Selecting the best performance management system

Taking a proactive approach to evaluating and measuring employee performance has a direct impact on a company’s overall results. Supporting employees’ individual growth and development boosts the bottom line by making the workforce more effective in meeting goals throughout the year.

How are you tracking and managing performance markers for your team? Choosing the right system is critical for achieving the results you want. If you’re still using paper-based performance reviews — or if you don’t have a good review system in place — then it’s time to level up with a digital performance management system.

What a performance management system does

Performance management tools help organizations track employee performance and conduct appraisals by providing a consistent and measurable system for reviews. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that both individuals and departments are meeting their goals, which leads to cumulative accomplishments at an organizational level.

Your business can benefit from helping employees align their performance with corporate goals. If you want to reduce inefficiencies and improve profit margins, then start with supporting individual productivity. Performance management tools can help by organizing all of your performance reviews and streamlining communication between managers and their teams.

The benefits of a good performance management software

Here are just a few ways an effective employee management system can benefit your company:

• Create ongoing performance management workflows
• Find the optimal frequency for giving feedback 
• Promote consistency in performance communication
• Ensure a fair review process for all employees
• Easily track employee milestones and performance
• Find training and skills development opportunities
• Automate reporting for management to see performance results

Regardless of your initial motivations for implementing a performance management system, your organization can benefit from all of these improvements.

Software features for performance management

When it’s time for your HR team to choose performance management software, how do you find the best fit for your company? There are multiple options available on the market, so it’s important to look for specific features that will support your organizational needs. Here are some of the top features performance management systems can offer:

• Goal-setting and objective-tracking to measure performance
• Current and past performance data to show context in each review
• Feedback tools to communicate areas of improvement for each person
• Scores and ratings based on the performance of individuals and teams
• Improvement plans that enable ongoing training to boost performance 
• Employee recognition tools to provide honest feedback about successes and accomplishments

Top 5 performance management systems

Consider these top performance management systems if you’re looking for effective software to improve your team’s performance.

1. Jotform

HR form templates help you automate performance evaluations and team communication. Choose a template, then customize the fields to collect feedback and track how your employees are doing. With the right tools and workflows, your company can boost employee engagement by creating an environment that supports and encourages continuous development.

Examples of form templates to use in an effective performance management system include employee evaluation forms, employee performance review forms, an end-of-year feedback form, a performance appraisal form, and an employee feedback form.

Pair these forms with Jotform Tables to create a database where you can manage and track performance data. For example, tables are helpful for recording employee attendance, creating employee task lists, and tracking employee timesheets.

These cloud-based systems grow with your company, offering a full range of integrations so you can optimize them to meet the needs of every department in your organization.

2. Engagedly

If you’re looking for a standalone performance management system without other HR tools and features, consider Engagedly. This system focuses only on employee appraisals and management, with tools for performance reviews, recognition, feedback, real-time check-ins, tracking, and goal-setting.

While Engagedly offers some customizable templates and a few integrations with other software, many growing companies want a full suite of HR features that offer powerful integrations for other HR-related tasks as well.

3. BambooHR

While other software programs focus solely on employee performance, BambooHR is a great option to consider if you need a full HR system. In addition to performance management, other capabilities include tools for timecard tracking, onboarding, goal-setting, and employee performance reporting.

Integrations allow this performance management system to work side by side with other software applications you’re using. As a result, you can customize many aspects of the workflow.

4. Zoho People

Similar to BambooHR, Zoho People provides a full HR software solution, tracking employee performance as well as other measurable results in an organization. A variety of customization and automation features give you the option to create an ideal HR workflow for your company.

Zoho People is simple to use, with an intuitive user interface. One benefit of this all-in-one HR software is the option to centralize employee data in one location.

5. Kissflow HR

The goal of this cloud-based software solution is to create streamlined systems to optimize retention and reduce the risk of favoritism in the review process. Not only can management track employee performance throughout the year, but built-in features enable other sources, such as vendors and peers, to give feedback on performance as well.

The system provides managers with performance improvement plans to support underperforming team members. Additionally, built-in features support both employee onboarding and offboarding.

Choosing the right performance management system

The most important thing to keep in mind is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for employee appraisals and management. The key to success with your new system is to find software that accommodates the unique needs of your organization.