Performance Management Software are used more or less by all the organizations with a decent number of employees. It is an essential system or process for enabling your employees to perform at their best.
However, when an HR manager is assigned to find the right performance management system for their organization, most of them don’t know where to start. They get lost in the sea of performance management software features and struggle to figure out which ones are most important.
Gone are those days, where the companies could just hand over a performance report card to their employees at the end of the year and expect results. The current practices require more real-time and continuous feedbacks, which in turn means that the business requirements of a performance management system to access employees have evolved.
So, what features do you need to have in a PMS for your organization? Here are 5 must-have features in performance management software that you should consider while selecting one for your company.
1. Goal setting
Ability to create dynamic goals is of paramount importance for any performance management software. It’s the foundation for assessing the performance of the employees within the organization.
Goal setting Dashboard in 15Five Continuous Performance Management system
If goals are not properly set for your employees, the mangers or the HR’s will not have any parameter to evaluate the employee’s performance. However, if goal setting is done properly, it can help to improve the employee engagement in a way that elevates their performance as well as benefit the organization.
While implementing performance management system, it is important to include goal setting feature so that the users (which can include HR’s, managers, employees) can add goals, track the progress as well as receive updates on the status of goal completions.
Enabling SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-oriented, Time-defined) goals through the performance software can help to achieve the organizational goals. Not only that, but it can also motivate the employees to work harder if they are able to monitor and record their performance against the set goals.
2. 360-degree feedback
The 360-degree feedback is one of the most preferred and increasingly popular features in a PMS for helping employees. It helps to improve the performance of the employees by gathering information on their performance from different groups.
360 degree feedback in Blue 360 Degree Feedback system
Unlike the typical feedback structure that follows the management hierarchy structure, the 360-degree feedback requires multiple source responses. It is usually collected anonymously to minimize rating inflation. The responses about the employee’s performance can be come from his upper-level managers, juniors as well as peer colleagues.
The 360-degree feedback feature is most useful to employees when it is used for developmental purposes only and not for administrative purposes. The reason being that people are most likely to be honest if they know that the information, they provide will be used to help the individual improve and not punish or reward him or her.
The best part of this feature is that you don’t have to sit down and carry out an in-person interviews with each person; instead, all the feedbacks can be collected electronically itself.
3. Self-assessment
This feature, as the name suggests allows your employees to evaluate their own performance on previously set parameters.
It ensures that your employees can rate and review themselves for the assignments they worked on in a given time period. Using the parameters like number of completed goals, extra contributions beyond the set KRAs (Key Responsibility Areas), etc. the workers can view their performance.
As the employees can review and measure their performance against the set goals and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), it helps them to stay focused and motivated.
The self-assessment feature allows your employees to think critically with the aim to improve their performance.
4. Reporting and Analytics
Reporting and analytics of data are some of the key features of a performance management software that can help to summarize and make sense of the data gathered about the employee’s performance. This feature gives the maximum benefits of performance management system through visual representation.
Reporting and Analytics dashboard in Synergita PMS system
With the reporting feature available in a PMS, the managers can take note of key points while conducting regular discussions with employees about their performance. This capability within the performance software can help the manager to record any ideas or suggestions discussed during the meetings very easily.
The reporting feature can be a great tool to enable continuous improvement for the employees. It allows the superiors to track the employee’s performance throughout the year and can help to make the annual reviews much faster and easier.
Once the reports are readily available, the managers should also have the capability to analyze the real-time data about their employees. For example, if a training is provided to the team, the manager would want to measure the impact of the training on the performance of the entire team as well as on an individual. With proper analytical tools available, the managers can look at the trends and identify any inconsistencies as it occurs.
5. Development Plans
This feature of performance management software allows the managers to detail out courses of action to be taken to improve the performance of the employees.
Achieving the goals stated in the development plan allows the employees to keep abreast of changes in their fields or professions. It allows them to answer the following questions:
- How can I continually learn and grow in the upcoming year?
- How can I do better in future?
- How can I avoid performance problems faced in the past?
The companies that takie care of their employees should offer them the opportunities to develop their skills. This will provide additional motivation for the employees to improve their performance.
Generally, the development plan features available in the performance management systems enable the employees to upload their own skill development documents. Some of the best PMS even provide access to externally available online trainings which can enhance the knowledge of the employees in their field of interest.
Conclusion
In conclusion, though you get a plethora of features to choose for your performance management software, it is essential that both your managers and employees are trained efficiently to use the system with maximum efficiency.
