Best Performance Management Software for 2025
Our expert picks for the best performance management software. We cover key benefits, pricing data, demo questions and more below.
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Performance Management Software is a tool that's designed to align employee performance with company goals through features like structured real-time feedback, goal tracking, and insights that support data-driven decisions. It enhances what, in theory, you are already doing to make sure your people are ever-evolving, bringing their best to work, and fully in-sync with the company mission.
For example, you may be already keeping track of OKRs through spreadsheets and scheduling performance reviews manually, but these systems can systematize the whole process within a single platform. A great system doesn’t just measure performance—it builds trust, and its features show it. Employees feel seen (through recognition), heard (via feedback channels), and supported (with clear development paths).
To help you understand the performance management software landscape, I will share some of my experiences from my years in HR. I have also enlisted the help of Tracie Marie (talent acquisition leader, CEO, and founder of Hire Incentive) and one of our in-house HR experts, CEO Phil Strazzulla. Together, along with our Editor, Rodrigo Vázquez Mellado, we've put dozens of hours into testing and evaluating these tools, and have come up with this list of what we consider the top considerations for a wide array of business needs.
To select the best performance management software, our editorial team attended demos with dozens of vendors, gathered user feedback, and consulted field experts. We’ve also looked into the feature sets of each of these platforms and we think the most important features to look for are scheduled performance reviews, continuous feedback and coaching, goal setting/tracking, and integration capabilities.
- Scheduled performance reviews with custom frequency: Instead of doing performance reviews annually, the best platforms in this space help you schedule and conduct them as frequently as your team needs, so improvement is continuous and you aren’t overwhelmed with a year’s worth of performance data.
- Continuous feedback and coaching: We’ve looked into how each platform enables managers to give feedback and coaching to their teams. Features like automated check-ins, 1:1 meetings, and text feedback through notes ensure they’re on top of things, identifying blockers early on and realigning team members as needed.
- Goal setting and progress tracking: We examined how performance management platforms handle goal-setting and progress tracking. Clear objectives and measurement mechanisms ensure meaningful progress. The tools on this list stood out for us because they let you see and track individual and team objectives side by side, integrated into your existing calendar. This offers a clear view of progress at any scale and across time.
- Integrations: Great performance management software facilitates employee learning and development, either through built-in modules or by integrating with the top learning management systems. This empowers employees to enhance existing skills and acquire new ones, benefiting both their careers and your company.
For more details on our software vetting and selection methodology, check out our editorial guidelines.
Trakstar
Trakstar is notable for adding learning management capabilities to its performance management suite. We love that they didn’t stop there and have integrated employee engagement and succession planning features.
PROS
- User-friendly for employees and administrators.
- Responsive live support.
- Extensive knowledge base and video tutorials.
- The automated feature helps schedule reviews on a routine basis.
- Provides unlimited storage.
CONS
- Does not provide reports that show progress over time.
- No free trial or free version.
- Undisclosed pricing.
- Doesn’t have a mobile app.
- May take a while to complete the setup.
Trakstar’s performance management solution (Trakstar Perform) allows companies to deploy performance reviews, set goals, and monitor results in real-time. The platform also has learning management, employee engagement, and succession planning capabilities.
Users can customize performance evaluations, import users, design forms, and configure workflows to fit their organization. The 360-degree feedback feature allows managers to control who can access it and request feedback from people inside and outside the team. The 9-box grid is another highlight in Trakstar's succession planning module, which ties in nicely with the performance management one, providing insights into employee performance and potential for advancing within the organization.
Charles River, Beta Calco, Task Rabbit, Chemline, Minsterbank.
The pricing of Trakstar’s plans and services isn’t disclosed on their site. You have to demo with the vendor to get a price quote.
Best For
Organizations looking to track performance at the individual and team levels via a ratings-based review format.
With a large staff, I use this platform around 3 times a week. I typically add users, send passwords, and review and send performance reviews. Annually, the entire review language is reviewed, and I probably spend another 10-15 hours a year updating the framework of the reviews.
It is extremely adaptable, allowing for multiple different processes and rules. It has unique features and the ability to change language, save anything, and add dates that make sense for your organization. The support staff is helpful and accessible, ready for unique requests and retraining.
My organization purchased Trakstar Performance Management before I arrived. I took on the training, design, launch, and implementation of the tool. I developed processes and policies and distributed them to the staff of 30+. I used all functionalities in the performance management tool. Our team built this tool for our organization over the course of 3 months, rolled it out over another 3 months, and have been using it for about 2 years.
The titles of the functions are rather confusing, as "policy" and "review" are not what I expect them to be. Its high adaptability can make it challenging to build and maintain. The reports are simple, but I believe they are being developed further; I never got much value from them.
Trakstar stands out for having some of the best service I've experienced and the most practical adaptability I've seen.
When seeking a tool like this, consider cost per user, functionality/adaptability, system integration, and support available. This tool is especially useful if you have multiple existing processes to change over. It is easy to set up users, and it would be much more streamlined if personnel data came from recruitment and fed into learning and development paths using the additional platforms.
I'm unsure of all changes, but the reporting was advancing when I was using it more. Metrics were available for performance but not in minute detail from what I recall.
Our organization is a nonprofit with about 100 employees. However, we had high turnover, so user build-out was a frequent function. It's great for organizations looking for adaptable performance reviews, with the resources to afford and build out the platform package (hire, recruit, learn). There is more value in time and money with the additional areas. Once built, it's a breeze.
If an organization has high turnover and is unable to take advantage of the integrated systems, this can be cumbersome, and there may be a better option as an add-on to a payroll/benefit application.
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Deel
While Deel is best known for global payroll, they have expanded into a comprehensive system encompassing HR, employee development and performance management features.
PROS
- Deel features a clean and modern interface that most people can quickly get the hang of using.
- You can effortlessly run 360-degree reviews to gather holistic and unbiased feedback from all corners of your company.
- It’s completely free to get started with Deel’s HR offering.
- Users praised Deel's customer support for being responsive and quick to resolve issues.
- Excellent 24/7 customer service with fast onboarding (2-3 days) and local payroll experts in each jurisdiction.
- Deel HR is free for companies of all sizes.
- Seamless integration with platforms like QuickBooks, BambooHR, and Greenhouse, plus custom integration options.
- User-friendly, self-service features enable quick setup; identity verification often takes under 24 hours.
- Automated invoices simplify payments, provided they're in English.
CONS
- Not the cheapest performance management system out there.
- The HR offering isn’t as developed as specialized HRIS/HCM solutions.
- Deel currently doesn’t have a mobile app - only a web version.
- Key features like onboarding automation are add-ons, which may increase costs.
- Limited flexibility in modifying contracts or service agreements; changes often require an addendum.
- Invoices cannot be generated in languages other than English.
Deel has come a long way from its origins as a global payroll tech provider; their platform now offers comprehensive modules for HR, employee learning and development, as well as performance management, which is what we’re having a look at in this review.
At the heart of Deel's performance management offerings is a set of tools designed to foster high-performing teams. Depending on the feedback you want to collect, you can choose from and deploy up to four types of performance reviews: Self Review, Manager Feedback, Team Feedback, and Peer Feedback. You can also combine two, three, or run all four review types at the same time to gather holistic feedback and adjust the frequency of any review type so you don’t have to remember to manually run it each time.
Complementing the performance reviews module is Deel's OKR and goal-setting module, which enables alignment between individual, team, and company objectives. You can seamlessly link the goals you create with performance reviews. You can also tackle any skill gaps with targeted training via Deel’s recently released LMS, which features a drag-and-drop course builder for easy creation, quizzes and surveys for higher interactivity, and automatic course assignment based on predefined criteria, ensuring targeted and relevant training delivery.
Deel's career development tools are also worth highlighting. Designed with transparency and growth in mind, this module facilitates the creation of detailed career pathing frameworks for various roles/levels to help employees visualize their potential trajectory within the organization.
