Succession happens, and companies need to be ready for it -- better, faster, and more precisely than even a decade ago. There are many ways for an organization to lose an executive or other critical employee -- from retirement to serious illness to natural disaster, from terrorist attacks to corporate raiding, from insurmountable personality conflicts to public malfeasance.

In a broader sense, even without dramatic events, a company's workforce is a body in flux, not a static group of people carrying out the same missions indefinitely. Some employees will assume a series of expanding roles during their careers with a company, each requiring different competencies and experiences.

Identifying inside talent that could be a good match for executives and others who move up - or out - is only part of the task. Companies must measure how work is done and write job descriptions that take these metrics into account. Succession management also requires the company to use the right metrics to figure out precisely what talents and experiences it already has and how to fill the gaps.

An important part of the succession planning and management function - one that is too often given short shrift - is seeing that employees are picking up the critical merit badges they need in preparation for future tasks. There are many steps between an employees being identified as someone to be groomed for a leadership role and the person being ready to actually take on that role.

This issue of Workforce Strategies outlines the necessary steps employers need to take to develop and implement a succession management scheme.