Determining a business’ future is challenging, and having a succession plan will help you maintain solid leadership to keep your business afloat. You see, your company’s leaders will not work for you forever since they will resign or retire at some point. As an employer, having a succession plan helps you encourage individual development to ensure your business’ leadership is developed for future roles. Simply put, it is crucial to have employees who are fully prepared to take over key positions in case they become vacant to avoid affecting your business performance. 

To help you realize your succession planning objectives, you need the best leadership succession planning tool. Besides creating succession plans, this software identifies the best talent to focus on by identifying their hidden potential. As a result, you can easily focus on improving your future leaders’ talent pool while keeping them engaged. 

Below, we share the top 10 providers of succession planning software to consider in 2024. Each tool has unique features that make it stand out, whether you are managing a small, medium-sized, or large enterprise.

Best Succession Planning Software List

1. UKG Pro

UKG Pro is one of the best succession planning assessment tools that continues to help various businesses proactively manage their talent to develop people’s readiness to take over key roles within their companies. Using this software in your succession planning reduces the costs that come with talent acquisition. Moreover, your employees feel motivated and appreciate your input into their skill development, thus making them work in your organization for a more extended period. 

Besides using UKG Pro to create flexible and comprehensive succession plans, you can use the software for time and attendance management. Its reporting and analytics feature allows you to analyze your employees’ performance to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This way, you can decide whether they require upskilling or reskilling as they prepare to take over new roles. 

2. Motivosity

Whether you are managing two or 100 employees, Motivosity is an excellent tool featuring succession planning models to help your business prepare for the future. With this software, it’s easy to discover what your employees need to keep them happy and satisfied in the workplace. Motivisity ensures that every worker’s voice is heard so that you can prioritize concerns that may affect your business growth. Plus, you will identify their strengths through development programs, thus preparing them for future roles. 

Motivisity encourages teamwork, which contributes to excellent working relationships in the workplace. Your managers will have all the resources needed to ensure smooth employee management. By integrating the software with third-party tools, communication is streamlined, leading to flexible and comprehensive succession planning.

3. PerformYard

PerformYard talent review and succession planning tool provides flexible features that make it easier for your HR professionals to manage employees and create a succession planning strategy. With the software, rest assured of managing a robust team that is prepared to take on leadership roles in the future. PerformYard is also customizable, meaning that you get to benefit from it regardless of your business requirements. 

Besides offering project-based reviews, PerformYard also features continuous feedback to ensure every employee understands their progress. On top of that, it can be integrated with other leading software to streamline communication and all business operations.

4. Cornerstone OnDemand

If you are looking for a reliable talent review and succession planning tool that helps you understand your employees’ performance level for the best decision, Cornerstone OnDemand is worth considering. By understanding every worker’s strengths and potential, you can easily know who to focus on for specific roles in the future. Cornerstone On Demand has a user-friendly dashboard that you can easily customize to suit your business requirements. 

In addition, this software aggregates your employees’ information into a visual format so you and your team can easily review it for the best decision. With every data on a single dashboard, it’s easy to plan and save time to focus on other essential business matters. Simply put, Cornerstone On Demand ensure you have the right people prepared to manage key roles in the future.  

5. PeopleFluent

This talent management and learning solutions provider ensures you hire, develop, and advance the right employees for increased business performance. Leadership succession planning doesn’t have to be time-consuming and costly since the software is backed up by quality and flexible toolset to ensure you understand your workers’ strengths and capabilities. As a result, you will make the best decisions knowing you have a backup plan for managing key roles in the future. 

Note that PeopleFluent is suitable for both small and large organizations. By having customizable features, every business is guaranteed the best service that fits their requirements. Regarding pricing, PeopleFluent offers it on request depending on your business needs.

6. TalentGuard

TalentGuard succession planning software supports workforce competency management using a user-friendly and intuitive design platform. Its leadership succession planning module not only helps your business grow but improves your workforce capabilities using its cutting-edge features. By supporting continuous succession planning, HR professionals using this software are able high-potential employees and match them with various opportunities in the organization. 