All in all, it’s been great seeing Deel’s platform expand so quickly and thoughtfully into a holistic HR suite, with modules covering various aspects of the employee lifecycle. If you’re in the market for an integrated solution combining payroll, people management, and analytics, Deel is definitely worth checking out.
Over 35k companies use Deel including Nike, Shopify, Redbull, and Zapier.
Deel’s pricing varies according to the tools you need. It is structured as follows:
- Deel Contractor Management: Starts at $49/contractor/month covering payroll and compliance in 150+ countries.
- Deel EOR: Starts at $599/month for hiring employees without local entities in new countries.
- Deel Payroll: Multi-country payroll for existing entities in 100+ countries starting at $29 per employee per month.
- Deel US Payroll: Compliantly pay U.S. employees for $19 per employee per month.
- Deel US PEO: This plan packs a host of tools to simplify HR, payroll, and benefits for employees hired in all 50 states of the U.S., from $79 per employee per month.
- Deel HR: The plan packs features for you to automate HR admin and reporting for any worker with a global HR system. Pricing starts from $0. That’s right, it’s completely free to start using this plan.
- Deel Engage: Starting at $20 per employee per month, you can use this plan to drive performance, growth, and engagement.
- Deel Immigration: Visa sponsorship in 25+ countries. Contact Sales for a customized quote.
Best For
Deel is a great choice for companies seeking an integrated solution for payroll, HR, and performance management.
We use it to track our contractors, pay their invoices, collect W9s. As our EOR, it allowed us to bypass the financial and time costs with establishing a subsidiary overseas. It keeps us in compliance with international labor laws, includes global payroll, offers benefits/participates in local social welfare programs and ultimately retains key employees we would have lost as 1099 contractors.
I like that the process and layout is very similar regardless of which product and service you use from them - quite intuitive. It supports employers ability to maintain compliance by listing out requirements and flagging missing items or expired items. Lastly, being able to file 1099s digitally is a luxury I hadn't had previously. A total time saver.
We implemented Deel initially as a way to pay our onshore 1099 contractors, track their contracts and contact information outside of our HRIS. After two years, we had a new problem to address and changed our Deel platform to include an EOR. We had offshore contractors that we wanted to bring on as full-time employees to retain them and ensure compliance with the IRS. The change was seamless and the EOR is intuitive, informative and our offshore employees have been satisfied with the service from their end.
I think there is room to improve the connection between employer and the EOR service representatives in that a dedicated point-of-contact that is in house with Deel and not an international partner. Another consideration for EOR is having to pay a month's salary deposit up front for payroll is not ideal for cash flow. Lastly, I would love to see more employee and contractor features that you might find on a traditional HRIS because I believe it would be a better and more enriched experience for them.
For 1099 contractor management, oftentimes you use an ERP or accounting SaaS which has limitations. Deel bridges the gap between accounting SaaS/ERPs and an HRIS. For EOR, Deel is middle of the road in value. It is a great option for smaller OPEX budgets, but there are other EOR companies who offer more desirable features and better in-house service partners.
Consider the number of contractors or employees you would need for the upfront and annual costs to be justified. Whether or not you are familiar with global payroll, consider how much compliance support you need or is desirable for you. Lastly, consider whether you are up to converting your local currency to the international currency. Deel does not currently offer this in the employee profile, they only show the employee's local currency.
There is better customer service and help tutorials. Further, I have found there is an increase in the amount of educational materials available through Deel in order to stay current on contractor and global payroll trends and compliance.
I have known it to be used by HR and Finance professionals alike. Payroll administrators, regardless of where they fall organizationally, will find this tool beneficial. I believe organizations where these contracts or payrolls are relatively straightforward can benefit. Running payroll and paying invoices takes 10 mins or less per pay period.
I believe complex and large organizations may not find Deel to be scalable to their needs. At volume, Deel is not the best for tracking or reporting. For smaller teams, these features are acceptable and function appropriately.
Leapsome
Leapsome is highly flexible; you can quickly set up your review process from the performance management software’s best-practice templates and frameworks or customize everything — from questions to timelines and anonymity settings.
PROS
- The user-centric design makes the platform easy to navigate.
- Integrates personalized learning and compensation management into the performance management system
- The Praise functionality allows users to give credit publicly
- Users found the training videos and articles comprehensive and helpful.
- Great meeting features: reminders, drag-and-drop talking points, tag meeting participants in relevant talking points, and shared and private notes.
- Available in Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. Surveys can be translated into 19 languages.
- There’s no setup fee.
- A free trial is available for 14 days.
- Leapsome is quite feature-rich; the platform packs modules for employee onboarding, learning management, engagement, performance management, goals tracking and much more.
- The majority of users find Leapsome’s UI to be friendly and easy to navigate.
- There are lots of third party integrations options to choose from, including Slack, which many users appreciate.
- The platform has transparent pricing, and you only pay for the modules you need.
CONS
- Doesn’t have a mobile app
- Some users found it annoying not to be able to use the keyboard but to use the mouse when switching to the next questions or entering scores.
- A few users integrating Leapsome with Google Meets encountered sync issues when changing a meeting or schedule.
- The org chart isn’t very easy to navigate with multiple layers and can’t be filtered by role.
- Sometimes automatic emotion detection can misdetect positive feedback as negative if it contains "negative" words.
- The customer success team is available to customers with an annual contract of US$6,000 or more only.
- There is currently no way to post or upload an image or file into your feedback.
- Since Leapsome can do so many things, you may need some time to get used to it. The implementation process can also take some time.
- There currently isn’t a mobile app that users can download and access Leapsome quickly on-the-go.
- Free 14-day trials are available but you need to book a demo with the sales team first to sign up for one; you can’t do so on your own.
Leapsome allows companies to measure employee performance across all critical skills and competencies. Through the platform, you can customize and run simple performance reviews, agile project reviews, 360° reviews, and anonymous leadership reviews — all of which are easy to access and complete. The gathered employee data is actionable and linked to learning and development.
Leapsome's platform offers a range of features to support ongoing learning and development, regular feedback and recognition, and structured performance reviews. Employee users appreciate that the performance management software enables them to collaborate with the manager on setting and tracking goals, get regular feedback and recognition from my colleagues, and gain insights into their performance and how it aligns with the company's objectives.
Mercedes Benz, Spotify, Trivago, Eventim, Babbel, Plus Dental
- Leapsome’s pricing depends on the number of your employees, the modules you want to use, and the length of your contract.
- Its modular pricing starts from $8 per user per month when billed annually. To get a detailed quote, contact Leapsome’s sales team.
- You can also test out Leapsome free of charge for a full 14 days with no credit card required.
Best For
Leapsome’s multilingualism makes it suitable for teams across different continents. However, with its current pricing and customer service, the performance management software is best for mid-market businesses.
ThriveSparrow
We loved ThriveSparrow for its deep customization, robust reporting, and AI-powered development planning. The ability to tailor performance reviews with custom competencies, weighted scoring, and flexible visibility settings ensured fair evaluations. Plus, the AI and reporting features made it easier to track performance trends and foster employee growth.
PROS
- Highly customizable performance reviews with flexible competency frameworks, question sets, and visibility settings.
- AI-powered Personal Development Plan generates structured employee growth plans based on review data.
- Robust reporting with individual and group performance insights for leadership evaluations.
- Integrated OKR module for aligning individual, team, and company-wide goals.
- A weighted scoring system reduces bias in employee evaluations.
- Offers deep customization, allowing full control over survey questions, rating scales, and visibility settings.
- AI-powered sentiment analysis categorizes qualitative responses into key themes and presents insights in a visually digestible format.
- Granular data filtering by department, tenure, or location for precise trend analysis.
- Transparent pricing starting at $2 per user per month.
- Strong integration capabilities.
CONS
- Extra charges may apply for some integrations.
- No dedicated mobile app for admin users.
- Goal data does not directly connect to performance reviews, which could limit development plan insights.
- Some integrations may require an additional cost.
- No dedicated mobile app for admins.
- As a relatively new product, ThriveSparrow may not have the experience of more established vendors.
