The Aldermore Future Attitudes report has been released and has revealed that 58% of small and medium sized enterprises have said that they have no clear plan for making sure that the business doesn’t suffer is a key employee leaves. The survey looking into succession plans was carried out by Opinium on behalf of Aldermore in February 2017. The research used a representative sample of 1,003 senior decision makers from SMEs based in the UK.

Aldermore Group PLC is a banks that specialises in offering straightforward products to small and medium sized businesses as well as homeowners, landlords and individuals. The company doesn’t have a branch network, instead serves its customers and intermediary partners through an online presence as well as phone and face to face communications. The Bank does have a selection of regional offices which are situated around the UK.

The Aldermore Future Attitudes report has shown that three fifths on companies that have fewer than 250 employees don’t have a clear plan in regards to the loss of a key member of staff. The survey also revealed that 15% of the SMEs that work in the construction sector felt that they could survive without having a proper succession plan because they think that none of their staff members were indispensable or difficult to replace. The Future Attitudes report also revealed that 9% of the SMEs involved in the survey admitted to not having a defined plan in place because they didn’t foresee any of their key employees leaving in the short term.

The results of this survey is concerning to industry experts considering the negative impact a key member of staff leaving the company could have. Although succession planning is not considered of vital importance in comparison to more everyday challenges to the business but it is still recommended that a strategy is put in place to reduce and possible adverts effects of a member of staff leaving the company.