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An average of 63.7% of people across 53 countries, falling under the age bracket of 55-64 years, currently serve in corporate workforces. This presents new succession planning challenges for HR departments, who then need to identify resources who can take over after senior employees retire, based on their skills, work performance, and overall company integration plans. Succession planning software can help in constructing effective succession plans by providing them with powerful succession planning tools to facilitate management and organization of employee progression.
In this post, we share some effective successful planning software that can help organizations bridge the potential gaps.
1. What is Succession Planning Software?
Succession planning software are integratable, comprehensive software solutions for enterprises of all sizes, made to manage talent performance and devise succession plans for employees. The best succession planning software makes sure to provide clients with powerful tools to monitor and manage different aspects of employee data, including performance over time and developing skills, and help HR managers make succession plans for the future.
2. What is the Benefit of Using a Succession Planning Software
Succession planning software helps HR managers devise employee succession plans in advance to tackle issues such as leading employees retiring, or certain employees resigning unexpectedly. Succession planning software enables creation of succession plans well in advance to meet these unexpected (or expected) gaps in talent, avoiding talent workflow disruption, and quickly adapting to changing workplace requirements.
3. Overview of the 15 Best Succession Planning Tools
| Plum | Best succession planning software for fastest implementation |
| PerformYard | Best succession planning software for qualitative employee data acquisition |
| ChartHop | Best succession planning software for data consolidation and visualization |
| Cornerstone | Best succession planning software for improved stakeholder involvement |
| Saviom | Best succession planning software for forecasting employee demand shortage |
| Saba | Best succession planning software for targeted development of talent |
| Arcoro | Best succession planning software for all-in-one management |
| PeopleFluent | Best succession planning software for large enterprises |
| Skillsboard | Best succession planning software for skill development |
| Innowork | Best succession planning software for all business sizes |
| Fuel50 | Best succession planning software for data-driven insights |
| PageUp | Best succession planning software for unparalleled customer support |
| Sum Total | Best succession planning software for healthcare, retail and technology industries |
| Succession Wizard | Best succession planning software for immediate plug ‘n’ play |
| Eightfold.ai | Best succession planning software for AI powered decision making |
4. Comparison Criteria
We kept the following criteria in mind to determine our list of the top 15 succession planning software for organizational needs.
- UI
UI refers to visual presentation of the digital platform that a user interacts and engages with. Having a user-friendly and intuitive UI is paramount to ensure easy navigation and enablement of faster, more optimized workflows.
- Usability
Usability refers to the simplicity of familiarizing yourself with a succession planning system software. This relies on quality assistance from service providers every step of the way, from software setup to aftercare services, including chat and on-call support.
- Integrations
How completely your chosen succession planning software integrates with software applications already in use by your company determines how well it will adapt to company workflow and its utility in the long run.
- Value for money
Succession planning software must provide a noticeable return on investment, to justify the price paid for availing those services. This includes long-term monetary profit, improved workflow, and satisfied employees.
5. Key Features of Succession Planning Software
Here are key features of the best succession planning software:
- Helps in advance performance management
The best succession planning software provides advanced performance management capabilities, helping HR managers determine whether their organization’s goals are being met, and allowing them to monitor their employees’ performances towards meeting those goals. This lets them make informed decisions to refine employee workflows and improve efficiency.
- Provides talent pool for future roles
A major feature of succession planning software is the ability to monitor, record and analyze employee performance to determine future leaders and project heads for the company. Sophisticated succession planning tools, including high-level talent overview and employee comparison metrics, allow HR managers to identify, train and retain top talent for important roles in the future.
- Offers advanced modeling tools
Top succession planning software provides modeling tools so HR managers can use them to create virtual What-If? scenarios, and model multiple employee hierarchies based on skill-level. These help find the best set-ups to maximize employee performance and improve inter-talent dynamics.
6. The 15 Best Succession Planning Software List
6.1 Plum - Best succession planning software for fastest implementation
Plum is an industry-leading talent assessment platform, offering a plethora of talent management software solutions. Their succession planning software offers multiple key features, such as in-built psychometric testing, advanced talent performance analysis, and exceptional user-experience that helps improve employee work satisfaction.
Plum’s succession planning tools come ready with psychometric testing capabilities that monitor and test employees regularly to determine their soft skills, or Talents as they are called on the platform.
Each employee is assigned Talents from a pool of 10 Talents to determine their performance leanings and prediction for future success. According to Plum, their succession planning tools are 4x more accurate in predicting future job success compared to menial analysis of education history and resumes.
Plum offers custom pricing based on company evaluation.
6.2 PerformYard - Best succession planning software for qualitative employee data acquisition
PerformYard is a talent management software company specializing in employee performance analysis through qualitative review cycles incorporating in-house feedback from across the organization, as well as from clients outside.
It provides a simple and easy-to-use interface that provides important information on its main dashboard in an ‘at a glance’ format. This makes it easy for employees to use and streamlines it with their workflows.Through its user-friendly interface, HR can assign job roles, manage performance over time, set timelines for goals, and get performance reports for individual employees and departments.
