If you want to meet your organizational goals, then you need employee performance management software that connects managers, employees and peers so they can tackle cross-functional objectives. Here are four signs that it’s time for an upgrade.
The world of performance management is changing drastically for enterprise organizations. Many companies are finally realizing that the old yearly review is not enough to see progress in employees and hit organizational goals, especially when priorities continue to shift. Plus, more and more employees want timely feedback and to understand how their goals connect with their team and organization.
That’s why companies are opting for more frequent feedback sessions and ad-hoc check-ins over annual reviews.
This is the step in the right direction, but it’s not enough (and it may not be the right answer at all). To support the performance management processes required for today’s agile companies, you need employee performance management software.
What is Employee Performance Management Software?
Employee performance management software is a tool that helps enterprise organizations drive better feedback conversations, align goals and promote informed and justified reviews. It’s designed to facilitate meaningful and continuous discussions between managers, employees and departments throughout the year, and it helps managers track employee progress, performance and professional development in the context of organizational goals.
It’s tempting to keep your performance management process business as usual. But sometimes there are signs that can’t be ignored. If your business is experiencing any one of these problems, it’s time to add employee performance management software to your HR tech suite.
4 Signs Your Business Needs Employee Performance Management Software
#1. Year-end Reviews Are Stressful and Unreliable
Review season always brings stress. Whether it’s your employees stressing about their performance, your managers wrangling their teams, your HR staff wondering how they’ll keep track of it all. By the time you get to the annual review, objectives are out-of-date and it’s too late to make a difference. It’s no wonder they are slowly going the way of the dinosaur.
Does that mean the annual review should end?
No. You just need a better way to deliver employee feedback so there aren’t any surprises at the annual review.
Employee performance management software can support frequent check-ins throughout the year by providing simple-to-use templates and automatic scheduling, so managers and employees stay in sync on goals and performance. This process allows for more actionable, defensible end-of-year reviews, consolidating feedback into a comprehensive view for your employees. That way they aren’t blindsided or frustrated. Everything is up front and transparent.
#2. Your Performance Management Process Takes Too Long
Does your process put too much of an administrative burden on your HR staff or supervisors? Does it take a lot of time and effort without much to show for it (as in, no improvements in productivity, manager effectiveness or goal attainment)? If you’re doing a lot of work but not getting results, it’s time for a change.
Quick and easy access to employee performance and goals is essential to a well-run and agile business. When the performance review process takes too long, teams will begin to create their own review cadence. Some teams may review goals sporadically. And some teams may avoid any kind of review cadence altogether.
This is clearly not great for your business. It results in disorganized and confused teams—and disconnected and unmet goals (more on this later).
The right software fixes this by providing features for managers and HR pros that remove confusion around the process and promote informed and justified decision-making. Some of these include:
- Configurable best-practice templates
- Automatic reminders and prompts
- Support for any rating scales, goals and HR-defined conversation starters
- Integrations with compensation, rewards and other HR software
#3. Your Goals Change (But Your Performance Management Process Is Inflexible)
Enterprise organizations likely already have some sort of HRIS/HCM solution, covering all HR functions—from keeping employee information together to making sure everyone gets paid the right amount and on time.
But there’s a problem with these HR solutions. They’re hardcoded, which means any changes in your performance management process will require significant IT lift and cost burden. Not to mention, these HRIS/HCM suites don’t specialize in performance management, which means you’re probably not getting the best features for your needs.
In today’s fast-moving business world, an inflexible HCM/HRIS suite won’t be able to keep up when your business shifts priorities. If this sounds familiar, it’s time to add software that can change with you.
#4. Individual Goals Are Disconnected
Lastly, if individual goals don’t relate to your organization’s objectives and key results (OKRs)—or it’s hard to tell if they do—then you should reevaluate the tools that support your performance management process. After all, performance management is about ensuring a set of activities effectively and efficiently meet established goals. If you can’t tie employee performance to overall goals, that defeats the purpose of performance management entirely.
It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture when you’re going through the day-to-day. You need something that helps you not only connect goals but also stay on top of it all.
The truth is, goals aren’t confined to one person. They inevitably involve a group, whether it’s a small team, department or entire division. So, you need a way to connect the goals of managers, employees and peers, creating a culture of transparency and helping employees better coordinate efforts. Employee performance management software creates the kind of streamlined collaboration your team needs to move the business forward.
Conclusion
If any of the above-mentioned problems start to creep into your business, it’s time to consider employee performance management software.
But not just any solution will cut it. Be sure to look for something that is, at the very least:
- Built to keep your team on the same page.
- Integrated with your HRIS, compensation and rewards solutions.
- Capable of handling any feedback cycle.
- Flexible enough for any process, but not too broad.
Running a business is tough. You need to know that your employees and departments are performing well and supporting your organization’s goals. Make a traditionally ineffective and complex process easier with HRSoft’s PERFORMview.
Keep budgets, employees and communications on track – without ever having to leave your core HRIS or HCM suite – with HRSoft. See how it works by requesting a demo today.