ThriveSparrow’s performance management software offers a highly customizable approach to employee reviews, goal-setting, and continuous feedback.
To see how ThriveSparrow handles performance, we tested its review-building capabilities by creating a performance review from scratch instead of relying on its pre-built question banks. It quickly became clear how flexible and easy the tool was to use.
We had full control over competency frameworks, question sets, and review workflows. The same level of flexibility applied to visibility settings—ensuring that managers, peers, and direct reports only saw relevant questions—a level of customization we don’t always see in competing tools. The scoring framework was another plus. It enabled weighted scoring at both the competency and question levels to help employers limit bias in their performance reviews.
We’re also pleased with the detailed individual and group performance insights the reporting features offer. During testing, the AI-powered Personal Development Plan (PDP) auto-generated development plans based on performance review data. We could create structured growth plans for employees, which covered insights into competency trends, areas for improvement, and recommended action steps.
The group reporting function also proved useful for leadership evaluations, allowing department heads to assess overall team performance and track trends over time. Compared to competitors like Lattice and Leapsome, we think ThriveSparrow either meets or beats them in terms of customization within performance reporting.
ThriveSparrow brings together performance management, goal-setting, and tracking into one OKR module. Employees and managers can align individual, team, and company-wide goals while monitoring progress within a structured framework.
However, our one complaint is that it does not yet connect goal data directly to performance reviews, meaning development plans rely solely on review feedback rather than OKR progress.
Another limitation is the absence of a mobile app for performance tracking. Although the platform integrates well with Slack and MS Teams, enabling employees to complete performance reviews within these tools, HR teams and managers do not have the same mobile accessibility.
Ikea, Siemens, and Tropicana are among the companies that have used ThriveSparrow.
ThriveSparrow’s performance module costs $5 per employee per month when billed annually.
Best For
Organizations looking for a highly adaptable review and reporting system will find ThriveSparrow’s performance management tool valuable.
Rippling
Rippling performance management tool is super adaptable. You can tweak it to fit pretty much any review type you're into: peer, upward, downward, self-reviews, and even milestone ones where you set the condition, and the system will auto-proceed the review with the right staff.
PROS
- One platform for performance, payroll, benefits, and HR.
- Supports peer reviews, downward reviews, upward reviews, and self-reviews.
- Assign employees to your cycle in bulk and add targeted questions using attributes.
- Calibrate groups for consistent ratings and objective managers.
- All-in-one platform for employee management + PEO services offered, and even a suite of other IT products
- With 500 integrations, it’s very likely that they integrate with other key tools from your tech stack.
- Operates globally with any currency
- Workflow automation
- Analytics opportunities
- Provides a holistic view of company outflows—headcount costs included
CONS
- Requires a minimum commitment of one year.
- Although Rippling has been around since 2016, the Performance product is new to the market compared to dedicated tools like Workleap, Culture Amp, and Lattice.
- Payment on a per-user basis means you may have to pay for performance for all employees, including independent contractors.
- Total buy-in to Rippling is essential
- Very SMB-oriented, in case you’re a larger company.
- New features tend to be buggy in ways that tech teams are not accustomed to fixing
Rippling can handle different kinds of reviews, be it peer reviews, upward reviews, downward reviews, or self-reviews. Our favorite, though, is milestone reviews. This feature lets you determine the condition, such as when the employee's start date is 30 days, and the system will automatically give them the type of review you have set.
For those having to manage the performance ratings of multi-group teams through spreadsheets, you won’t want to go back after you try out Rippling. The in-app role-based permissions enable you to set up who can do what. Based on that setting, the system makes sure only appropriate managers can access their team's ratings and compensation— fully automated.
Other than performance, Rippling can handle pretty much any other HR process: time and attendance, surveys, benefits, and payroll. More importantly, everything you input into this platform syncs up across the board. This means if you pick up another one of their products, it just gets it - all your data is right there and ready to go.
That said, Rippling isn't the best choice if you're after a seasonal vendor in this space. In fact, its performance module has only been around since fall 2023.
On another note, Rippling’s price is not exactly budget-friendly. There's no monthly subscription option, so you'll have to pay a considerable amount of money to get things started. To be fair, though, they do sometimes offer a free trial (for example, there’s one running until Oct 31, 2024) for those wanting to test the waters before buying.
16,000+ companies, including Five Guys, Crumble, and Sword.
Rippling's pricing is quote-based and starts at $8 per month per user.
Best For
Teams seeking to migrate all of their HR processes, including performance management, into one platform.
As the Head of People Operations, my daily workflows rely on Rippling. Overseeing the employee lifecycle requires me to use a combination of onboarding/offboarding, reporting, benefits administration, performance management, and general employee data management on a weekly basis. From an onboarding/offboarding perspective, Rippling not only serves as the home base for information but also communicates timely and effective tasks to the necessary parties, ensuring a clear and compliance-first process. With Rippling’s ability to relay information to integrated accounts like Guideline and Carta, my role leans more into oversight, allowing me to focus strategically elsewhere.
Rippling centralizes the majority of the HR processes (+ Finance and IT, if you chose) that would otherwise be spread across multiple systems. For example, our company’s flex benefits, COBRA, and ACA were either managed with a carrier outside of our broker or manually by us and now Rippling handles the administration of all these areas in consolidation with our other health insurance benefits.
The strength of Rippling’s integration library allows for consistent and regular communication to and from Rippling for processes that are not directly managed within the system. For example, prior to Rippling, we manually onboarded and offboarded employees to/from Guideline. With Rippling, the systems speak to each other and manage the employee’s lifecycle with our company-sponsored 401k.
A highly beneficial aspect of Rippling is the workflow feature. Workflows have allowed us to set up Rippling in a way that allows it to speak within the system, initiate processes, and communicate to people/external systems. Rippling is a high-tech HRIS and a constantly progressing platform that meets the needs of today’s operations teams (HR, IT, Finance included).
We selected Rippling to implement a strong HRIS while centralizing other HR operations. By implementing Rippling, we were able to solve and improve several areas. First, we consolidated historical employee data from three to four different platforms into one, allowing us to use Rippling reporting to provide company trends. Second, we simplified benefits administration by transferring health insurance, Flex Benefits, COBRA, and ACA management to the Rippling platform. Third, Rippling offers a cleaner, more centralized, and highly integrated solution for our HRIS needs. I have been actively using Rippling for six months.
Rippling is a complex system. For it to be fully functional to the best of its ability it needs to be given the time to implement and set up in great detail. Knowing this, the implementation should have been much more hands-on. I’d recommend that whoever is leading the implementation internally has experience with other systems, so they know what to look for.
Rippling does not have an employee “notes” section. As the place I rely on for the most up-to-date employee job and personal information, it is missing the ability to keep it up to date with employee relations information directly in their profile. This is a feature I have experience with in other HRIS’s and is a missed opportunity in the Rippling platform.
Unlike BambooHR, a competitor, Rippling does not offer a “missing data” report. To find out who within the company is missing information, we will have to discover it when it is flagged during another unrelated process. I think this puts us at risk if we are unknowingly missing key information or signatures from any employee.
Rippling is a fully functional operations system with a large integration library. It provides HR with the necessary tools and offers Finance and IT tools. Incorporating various clouds and add-ons allows Rippling to carry an administrative weight heavier than its competitors.
Rippling is a complex system, so you should be prepared to invest time and attention to building a strong foundation during the implementation process. It can do a lot, but it needs to be built on the backend for the front end to function at its best. Since many tools within Rippling rely on one another, approach it with a big-picture philosophy for your organization’s intentions. Be clear about what you need during the discovery process, as Rippling has many features, but not all may be necessary for your company.
Rippling continues to introduce small improvements to existing features and entire tools, like performance reviews, and exclusive highly functional built-in integrations, like Carta. These developments are likely to continue as Rippling gains popularity in HR and Finance.
Rippling is highly flexible and can be strong for a wide range of companies. It can suit new startup companies (less than 50 employees) but may be best for 70+ and growing SMBs.
Businesses with more than 500 employees may outgrow the system.
