What is the difference between a succession plan and an organisation chart?

The organisation chart shows who holds each role today. The succession plan shows who could hold the key roles tomorrow and what they still need to be ready.

Should you tell someone they are in the succession plan?

It is worth talking to them about their development and asking whether they want that path, without presenting it as a promise of promotion. Plans change, and the conversation should make that clear.

How many candidates should each key role have?

Ideally at least one ready within a reasonable time and, where possible, two. With a single name, the risk is still concentrated in one person.

How often should the succession plan be reviewed?

At least once a year, after the review cycle, and whenever someone in a key role changes role or leaves the company.

Does a small company need succession planning?

Yes, in a simple form. In a small company the departure of one person weighs more, so having successors written down for the three to five key roles is especially useful.

Succession planning: identifying key roles and successors

By Deibson Silva · Reviewed on 23 October 2026

Succession planning identifies a company's key roles, who could take on each one and what they still need to be ready, with a development plan agreed with each person. Its purpose is to make sure an important departure does not stall the business and that the handover is prepared in good time, not on the day it is needed.

What is succession planning for?

A succession plan is a map with three parts: the roles the company cannot leave empty without serious cost, the people who could fill them and the plan to get those people ready. It is not a list of heirs or a promise of promotion. It is an orderly way of planning ahead.

It is for three situations that arrive sooner or later: a departure nobody expected, a planned retirement and growth that calls for new roles. In all three, a company that has prepared the handover decides calmly; one that has not decides in a rush and often looks outside for what it already had inside.

It also has a less visible effect: people who know the company is counting on them for a next step tend to commit more to their own development.

How do you identify key roles?

A key role is not always the highest one on the organisation chart. It is one that meets several of these conditions, which are worth weighing one by one with the leadership team.

Criterion	Question	Sign of a key role
Impact	What happens to the business if it stays empty for three months?	Sales, deliveries or important decisions stop
Difficulty of replacement	How long would it take to find someone outside?	A scarce profile or one very specific to the sector
In-house knowledge	Is what this person knows written down anywhere?	Relationships, processes or judgement only they hold
Risk of departure	Are there signs the person might leave or retire?	Retirement approaching, approaches from other companies, a change of life
Weight in the strategy	Does the plan for the coming years depend on this role?	Leads a project or a growing area

How do you choose possible successors?

With evidence, and starting from a wide group. The usual mistake is to pick the person who most resembles whoever holds the role today, or the one closest to the leadership team. A sound process starts with everyone who might fit and looks at them all with the same data: performance, potential and fit with the competencies the role requires.

The 9-box grid is a good starting point, because it already plots performance against potential. After that, ask each candidate whether they want that path: a succession plan that does not count on the person's own wishes is a plan on paper only.

The criteria must be the same for everyone and written down. In Spain, Article 24 of the Workers' Statute requires promotions to take account of training, merit and length of service, and to follow criteria free of discrimination between women and men. Article 9 of Law 15/2022 also bans any exclusion on protected grounds in career progression.

How ready is each candidate?

For each key role, the plan shows who could take it on and when. Four grades are common: ready now, ready in one year, ready in two years and developing. The grade is not a judgement about the person: it describes the distance between what they have today and what the role requires.

A healthy plan gives every key role at least one person ready within a reasonable time and, where possible, more than one. A role with a single candidate depends on one person all over again.

Readiness changes over time and with the development plan. That is why the map is reviewed at least once a year, after the review cycle, and whenever someone changes role or leaves the company.

How do you prepare a successor?

With a specific development plan, signed by the person and their manager. The 70-20-10 model is a practical way to organise it: most learning comes from practice in the job, through new projects and responsibilities; some comes from learning with others, such as being coached by the current role holder; and a smaller part comes from formal training.

Every action in the plan should answer a gap identified on the map. If a candidate lacks experience negotiating with large clients, the action is not simply a negotiation course: it is shadowing the person who does it today and then taking on an account of their own.

In Spain, training also has a legal footing. Article 4.2.b of the Workers' Statute recognises the right to progress and to train at work, and Article 23 regulates leave and adjusted working hours for training.

How does it work in a small or family business?

In a small business a minimal version is enough: the three to five roles that matter most, one or two names for each and a yearly conversation with each candidate. You do not need a complex system to start, but you do need to write it down.

In a family business, keep apart two successions that are easily mixed up: who will own the company and who will run it. The first is a decision for the family and its advisers; the second should follow the same criteria as any other key role, with evidence and a development plan.

What care does the law ask for?

A succession plan processes personal data and sometimes sensitive information, such as expected retirement dates. The GDPR requires data to be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary (Article 5(1)(c)) and requires people to know what it is used for and who sees it (Article 13). In practice: access only for those who decide, and nothing on the map that is not needed to prepare the handover.

If a company uses an artificial intelligence system to decide promotions, Annex III of the EU AI Act treats it as high risk from 2 December 2027. In Spain, Article 64.4.d of the Workers' Statute also gives the works council the right to know the parameters of algorithms that affect access to and continuity of employment. The underlying rule is the same: the tool proposes, the leadership team decides the succession.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a succession plan and an organisation chart?: The organisation chart shows who holds each role today. The succession plan shows who could hold the key roles tomorrow and what they still need to be ready.
Should you tell someone they are in the succession plan?: It is worth talking to them about their development and asking whether they want that path, without presenting it as a promise of promotion. Plans change, and the conversation should make that clear.
How many candidates should each key role have?: Ideally at least one ready within a reasonable time and, where possible, two. With a single name, the risk is still concentrated in one person.
How often should the succession plan be reviewed?: At least once a year, after the review cycle, and whenever someone in a key role changes role or leaves the company.
Does a small company need succession planning?: Yes, in a simple form. In a small company the departure of one person weighs more, so having successors written down for the three to five key roles is especially useful.