The strategic use of succession planning as a tool to maintain competitive advantage within the KwaZulu-Natal non-metro areas : a Standard Bank Business Banking Division case study.

Abstract

Financial institutes throughout South Africa have faced several challenges over the past decade. Standard Bank, like other banking institutes, have been in fierce battles in the market taking into account the increase of quasi-financial institutes in the market. The Standard Bank Business Banking division has been a dominant player in the KwaZulu-Natal region. This has been especially evident in non-metro areas. Therefore, it was critical that management and the human resources department was able to identify the pertinent motivating factors which can be incorporated in the formulation of their succession plans, which could result in existing employees either remaining in or accepting key position in KwaZulu-Natal non-metro areas. In order identify the factors, a cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted among 125 employees using an online survey. It was found that there was a significant association between whether the respondent was already employed in a non-metro area and certain motivational factors i.e. an opportunity to gain experience / job enlargement, an opportunity for career growth / promotion and the one particular family friendly work-style and work-life balance factor (the proximity of hospitals). The results suggested that the motivational factors investigated in this study will unlikely motivate employees from metro areas to take up positions in non-metro areas, whereas the in the case of employees in non-metro areas, the factors which resulted in significant associations can be utilised as motivational factors.