Performance management trends continue to transform as organizations gear employee analytics towards organizational goals and metrics. The trend towards increasing overall employee satisfaction versus micro-managing employee skills is showing better results in the long run. This shift has prompted organizations to adopt performance management systems, which enable them to implement robust and effective employee engagement programs.
The traditional procedures for appraising employee performance are labor and time intensive. Performance management technology eliminates much of the administrative burden involved with the process, reducing the labor cost associated with it.
What Features to Look for in a Performance Management System
Training and Development
Training and development is as critical as ever, particularly for the millennial generation. Turnover often results when employees feel they are not being trained or prepared for upward positions. Employees want career growth. Today’s performance management software must provide the tools to track professional development, training, and leadership pathways that keep employees engaged and excited about the future.
Employees are motivated by rewards received for their accomplishments. Tracking incentives and reward programs as well as coaching sessions are important features to look for in a performance management system. Thus, organizations that continue to focus on professional development see declines in turnover across the board.
Compensation
Compensation conversations that are combined with performance meetings are shown to be ineffectual. The time spent focusing on performance goals and development should not be muddled with discussions of pay ranges and salary increases. Combining these conversations increases the chance for confusion as well as lack of focus on the developmental issues being brought to the forefront. Today’s performance management systems must support development issues as a separate entity from compensation management. Ultimately, employees must be on board and feel motivated to achieve goals that align with the organization’s vision for the future.
Common Goals and Objectives
Today’s performance management systems must be able to pinpoint circumstances where inequity is established in the system. Employees need to feel that development and performance goals are reasonable and fair across the board. If everyone is aligning towards organizational goals and objectives, conversations with employees at all levels must be reflective of this. The system must support objective goals rather than subjective variances. Analytics in performance management must be able to call out subjective applications to ensure that discrimination is not factored into the equation.
Documentation
Documentation is important even if companies are pulling away from the traditional paper-based annual review model. Tracking conversations and development opportunities is an important feature of today’s performance management software so that if questions arise down the line, the information is stored and readily available. In cases where termination is taking place whether for performance related issues or otherwise, having the historical back up of performance management data is critical. In some cases, legal issues may arise which highlights the importance of readily available reporting functionality.
Reporting
Speaking of reporting functionality, built in reporting tools are key features of today’s performance management systems. There should be the ability to produce reports on demand in a user-friendly interface. Ability to report on a wide range of data with appropriate filters is important and made easier with cloud technology. Tracking performance management data without the ability to report adds to the labor intensive nature organizations are trending away from.
Employee Self Service
Performance management software should provide the ability for employees to access their own information. Employees can provide feedback as part of the ongoing conversations they are having with their manager and should have the ability to do this at any time. Offloading the input and distribution of information to the employee makes employees more self-sufficient and happier in their jobs.
Likewise, performance management tools should include the ability to communicate to employees with reminders, alerts or incentive language. This allows managers more time to focus on day-to-day initiatives but also ensures that conversations are continuing and objectives are top of mind throughout the year.
Ultimately, performance management solutions should promote employee satisfaction as the ultimate, overarching goal. As performance management trends step away from just one standard annual review—and step more into building high performance cultures that incent employees to align with the goals of the organization—the tools in place must be able to support them.
Empowering employees through trust, professional development, and structures that motivate them to be part of the solution will always result in positive outcomes for HR, management, and the organization’s bottom line.
Learn how EPAY’s seamless human capital management system can help your organization reach your performance management objectives. Schedule a personalized demo of our performance management software today!