Synergita
Synergita helps companies dig deep to understand their employees’ performance and company culture. The platform’s natural language processing (NLP) feature allows you to uncover sentiment, while HiPo Score helps you identify top performers.
PROS
- Synergita is affordable and scalable. Users can choose between its modules or combine them as needed.
- NLP feature analyzes the tone of employees’ responses and assigns the team a sentiment score— a valuable data point to improve the employee experience.
- Can integrate with HRIS, CRM, ERP, Learning Management Software (LMS), and Single Sign-on (SSO) servers.
- Has a 7-day free trial, no credit card is required.
- Synergita’s platform is affordable and scalable. On top of that, you get to choose between their modules for employee engagement, performance management, and OKR tracking, or combine them as needed.
- The majority of users find Synergita’s UI to be user-friendly and fairly easy to navigate.
- With the help of natural language processing (NLP), the platform can analyze the tone of your employees’ responses and assign team a sentiment score, which is valuable data you can use to improve the experience of your employees.
CONS
- Several users noted that the reporting module lacks customizations, and speed/performance issues can be experienced with it, particularly when working with larger reports.
- A few users have also reported that the support team isn’t so responsive
- Doesn’t offer a mobile app.
- Several users noted that the reporting module lacks customizations, and speed/performance issues can be experienced with it, particularly when working with larger reports.
- A few users have also reported that the customer support team is slow to respond and resolve issues.
- The platform currently doesn’t offer a mobile app for on-the-go access.
Synergita is a cloud-based solution for employee engagement, recognition, performance management, goal setting, and tracking. To achieve all of the above, the platform certainly packs a broad set of features, including engagement surveys, AI-powered sentiment analysis, measure culture score, performance reviews, 1:1 meetings, e-communication, peer recognition, HiPo rating, and employee development planning.
Synergita’s affordability and scalability are the top reasons we chose it over dozens of options in which we have reviewed the PM software market. However, we expected better reporting capabilities from the software. Despite its user-friendliness, the reporting module is quite limited in customizations, and there are occasionally issues regarding speed/performance issues. We also found that Synergita doesn’t offer a mobile app. Lastly, Synergita didn’t get good ratings from our research due to its delayed responses, as reported by some of our HR community members.
Lotte, Secova, Global Edge, Indegene, American Micro.
Synergita has three modules, Engage, Perform, and OKR. They can be combined or purchased separately. When billed annually, those modules are priced as follows:
- Synergita Engage: costs $2 per employee per month and includes basic talent information, continuous feedback, rewards and recognition, e-communication, culture score, and employee and feedback reports.
- Synergita Perform: costs $4 per employee per month, including features like advanced talent information, SMART goals and achievements tracking, performance reviews/appraisals, custom workflows and feedback templates, and people and performance reports.
- Synergita Perform Plus: costs $7 per employee per month, Synergita Perform Plus packs everything in Synergita Perform, along with 360-degree feedback, promotion cycle, career aspirations, appraisal letter distribution, skill repository and mapping, HiPo score, employee headcount trends, and employee performance trends.
- Synergita OKR: costs $4 per employee per month and includes basic talent information, personal OKR, company/dept OKR, and OKR reports.
Best For
Global, US-based, and India-based organizations looking for a simple system that adapts to what they already have in terms of performance management.
Quantum Workplace
Quantum Workplace excels through extensive customer service, providing not just one-time software implementation but also long-term support to ensure customers fully benefit from their investment.
PROS
- The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. You can easily find what you’re looking for as the most critical items are pinned at the top.
- You can personalize surveys, make them from existing best practices templates, or build them entirely from scratch.
- You can share and review recognition with your teammates in a social newsfeed format. What’s great is that you can make it as detailed and scheduled or as succinct and impromptu as possible.
- Quantum has an ever-present customer service team. Many users have complimented them on their responsiveness.
- Easy to use, the user interface is intuitive, you can find what you’re looking for and still see the most important items pinned on top.
- The option to personalize surveys, make them from the best practices templates, or build entirely from scratch.
- The ability to share and review recognition with your teammates in a social newsfeed format. What’s great is that you have the option to make it as detailed and scheduled or as succinct and impromptu as you please.
- An ever-present customer service team. Many users have complimented on their responsiveness.
CONS
- Users commonly experienced problems with 1:1 canceling and rescheduling. Scheduling 1:1s on short notice was also difficult at times.
- Feedback being visible to coworkers was a frequent complaint. Some wanted more anonymous options.
- Navigation was confusing for some users, struggling to find certain menus or older goals/feedback.
- A few users wanted more customization options, like adding more details when updating goals or customizing feedback questions.
- No free plan or free trial.
- While this may not be a deal breaker, but a few users wished the platform UI had more vibrant colors.
- Many users have expressed their issues with canceling, rescheduling, and the inability to schedule 1-on-1s on short notice.
- Some users have found the goals feature to be a little confusing to understand because of its extensivity.
- This is a rather unprecedented one, but we found many users wishing for more vibrant colors for the platform.
Focused on growth, development, and team alignment, Quantum Workplace’s performance management software is a suite of integrated tools that allow businesses to boost employee performance in myriad ways. Employees can set clear goals and see their progress, and managers and employees can schedule 1-on-1 meetings. Anyone in the organization can request or give feedback. Managers can create different coaching strategies based on talent reviews. And employees can get public recognition for their efforts from their managers and peers alike in a fun and interactive way. What makes this performance management software up a notch, however, is its succession planning tool that helps users find suitable successors for their critical jobs.
Quantum Workplace is used by over 10,000 companies, including Dentsply Sirona, Panera Bread, Fossil Group, DSW, BKD, and Getty Images.
Pricing is not disclosed upfront, but you can get it after booking a demo.
Best For
Mid-sized and large enterprises (50+ employees) looking for goals, 1-on-1s, real-time recognition, talent reviews and feedback in their performance management software.
We use Quantum Workplace on a monthly, and sometimes weekly, basis as it is integrated into all our HR processes, from onboarding to offboarding. It is instrumental for pulse surveys and in-depth employee engagement surveys.
Recently, we began using Quantum in a new learning program to gather regular insights on how participants are feeling. Our next step will involve leveraging Quantum as a skill matrix and for succession planning, helping us identify skill gaps and plan our workforce for the future.
The platform is intuitive and easy to navigate, requiring no in-depth manual to use effectively. The support and customer success managers are excellent, helping us translate data for senior leadership. The AI capabilities are impressive, allowing us to summarize survey data quickly, which saves a significant amount of time.
My company has used Quantum Workplace for two years now. The primary reason was to have a global solution for employee surveys, as we operate in both the US and Europe. Beyond just a survey system, we sought a partner with the knowledge and benchmarking capabilities to support our growth.
Quantum Workplace provides insights that help improve employee engagement at all levels. They deliver key questionnaires and go further by analyzing the data, using AI to summarize employee input and creating presentations with the key results for both leadership and employees.
The analytics can feel quite complex if you don’t work with them daily. Customization options are limited, particularly for the emails sent from the system. Additionally, I would like to see more flexibility in administering access rights.
Compared to other tools I’ve used, which tend to be more generic HRIS solutions, Quantum Workplace stands out by staying ahead with technology like AI. This technological focus is a significant advantage.
Don’t limit the tool’s use to an annual survey; instead, leverage it regularly to gain insights into the sentiment of your organization and employees. Ensure there is a dedicated person to manage and maximize its potential. Take your time to implement it properly and become familiar with the software. Once you’re comfortable, it will significantly enhance your work.
Quantum Workplace consistently evolves with technology and listens to customer feedback to improve. We see yearly updates, each of which becomes increasingly relevant and beneficial.
Quantum Workplace is well-suited for large organizations looking to improve employee engagement.
For smaller organizations, Quantum Workplace may be excessive for their needs.
Culture Amp
While relatively new compared to other products in the Culture Amp suite, Culture Amp’s Performance Management solution has caught the attention of hundreds of businesses with its helpful customer service and science-backed reviews and surveys.
