Succession planning gives financial institutions a strategic edge. Here’s how to strengthen yours.

Most financial institutions recognize the importance of succession planning. However, in today’s rapidly changing business environment, where technology and consumer demands are constantly evolving, a static documented plan alone is no longer enough.

Institutions that treat succession planning as an ongoing strategic process rather than an annual exercise are better positioned to strengthen leadership pipelines, adapt to change and execute their long-term vision. A proactive approach to succession planning can also strengthen organizational resilience, support strategic priorities and position financial institutions for long-term success.

Let’s explore more about that, plus how to get started with a proactive succession approach.

How does reactive succession planning harm financial institutions?

Passive, reactive succession planning actively makes it more difficult for financial institutions to achieve their strategic goals. Institutions that put succession planning on the back burner risk not only a last-minute scramble after an unexpected exit, but a workforce that’s unprepared for tomorrow.

Poor succession planning often leads to:

• Talent and knowledge gaps: Deprioritizing succession planning exposes you to the risk that your workforce can’t adapt to tomorrow’s challenges because it doesn’t have the necessary skills and training. Individuals holding critical roles also often possess regulatory knowledge, customer relationships, expertise and awareness of institutional history that is difficult to replace.
• Business continuity risks: Succession planning involves identifying mission-critical roles and building a bench to fill them. Without an active succession plan, you risk operational disruptions and general uncertainty should an essential role become empty, even temporarily.
• Reactive hirings: Financial institutions often start succession planning only after someone in a critical role starts preparing to depart. This leaves you at the mercy of a last-minute scramble for talent where you’re forced to settle for whoever’s available rather than prioritizing fit.
• Falling employee morale: Reactive hiring can also lead to uncertainty around leadership continuity. This can harm morale and lead to an unfortunate ripple effect where one departure triggers others.
• Strategic misalignment: If you don’t actively develop future leaders, you may struggle to meet tomorrow’s strategic needs by keeping up with changes in customer expectations, workforce demographics, regulation and technology.

However, making succession planning a more active process helps turn these weak spots into organizational strengths.

How does succession planning give your financial institution a strategic advantage?

Active succession planning is a key tool that financial institutions can use to connect talent development with strategic goals. Engaging in succession planning as an ongoing process rather than an occasional event creates growth opportunities within your team, builds a talent bench for critical roles and helps ensure that your talent will meet your strategic needs for years to come.

Better retention and employee experience

If you have an active succession planning process, your employees are more likely to stick around and enjoy their jobs. This is because succession planning gives your team a clearer sense of how they fit into your overall organization — and how they can move upwards.

Don’t just plan for executive roles, either. Positions like teller, while lower-level, are nonetheless essential to the success of your institution and should be considered in your planning as well. This approach makes succession planning more exciting for your whole team, not just your future leaders.

Clear and actionable career paths

Good succession planning creates clear, actionable careers for people working within your organization. This gives talented team members the opportunity to progress their careers and also helps them understand how to align their development with your institution’s future plans.

Develop institutional knowledge, skills and abilities

Creating an internal talent bench helps preserve your institutional knowledge, which plays a key role in keeping your operations running smoothly. You’ll also be able to draw on a higher level of in-house capabilities, making it easier to promote internally.

Create cross-functional exposure across silos

Aspects of succession planning like coaching, mentorship and stretch assignments help your top talent learn to think about your institution more holistically. When that talent moves into higher roles, they’ll do so with a clearer understanding of how your various functions and departments work together, and how their decisions will impact your institution as a whole.

Build a deep, capable talent bench to maintain business continuity

Finally, active succession planning means you are prepared for unexpected departures in critical roles. If your CEO suddenly decides to take up windsurfing in Tahiti, you’ll be much more likely to have capable talent ready to step in on either an interim or a permanent basis to maintain continuity and help ensure your strategic priorities remain on track.

Here’s how financial institution leaders can implement a proactive succession planning strategy

Proactive succession planning involves identifying your mission-critical roles and actively preparing internal talent to fill them. To be most effective, succession planning should align with your overall strategic goals, so your team is ready for tomorrow as well as today.

Here’s how financial institutions can start implementing an active succession planning strategy:

1. Get support from your board

Nobody wants to ask when the CEO plans to retire. It can be an uncomfortable conversation, but that discomfort risks leaving your institution vulnerable should that retirement come with less of a runway than expected.

Lean on your board to help facilitate conversations around succession planning with key leaders. Board members are often better positioned to raise the issue than day-to-day employees and should understand that taking a hand here is part of their fiduciary duty to the long-term health of your institution.

2. Identify critical roles

Identify the essential, mission-critical roles inside your institution — roles where an unexpected departure would cause genuine disruption. These are typically roles essential to serving customers, managing risk, executing strategy or maintaining operations.

Don’t assume that a lower visibility role is less important here, as people working in those roles may possess valuable institutional knowledge or customer relationships. For example, if only one person on your IT team knows how to keep your aging servers running, you could be in a lot of trouble if that person leaves.

3. Align with your long-term strategic planning

Consider how talent fits into your long-term strategic planning. Specifically, what roles will you need to fill over the next five years or so? How are your most critical roles likely to change during that time frame?

Think of succession planning as a tool to deliver a workforce that fits into your long-term strategic needs and an opportunity to focus your talent investments.

4. Integrate succession planning into your performance management process

Make succession planning an integrated element of your existing talent processes — like recruiting, performance management and talent reviews — rather than a standalone effort. This helps you identify and develop a pipeline of emerging leaders and other high-performers and also makes it harder to fall back into a passive succession approach.

5. Account for change management

Succession planning is a key tool to align your workforce with the changing needs of your institution. Develop talent with an eye towards promoting people who can weather change, especially during an era when it’s happening so rapidly.

6. Don’t overlook your unique strengths

Is being closely tied to your local community a core part of your financial institution’s appeal? What about your culture, specialized expertise or customer service? Take these types of unique strengths into account when succession planning, especially because institutions that rely on a particular strength to stand out in the market may find promoting from within helps maintain that differentiator over time.

7. Begin well ahead of time

Proactive succession planning allows you to take your time, avoiding a last-minute scramble and reducing your risk of rushing a promotion or making an offer that doesn’t work out (which can be expensive and damage your strategic progress). By giving your institution a longer runway, you’ll also find it easier to maintain business continuity and act with confidence even if the unexpected happens.

How Wipfli can help

We advise financial institutions on talent management, performance, technology, managing risk and growth. Let’s talk about your goals and how services like succession planning can help you achieve them. Start a conversation.

Let’s make your institution stronger

Read more

• Can traditional banking avoid losing Gen Z to fintech?
• Financial institutions need proactive general ledger certification
• Ransomware attacks on financial institutions: What to do