In spring, the workshop supervisor mentioned that he will retire in a year and a half. Everyone is happy for him, and at the same time the company realises how much depends on him: he plans maintenance for the equipment, knows the quirks of every machine, knows which supplier will deliver on a Saturday in an emergency, and has trained the apprentices for twenty years.
Succession planning makes sure a role like this is filled well and that the knowledge travels with it. This guide explains what succession planning means inside a company, how to approach it in five steps, what a succession plan with a timeline looks like and how to capture your predecessors' experience while they are still around.
What is succession planning?
Succession planning is the forward-looking staffing of key positions. A company decides which roles matter most to its operations, who can take them over in the future and how those people are prepared in good time. It often concerns leadership roles, but just as often it concerns specialists without management responsibility: the payroll accountant, the buyer who knows the special terms, the one person who truly understands the inventory system.
In HR, the broader discipline is also called succession management. The terms are largely used interchangeably. Where people distinguish them, succession planning means the concrete plan for individual roles, and succession management means the ongoing process behind it, with talent pools, development programmes and regular reviews.
Business succession, the transfer of an entire company to family, employees or a buyer, is a separate topic. There, corporate law, tax and valuation take centre stage. This guide covers internal succession for key roles, although the methods for handing over knowledge help just as much in a business succession.
Succession planning has two sides. The staffing side settles who takes over the role. The knowledge side settles how the outgoing person's expertise reaches their successor. The first question is usually answered quickly, the second takes time, and that is exactly why an early start pays off. The knowledge side belongs to knowledge management in the company, the staffing side to workforce planning.
A typical trigger: the supervisor retires in 18 months
A typified example to work through, names chosen freely: a metalworking company with 60 employees learns that workshop supervisor Mr Krämer will retire in 18 months. Mr Aydin is a candidate to succeed him, a journeyman for twelve years, technically strong, who has just completed his master craftsman course.
Eighteen months sounds like plenty of time. When you list what Mr Krämer actually does, the picture changes. Some tasks happen only once a year: the annual crane inspection, aligning the apprenticeship plan with the chamber of crafts, the warehouse stocktake. If Mr Aydin is to experience each of them at least once alongside Mr Krämer, he needs a full annual cycle. Add holidays, remaining leave before retirement and the weeks when day-to-day business leaves no room for handovers.
The example shows the core of it: succession planning starts once the date of the change is known, and ideally well before. Retirement is the most predictable trigger there is. Other triggers arrive at shorter notice, such as a resignation, parental leave or a long illness. The same approach applies to those in condensed form, as the guide on knowledge transfer when employees leave shows.
Succession planning in five steps
1. Identify key positions
You can recognise a key position by two features: if the person is absent, customers, deadlines or liability are noticeably affected, and nobody else in the company can take over the tasks without asking. A good starting point is a short list of core processes, noting for each one how many people can run it independently. That number is the bus factor. Where it is 1 and a change is foreseeable, the role goes to the top of the list.
Add the risk of absence to the list: an upcoming retirement, announced parental leave, a known intention to move on. This gives you a ranking you can use to plan the next few years.
2. Choose the successor
For each key position, decide who will take it over. Internal candidates already know the company, the customers and their colleagues, so it is worth looking inside first. A skills matrix helps here: it shows who already brings which skills and where gaps remain. You will often find that two people can each take over part of the role, and a shared succession is then a good solution.
If no internal candidate fits, the external search begins. The same rule applies: the earlier the new person joins, the more overlap remains with their predecessor.
3. Take a knowledge inventory
Before the actual handover begins, get an overview of the knowledge attached to the role. This includes:
- Tasks and processes, both regular ones and rare ones that come up only once a year
- Systems and access: software, portals, permissions and powers of attorney
- Contacts and relationships with customers, suppliers, authorities and service providers
- Experience: the quirks of a machine, a customer's preferences, the early warning signs of a problem
The last point is the most valuable and also the one nobody writes down on their own. It is tacit knowledge that the person has applied so often that it feels self-evident to them.