PROS
- A simple interface makes the platform easy to navigate.
- The Skills Coach feature delivers daily micro-learning experiences directly through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email. Users find them practical, on-the-point, and digestible.
- Lots of pre-built surveys, which users find insightful.
- Follows scientific evidence to provide insights and recommendations, which according to several users, are helpful.
- Product updates and new releases are on a monthly basis.
- No setup fee.
- Responsive and knowledgeable customer service.
- People science team
- Tons of engagement surveys
CONS
- The People Science Plus plan is not available for very small companies.
- Billed on an annual basis.
- The onboarding process differs based on the service tier you select.
- The mobile app’s functions are pretty limited compared to the web version.
- Integration options are quite limited.
- Undisclosed pricing. No free trial or free plan.
- Their people science plus offering is not available for very small companies
- Enterprise clients might find that they lack some of the integrations and customizations a bigger team needs.
Culture Amp offers a full range of tools to improve employee experience including performance check-ins and reviews (Perform), coaching plans (Develop), and engagement surveys (Engage). The Perform module is relatively new compared to Engage. Unlike traditional once-a-year performance reviews, Culture Amp enables continuous performance management through more frequent check-ins and feedback opportunities.
The platform also streamlines 360-degree feedback, integrating peer and multi-rater reviews for a comprehensive view of performance. Features like calibration ensure consistency and fairness in evaluation across the organization. To top it all off, Culture Amp’s people analytics and reporting capabilities give you reliable insights you can base your talent management and development plans on.
Culture Amp is used by 6,000+ companies, including Nasdaq, McDonald's, Coles, Foundry, and WisdomTree.
Culture Amp customers can choose between its available modules, i.e. Employee Engagement, Employee Development, or Performance Management, or combine all three in one plan. The pricing depends on the number of module(s) you’d like to buy and the size of your team. Contact Culture Amp’s Sales dept for more information.
Best For
Culture Amp serves companies with 200 - 1,000+ employees all over the world and across different verticals.
We utilize both engagement and performance. We use engagement for quarterly pulse surveys that determine metrics for our managerial bonus program, as well as our annual survey. We are starting to use the action planning tool with our ELT. We use performance for performance review and calibration. We plan to use it for goal-setting this year, too!
- I love the action planning capability that action planning has
- I love that engagement allows you to filter so many different ways and the heatmap functionality is fantastic
- I love the calibration view you can share in performance
We decided to purchase Culture Amp as an engagement platform. Later, we added on performance. We needed a tool that helped us act on employee survey results and also had performance capabilities. We chose culture amp because it met the pain points we were having, they have a great customer success team & truly are working toward great product enhancements. I’ve personally used the tool since august 2021. Performance since last October.
- In performance, it’s not as easy as you’d like to exclude individuals from a calibration cycle from a filtering perspective
- In performance, I wish we could filter by division
- In engagement, I wish I could share a link with a leader for their dashboard not just via email
- Culture amp is different than competitors because of the action planning, it really sets them apart.
- I prefer the performance to BambooHR (what I’ve used in the past) because the views are so much better in calibration
- Consider action planning. What are you going to do with the engagement survey info?
- Consider how your performance cycle will be imported back into your point of record (for us it’s BambooHR and that may be a challenge, TBD!)
More filtering & word clouds in engagement! Too soon in using performance to tell.
A medium to large org (one with more data to measure!).
For small organizations, it is tough, as if they don’t receive much data, you can’t view the results when you slice.
Profit.co
Profit.co is more than just an OKR solution. The platform also packs features for performance management, task management, employee engagement, and recognition.
PROS
- Provides a broad set of features for an OKR tool
- In-depth customization options
- The OKRs coaching program is highly rated by users for its clear instructions and practical case studies
- Supports multiple languages besides English, including Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Bahasa, German, Portuguese, French, and Finnish
- 24/7 phone and chat support
- Offers a free plan as well as free trials.
- The platform has tutorials available that walk you through how to use the system and guide your team onto the platform. There are also examples of different types of goals, objectives and KPIs, so it's easy to see how they work in practice.
- Profit.co offers an intuitive interface that makes it easy for teams to set goals, collaborate and track progress. The tool allows users to set up OKRs for each team member, which can be done fairly fast with the help of step-by-step instructions.
- Users can choose from several pre-defined KPIs that range from sales to customer satisfaction, which helps them visualize their progress over time with just one glance at their dashboard.
CONS
- The customer success team is great, but there could have been more online materials for self-service training
- Not all the features in the mobile app are working as well as in the website
- Users find the platform confusing to navigate at times due to its wide feature set
- Connects with several apps, yet according to some users, the Asana integration isn’t easy to set up.
- While Profit.co offers a free plan for up to five users, it has limited features. The only way to unlock more features is by upgrading to another plan.
- One complaint about Profit.co is that there are too many features in one platform. While this might sound like a good thing at first glance, it can actually be frustrating for users who want something simple and straightforward – especially if they’re new to OKRs and performance management.
- As an administrator, you can create and edit tasks and goals. However, there’s no way to edit or upload tasks or goals on a mass scale. For example, if you want to change the title or description for every task, then you’ll have to manually do it one by one.
Profit.co allows companies to create and track corporate, departmental, team, and individual OKRs. The top management defines the corporate objectives and sets them up on the platform with in-app customization. The various departments can create their OKRs to further the corporate vision, while teams and individuals can set their own objectives to serve those larger goals. Through Profit.co’s real-time reporting dashboard, managers can check the real-time progress of their teams, catch potential problems early on, and make decisions as needed.
We appreciate that the software has transparent pricing, a free version, and a free trial. Plus, Profit.co supports multiple languages, making it friendly to distributed teams.
SunTec, Wex, Telmar, Sandvik, CWB Financial Group
- Launch: This plan is free for up to five users.
- Growth: This plan costs $7 per user per month, billed annually.
- Enterprise: This plan has custom pricing.
Note: Growth and Enterprise have free trials with no credit card required.
Best For
Startups and small to medium-sized businesses — either office-based or distributed teams can find a lot of value in Profit.co.
ChartHop
We like that ChartHop is constantly evolving. It started as an org chart tool and gradually built features for performance management, employee engagement, DEI, and people planning/analytics.
PROS
- Integrates well with several existing HRIS and ATS systems
- Strong customization and reporting capabilities
- Transparent pricing. The Basic plan is free for the first 150 employees.
- The Map feature enables remote teams to see where each employee is located.
- Has open API
- Supports Single Sign-On (SSO).
- Charthop nicely integrates with your existing HR and ATS systems. Having everything under one roof means not having to use ten different applications.
- Charthop’s organization chart is its biggest asset. Their drag-and-drop feature to edit the chart is a hit amongst a majority of the users. Overall, the tool makes navigation throughout the company really easy - you can find the people you need, figure out their responsibilities, and track changes after the latest company re-organization.
- Charthop's goal tracking interface is simple, intuitive, and easy to build. There's not much else you can ask for.
- Charthop's Map feature allows businesses to see where each employee is located. For organizations that work remotely, this promotes a feeling of togetherness, which is crucial for employee engagement.
CONS
- Organization chart navigation isn't the best. The chart zooms in and out quite quickly, and the gestures aren't intuitive, making it difficult to use.
- Takes time to implement and get used to
- The search function sometimes throws the wrong results.
- The UI is somewhat dated and clunky.
- Charthop's organization chart navigation isn't the best. The chart zooms in and out quite quickly, and the gestures aren't intuitive, making it difficult to use.
- Charthop can be a little complicated to figure out. Also, the fact that there are so many features is a little intimidating.
- Charthop's search function isn't user-friendly. There's not much information on how to use it effectively, and it sometimes throws the wrong results.
- Charthop's UI is somewhat dated and clunky.
ChartHop’s performance management solution helps you conduct different types of reviews, gather feedback and check in with your employees as frequently as you want. Users love its feature coverage and customizability; they can build distinct processes, questions, approval flows, and access controls by department, location, manager, role, and more.
