More than three-fifths of key business people working for small and medium sized enterprises admit to not having a clear plan to minimise disruption when a key staff member departs, according to Aldermore research.
The study, involving a sample of 1,003 senior decision-makers at UK SMEs, also revealed that more than one in seven respondents cited the departure of a senior executive as the biggest threat to their business.
It also found that 17 per cent of respondents said they worry about a whole team leaving. This figure increases even further to over a quarter (27 per cent) of medium-sized businesses – with a workforce between 50 and 249 employees – that are concerned about multiple leavers.
In regards to succession planning, only one in ten of respondents held the view that they could survive without a plan on the basis that none of their staff members were indispensable or would be difficult to replace.
Meanwhile, a further 16 per cent of the sample revealed they have no defined succession plan in place because they are not expecting any key employees to depart in the short-term.
Carl D’Ammassa, group managing director of business finance at Aldermore, said: “When faced with the day-to-day demands of running their company, business owners can easily push succession planning down their list of priorities. However, good employees are hard to find so for SMEs putting in place a strategy to deal with the departure of key individuals is imperative, particularly since the departure of a key employee has the potential to hit smaller firms with fewer employees hardest.”
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Anna Sofat, founder at London based Addidi Wealth, said: “It is difficult for smaller companies because they can’t always have someone in the ready to take over a role. Smaller businesses are usually knee deep in day-to-day issues resulting in this type of thing being overlooked.”
