Does My Company Need Performance Appraisal Software?

How the use of mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy can cre­ate a more effi­cient per­for­mance man­age­ment system

Read our new Performance Management Trends for 2018 article

Most mod­ern busi­ness­es are aware of the impor­tance of a stream­lined, effi­cient per­for­mance man­age­ment sys­tem. A care­ful­ly-tai­lored sys­tem can improve employ­ee engage­ment, boost morale and height­en over­all busi­ness per­for­mance. But what role does mod­ern soft­ware have to play, and do busi­ness­es in the 21^st cen­tu­ry require per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware to remain competitive?

In recent years, the HR soft­ware mar­ket has rein­vent­ed itself and we have wit­nessed a per­for­mance review soft­ware rev­o­lu­tion. As Kather­ine Jones, vice pres­i­dent of HCM Tech­nol­o­gy Research at Bersin by Deloitte, has stat­ed:

We are see­ing a major shift in the indus­try, and as per­for­mance man­age­ment con­tin­ues to change, so must the tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions that sup­port it. Orga­ni­za­tions today have a need to pro­vide ongo­ing feed­back, a link between indi­vid­ual goals and com­pa­ny-wide objec­tives and a mul­ti-dimen­sion­al view of employ­ee per­for­mance. It’s excit­ing to see solu­tion providers offer fea­tures that sup­port those activities.”

Many com­pa­nies are embrac­ing inno­v­a­tive and thought­ful per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware sys­tems as an inte­gral part of team devel­op­ment and com­pa­ny per­for­mance. But if you are con­tem­plat­ing mak­ing a busi­ness case for per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware, you will need to be well acquaint­ed with the ben­e­fits and advan­tages that per­for­mance review soft­ware can offer. Below, we have com­piled the ways in which imple­ment­ing this tech­nol­o­gy can add real val­ue to your business.

Per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware keeps every­one connected

If you aren’t cur­rent­ly using a per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware pack­age, it is like­ly that you are either paper-based or rely­ing sole­ly on Microsoft Word or Excel. This is not entire­ly effec­tive and doesn’t cre­ate com­pa­ny-wide vis­i­bil­i­ty of per­for­mance and devel­op­ment. Using sys­tems such as this, it is easy for meet­ings to fall through the cracks. Vital infor­ma­tion can be lost and mem­bers of staff can end up out of the loop.

Cloud-based sys­tems that work across devices are able to keep HR, line man­agers and employ­ees up to date on progress, objec­tives and devel­op­ment plans. Changes to rel­e­vant doc­u­ments can be made instant­ly and accessed any­where. Cen­tral­ly stor­ing data like this allows for com­plete vis­i­bil­i­ty and faster, more accu­rate per­for­mance man­age­ment. Using per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware, HR can also export per­for­mance data onto a spread­sheet. This allows them to see whether or not train­ing and devel­op­ment needs are being met and how objec­tives are progressing.

Per­for­mance appraisal soft­ware facil­i­tates con­tin­u­ous per­for­mance management

Although the many com­pa­nies still rely on annu­al per­for­mance appraisals, this is rapid­ly chang­ing and more and more com­pa­nies are shak­ing up the way they review per­for­mance. Com­pa­nies such as Adobe and Microsoft have trad­ed in annu­al appraisals for con­tin­u­ous per­for­mance man­age­ment — one of the biggest HR trends of recent years.

The advan­tage of reg­u­lar, month­ly per­for­mance check-ins is that rather than sim­ply set­ting SMART objec­tives at the start of the year, objec­tives can be flex­i­ble and reviewed at fre­quent inter­vals. This keeps employ­ees engaged and moti­vat­ed to achieve their goals. Per­for­mance appraisal soft­ware helps man­agers and employ­ees sched­ule and adhere to these reg­u­lar meet­ings, while also allow­ing them to cap­ture key action points online. These notes can then be accessed by man­ag­er and employ­ee, review­able at any time. On top of this, per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware can send out email reminders about points that need to be actioned.

Per­for­mance appraisal soft­ware allows for real-time feedback

Instant feed­back and com­mu­ni­ca­tion is some­thing we have become accus­tomed to — and real-time feed­back is some­thing mil­len­ni­als require to do their job well. This isn’t too much to ask and, if pro­vid­ing this instant com­mu­ni­ca­tion can boost com­pa­ny per­for­mance, it is cer­tain­ly some­thing to consider.

Per­for­mance appraisal soft­ware allows feed­back to be giv­en ​“in the moment”, right after an event has occurred. Remem­ber: the quick­er feed­back is giv­en, the more impact­ful it is. This is true of both con­struc­tive crit­i­cism and of appre­ci­a­tion. These days, per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware is mod­el­ling itself on social media, incor­po­rat­ing user-friend­ly inter­faces, mobile-friend­li­ness and real-time feed­back. On top of facil­i­tat­ing feed­back and employ­ee recog­ni­tion, this easy inter­ac­tion enables improved col­lab­o­ra­tion between teams.

Keep track of Per­son­al Devel­op­ment Plans with per­for­mance appraisal software

Most of you will be aware that per­son­al devel­op­ment is a dri­ving force for improved employ­ee per­for­mance and engage­ment. The cre­ation of — and adher­ence to — Per­son­al Devel­op­ment Plans (PDPs) means employ­ees can grow and become more skilled, know­ing that the com­pa­ny they work for is invest­ed in their future. PDPs can be eas­i­ly man­aged using per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware. HR is also able to access PDPs to plan train­ing and devel­op­ment for all employees.

Per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware helps with objec­tive setting

In terms of per­for­mance and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, it is so impor­tant that employ­ees are clear on — and enthu­si­as­tic about — their work objec­tives. Too many employ­ees are unclear on their goals, which means they aren’t able to real­ly con­tribute to the suc­cess of the business.

Per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware makes goal set­ting more of a col­lab­o­ra­tive and effec­tive per­for­mance man­age­ment process. It helps man­agers and employ­ees to work togeth­er on cre­at­ing clear, SMART objec­tives, while align­ing them to com­pa­ny goals. Employ­ees can use the soft­ware to add progress updates to their objec­tives, so they are able to track their progress and achievements.

Want to find out more about how this tech­nol­o­gy can ben­e­fit your busi­ness? Book a free per­for­mance man­age­ment soft­ware demo from Clear Review today. You can also con­tact our expe­ri­enced team on +44 (0)20 3637 4489.