Another thing we’ve in our testing is that ChartHop takes data protection seriously, with fine-grained controls, role-based access, auto-on/offboarding, full encryption, biometric access control, mandatory SSO, and more options included in the security settings.
If you have observed ChartHop for a while, you may have also noticed that they have updated the pricing of the Basic plan to be free as long as the number of employees is no more than 150, which has made the platform a lot more accessible to smaller businesses.
Sequoia, Plaid, Locus, InVision, BetterCloud
ChartHop has three plans:
- Basic: Free for your first 150 employees, $2 per employee per month for every employee beyond 150.
- Standard: $8 per employee per month (billed annually) plus $20,000 minimum annual contract plus a one-time implementation fee.
- Premium: $16 per employee per month (billed annually) plus a $28,000 minimum annual contract plus a one-time implementation fee.
- Add-ons start at $2 per employee per month.
Best For
Mid-sized organizations and global teams looking to gather and centralize people data in one place.
Charthop was primarily used for its org chart functionality. It pretty much replaced the org chart module within our HRIS system. We were able to upload a file exported from our HRIS to build a variety of org charts. We were working on the integration between the two platforms. We were also exploring Charthop's other capabilities like Headcount Planning and Engagement.
Charthop was user-friendly and intuitive making it easy to navigate. Charthop was flexible in that one could build many different org chart versions and permission them based on who needed access to them. Charthop also allowed for customizable fields within the system to meet the needs of your business.
Charthop was a tool we used at a previous company for about 1-2 years. It helped us create and easily maintain organizational charts throughout the company. The HRIS system we used did not have strong org chart capabilities. Making changes was very cumbersome and clunky, and downloading them was impossible. Charthop allowed us to create several different org chart versions while allowing us permission access as needed.
I don't recall having any concerns with Charthop as it was a very good solution for our team and company.
Similar tools to Charthop were not as customizable and limited in how we could use the tool. We tried other tools but decided to go with Charthop in the end.
When looking for an org chart tool, think about how many people in your organization will need to access the charts you develop. If talent planning, you'll want to keep certain charts confidential and hidden from certain users. Also, think about other tools you could bundle with this feature in the long run so that the system can be used to solve more than one problem for your company.
I'm unaware of the evolution of this product.
Charthop is good for HR teams in companies.
A very small and flat organization may not benefit from this tool if multiple org charts were not needed.
ClearCompany
ClearCompany offers a holistic approach to performance management, taking employee recognition and satisfaction evaluation into account. The UI is easy to use, and users have had a lot of positive things to say about ClearCompany’s setup process and customer service.
PROS
- Great customizable review cycles.
- Users find the UI quite intuitive and easy to navigate.
- Highly rated for speed and helpful customer support.
- Smooth implementation experience and integration process.
- Offers an API available for use.
- Supports ten languages.
- ClearCompany offers a host of HR solutions that work well with another. You can choose the solution you need or combine them all to have a comprehensive talent management platform in your stack.
- The majority of users find ClearCompany’s interface to be quite intuitive and easy to navigate.
- Many users have highly rated ClearCompany’s support team for speed and quality of response. Several users have also reported a smooth implementation experience.
CONS
- Undisclosed pricing
- No free plans or free trials
- The reporting feature, according to some users, is limited in customizations
- The search function doesn’t always bring up the correct results
- No mobile app, but the platform is well-optimized for mobile use
- ClearCompany’s pricing is not readily available on their website. You also can’t create a trial account on your own from the website and have to go through the sales team for more info.
- Some users felt that the reporting feature is limited in customizations.
- According to a few users, the candidate search function doesn’t always bring up the correct candidate(s) and could use some improvement.
- ClearCompany doesn’t currently have a mobile app, but the platform is well optimized for mobile use both for hiring managers and candidates.
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ClearCompany’s performance management solution comes with a wealth of features that foster a meaningful and transparent experience for your entire team. Users can choose to organize employee performance reviews annually, bi-annually, or quarterly — the frequency that works best for them. The platform’s customizations and pre-built templates allow managers to create a personalized and actionable review experience in less time.
Employee users like that they can do the reviews on their mobile devices and in the language they want. ClearCompany also incorporates goal-planning tools within its performance management product so employers can measure employee satisfaction with continuous feedback loops, employee surveys, and anonymous polls. As a cherry on top, the performance management software even provides features like shoutouts and celebrations to recognize high performers.
Goodwill, Aveda Institute, and Chick-fil-A are some of 2500+ ClearCompany’s customers.
- It has two pricing plans for different types of businesses. The modular access plan lets users purchase certain modules individually, while the platform access plan offers all modules within ClearCompany’s suite.
- ClearCompany’s pricing isn't detailed on their site. According to a few users, however, it can start from $7 per employee per month. For the exact quote, you need to contact their team.
Best For
Midsize businesses and large companies looking for customizable performance review rollout.
An organization can choose the cadence at which they require employees to set new goals and make progress reports. Whenever I finish a goal, I login and mark my goal complete. Only employees connected to that goal can see my progress, notes I have added regarding that goal, and if that goal has been completed. It is very quick and easy to create a new goal or make an update. I would say I login about once or more a month. But another company may only require employees to login at year end during performance review time. It is up to how the company uses the software.
Easy to use and navigate for anyone including those technologically challenged. Easy to set up a performance review from the backend perspective. Lastly, I like how an entry level employee can see how their goals are vertically integrated into the top goals/company's strategic plan. I believe this visibility helps all employees understand the end goal better and that they are an important part of a bigger goal.
I have used ClearCompany for less than a year and am happy with the ease of the product. Our company was looking for a performance review system that was more integrated and connected to our strategic plan. Our company bought ClearCompany because of the many features, advantages, and benefits the product offered over our past performance review provider. One key benefit was the platform provides transparency on the progress of an individual's goal(s) and the team's goals. The organization as a whole can see goals the top executives set for the term and how each contributor's goals vertically connect to supporting those top goals.
I did not care for the performance review builder where they use job descriptions from a prebuilt template. I thought the template was incomplete and lacking in descriptions of job functions/responsibilities. Also, if an organization's goal is to build individual performance reviews for each position, using this software may be very time consuming. This software is better for a standard template review process for groups of employees. Building the review template is not quick because it takes time to learn how to build it first.
The visibility into a company's goals and others goals is different (and nice). Employees can congratulate others and make comments when their peer's goals are achieved, which is different and a positive employee engagement tool. There is the capability to create more customized performance reviews, if willing to put in the time. There is also the capability to "set it and forget" when creating a performance review. The system will notify an employee/manager when it is time for their review.
A company should identify their needs first. They might not need this comprehensive performance management tool. They should think about what is currently working and what is not working. I suggest making a list with 1. must haves, 2. would likes, and 3. I wish. This list will guide the buying decision.
They planned to build out the job description feature more.
An organization where it is critical to the business that everyone in the organization (from the bottom up) knows and understands the company's goals and who is responsible for each subgoal.
A business that does not like their strategic plan to be known. Or, a business that does not create a strategic plan.
eloomi
Eloomi’s offering is quite flexible; you can choose from their employee learning, development and appraisal solutions, or combine them all into a holistic platform that’s all about employee growth.
PROS
- Admin and employees can navigate the tool fairly easily with little to no training.
- Users can have all three eloomi modules (i.e. Learning, Development, and Appraisals) in a complete solution or buy each individually.
- Surveys are customizable and private — good for getting specific and honest employee feedback.
- The peer-to-peer feedback feature allows employees to get each other's input on performance.
- Helpful and responsive customer service.
- Eloomi is quite comprehensive, with modules for onboarding, training/learning, performance management, employee engagement, and recognition.
- The platform comes with a library of ready-to-use templates to help you create online training faster. It also has a mobile app for your employees to access training materials on the go.
- Their surveys are customizable and private, helping you get specific and honest feedback from employees.
- You can request other members of the organization to provide feedback on certain skills of employees.
- You can make use of Eloomi’s micro-sized online training content to prevent overwhelming onboarding experiences.
