Category Archives: Leadership

The Importance of Proactive Succession Planning in Future-Proofing Your Company

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Welcome back to another edition of the ComputerPeople Staffing blog! In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of your organization is more critical than ever. Succession planning is a key strategy to achieve this, providing a roadmap for the seamless transition of leadership and essential roles. It addresses fundamental questions such as who will be retiring, how to replace them, and the risks associated with not having a succession plan in place. Proactive succession planning is essential to future-proof your company against unforeseen challenges and maintain operational continuity.

The Need for Succession Planning

The demographic shifts, particularly the impending retirement of baby boomers, make succession planning a pressing concern. As a significant portion of the workforce approaches retirement age, companies face the risk of losing experienced and knowledgeable employees. Without a plan, the unexpected departure of key personnel can lead to substantial knowledge loss, decreased morale, and significant disruptions in business operations. Succession planning mitigates these risks by preparing the organization for seamless transitions.

Benefits of Proactive Succession Planning

A well-thought-out succession plan offers numerous benefits. It ensures smoother transitions and reduces downtime, maintaining business continuity. Proactive planning also improves employee engagement by fostering a culture of talent development and retention. Employees are more likely to stay with an organization that invests in their growth and provides clear career advancement opportunities. Succession planning also helps in identifying and nurturing future leaders, ensuring the organization remains competitive and resilient.

7 Factors to Consider in Succession Planning

Identifying Key Positions

Determine which roles are critical to the organization’s success and require succession planning. These positions often include senior leadership roles and other key operational roles that are vital to business continuity.

Assessing Talent

Evaluate the skills, experiences, and potential for advancement of current employees. This assessment helps in identifying individuals who are well-suited to take on larger responsibilities in the future.

Training and Development

Provide ongoing training and development opportunities to prepare potential successors for future roles. Investing in employee development ensures that they are ready to step into critical positions when needed.

Knowledge Transfer

Implement strategies for transferring critical knowledge from outgoing leaders to successors. This can include mentorship programs, documentation of processes, and shadowing opportunities.

Internal vs. External Succession

Consider whether to promote from within or recruit externally. Internal promotions can boost morale and retain institutional knowledge, while external hires can bring fresh perspectives and skills. Weigh the pros and cons of each approach to determine the best fit for your organization.

Timeline and Contingency Planning

Establish a timeline for succession planning activities and develop contingency plans for unexpected events. A clear timeline ensures that succession planning is proactive rather than reactive, and contingency plans provide a safety net for unforeseen circumstances.

The Cost of Not Investing in Succession Planning

Neglecting succession planning can lead to increased recruitment costs, decreased productivity, and the loss of institutional knowledge. Companies that fail to plan for leadership transitions often face operational disruptions and a decline in employee morale. Real-world examples abound of organizations that have suffered due to inadequate succession planning, underscoring the importance of being proactive.

4 Steps to Build an Effective Succession Plan

Start Early

Begin succession planning well in advance to allow sufficient time for talent development and transition. Early planning ensures that potential successors are adequately prepared for their future roles.

Engage Leadership

Gain buy-in from senior leadership and involve them in the succession planning process. Leadership support is crucial for the successful implementation of succession plans.

Communicate Transparently

Keep employees informed about succession planning initiatives and their role in the process. Transparent communication fosters trust and ensures that employees understand the importance of succession planning.

Monitor and Adjust

Continuously monitor the effectiveness of the succession plan and make adjustments as needed to adapt to changing circumstances. Regular reviews and updates ensure that the plan remains relevant and effective.

Conclusion

Proactive succession planning is vital for ensuring business continuity and long-term success. By starting early, engaging leadership, and communicating transparently, organizations can mitigate risks and prepare for the future. Don’t wait until it’s too late—begin your succession planning today to secure the future of your company!

If you need assistance with developing your succession plan, our IT staffing agency is here to help. Contact us to learn more about our services and how we can support you in creating an effective succession strategy tailored to your organization’s needs.