Performance reports are generated after completion of review cycles, which can be initiated at HR’s discretion. These review cycles feature real-time updates for an employee’s review progress, enabling the HR department to take appropriate decisions. .
PerformYard’s pricing starts at $5 per employee per month.
6.3 ChartHop - Best succession planning software for data consolidation and visualization
One important requirement from succession planning software is being able to organize and present critical data with useful, actionable insights. With ChartHop you can do just that.
ChartHop delivers succession planning tools necessary for seamless talent management, like sandbox modes to model unique scenarios, flow charts to visualize succession trees, and data consolidation across all HR applications to deliver comprehensive analytical data.
The software can be seamlessly integrated with external apps, and a key feature is its ability to consolidate all your organization’s data, including performance metrics, financial documentation and payroll information into one native platform, eliminating the need to jump applications. It also unifies compensation with succession planning, to give unprecedented control over talent management.
Lastly, with powerful data visualization models, you can say goodbye to spreadsheet maintenance, and instead gain valuable insights through auto-logged charts and graphs.
ChartHop starts at $2 per month per employee.
6.4 Cornerstone - Best succession planning software for improved stakeholder involvement
With 20+ years of experience, Cornerstone’s workforce planning software incorporates multiple facets of talent management into one centralized platform.
Cornerstone empowers HR managers to make better decisions for their company’s talent and their future by allowing them to plan future strategies for talent training and retention. By providing What-if? Scenario modeling, visual data representation and AI powered data analytics, Cornerstone lets HR managers develop succession plans that work seamlessly.
Moreover, it makes sharing insights and important information with shareholders easier than ever, by generating visual data representations that inform better than numbers on a spreadsheet.
Cornerstone offers paid plans starting from $6 per employee per month.
6.5 Saviom - Best succession planning software for forecasting employee demand shortage
Founded in 1999 and based in Australia, Saviom provides enterprise-wide succession planning software for mid to large size companies, specializing in forecast models and prediction algorithms that equip HR managers to make critical talent management decisions.
Saviom hosts a plethora of features on its platform, such as employee skills profiling, employee scheduling and resource budgeting and allocation planning. These features afford managers a bird’s eye view perspective of the company, allowing them to plan projects with relevantly skilled employees, and have them executed efficiently. Regular employee performance reports and capacity vs. demand forecasting let managers make data-backed decisions that empower successful succession planning and talent acquisition.
Saviom’s after sales services are top-notch. They have a responsive support department that can be reached via phone or email. Users can access further resources from Saviom’s Resource Library for education and access to management guides.
Saviom’s pricing is available upon request.
6.6 Saba - Best succession planning software for targeted development of talent
Formerly known as Halogen Succession and subsidiary of Cornerstone, Saba is a competent succession planning tool that delivers in important key areas.
Saba enables HR to effectively target rising talent for developmental programs so that they can be nurtured for leadership roles in the future. Saba’s focus on making this as swift and simple as possible allows for efficient talent management, with a focus on self-driven talent development that boosts employee engagement.
Moreover, Saba provides necessary succession planning tools to identify high-potential employees and train them through their extensive library of skills development content curated in partnerships with multiple resources. This content includes skill-building, work-place ethics, and inclusion courses that accelerate your employee’s growth and career.
Saba’s pricing is available on request.
6.7 Arcoro - Best succession planning software for all-in-one management
Arcoro provides a suite of features that work together to deliver a resource management platform that incorporates essential features such as real-time employee performance tracking, performance scorecards, milestone based developmental plans, and powerful skill-based search features.
Arcoro leverages its unified, all-in-one platform to deliver real-time performance tracking, keeping management involved with employees and letting them guide talent toward reaching their full potential.
Developmental plans let HR managers set goals and oversee employee performance, while delivering need based learning. Finally, skill-based search empowers managers to find the in-house talent they need, based on their skill requirements, to appropriately assign talent to work that suits their skill sets.
Arcoro offers customized pricing based on company size and need.
6.8 PeopleFluent - Best succession planning software for large enterprises
PeopleFluent is a succession planning software company that provides solutions to meet the challenges of large enterprises and meet their needs successfully.
PeopleFluent’s succession planning platform delivers in 3 key areas. Firstly, their software enables employees to track their own skill development, creating visual progression paths that keep them motivated to deliver and learn.
Secondly, by partnering with Learning Technology Group, PeopleFluent are able to provide learning tutorials and skill-development content to all your employees, so they can learn and grow on the job, and polish their skills for future leadership roles.
Lastly, through complex data acquisition and charting, managers can share department specific insights with concerned members to keep everyone in the loop and foster a company culture of openness, transparency, and support.
Pricing for PeopleFluent is available on request.
6.9 Skillsboard - Best succession planning software for skill development
Trusted by names such as La Poste and Stellantis, Skillsboard is a powerful performance management and succession planning software.