4. Capture experience in interviews
Experience surfaces best in conversation. Questions like "Walk me through a completely normal Monday", "How do you notice that something is wrong with the machine?" or "What did you learn the hard way in your first years?" bring out details that would never appear in a handover document.
Plan several short conversations rather than one long one. After the first interview, the person usually remembers more, and the second conversation brings out the exceptions and special cases. It also helps to interview the colleagues who work closely with the key person. They often know exactly where they turn to that person with questions.
At wissa.ai, an AI conducts these conversations via chat, around 15 to 20 minutes per conversation, at a time that fits into the working day. The AI follows up on exceptions, notices when nothing new is coming up on a topic and suggests inviting colleagues who are mentioned in the conversation. The answers become process documentation that also shows where two people describe the same process differently. With a retirement that is known well in advance, the conversations can be spread over several months. Try one interview for free
5. Draw up and carry out the handover plan
The handover plan sets out when each piece of knowledge reaches the successor and in which way. For every item in the knowledge inventory, choose a suitable format: demonstrating and working alongside for hands-on tasks, joint meetings for customer relationships, documented processes for anything that will be looked up later. The guide on knowledge transfer methods compares the options.
A gradual role swap works well: first the successor works alongside, then takes over tasks with support, and finally the roles switch so that the predecessor only advises. For the first phase, an onboarding plan adapts well to a succession.
A succession plan with a timeline
A succession plan brings the five steps for one role together on a single page. It names the role, the current holder, the successor, the people responsible and the timeline. For the example with 18 months of lead time, the timeline could look like this:
| Period | Phase | What happens | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Months 1 to 2 | Clarify | Confirm the key position, choose the successor, talk with both people | Successor confirmed, both know the plan |
| Months 2 to 4 | Inventory | Record tasks, systems, contacts and annual dates | Knowledge inventory with priorities |
| Months 3 to 8 | Capture | Interviews with the predecessor and their colleagues, document processes | Process documentation for the critical workflows |
| Months 4 to 12 | Work alongside | Successor joins every recurring task, including annual ones | Every task experienced together at least once |
| Months 12 to 16 | Take over | Successor leads, predecessor supports and advises | Successor works independently |
| Months 16 to 18 | Complete | Formally hand over contacts, switch access, close the last gaps | Orderly handover, documentation up to date |
The phases overlap on purpose, because interviews and working alongside complement each other: what is described in conversation, the successor later sees in practice, and what they experience in practice raises new questions for the next conversation.
A template to copy for your own plan:
Succession plan
Key position: ______ Current holder: ______
Successor: ______ Responsible for the handover: ______
Reason and date of the change: ______
1. Why is the role critical? (processes, bus factor, risk)
2. Knowledge inventory: tasks / systems / contacts / experience
3. Successor's development needs (from the skills matrix)
4. Interviews: with whom, on which topics, by when
5. Timeline: clarify / inventory / capture / work alongside / take over / complete
6. Annual dates the successor should experience together with the predecessor
7. Checkpoints: when do we review together whether the plan is working?
Succession planning as part of employee development
Succession planning and employee development go hand in hand. Succession planning shows which skills the future role holder needs, and development through training, projects and mentoring makes sure they acquire them in time. In the example above, Mr Aydin's master craftsman course was exactly such a building block.
If you build succession planning into annual development reviews, you will already have candidates in mind for many key positions before a change comes up. For employees this is good news, because they see which paths are open to them in the company. In German companies with a works council, workforce planning is one of the topics the employer informs the council about in good time (Section 92 BetrVG). If appraisal forms or selection guidelines are used to choose candidates, co-determination rights under Sections 94 and 95 BetrVG apply as well.
