Jobs as well as organizations will continue to change or disappear entirely. It’s crucial that organizations, as they change and evolve, ensure that people don’t wind up in the wrong slots.

By helping people understand their abilities and by boosting their confidence, career planning reduces the chance that individuals will grab at any opening just for the sake of continuing to hold a job with the company.

Once people gain a sense of their own “marketability” whether inside or outside the organization, they will be more confident in themselves and less anxious about the future. Self-assessment also assists people in preparing themselves to adapt to change in the future. Finally, career planning should help people to develop and implement personal career and life plans.

Succession planning approach priority is to ensure the talent is available as managers retire or leave the company. Identification of potential successors for the current leadership is the leverage for facing problem of an aging leadership. The problem appears to be most severe in owner-operated companies. Owners’ emotional ties can sometimes block their ability to see the need to pass the leadership to the next person.

Career planning is also effective retention measure strategy. It promotes morale and employability by fostering self-knowledge, restoring a sense of self-efficacy, through self-assessment, by communicating “we care”. When a company undergoes a critical transition such as a merger or acquisition, human elements often get lost in the shuffle. One of the most crucial of those overlooked issues is how to retain people who have been instrumental in the organization’s success.