CONS
- Isn’t the fastest and simplest setup process due to the number of features it offers.
- Glitches may occur as users generate reports with a large volume of data. But users have noted that Eloomi’s customer support team is quick to resolve such issues.
- The pricing isn’t transparent.
- A free trial isn’t available.
- Because of the sheer number of features Eloomi offers, there’s a steeper learning curve for the average user to get the hang of the platform and understand it to its fullest.
- A few users reported experiencing bugs and speed issues when generating reports, especially ones with a large volume of data, but have noted that Eloomi’s customer support team is quick to resolve such issues.
- The platform’s pricing isn’t transparent and free trials aren’t available at this time.
Widely known for their learning management system (LMS), eloomi also offers a solid performance management solution for employee coaching and feedback.The platform’s features include manager-employee check-ins, reports with insights, automated to-dos, 360-degree feedback, and performance appraisals.
The People Dashboard offers an overview of employees' performance, while 1:1 review and coaching conversations can be initiated with a single click using expert-built templates. Eloomi's ease of use and excellent customer support are also strengths worth noting. Though some glitches may be experienced with certain features like reporting, the eloomi support team is always quick to respond with helpful solutions.
Eloomi’s customer list includes BONUS Vorsorgekasse AG, Breakout Games, Carne Group, ElectricBrands, Nufarm, Domino’s, and more.
Eloomi offers custom pricing, so the best way to find out how much it costs is to request a demo.
Best For
Mid-sized and large businesses and NGOs with more than 50 employees.
The client uses Eloomi to monitor team skills, leverage skills more efficiently across teams, track progress in upskilling and reskilling, and identify talent needs within the development and product teams. They also use Eloomi to identify high-potential employees and support their development.
Additional Uses:
- Custom Learning Programs: Design and implement learning paths tailored to employee needs, covering skill development, leadership training, industry certifications, and product knowledge.
- Goal Setting and Tracking: Leverage performance management tools to set individual, team, and organizational goals, with real-time tracking of progress and performance metrics to ensure accountability and transparency.
- Personalized Learning Paths: Provide employees with personalized learning experiences to help them grow in their current roles and prepare for future opportunities, enhancing engagement by showing a clear commitment to their development.
- Ease of use for both administrators and employees.
- AI functions generate a critical framework for training programs.
- Integration with existing platforms is seamless, and it includes performance management, collaboration tools, reporting, and data analytics.
I evaluated this platform for a client who made the purchase. The client needed a tool to support employee development and client learning for their rapidly growing business. Additionally, the platform needed to have API integration, analytics, and skills intelligence as they prepared to implement strategic workforce planning.
Pain Points:
- Decentralized and fragmented learning platforms
- Limited employee engagement in career mobility through learning and development
- Challenges with onboarding new employees— inconsistency and misalignment of expectations
- Lack of tracking and oversight for skills aligned with regulations and compliance for individual roles
- Lacks customization options and deeper analytics in reporting, which could be helpful as the company scales.
- The integration options work for the company now, but they will likely outgrow these in the next two years and need to look for new options.
- The cost is relatively high, which could prompt the company to consider alternative tools in the future.
We also evaluated Docebo, but at the time, AI capabilities were less of a priority for the client. I believe Docebo could be a future opportunity for the client, as I have recommended it for clients seeking stronger analytics and AI-driven capabilities.
My client’s top three priorities when looking for a similar tool are user experience, integration, and ramp-up time. Cost is also critical, as my clients are scaling startups accountable to investors, which means they need to get the most value for their spending.
Eloomi has expanded its integration options and improved its mobile experience, significantly enhancing the user experience. However, the cost remains a factor, driving a stronger need for the platform to increase its value, which it appears to be doing.
Eloomi is ideal for professional services, tech startups, and SMEs.
Eloomi may not be suitable for large enterprises with complex HR needs.
WorkTango
WorkTango (formerly Kazoo) achieves the right balance of comprehensiveness and simplicity. The platform combines surveys, performance reviews, goals, and recognition and rewards, driving engagement and helping everyone stay aligned with team-level and business-wide objectives.
PROS
- Available in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean.
- Simple implementation process with training sessions available.
- Supports anonymous surveys.
- Straightforward UI that’s easy to navigate.
- The mobile app has undergone significant improvements, offering more built-in features and enhanced performance.
- Flexibility — users can buy the modules they need then add more as they go.
- Unlimited surveys available in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean.
- You can add modules as you go and these will be charged on a prorated basis.
CONS
- Billing is only done annually; all plans require a minimum agreement for a 24-month subscription.
- There isn’t a free trial or free plan.
- Billing is only done annually and all plans require a minimum agreement for a 24-month subscription (see our FAQs for more and their pricing page for full details).
- Several users have complained about the rewards redeeming process being not very intuitive.
WorkTango combines continuous performance management, employee recognition, rewards, and surveys into one platform to help businesses improve employee experience and, by extension, company culture.
One aspect that stood out to us is its three-pronged approach, which seamlessly connects the Survey and Insights, Goals and Feedback, and Recognition and Rewards modules. This allows users to easily share data across all three areas and ensures that individual goals align with their overall business objectives.
The platform's Surveys and Insights features have proven to be invaluable. We appreciate the ability to create surveys using pre-built templates or customize our own, gaining valuable feedback from employees, including anonymous responses. WorkTango's ability to analyze this feedback data and provide actionable suggestions is also highly praised by users as it helps them address areas of concern more effectively.
WorkTango offers a user-friendly interface, and we like that the mobile app has undergone significant improvement, offering enhanced performance and more built-in features. Additionally, the availability of training sessions has made the implementation process a lot simpler, ensuring a smooth transition for their organizations.
1000 organizations, including Allianz, Hitachi, Kia Motors, and Patagonia.
The pricing of WorkTango's modules depends on your business size and needs. Contact their sales team for an estimate.
Best For
While the majority of WorkTango’s customers are in tech, FSI, healthcare, and business services, the software can work great for mid-sized to large businesses, US-based or otherwise, across most industries.
We used WorkTango regularly for engagement surveys, pulse checks, surveys following development events, for onboarding and so on. We used it to get feedback from our employees on specific events as well as general engagement feedback. We also used it for pulse surveys to get more insight into particular topics.
It's really easy to use in terms of setup of surveys and adding and deleting employees. You get results instantly with many ways to view the data and drill down. Their support is really good as well - knowledgeable and responsive.
I used WorkTango in a previous role, and used it for about 4 years. We bought it because we were looking for a better way to conduct employee engagement surveys, and WorkTango helped us do that in a way that was completely customizable. We did annual surveys as well as regular pulse checks. With WorkTango we could see participation rates throughout the survey periods and got results instantly. The tool provides some analysis and different ways to cut data (department, tenure, etc.).
The exporting of results isn't perfect - it got better while we were using it but we still had to manually create certain views to share the results we wanted with our executive. The trending feature, which is great overall, doesn't work if you change the wording of a question in any way, so if you want to reword a term the trending doesn't work.
I had always used companies to run engagement surveys and it was a less intuitive process and the results took weeks if not months to get. WorkTango makes it easy and instant.
Think about how often you want to use it and how to make the most of it. If you do one survey a year it's likely not worth it. Make sure you're comfortable interpreting results as well. The system does some of that but you need to be able to analyze responses and determine why things might be surfacing. And don't buy this type of tool if you're not going to do anything with the results.
WorkTango was very responsive to our suggestions for features or improvements. During the 4 years we used it there were some upgrades or changes, as well as one significant upgrade that addressed a lot of things and made the tool better, especially in terms of how data is displayed and exported.
Great for HR teams and people with little to a lot of technical savviness.
Very small organizations wouldn't benefit from this as it relies on a certain number of responses to maintain anonymity.
PerformYard
Sharply focused on the performance management software niche, PerformYard is best known for being flexible and feature-rich. They also stand out for constantly rolling out new features based on customer feedback.
PROS
- Covers nearly all the bases of performance management
- Regularly incorporates new features based on customer feedback
- Supports Single Sign-On
- Highly customizable in terms of content
- High focus on flexibility within performance management, they can handle a myriad of approaches to PM, adapting to your current strategy.