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Thanks for reading! If you are a business looking to fill your important IT roles, visit us at cpstaffing.com to learn more!

If you are a candidate and are looking for dream role, visit us at jobs.cpstaffing.com for our latest job postings!

And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn for new jobs, insights, blog posts and more! https://www.linkedin.com/company/computerpeoplestaffing

Written by Jeff Weiss

What Does Diversity in the Workplace Mean to You?

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Welcome back to another edition of the ComputerPeople Staffing blog! This month, we are taking the time to reflect on an important aspect of the work environment: diversity. Diversity is not a hard or soft skill you put on a resume, or something that should be taken lightly, but a unique attribute imbedded in every single person. Merriam-Webster defines diversity as “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements, especially, the inclusion of people of different races, cultures, etc. in a group or organization.”

There are several key examples of diversity. Age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, education, marital status, and disability are a few examples of diversity. You may be able to see diversity, but you are also able to hear it through other peoples experiences, and feel it through other peoples emotions.

In past years, diversity was not considered a highly important aspect in the workplace, resulting in groups of people being marginalized, while others got to climb the ladder and succeed. People of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ frequently face the more counts of discrimination, compared to people of Caucasian descent, men and straight/cisgender people. As time moved on, the United States began ushering in new federal laws to protect people against workplace discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, protects employees and job applicants from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 protects men and women from sex-based wage discrimination in the payment of wages or benefits, who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), as amended, protects persons 40 years of age or older from age-based employment discrimination. These are a few examples of the progress made in our country to continue to protect individuals from discrimination in the workplace.

In today’s age, the United States and businesses have made great strides to protect people from the evils of workplace discrimination. Marginalized groups are now earning their rightfully deserved seat at the table, and moving up the ladder. While there is still more work to do, we can confidently say that there is unity in diversity, and that every person deserves to have a voice, a story, a goal, a vision, and a place in such company.

Before we wrap up, I leave you with some examples of what diversity means to a wide variety of bright minds and professionals!

“For me, diversity promotes the expression of individuality and encourages collaboration with people who have differernt backgrounds and perspectives and also provides a safe space for people to be themselves and bring their best version of themselves to work.” – Joshua Vantino, Leasing Professional

“To me, diversity in the workplace means the freedom to be my truest self. I think having a diverse workplace is important , because it fosters new ideas from many different viewpoints and perspectives. I believe this is necessary to help an organization stay modern and function smoothly.” – Connor Lloyd, Staffing Manager

“Diversity to me means not having any apprehension to people joining the team based on any bias. Our character and our skills should be prioritized over anything and I feel this is something that still needs reminding of to this day sadly.” – Dario Surphlis, Payment Admin

“I am thankful that my company embraces age diversity.  As one of the more senior employees, I often bring a different perspective than my younger colleagues and conversely, I learn a lot from my co-workers who were raised in a completely different generation.  Age diversity encourages fresh thinking and differing perspectives, which fosters positive collaboration in a team setting.” – Beth Courtney, Sr. Technical Sourcing Specialist

“Workplace diversity means showing black employees that they exist and belong; that they don’t have to overcompensate to achieve.” – Anthony Peoples II, Data Annotation Lead

“To me, diversity means the inclusion of people with different skin colors, genders, sexual orientations, and ethnic backgrounds. Ultimately, it’s bringing a group together with overall different qualities that make then who they are.” – Renee Hersperger, Associate Marketing Analyst

“To me, diversity in the workplace means that there is an environment where different backgrounds are embraced and new ideas are encouraged.” – Abigail Giambra, Senior IT Auditor

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Thanks for reading! If you are a business in the Western New York Area and are looking to fill your important IT roles, visit us at cpstaffing.com to learn more!

If you are a candidate and are looking for dream role, visit us at jobs.cpstaffing.com for our latest job postings!

And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn for new jobs, insights, blog posts and more! https://www.linkedin.com/company/computerpeoplestaffing

Written by Jeff Weiss

How To Increase Your Productivity By Next Week

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We all want to be more productive, but it is usually easier said than done.

