The top performance management systems have key features that make this much more than an annual check the box review:

• Check-ins: Employees want and deserve more frequent check-ins than annual reviews. 1:1's and a regular review of OKRs means that employees feel engaged, know what to work on, and know how to take control of their employee performance. The bottom line is that more continuous feedback is a huge win for the organization and individual.
• Automation & Workflows: Asking your managers and employees to take on another system is never simple. Look for a tool that automates the collection of feedback, facilitates 1:1's with pre-canned questions and scheduling, has integrations with your other HR software and tools like slack, outlook, etc.
• Annual Employee Evaluations: The awkward annual review is dead, but that doesn't mean employee evaluations are out the door, they've simply evolved.  Take a hard look at how a new vendor is streamlining and improving this part of your talent management strategy.
• Development Plans: It's not enough to tell someone they aren't performing (or maybe are but have room for improvement), there needs to be a plan in place with goals/OKRs that move someone in the right direction. Look for solutions that have modules to develop and track these plans, or even learning management capabilities that have specific educational material for your employees.
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Here are some of the questions we recommend asking on demos when you get on the phone with a sales rep:

• What is your product roadmap and how are you thinking about related HRTech such as employee engagement, recognition, and rewards?
• How does your solution integrate with my existing HRIS?
• How does this tool integrate with the project management software we might be using?
• What is your change management playbook to help get our employees and managers on board with this new solution?
• How do you suggest rolling out this platform?  Which modules go first, why and on what timeline?
• If I’m already doing OKRs and 1:1s, how much time will this save my team?
• Is this solution designed for specific types of organizations (small businesses, enterprise / knowledge worker, retail, remote teams)?
• Am I able to export the performance management data to cross reference with other KPIs kept in other systems?
• How does the annual performance review process work?
• What about more frequent review processes and check-ins?

A while back we wrote about cross functional buying committees.  If you’re looking at buying performance management software, or any hr software that requires stakeholders from across the organization to buy in.

A cross functional buying committee is a group of 5-10 people who care about a given topic, in this case culture/retention.  They brainstorm, and then figure out the best way to tackle the issue is to execute some sort of initiative, in this case buy performance management software.  Realistically, there are 1-2 leaders in the group who do all the work of executing the initiative.  

But, there are some huge benefits to having this committee.  First off, getting budget for your initiative is so much easier.  You now have leaders from marketing, sales, engineering, etc on your side when you go to the CFO to get money.  They can help you pitch, and throw their weight behind the initiative.

You also have the help of every organization during implementation.  This is especially useful when rolling out a tool like performance management where individuals need to be bought into the initiative across all different functions.  Having the person from your engineering team who’s on the committee tell their team why they need to use a solution can resonate a lot more than someone from outside of the organization doing the same.

What is performance management?

Performance management is the business case for ensuring that the output of an organization’s departments and employees are up to company objectives.

What is performance management software?

Performance management software are solutions that help companies organize and maintain their goals, output, and employee productivity. This is achieved through s

What do you use performance management software for?

You can use performance management software to schedule and score performance reviews, measure OKRs and goals, schedule check-ins, analyze employee data, and more.

What benefits does performance management software provide?

Performance management software provides benefits such as increased retention, better understanding of your organization, easy tracking of performance data, and increased employee engagement.

What features do performance management software offer?

Performance management system features include check-ins, automation and workflows, annual employee evaluations, and development plans.