Career and succession software allows HR to easily track their workforce’s skills and career aspirations, identify key or at-risk roles, and set internal career paths and profiles for employees.
Fortunately, organisations don’t have to look far for this tool; some HR systems, like Cezanne HR, have a dedicated Career and Succession Planning module as part of their software offering. Not only does this allow organisations to possess an incredibly useful succession planning tool at an affordable price, but having an integrated HR system means that you’ll be making use of data that already exists in your HR database, removing the need to input employee information twice.
With career progression opportunities one of the key factors affecting employee satisfaction and talent retention, we’ve highlighted some things an HR system with an integrated career and succession planning module does to support your career planning efforts.
1. Helps identify key positions and potential successors
Career and succession software makes it easier to focus on key positions and to prioritise the roles that matter to you. From your existing database, you can quickly identify the roles that need succession plans and whether they have a successor lined up. You can then specify what qualifications and/or training are needed for potential candidates to progress to that role, should the need arise.
Once you’ve flagged up your most important roles, you can determine which employees might be suitable for progression. Likewise, you can highlight which employees are likely to leave, or already in the process of leaving, your organisation.
Configurable notifications allow you to set up prompts to act when, for example, a person is due to leave a key position and there is a risk that their role doesn’t have a successor. This gives you the opportunity to start grouping employees into talent pools based on skills and qualifications, so you know who can step up into a critical role or if you might need to recruit a new employee.
2. Helps plan out employee career paths and aspirations
Career and succession planning requires employer and employee aspirations to be aligned. There’s no point internally assigning an employee to a key position when they’ve not expressed an interest in it, or even worse, if it’s the opposite of their career goals. Good HR systems like Cezanne HR allow you to easily store both employee qualifications and competencies, as well as record career or performance conversations and employee preferences.
Tracking goals and making sure employees are progressing on their career paths are easier when your HR system also includes integrated performance management software. This means that any performance-related conversations are kept in the same HR system, so it’s much easier to cross-reference information that will not only help HR and managers provide the appropriate support for employees, but also help when it comes time to make informed decisions about appropriate talent for key positions in the organisation.
3. Helps review talent
When reviewing your talent, it’s important to see which employees have the strongest potential or performance. Career and succession planning software makes it easier to sort your talent based on potential or performance and allows you to use visual tools, such as a 9-box grid, for an overview of your talent pool.
Modern career and succession tools should also be able to support DEI. Aside from potential and performance ratings, the tools should give you a complete view of your employees and their time at your organisation. Gaining insight into the demographics of your workforce, such as gender or age, will help you identify gaps in DEI to find an appropriate balance.
If you’re interested in how HR software can help your career and succession planning, get in touch with us today.
Hannah Mandapat
Marketing Executive
Hannah has over five years of experience in the technology space, having worked in various marketing roles involving copywriting, social media management, and email marketing.