Productivity is something that we discuss all the time at ComputerPeople. This time, we took it one step further by talking to people with excellent habits, researching, and brainstorming how to we can more productive in the short term. We liked these five habits because they can make a huge impact on productivity AND you can definitely work them all into your routine pretty much immediately.

Hope they help!

1) Delegate, delegate, and delegate some more. The worst thing you can do for your productivity is put too much on your plate when some of your tasks could be handled by others. Do not try and to everything yourself when someone else could do it better.

2) Have a plan. You should constantly create lists and know what you need to accomplish in the next 24 hours. Prepare for the next day by getting a realistic plan in the works.

3) Take Breaks. Yes, I’m serious. You will be more focused and productive if you reward yourself with small breaks about every 90 minutes, and you will be less vulnerable to getting off track and losing motivation.

4) Find useful apps. Do not take all day to do something that an app could have done for you in an hour. There are thousands of productivity apps out there that will help you get the job done and make your life easier.

5) Get up early. They weren’t kidding when they said the early bird gets the worm. If you want to be productive, you shouldn’t waste your time sleeping the day away. Go to sleep early and start grinding when there are few distractions.

 

by Kaitlyn Gahagen

CP STAFFING PARTNERS WITH JOURNEY’S END REFUGEE SERVICES TO GIVE BACK

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What is Journey’s End?

Journey’s End Refugee Services, Inc. is a Christian community-based refugee resettlement organization. Their mission is to welcome refugees without regard to ethnic origin or creed and to assist them to become healthy, independent, contributing members of the WNY community. Journey’s End offers an array of services on top of assistance with refugee resettlement including education services, employment services, immigration legal services, and interpreting services.

 

How did we get involved?

Immigration and refugees are such important topics in the US, but one of our ComputerPeople Staffing employees, Beth Courtney,  was really inspired to help incoming refugees from her son.

Beth’s son and two friends spent the summer of their junior year at Notre Dame researching the refugee crisis in Europe.  They spent two months visiting refugee camps and hearing the heartbreaking stories of brave families from war torn countries who were fleeing for their lives.  He showed Beth hundreds of pictures of these families and shared their stories which inspired her to do something to help.

Beth found out about Journey’s End and suggested our company could help by volunteering with their Home Again Program.  This program has groups of volunteers clean, furnish and set up an apartment or home for incoming refugee families. Journey’s End describes it this way, “Barren apartments are transformed into cozy homes for newly arrived refugee families. After long and arduous journeys to the United States, a warm and cozy apartment brings a sense of security to families that have lost and left so much.”

 

About Friday.

The CP Staffing divisions of ComputerPeople, FinancialPeople, and MedicalPeople spent two months working together to collect furniture, bedding, lamps, dishes, pots, pans, and everything else needed to furnish a home. On Friday, the staff from our Buffalo office went to work and scrubbed the house down, moved in, set up all of the furniture and household items, and decorated the house to make it feel like a home.  This week, a refugee family from the Congo with four boys arrived and moved into the house for their new start in Buffalo. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Journey’s End and give this family a brand new start!

You can view video highlights from Friday’s home upgrade on the YouTube Video by FinancialPeople’s own Faith Drew

 

 

 

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Written by Kaitlyn Gahagen

What ‘The Walking Dead’ Taught Me About Leadership

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Recently my husband and I started watching The Walking Dead. Yes, I know we’re a little late to the party, but better late than never right? So far, we’re pretty hooked on to the show, but aside from great entertainment The Walking Dead can teach us a few lessons on leadership. Granted, most of what we see in TWD is useful in the apocalyptic event of having to fight off zombie herds, but some can be applied to everyday life as well 🙂 .