Focusing on skill development, Skillsboard provides employees and managers unique tools to motivate self-growth and achieve success. With adaptive learning content personalized to fit employee set needs and development goals, Skillsboard provides a rich library of fine-tuned content to help your employees enrich their learning.
To supplement their learning, a Skills Passport keeps track of their accumulated skills and provides motivation for continuous improvement. Furthermore, with real-time analytics data, managers can identify skills gaps and in-demand skills to target employees with necessary training.
Skillsboard starts at $1 per employee per month, up to $9 PEPM.
6.10 Innowork - Best succession planning software for all business sizes6.
Headquartered in Dubai, with offices in the USA and India, Innowork has been building powerful succession planning software solutions for businesses of all sizes, and offering competent pricing models as well.
With Innowork you can foster engagement among employees through skill profiles, which they build for themselves, validated by their peers and managers. These skill profiles can then be used by management to identify rising talent, build appropriate career pathways and identify suitable roles for each employee.
Furthermore, Innowork’s succession planning system features include AI timeline predictions for employee readiness, letting managers plan out future successions accurately and on time.
Innowork starts at $8 PEPM for succession planning software, and offers need based pricing for full enterprise features
6.11 Fuel50 - Best succession planning software for data-driven insights
Boasting up to 60% increase in talent retention, and 3-30% increase in employee engagement in the first 12 months, Fuel50 are no novices in the talent management scene. In fact, they are regarded as the pioneers of workforce mobility and internal mobility management.
With sophisticated AI engines that power every major feature in Fuel50’s succession planning suite, managers can integrate it into their existing HRM solution with ease, and offer employees unparalleled support in learning opportunity, mentorship, job vacancies and career progression. All made possible with powerful algorithms that evolve with your employees.
Fuel50’s pricing is available on request.
6.12 PageUp - Best succession planning software for unparalleled customer support
PageUp has been leading the resource management scene since 1997 when it was founded and has helped thousands of leading and upcoming businesses.
PageUp’s succession planning tools include a 9-box analysis grid, helping managers classify employees based on performance and developmental delays / improvements so they can better direct efforts towards struggling employees.
PageUp also allows managers to identify potential leaders based on scores in factors such as Adaptability, Innovation, Teamwork and Commercial Accumen, all stored in each employee’s career profile. By leveraging data analytics, PageUp enables managers to identify turnover risks, new job roles and potential successors.
Pricing for PageUp is available on request.
6.13 Sum Total - Best succession planning software for healthcare, retail and technology industries
Sum Total provides solutions for all kinds of needs, but specializes in providing succession planning solutions for specific industries like healthcare, tech, communications and aviation.
With Sum Total, managers can create talent pools by identifying employee skills and consolidating them into shared pools. Talent can be further cultivated by identifying skill gaps and providing targeted learning material to develop bench talent for deployment into future senior leadership roles.
Moreover, Sum Total allows for increased internal career mobility by connecting employees to in-house growth opportunities.
Pricing information for Sum Total is need based and available upon request.
6.14 Succession Wizard - Best succession planning software for immediate plug ‘n’ play
Succession W izard is the only succession planning tool that users can use immediately upon purchase or download. It comes in a downloadable file which allows for instant access. Succession Wizard has been used by Barclays, L’Oreal, Vodafone and Siemens to name a few.
While its UI leaves much to be desired, Succession Wizard makes up for it by providing a simple, yet effective solution for succession planning which incorporates features like critical talent identification, defining job roles and constructing succession plans.These features enable managers to target rising talent with the help of powerful data analysis, and organize their talent hierarchy to access and manipulate information quickly and easily.
With Succession Wizard, you can construct extensive succession plans incorporating the aforementioned data consolidation features, making for a clean, no-nonsense succession planning software.
Succession Wizard’s license fee starts at $399.
6.15 Eightfold.ai - Best succession planning software for AI powered decision making.
With Eightfold’s patented Talent Intelligence Platform, you can make data-backed decisions powered by “neural networks that learn from 1 billion+ profiles”.
Eighfold.ai enables highly accurate, automated planning processes that alleviate pressure from HR’s shoulders and frees them to focus on more creatively demanding tasks. For example, Eightfold’s AI can create succession plans for you, by learning from employee data and their long-term performance. Furthermore, the Talent Intelligence Platform lets managers assign mentor-mentee roles to employees who need direct mentoring under senior leadership, through the power of AI driven data analysis.
With Eightfold, management can devise inclusion and diversity plans with Equal Opportunity Algorithms, ensuring succession is free of bias. Eightfold can annually assess your talent pool for succession recommendations as well, allowing HR managers to identify rising talent for training and career forwarding.
Eightfold’s pricing is available upon request.
7. FAQs
- What is the main tool used in succession planning discussions?
Employee performance data is one of the most important tools used in succession planning, followed by skills profile.
- What are the best succession planning software?
Arcoro, Eightfold.ai and Plum are some of the best succession planning software, but for a complete list of the best succession planning software, refer to the article above.
