Performance Management Software Can Help Your Business. Here’s How.

Today’s workforce won’t’ board the performance appraisal train just because it’s a routine corporate ritual. Paper-based performance appraisals do very little to motivate employees. If your organization is like most, you might still be holding on to annual evaluation forms considering performance management software as nothing but overrated marketing stint.

You may have even tried to inject a bit of digitization with word documents, spreadsheet templates, and so on. But instead of simplifying performance management, these tools end up creating more problems than they alleviate.

Ineffective performance management practices will lose you employees and win you nothing but complaints of bias and favoritism. If you want to grow your small business and retain your star employees, you have to throw out the outdated performance management tools that are slowly killing your business.

Need For Performance Management Softwares

Automation is the future of HR and with that comes the need for using a performance management software. Paper forms are an expensive, inefficient, and time-consuming way of measuring employee performance. Paper-based annual reviews leave your workers disengaged, disheartened, and dejected. Employees are not fond of filling out a 14-page Q&A booklet just so you can quantify their performance.

It’s not just employees–even managers and HR leaders are wary of this yearly chore. They don’t see the point of filling out paper forms every year just to have an uncomfortable one-sided formal conversation that is neither fair nor accurate. You can’t really blame them for being skeptical when there is no way to ensure an accurate and fair appraisal.

Nearly 53 percent of organizations don’t actively track employee performance. Since there is no basis to measure performance, decisions taken using incomplete data can never be justified. To change the opinion of your employees and make performance appraisals effective and accurate, organizations have to move on from their antiquated performance management systems.

A number of SMBs and enterprises alike are taking active measures to change their performance management process. They are moving towards a cost-effective web-based performance management softwares that simplifies performance management, and makes it more transparent. These tools automate the paper-based nature, optimize the overall process, and make appraisals efficient.

Must-have features of a performance management software

The benefits of automating the performance management process are widely known. What’s unknown is the list of features a solid performance management software must include. Although the list of desirable features often comes down to individual business needs, an online performance appraisal software’s essential features can potentially unbreak a lousy process.

1. Customizable Workflow

Workflows and role-specific access are where a number of performance review solutions fall short. Tailoring a business-specific workflow should neither need IT expertise nor require a huge investment. Organizations must be able to automate the appraisal process flow without coding.

2. Transparent Process

A major concern for employees is the bias in the appraisal process. Automation will keep the process tamper proof and transparent with 360° visibility, complete audit trails, and role-specific accessibility.

3. Email Notifications

Most of the time, employees and managers just fill out the review forms at the last minute. Automated email reminders will keep stakeholders on track and help them complete reviews on time.

4. Goal Tracking

Monitoring employee goal progress is a major pain point in performance management. Effective performance appraisal tools will auto-collect data from all phases, and store and analyze it all to make better decisions.

5. Cloud-Based

With HR softwares, the implementation can drag on for months or even years. Cloud-based applications cut the implementation period substantially. Additionally, their cloud abilities will make them flexible and compatible with other web and mobile devices.

6. All-In-One Dashboard

Obtaining insights on performance is an arduous task. To get actionable insights, organizations need to run the collected data through a series of third-party software tools. A decent performance review software will display insights at a glance using interactive dashboards and visual reports.

7. Easy Integration

Although most organizations have a way to integrate their performance review system with other HR tools, most of them are manual, complex, and costly. Automated performance software will integrate easily with Human Resource tools, enable rapid data exchange, and reduce redundancy.

Automating Appraisal Using Performance Management Software

While implementing performance management software, organizations tend to get short-sighted. They believe that a single module in an HR software will be enough to handle their performance appraisals. But, later on, they are forced to find workarounds to handle this paper-heavy process. Automation can solve all these process bottlenecks in a flash.

An automated performance management software keeps the process employee-centric and organization-specific. In addition to setting up KPIs, performance ratings, and compensation details, a good performance management solution will help employers strike a balance between employee satisfaction and organizational objectives to achieve desired business goals.

Customizable performance management softwares will include reporting modules that convert available data into actionable insights of the organization’s current capabilities. The insights will highlight the areas that need to improve, spot star performers, pinpoint core performance problems, and identify training needs.

Align Employee Performance With Your Organizational Goals Using Kissflow HR Cloud

Performance appraisal is a complicated process used to spot, measure, and improve employee performance. Automation standardizes this arduous process, reduces manual intervention, makes reviews more transparent, and decreases the time taken to complete a review.

Good performance management software should help the business reach its performance goals and tighten the bottom line. If your chosen software falls flat, it would be wise to look for other proficient yet pocket-friendly options.

Web-based performance management software like Kissflow HR Cloud make the process painless and less tedious. Kissflow HR Cloud streamlines implementation, automates the performance review process, and keeps the process transparent without any IT support at an affordable price.

Using Kissflow HR Cloud, organizations can create a dynamic performance review process that improves employee performance, enhances employee satisfaction, and reduces the turnover rate.