Demographics and the retirement wave: why the topic is coming up now
There is a simple reason why succession planning is on the agenda in so many companies right now. The large baby boomer cohorts are gradually reaching retirement age. In Germany, for example, the standard retirement age is rising step by step to 67, which applies to everyone born in 1964 or later (Sections 35 and 235 SGB VI). In many teams, several experienced colleagues will therefore retire in quick succession over the coming years.
This is easy to plan for, because dates of birth are in the personnel files. A simple age structure analysis, ideally summarised by area rather than as a list of names, shows in which areas changes are due over the next five years. Placed next to your list of key positions, it gives you the order in which to start succession plans.
ISO 9001:2015 addresses the topic as well: clause 7.1.6 requires an organisation to determine the knowledge necessary for its processes, maintain it, make it available to the extent necessary and, when things change, consider how to acquire any additional knowledge. The standard does not require succession planning, but a documented succession plan for key positions is an obvious way to put this requirement into practice.
Anchoring succession planning in knowledge management
Handing over a single role well is valuable. It gets even easier when the knowledge of key people is captured continuously, independent of any specific trigger. Then every succession plan starts with documentation that already exists, and the interviews before the change only add what has changed since last time.
The guide on implementing knowledge management compares seven methods and describes how to create a solid framework for this. If you are looking for a tool, the page on knowledge management software gives an overview of how wissa.ai connects interviews and documentation. A free trial package to start with (10 credits, once per company, terms) usually covers a first interview, and interviewees don't need an account of their own. Try one interview for free
Conclusion
Succession planning secures key positions by answering the question of the person and the question of the knowledge together. Identify critical roles through the bus factor, choose the successor with the help of a skills matrix, take a knowledge inventory, capture experience in interviews and hand over the tasks step by step. With 12 to 18 months of lead time, the successor experiences every recurring task at least once alongside the predecessor, and the change becomes an orderly handover.
FAQ
What is succession planning?
Succession planning is the forward-looking staffing of key positions in a company. It determines which roles matter most, who will take them over and how those people and their knowledge are prepared in good time. It covers leadership roles as well as specialists on whom important processes depend.
What is the difference between succession planning and succession management?
In everyday use, the two terms usually mean the same thing. Where they are distinguished, succession planning refers to the concrete plan for individual roles and succession management to the ongoing process behind it, with talent pools, development programmes and regular reviews. Both are separate from business succession, where an entire company changes hands.
How early should succession planning start?
For a key position, 12 to 18 months is a good lead time. Within that period, the successor experiences every recurring task, including the annual ones, at least once together with the predecessor. With a known retirement date this lead time is easy to plan, and for short-notice changes you focus on the most critical tasks.
What goes into a succession plan?
A succession plan names the key position, the current holder, the successor and the people responsible. It adds the knowledge inventory, the successor's development needs, the planned interviews and a timeline with phases and checkpoints. One page is enough, as long as everyone involved knows who does what by when.
Who is responsible for succession planning?
Responsibility usually lies with management or the direct manager of the key position, supported by HR where there is an HR team. The current role holder is involved from the start, because a handover only works with their knowledge and their willingness. In German companies with a works council, the council is informed about workforce planning in good time (Section 92 BetrVG).
How do you capture an employee's knowledge before retirement?
Ideally in several short interviews, combined with the successor working alongside them. The conversations bring out experience and special cases, and working together shows the hands-on steps. The result is recorded as process documentation, so that future colleagues can use it as well.
Sources
- Section 35 SGB VI (German Social Code, Book VI, standard retirement pension): standard retirement age of 67; Section 235 SGB VI: gradual increase for those born before 1964.
- Section 92 BetrVG (German Works Constitution Act, workforce planning): informing the works council about workforce planning, future staffing needs and the resulting personnel and vocational training measures.
- Sections 94 and 95 BetrVG: co-determination on general appraisal principles and selection guidelines.
- ISO 9001:2015, clause 7.1.6 (Organizational knowledge): determining, maintaining and making available the knowledge necessary for the operation of processes.