  1. A leader isn’t Superman.

    The Walking Dead starts off by showing us the whereabouts of Rick Grimes, who eventually becomes the leader of a group of survivors. You come to find out that Rick had just come out of a coma, was extremely weak, alone, and to top it all off, he had absolutely no idea what was happening – imagine wandering the streets by yourself to then be greeted by a “dead” human-being trying to eat you! Nevertheless, along his journey Rick encounters friends and family who help him get on his feet and help him survive.

    Sometimes we have the misconception that a leader is supposed to be able to do it all, handle it all, and do a perfect job at it. The reality is that leaders need help too; leaders need the support of colleagues/friends/family in order to do a good job. When our leaders are struggling, it is in the team’s best interest to offer them help in any way possible. However, when the team decides to judge and criticize instead, everyone takes a step backwards. If you’re trying to become a good leader yourself, know that it’s OK to ask for help.

  2. Leaders make mistakes.

    Rick Grimes didn’t always make the right call. The first mistake he made was riding on a horse into a zombie-infested city, where he became completely trapped and was later rescued by a stranger named Glenn, who eventually welcomes Rick into the team that he will later lead. Rick also (arguably) makes some other bad calls that affect the whole team, but nevertheless they all continue to pull together.

    Sometimes, even with help, a leader might make a bad decision. To expand on the previous point, we have to remember that we are all human, and what comes with this great trait is that we will make mistakes. Once mistakes are made, the four important things to keep in mind are:

    1. What do we do to fix it? 2. What can we learn from it? 3. How do we keep from making this mistake again? 4. How can we be better prepared in the future if it does happen again?

  3. Good leaders know how to delegate.

    In Rick’s group everyone had a job to do. There was a period of time where Rick actually stepped back into a “farming lifestyle” while others took on bigger responsibilities. Rick was going through some personal issues himself, which made him take a breather from his “leadership role,” and he let others handle that part of the workload. (Of course, when you watch the show and see what happens later, you may or may not feel that this was a good call, but for the purpose of this peace we’ll focus on the positive).

    Having a leadership role is a big responsibility.  At one point or another we all experience burn-out, expressing it through frustration and sometimes even physical illness. It’s good for leaders to take a break every now and again to reboot, and they should be able to do so with the support of their peers. It can’t always just be “go, go, go, Go!” If you’re going through a rough time, but feel guilty about taking a breather, know that you’re not a robot and it’s OK to refresh – after all, how would you expect to kill zombies if you’re all worn out?

  4. Good leaders have to make tough decisions.


    In TWD there were numerous times where Rick had to make a tough call in which everyone was not in total agreement, or one he had to make completely on his own. One of Rick’s best friends, for example, attempted to get rid of him for good, and so Rick had to make the decision of defending himself and others – thus taking his best friend’s life.

    So, in the real world (thankfully!) making a tough call doesn’t involve the gruesome tasks that are required to survive a zombie attack. Nevertheless, there will be times when leaders have to make a decision that not everyone is going to like – it comes with the job. Although a leader ought to care for his people, they’re not necessarily required to be best friends. It’s kind of like parenting: you love your kids, but you’re their parent, not their buddy. If you’re afraid to make a tough decision for your group, always ask for help if possible, but know that there will be times where you have to make the tough call. And, as peers, it is always best to be respectful of a leader’s decision before declaring (like Rick’s best friend did), “I am a better man than you” – as you will come to find out, pride comes before the fall.

Bringing it all together

We are all leaders in one way or another, and we all have leaders to follow in one aspect or another. When it comes to leadership, just know this:

                   A leader is a human with a job to do, not a robot with a programmed task.

To our leaders we owe our respect, support, and understanding. As leaders we owe our peers responsibility, trust, and care. Who knew The Walking Dead had so much to teach besides the best way to kill zombies? If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, I would definitely recommend this enticing thriller as your next binge marathon on Netflix. Although, you may want to watch it well before going to sleep – I’ve had several zombie attack nightmares since we started watching it… but totally worth it!

Featured Image Credit: Casey Florig – The Walking Dead Season 5 trailer screenshots

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Written by Nayadee Wilson