What are four 4 performance tools?

By digitizing performance management, small-to-mid-sized companies can better utilize their workforce, ensuring engagement and maximum productivity. We look at performance management software tools which are relevant to SMB scenarios, each offering a differentiated USP for the organization.

For small-to-mid-sized businesses, reviewing their employees and addressing performance gaps is often a manual process. With a limited team size or a distributed workforce across multiple stores/sites, digitization is perceived as complex and expensive. However, this isn’t actually the case. In today’s HR technology environment, there are several performance management software options out there, including dedicated performance management software tools for small-to-mid-sized businesses. These are easy-to-implement and often hosted on the cloud so that no in-house infrastructure is required.

Also read: 4 Steps to Modernizing Performance Management, the People-first Way

Here are four performance management software platforms that  SMBs could explore in a bid to accurately identify employee performance gaps and boost business productivity.

1.ZOHO People Offers a Range of Integrations for SMBs

ZOHO is popularly recognized as a one-stop solution suite for small businesses, covering everything from sales and marketing to finance, from project management to analytics. Their comprehensive HR suite is called ‘People’ – featuring all of the functionalities that small business might need to manage their employees – core HR, documents management, employee self-service, issue resolution, ass well as performance management. Employers can set specific KRAs and individual goals, collecting qualitative feedback and skill-set scoring.

ZOHO People is admittedly not the most powerful performance management software available. However, it more than makes up for it via seamless integration with other business modules, allowing SMBs to create a fully digital business ecosystem on a singular platform.

Also read: 5 HR Outsourcing Tools You Can’t Afford to Ignore

2. Reflektive Links Performance Management to Employee Engagement

The people management software, Reflektive, recently announced that it is linking its Performance and Intelligence solutions with a new engagement module. This will simplify HR pipelines by giving the management actionable insights into the workforce, performance, and culture. Like ZOHO, there are a couple of useful integrations including Bamboo HR, and other HRIS and ATS systems. With the latest Engagement module, SMBs can evaluate engagement through surveys and targeted polls, powered by rich visualizations, and customized reports.

Reflektive has several small-to-mid-sized customers, in segments as diverse as retail, insurance, tech, and healthcare.

3. Lattice is a Performance Management Software for Project-based Organizations

Matching the standardized notions of appraisal and performance management to a project-based scenario has always been one of the big challenges for employers. Small-to-mid-sized businesses in Media, Marketing, Sales, and other project-based sectors struggle to accurately capture and evaluate employee performance data on an ad-hoc basis. Lattice was launched late last year to bridge this gap, offering project-based reviews and performance assessments without being bound by traditional hierarchical structures.

4. Culture Amp is Great for Businesses of all Sizes

Catering to companies in the 50-200, 200-2000, and 2000+ employee segments Culture Amp is focused on creating a culture of feedback for progressive organizations. The solution includes support for employee engagement, employee experience, employee effectiveness, and performance management software. The last one is powered by Culture Amp’s recent acquisition of Zugata, which brings small-to-mid-sized companies the options of Objective Performance Management or Continuous Development Feedback.

Also read: What is Continuous Performance Management and 4 Reasons You Need It

Interestingly, Culture Amp is priced at USD 4,500 per year for up to 200 employees (smaller businesses) going up to USD 10,500 per year for mid-sized enterprises and custom-priced for large companies.

In Conclusion

There you have it – these are the four promising performance management software tools, SMBs could look at when digitizing their HR function. “The world of work is changing and we’re increasingly trying to work with people’s minds and not just their hands. This whole shift in what we’re trying to motivate has led to a need for more HR solutions,” remarked Didier Elzinga, CEO and Founder of Culture Amp, in an exclusive interview with HRTechnologist. 

While manual processes are still common, they are prone to errors, subjective assessment, and bias. All of this could hold back an SMB as it tries to achieve exponential growth and maximize its talent base. Leveraging performance management software is a major step in the right direction, empowering small-to-mid-sized businesses.

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Performance management tools are used to measure performance in an organization. This often includes performance reviews, but performance management tools also track performance throughout the year so that managers can identify any problems before formal performance reviews begin. Some benefits of using performance management tools include:

• Performance management tools manage performance 
• Performance management tools are tactical 
• The performance management process is unbiased
• Performance management tools are often used in performance reviews
• Performance management tools can help a business to stay consistent and organized
• Performance management software automates this process for teams spread across different locations and provides all features that are required for end-users as well as admins
• Performance management tools are helpful to track employee engagement and performance regularly

Top 7 performance management software for businesses

Because performance management is an ongoing process, it can be difficult to know where to begin when striving for the best performance management software. Taking a look at the numerous tools that are accessible and how they work is expedient before selecting the right tool for your business. Below are some of the best performance management software available in 2022.

Workday's performance management solution includes best practices and templates so you can fine-tune your organization's programs. You'll also receive automatic alerts when performance thresholds are met, for example, to set a performance improvement plan in motion.

Workday is a leading provider of cloud-based applications for finance and human resources. Their performance management strategy helps companies build organizational goals cultures by providing personalized performance feedback, setting meaningful development goals and delivering targeted coaching from managers.

In addition to the automated performance reviews - which include input from the employee and their manager -- this software offers easy-to-use dashboards with real-time data around workforce trends and other information that managers need to stay effective during the review cycle.

1. Workhuman (formerly Globoforce)

This performance management software allows managers to provide rich performance development by creating performance improvement plans (PIPs), performance budgets and schedule tasks. Managers can also integrate their performance actions with existing performance systems like SAP or Oracle. It helps managers track key performance management metrics such as work efficiency, teamwork quality of work, learning ability and adherence to timeline. 

