Accidents, illness, and employee turnover are an unfortunate part of business life, and your employees need to know what comes next in the event that you or another key person they rely on are no longer able to perform their usual duties. It can also compromise your organization if you have only one person in control of this information-bills go unpaid, emails not returned, information that is vital can be lost forever if not backed up and secured.
Trying to change accesses to online accounts can be very time consuming and troubling if there isn’t a second, or even third, person with this information and authority. From the place you order your sandwiches for meetings, to the CRA payroll account passwords, you need to ensure that there is someone in place who can step into the role, and that this information is not lost.
If the “key person” is the owner, these plans are hopefully laid out in personal Power of Attorney instructions or in the Final Will, but sometimes there is a need to have company functions looked after much sooner than the reading of formal documents allows for, especially in smaller organizations. Or there may not be any papers, making the situation even more complex.
You need a plan. A Succession Plan. A written policy explaining which position(s) in your organization report to which people, and which position would step in in the event that a sudden vacancy occurs and create a log of all of the important contact and password information and what happens to your assets.
Make sure that you talk to the people that you want to have take over, as they might be reluctant, and you may need a “plan B”
Human Resources Consultants
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