Methods and apparatus having applicability to succession planning

At least one computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:

• receiving, from an employee, information about the employee's professional characteristics;
• applying one or more automated similarity algorithms to identify information likely to be of interest to the employee, based on the information about the employee's professional characteristics;
• providing to the employee the information likely to be of interest to the employee, in return for the information about the employee's professional characteristics;
• and
• presenting the information about the employee's professional characteristics to human resources (HR) personnel.

Apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
• receive, from an employee, information about the employee's professional characteristics;
• apply one or more automated similarity algorithms to identify information likely to be of interest to the employee, based on the information about the employee's professional characteristics;
• provide to the employee the information likely to be of interest to the employee, in return for the information about the employee's professional characteristics;
• and
• present the information about the employee's professional characteristics to human resources (HR) personnel.