Workhuman enables companies to incentivize high-performing workforces through recognition programs. Employees are rewarded for meeting certain goals, taking on new projects or demonstrating behaviors that align with the company's values. Leaders can use the platform's dashboards to monitor employee performance and employee engagement in real-time, rewarding them immediately when they do something deserving of recognition (which is part of this performance management tool helps make workplaces more collaborative, rewarding and fun).

BambooHR's effective performance management tool helps managers refine their coaching skills and give employees more personalized and constructive feedback. This makes it easier for managers to spot and address problem areas in the workplace and make improvements in real-time. Managers can also use this software to craft employee development plans, drive employee recognition and help retain top talent with its many retention features.

BambooHR is a cloud-based service that offers a wide range of solutions designed to manage people: payroll, voluntary benefits, onboarding, and leaves management. Its performance management system enables companies to reward individual contributors, team members, or entire departments to hit milestones or improve performance appraisal.

One of the advantages of using Glance performance management system is that it allows managers to automate their performance reviews which significantly simplifies the performance management process. This ensures that continuous feedback can be provided promptly while also saving them time. Managers can give employees real-time feedback on performance which helps improve work quality and increase productivity. The platform also includes built-in planning tools, quarterly check-in sessions, year-end review components, and other useful features supporting overall workforce success.

Glance is a mobile app that helps managers schedule and manages employee experience through intuitive performance management software. This enables managers to track daily activities, create schedules and monitor performance in real-time. This tool gives managers transparency into what their team members are doing on a day-to-day basis which they can then use to help them improve productivity in the workplace. 

Insperity's performance management tool spans four key areas - business results, individual strengths, coaching opportunities and development plans. Managers can use this platform to create or update performance agreements with employees within minutes or set up automatic reminders for when it's time for quarterly reviews. Its setting modules also help employees see how their performance impacts key business metrics.

Insperity is a professional services firm that offers its customers workforce management solutions like payroll, tax administration and talent acquisition. It also provides digital HR resources (like this performance management tool) to help clients manage their human capital more effectively.

Peakon’s performance management tool is very easy to set up and use. Unlike most other tools, managers don't need to spend time with complex data entry or questionnaires. Instead, they can just create the performance agreements by clicking checklists that describe what they want employees to work on, making it possible for them to give real-time feedback whenever required.

Peakon is a cloud-based platform that helps companies improve their people strategy through its effective performance management solution. Companies using this service measure employee sentiment, so they know how engaged their workforce is. This enables managers to take immediate action when necessary - whether that means rewarding top achievers or addressing struggling workers who may be in danger of losing their job. 

This performance management tool does more than just capture feedback. It also allows you to capture any of your performance resources (including but not limited to performance plans, performance improvement plans, and performance agreements). This is one of the importance of continuous performance management tools, as it ensures that everything is centrally located in one place. You can organize all of these resources by a team, peer group or employee.

Officevibe's performance management system recognizes daily activities like doing something kind for a colleague, recognizing another person's contribution or giving someone effective feedback on the fly. The interactions are automatically recorded and rewarded with points that employees can use towards recognition items like pizzas or free days off work. The platform also enables managers to give performance feedback to employees, set performance goals and monitor performance.

Pros and cons of performance management tools

Performance management tools are used to measure performance in an organization. This often includes performance review, but performance management tools also track performance throughout the year so that managers can identify any problem before formal performance review begin.

Pros 

• Employees feel more positive about their jobs when they know that their manager is giving them positive feedback and constructive criticism. It helps build a good work environment overall. Employees will feel that this person cares about them as a person, not just an employee. In addition, it allows the company itself to have higher revenue because people perform better when they are happier. Also, companies with lower turnover rates see higher.
• Performance management tools manage performance
• Performance management tools are tactical
• Performance management tools are unbiased and performance-based
• Performance management tools are often used in an annual performance review

Cons

• Lose the human touch of a face to face conversation or even phone call
• It can be time-consuming for busy managers
• Complex software that takes a while to learn
• No face to face meetups means that there might be a lack of empathy and understanding on both sides

Remote teams and performance management software

People who have performance management tools available to them can feel secure in their performance and ability to perform for the company. In a traditional performance management system, employee performance is measured at meetings between an individual and their manager during predetermined periods throughout the year.

In remote companies where employees work from home, performance management tools may be used instead of having physical meetings between managers and staff members. With performance management tools like automated performance evaluation on online platforms, individuals can input weekly updates about their performance on something like Google Drive or Dropbox, which gets sent directly to managers' email boxes. 

Although performance management tools are useful in many ways, they can also be stressful to an individual who has to provide performance updates that are automatically sent to managers for review. 

If performance management tools are used in this way, employees may develop performance anxiety when giving their performance reports. They might not feel comfortable enough with self-assessment or lack confidence in conveying everything about their performance clearly and concisely over email or through a third-party product. 

Some companies have even opted for regular meetings between remote workers and their managers because face-to-face interaction is still essential for teams working together at a distance. Performance management tools can be used when performance anxiety is low, but face-to-face interaction between employees and managers should always prioritize.

Continuous feedback is critical for excellent performance management since employees are able to access constructive criticisms to help them grow.

Matter’s free slack app assists professionals get useful feedback to become the best version of themselves. Matter helps professionals discover blind spots and areas for growth through unbiased regular peer-to-peer feedback. Peer-to-peer feedback is the silver bullet to reaching your career aspirations, and Matter is the only firearm that's fit to fire that bullet.