Ultimate Software Unveils Multi-Dimensional Succession Management at HR Technology Conference & Expo in Las Vegas

WESTON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ultimate Software (Nasdaq:ULTI - News), a leading provider of unified human capital management SaaS solutions for global businesses, announced today the launch of UltiPro Succession Management—a new addition to UltiPro’s suite of SaaS features for managing employees from recruitment through retirement—at the HR Technology Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

Succession management typically has been synonymous with the ability to flag and report on potential candidates to fill key positions in the event of promotion, attrition, or retirement. While UltiPro Succession Management enables companies to build traditional succession plans to manage organizational change, the solution is designed to go beyond this traditional approach. With quick, graphical views into high-potential and high-performing individuals, UltiPro makes succession planning a component of holistic talent management.

Ultimate’s unique succession management solution is designed to:

• Engage individuals in their own career development and opportunities
• Allow companies the flexibility to develop succession plans for jobs or talent pools as well as individuals
• Manage succession as part of unified talent management—leveraging the relevant HR, payroll, salary, competency, and performance data already stored in UltiPro—to identify potential candidates and analyze succession factors from multiple dimensions

Increased Employee Engagement in Career Development

As opposed to a top-down approach to leadership planning, UltiPro Succession Management involves both management and individual contributors in an ongoing, collaborative process. Employees can manage their own talent profile—updating factors that influence succession readiness such as mobility preferences, languages, education, accomplishments, and competencies—to ensure that leadership has a rich understanding of the talent landscape at their organization. Visible to employees and managers, UltiPro’s employee “talent card” provides a consolidated view of multiple succession-readiness factors, which then can be used in both decision-making and career development processes.

Flexibility and Configurability Based on Business Needs

With UltiPro’s succession management capabilities, leaders can create incumbent-specific, position-specific, and pool-based succession plans, as well as traditional plans tied to named individuals. Organizations and teams can also identify if the plan should be shared across the organization or remain private, depending on cultural and role sensitivities. And when an employee is identified as a successor, both managers and HR partners can continue to develop his or her readiness and chart specific progress—plotting a potential career path for the employee and giving leadership an immediate bench-strength view of an individual’s next steps in career development. Managers can also more easily identify possible successors to positions as well as spot and correct potential gaps that may interrupt business performance.

Succession as a Component of Unified Talent Management

Unlike add-on succession tools, UltiPro Succession Management has the advantage of being tied to a company’s critical HR, payroll, and salary data out-of-the-box. Key information such as competencies, education, certifications, job history, salary increases, and performance history are instantly available to managers as they identify candidates for succession and build success plans. There’s no need to import or integrate data from other systems that would be used as factors for succession readiness because it’s all already housed in the UltiPro system of record.

UltiPro Succession Management is also global-ready and delivered with multiple supported languages. Customers have access to convenient reporting and analytics that support business planning and talent assessment, including reports on succession readiness, leading candidate experience assessment, and successor impact. Data and analytics can be easily shared across multiple teams, roles, and business units—which further strengthens organizational alignment.

“UltiPro Succession Management is a great tool to help us identify employee potential and build a succession plan,” said Michelle Griffith, compensation and benefits administrator at Explorer Pipeline, one of the leading providers of fuel transportation in the U.S. “This functionality provides tremendous benefits to companies like ours who want to sustain and grow their greatest internal resource—their employees.”

“We’re very excited about Ultimate Software’s capabilities for succession management,” said Michelle Tassinari, manager of corporate HRMS/payroll at Blyth, Inc., a leading designer and marketer of home decorative and fragranced products. “With UltiPro’s latest functionality for succession, we can build bench strength, create a succession management plan, and make succession planning part of our ongoing talent management process.”

“Traditional approaches to succession evolved around reporting to senior management. While that approach delivers some value, it really left out the person factors involved in retaining, developing, and promoting internal leaders,” said Adam Rogers, chief technology officer and senior vice president of product development at Ultimate Software. “Effective succession management requires collaboration among people at all levels in an organization. This means engaging employees in their own career development alongside their managers to help support the long-term leadership needs of the organization. Succession management isn’t just about filling key leadership positions in a crisis. It’s about perpetual engagement and preparedness for the future.”

About Ultimate Software

Ultimate is a leading provider of unified human capital management (HCM) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for global businesses. Ultimate’s award-winning UltiPro®solutions deliver the functionality businesses need to manage the complete employment life cycle from recruitment to retirement. Based in Weston, FL, Ultimate employs more than 1,200 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality solutions and services. In 2010, Ultimate was named an Optimas Award winner by Workforce Management magazine. In 2009, Ultimate was awarded first place in the People’s Choice Stevie® competition for Favorite New SaaS Product and was ranked the #1 best medium-sized company to work for in America by the Great Place to Work® Institute for the second consecutive year. In 2010, Ultimate’s security practices were recertified for ISO/IEC 27001, and Ultimate was the first HR SaaS vendor to be ISO/IEC 27001 certified in 2008. Ultimate has approximately 2,200 customers representing diverse industries, including such organizations as Adobe Systems Incorporated, The Container Store, Culligan International, Elizabeth Arden, Major League Baseball, The New York Yankees Baseball Team, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House. More information on Ultimate’s products and services can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

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