The Relevance of IT Supported Succession Planning in the Current Labor Market

This paper analyzes the relevance of succession planning from today's labor market perspective. Consequently, it reviews the reasons, methods and limitations of external and internal hiring concluding that corporations should employ a balance of both. Research shows that succession planning provides a means for organizations to develop, retain and promote internal talent. Because succession planning often consists of opaque processes, emergency planning or unmethodical decisions, the thesis identifies whether succession software on the example of the Business Execution Suite from SuccessFactors can add value to conventional succession planning. Although this Software-as-a-Service solution does offer a variety of best practice tools, the author concludes that the success of a succession program moreover depends on systematic process and role definitions as well as a facilitating corporate culture. Secondary research, internal company documents and an expert interview support the author in finding conclusions.