What other factors should be considered when succession planning for board members?
- Quoracy: Consider if the departure will impact the quoracy of the board and any committees they serve on, particularly if this were to happen at short notice? If necessary, consider recruiting additional committee members from the board to ensure a full complement of directors serving on the committee to mitigate departures. The skills audit would be an essential tool for this exercise.
- Composition: Consider if the departure will this impact the composition. For example, if the individual serves on the Audit and Risk Committee which may require at least one member to have recent and relevant financial experience, and the departing director is the sole individual meeting these criteria.
- A mentoring/buddying system for newer directors to link with longer‑serving directors to assist in knowledge sharing and development.
If appropriate, for longer‑standing directors who have served in key board positions for some time, such as a board or committee chair, the director could consider standing down early from that role whilst remaining on the board, in order to allow for handover and mentoring potential successors into the role so that they can be supported while gaining experience from the incumbent.
For example, an incumbent Audit and Risk Committee Chair is in the last year of their final term of office and they will be leaving the board at the end of the year. The incumbent could stand down but remain as a committee member, or at least on the board for their final year, to be available to support and guide a successor Chair while they become familiar with the role.
- Handover opportunities where departures are planned – shadowing, mentoring up‑skilling, giving other colleagues exposure to certain tasks or activities. This can also help avoid key person dependency.
- Stagger terms of office to avoid ‘cliff edges’ where disruptive levels of director departures can impact the effectiveness and continuity of the board.
- Director training and development: this could take the form of a formal programme of training but should also be combined with deep-dives/workshops specific to the activities of the co‑operative, to help ensure all directors have sufficient knowledge of the organisation, helping to reduce over‑reliance on longer‑serving directors.
- Officer roles: for staff teams, particularly those that are small in number, should consider ways of avoiding key person dependency which can include knowledge sharing, up‑skilling, access to relevant files as appropriate and ensuring a broad understanding of team member roles. For some organisations, having a named colleague as a designated replacement to assist with short term leave or absence works well.
- Shadowing opportunities: hold sessions for potential candidates to shadow board meetings in order to learn more about the board and its role in practice.