Succession planning is the process of identifying and developing internal employees with the potential to fill key leadership roles in the organization. It involves identifying critical positions, creating succession profiles for those roles, assessing current employees, developing succession plans, and reviewing and updating those plans. Succession planning helps ensure leadership continuity, saves costs associated with external hiring, and provides insight into the organization's talent. The process involves identifying critical positions, constructing succession profiles, assessing staff, creating development plans, developing successors, and reviewing plans on an ongoing basis.