departments is the high loss of scarce-skilled employees. When examining departmental processes and procedures, observations were that the organization concerned was experiencing a leadership transition crisis in the absence of the implementation of succession planning. In order to ameliorate this challenge, it is prudent that research into factors and perception of employees on succession planning be conducted to assist with planning of retaining scarce skills and training of employees. A corresponding research study was performed to determine factors related to succession planning, the perceptions of employees and the way different demographic categories perceived succession planning.
The response rate of a questionnaire was 34.72%. The items that loaded high were investigated for common themes and four factors emerged after factor analysis, namely organizational support programs, supervisor support, attraction of talent and a performance management system. The findings also indicated that there was a significant difference between groups in the organizational support program in terms of years of service and supervisor support among employees varying in position at the 5% level of significance. The most important implications for managers resulting from this study are that management development by way of succession planning contributes to employee satisfaction and improves the overall outcomes of the organization. Therefore, it can be recommended that there should be personal involvement by top and senior management in terms of personal accountability and responsibility for growing leaders and linking factors related to succession planning to organizational strategy and human resources strategy.

Keywords: succession planning, leadership, talent management, career management, training and development, performance management system.
JEL Classification: J21