Succession planning software without the platform

What this category usually means

Enterprise succession modules bundle succession into a wider talent suite. They are genuinely useful at scale, and they come with the things scale requires: procurement, onboarding, a data feed from the HRIS, and a renewal conversation every year. The succession piece itself, though, is a fairly small idea buried inside all of that.

What the succession piece actually is

A structure of roles, a mark on the ones you cannot afford to lose, named people behind each of those roles, an honest readiness call on each name, and a view of where nobody is behind anything. That is the whole job. Org-Planner does exactly that and stops.

• Build the org chart in minutes, by hand, without a data import.
• Mark the roles whose loss would hurt, and see at a glance which are covered, which are covered thinly, and which are not covered at all.
• Keep open positions visible as real boxes with an empty name field, so vacancies stay in the picture instead of falling out of it.
• Rate people with a simple A, B or C status, and place them on a nine-box.
• Use the coverage matrix to see which parts of the business your team really covers, and where coverage is asserted with nobody behind it.

Where the data lives

Succession data is the most sensitive list a manager keeps. It names who you would replace, who you would promote, and who you consider a risk. Org-Planner is a single HTML file that runs in your browser on your machine, works with the network switched off, and saves back to your disk. There is no account to create and no server to upload to, so the list stays with you.

What it costs and what it is not

One payment, one file, no renewal. It does not do payroll, performance cycles, recruiting workflows, or approvals, and it is not multi-user. If you need those, buy a suite. If you need the plan itself, this is the smaller and more private option.

Not sure what belongs in the plan? Start with what a succession planning template needs.