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For the majority of medical laboratory scientists who work at the bench, succession planning
rarely comes up in casual conversation—most lab professionals perform bench duties
without taking on additional responsibilities within a company or organization. This is a
perfectly acceptable choice.
However, when lab staff do take on additional responsibilities, leaders must begin planning
for that person’s departure from the bench or from the organization. This planning process is
known as succession planning.
Succession planning is a multistep process of identifying the crucial staff positions within your
clinical lab and developing a dynamic plan to ensure those positions are always filled,
including leadership positions.
This article breaks down each step of the succession planning process and guides you
through each step.
Once you’ve identified the crucial roles, you’ll have a clear view of the specific skills or
responsibilities needed to successfully fill that role. For most clinical labs, this involves
ensuring you have a broad range of skills to round out your staff.
For example, if you know a position will soon be available, such as if a staff member with
additional responsibilities will soon be retiring, start looking for an internal replacement as
soon as possible, including before a staff member leaves the lab.
If certain responsibilities in the lab are held by a few individuals, ensure you have a trained
backup ready in the instance someone leaves. For example, if the lab member currently
performing this task or responsibility is suddenly hit by a bus and can no longer work, you
have someone else who can immediately replace them, a concept otherwise known as the
“bus contingency.” At the very least, your lab should have written instructions and guidelines
to help someone who unexpectedly replaces another staff member’s responsibilities.
Specifically, use mentorship plans to close knowledge gaps and facilitate a smoother
transition between bench technologist/scientist roles and leadership/management roles.
If you identify other gaps that need to be addressed, create and implement additional
mentorship plans to ensure your candidate is well-rounded and equipped to successfully
transition to a leadership role.
Mentorship is also a two-way street: Mentors should schedule one-on-one time with mentees
to get feedback on how well they are learning new skills, and how the mentor can further
help them develop their skills. Leaders should also solicit feedback about improving the
overall mentorship experience in their clinical lab.
In particular, the mentee should have now actively participated in training and taken on some
of the key duties and responsibilities that would have prepared them to take over the
position or responsibility.
After an assessment, if the mentee is not yet ready to transition, reevaluate their mentorship
or professional development plan to determine how or why the program failed to adequately
prepare the mentee, or whether they would be better suited to a different role in the lab.
Planning successful transitions should be part of any leadership plan within an organization
to compensate for sudden vacancies in crucial senior or leadership positions that aren’t easily
filled.
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