TalentGuard helps HR professionals remain competent so they can effectively coach employees and prepare them for future roles. For employers managing employees remotely, TalentGuard features a self-service portal where employees can easily access career development information. It also helps build solid working relationships using advanced communication tools.

7. SAP SuccessFactors

One of the leading HCM software for businesses managing thousands of employees is SAP SuccessFactors. Its succession planning features allow you to prepare your employees for future key roles, whether they are working on-premise or remotely. For instance, the software features role recommendations, whereby HR professionals can easily reach an agreement on which candidates fit specific key roles. As a result, you get to assign different tasks to the right people, thus maintaining your business performance.

SAP SuccessFactors integrates with leading third-party tools for streamlined workforce management and business performance. Besides desktop, users can access the toll via mobile devices through its app, which you can easily download from Google Play or the App Store. 

8. Plum

Plum’s succession planning models help users prepare their businesses for future challenges. The tool ensures you find the right people to empower as they prepare to take on key roles. You can also benefit from other talent assessment features, including teamwork improvement, workforce planning, growing people, etc. Simply put, Plum is an all-in-one HCM software that helps management teams build robust succession pipelines by allowing them to identify employees with the right skills for leadership roles. 

Plum encourages its users to store all employees’ data on its platform to avoid biased decisions. Employees can also receive feedback regarding their progress and view performance to ensure they remain satisfied. Once you have identified employees with the right skills to potentially hold leadership roles, Plum ensures you create talent development plans to prepare them for the future.

9. SumTotal

If you want a talent review and succession planning tool covering all aspects of HR, consider trying SumTotal. This learning provider ensures users understand competency gaps and skills within their workforce. As a result, it is easy to develop talent pools and understand what roles require upskilling and reskilling. Overall, SumTotal is user-friendly and backed up by a dedicated support service to ensure you effectively manage your succession planning. 

One feature that makes SumTotal stand out is the Drag and Drop 9 Box. This unique feature helps users evaluate their workers against potential and performance. Besides talent development, SumTotal can benefit you in other ways, including compliance management, payroll, workforce management, etc. 

10. Empxtrack

Empxtrack tool features succession planning models covering the entire employee life cycle. The software not only helps users identify critical job roles but also provides reports on employee performance to ensure you identify the best talent for those roles. Empxtrack considers your business ethics, rules, culture, and values which is why its features are customizable to suit every business needs. As a result, it will be easier for HR professionals to build a strong leadership pipeline with employees.

Note that Empxtrack allows its users to make multiple succession plans. With this feature, you can create short-term and long-term succession plans, thus eliminating confusion in the workplace. You can integrate this software with third-party HR tools through its API and streamline all business functions. 

Succession Planning Goals Examples

As mentioned earlier, succession planning is developed and prepared to fill key roles in an organization. Keep in mind that this activity does not focus on promoting employees but identifies workers capable of managing leadership roles. That is why the process of succession enables HR professionals to focus on specific goals, including;

• Identify gaps that need closing and the right skills to fill those gaps
• Identify skillful and experienced employees, thus mentoring them for future responsibilities
• Identify employees holding leadership positions who are at risk of leaving and focus on filling that role
• Find ways to retain employees holding leadership or senior positions
• Understand the positions that are your business’ backbone and primarily contribute to its success, etc. 

Understanding an organization’s succession planning goals makes it easier to plan and know where to allocate your funds. Remember, some roles are hard to fill, and the earlier you start internal training, the better for your business performance and growth. 

Conclusion

Our recommended succession planning tools above will help you create development opportunities for your existing employees. When employees feel like you understand their needs and advocate for their career development, they will become more dedicated and engaged in their roles. As a result, not only will you be guaranteed high retention rates but also increased productivity. Most importantly, they will naturally become your business ambassadors by helping you build your reputation, thus attracting top talent and investors.