Human resources manager Kevin J. Bettencourt said Handy & Harman may lose 25 percent of its 120 employees to retirement within the next five to 10 years.
The East Providence menufacturer’s ability to replace the retiring baby boomers, Bettencourt said, depends on having a good succession plan.
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Succession planning was the focus of a recent workshop presented by the Executive Development Center at Bryant University. The center offers refresher workshops for business executives in addition to certificate programs in six areas including business management, finance, human resources, leadership, Lean Six Sigma and project management.
“How many of you know who your successor is in your organization?” consultant Kristin L. Mann asked a classroom of about 20 human resource managers and recruitment directors from companies like Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Ocean State Job Lot, GTECH, and nonprofits like West Bay Community Action. A few people raised their hands.
A lot of organizations are doing nothing about succession planning, Mann said. But developing and retaining talent within organizations will prove to be crucial in the next 10 to 20 years as baby boomers age and retire or switch careers and there are fewer younger people in the work force to replace them.
Mann said the number of people ages 55 to 64 increased by 50 percent in the last decade, while the number of 25- to 34-year-olds decreased by 9 percent.
“That’s huge,” she said. “There’s going to be a huge gap in talent. … You have to start now, start developing new talent.”
Handy & Harman started implementing a succession plan within the last year, but Bettencourt said it isn’t where he wants it to be, and that’s why he attended the workshop.
He said the Executive Development Center’s workshops are a good refresher.
“The statistics presented are a true indicator that companies need to be planning,” he said. “If they don’t have a succession plan in place, they need to.”
Mann said long-term retention of employees is one of the greatest challenges for a succession plan.
“Long term is critical,” she said. “In today’s work force many people don’t see themselves as staying long term in their organizations. They do not have loyalty to their organizations because their organizations do not have loyalty to them.”
Mann said before adequately developing an employee’s talent, a manager must find out about the employee’s interests and career goals. Identifying and weaving employees’ career goals into the strategic goals of an organization is the next step.
“If succession planning is done well, it’s a long-term program that becomes part of the culture,” she said. “Managers and leaders learn that this is part of their job to develop talent.”
Employees often feel managers don’t care, she said. “The way you show you care about your people is you take interest in what they want to do. You give them the tools and programs to get there.”
Mann said coaching, feedback and recognition make employees more innovative, encourages them to take risks and can improve productivity.
Mentoring is one way to transfer the talent of experienced workers to newer workers, she said. It is especially important in manufacturing, which requires highly skilled labor.
By pairing one employee per department with one shift supervisor per shift, Bettencourt said, the Handy & Harman plant is trying to ensure qualified replacement of its supervisors should they leave the company or receive promotions.
The company offers 75-percent tuition reimbursement for employees finishing a degree or seeking job-related training, he said. The incentive is part of the plant’s succession planning to develop talent. It also is a tool for employee retention.
“Great companies value people as their top asset,” Mann said. “People have the intellectual capital to help the organization achieve its goals. If you for any reason lose those people, you lose a lot of what the economic value of the organization is.”