- The PerformYard team constantly listens to their clients, incorporating new features based on their feedback and suggestions.
CONS
- Focuses exclusively on the North American market
- Not the most intuitive tool for new users
- Little lengthy in some processes to get where you need to be
- Some of the action-to-do descriptions for performance evaluation lack clarity on what to do and what the next steps are.
- Lacks features to auto-transfer data from HRIS to PerformYard
- As of mid-2022 at least, PerformYard are mainly focused on the North American market, so for businesses in other geographies and with non-English speaking team members, it wouldn’t be the best fit.
PerformYard’s flexible performance management system helps managers and employees stay on top of areas for improvement and track success. Its unique goal management feature allows each team member to define and track their goals, tying them to business objectives and facilitating collaboration.
Performance reviews and check-ins offer customizable content templates, while continuous feedback helps recognize accomplishments, document performance, and track notes. The platform's customer service receives positive feedback, with dedicated success managers guiding users. However, some users feel uncertain about the next steps after completing their evaluation due to the complexity automation features.
Blue Nile, The Catholic University of America, Eggstrategy, College Track, Metro Credit Union, Friedman LLP.
PerformYard has two plans. When billed annually, they cost as follows:
- Professional: $5-10 per employee per month with access to performance reviews, goal management, continuous feedback, 360s, and peer evaluation tools. It also comes with dedicated customer success management, knowledge base access, and phone or email support.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing and unlocks additional perks to what’s in the Professional plan, including senior-lead customer success management, enhanced on-boarding/training, custom implementation, data integrations, custom single sign-on (SAML), custom service level agreement, additional document storage.
Best For
PerformYard is best suited for organizations (both for-profit and nonprofit) between 30 to 2,000 employees in the United States.
We use PerformYard regularly, with managers and team members logging in several times a month to set new goals, add updates, and share feedback. It has become our go-to platform for performance reviews and is also where we document one-on-one conversations, track progress on development plans, and ensure everyone knows where they stand.
Managers can quickly record notes from coaching sessions, while employees can easily check in on their own progress and see how their work aligns with their goals and the team’s direction. PerformYard helps us keep everything organized and transparent, which boosts accountability and ensures alignment across the organization.
- PerformYard offers a high level of customization, allowing the organization to tailor the performance management process to its specific needs.
- The platform is user-friendly and easy to learn for employees at all levels.
- PerformYard enables ongoing feedback for employees, fostering a workplace culture of development and continuous improvement.
My organization chose PerformYard because we needed a better way to stay on top of employee performance and streamline how we manage goal-setting and reviews.
Before PerformYard, it was challenging to track everyone’s progress and ensure feedback was delivered consistently, often leaving employees unclear about how they were performing. This tool has been transformative, providing a straightforward way to keep goals visible, track progress, and make feedback an ongoing process rather than a once-a-year event.
We’ve been using PerformYard for over a year, and it has noticeably improved how connected our team feels to their personal goals and the broader objectives of our organization.
- PerformYard does not easily integrate with other HRIS programs, which limits its utility in more complex tech environments.
- The lack of a mobile app restricts employees from accessing the system flexibly on the go.
- The tool could benefit from more data-driven reporting features to provide managers with enhanced capabilities for analyzing employee performance.
Compared to Lattice, PerformYard offers more robust customization options and is notably more user-friendly. Specifically, the platform allows organizations to customize performance reviews to align with their unique requirements.
When considering PerformYard, organizations should evaluate whether the software integrates with existing HRIS or other tools containing employee data, such as UKG Ready. It’s also important to assess the level of customer support and training offered by PerformYard to ensure smooth adoption and ongoing use.
PerformYard has improved over time by enhancing its ability to implement continuous feedback and coaching through more customizable templates.
PerformYard is ideal for small organizations that require customization and for newer organizations building their performance management processes.
PerformYard is less suitable for larger organizations with established HRIS software that requires integration, as it does not easily connect with other platforms.
Workleap
Workleap (formerly Officevibe) is a versatile tool that impressed us with its tailored approach to performance management. After diving into its core features, we found that its flexibility in setting up performance cycles and engaging employees makes it well-suited for organizations aiming to build an accountable, growth-oriented culture.
PROS
- Flexible cycle system enables the addition of multiple events throughout the year to meet specific user’s performance timeline.
- Supports both manager reviews and self-assessments.
- Transparent pricing, a 14-day trial is available without credit card details.
- Requires at least five responses for anonymous feedback access to ensure true anonymity from higher-ups.
- Native features for OKRs, 1:1s, and peer recognition.
- Workleap is easy to use and has a free plan that a team of up to 10 users can use.
- To ensure that feedback is truely anonymous, without the manager, or anyone with higher access being able guess who submitted what response, a minimum of 5 responses need to be sent in before the survey manager is able to access the anonymous feedback.
- The platform has a feature for peer-to-peer recognition, giving your employees the ability to praise one another for outstanding work.
CONS
- The performance product available only to users on Workleap’s paid plans and must be purchased for the entire user base.
- Adjustments to OKRs and 1:1s are not very intuitive to use.
- The lack of a search option can make navigation difficult for teams with 100+ members.
- Some users have reported that Slack integration sometimes malfunctions.
- Workleap does not include a complete performance management solution among their offerings. They have an OKR tool that lets you set goals but there isn’t a mechanism in place to track thos
- e goals or conduct performance reviews.
- There currently isn’t a mobile app that managers and employees can use on the go.
Workleap’s Performance add-on brings a lot of flexibility and structure to performance management, especially for teams that value continuous engagement and accountability.
One of the standout features of Workleap’s Performance add-on is the Cycle system, which allows teams to set up performance management flows that work specifically for them. During our tests, the flexibility to add multiple events throughout the year within a cycle was a huge plus, as it gave us the freedom to design performance timelines that fit our goals.
Within each Cycle, you can add Events that enable direct managers to track performance consistently. In our testing, it was easy to set up Events, and having these for ongoing feedback rather than just periodic reviews did seem to drive engagement among our team members.
However, we’d imagine the lack of a search function on the Events page can be quite time-consuming if you’re a high-volume organization with over 100 team members to manage.
Workleap allows for both manager reviews and self-reviews within each Cycle. Once we set up a review event, managers could easily access the forms to evaluate their team members, while employees could also complete self-assessments. The option to create custom templates made the process feel adaptable, and we liked having some templates as a ready-to-use starting point.
You may have noticed that Workleap offers a free plan. Do bear in mind, though, that it leans entirely toward its employee engagement offering and stores data for only 30 days. Workleap’s performance product is marketed as an add-on, which means you also can’t buy this add-on if you’re not on either of the two Workleap’s paid plans. While priced at a quite reasonable rate ($6 per person per month), it must be purchased for the entire user base, so if you have 100 team members using Workleap, you’re required to buy 100 licenses for the Performance add-on.
Additionally, there's no search option on the event page, which can make it a real challenge to find a particular employee if you have hundreds or thousands of team members in the system. Also, a few usability issues came up in our conversations with some real users. They found that adjusting the OKR and 1:1 notes could be more intuitive, as the setup was quite cumbersome to deal with.
20,000+ companies, including Trivago, Dyson, and PayScale.
Workleap performance management tool is an add-on costing $6 per person per month and can only be purchased for the same number of members already accessing the platform.
Best For
Workleap is a good option for medium—and large-sized organizations seeking to tailor performance processes within an engagement-driven ecosystem.
I use Workleap several days a week. I am the admin of the tool for our organization, so I am the one who manages teams and adds new employees to the program. We use the tool to report on each manager's team, as well as on department ratings, and all-company ratings. We also use the tool to send out any company-wide surveys, including our yearly Employee Engagement survey. Team members engage regularly with Good Vibes recognition.
- It allows you to build as many teams as you would like.
- It is clear on its anonymity policy so that team members feel comfortable sharing honest feedback.
- It allows you to conduct custom surveys on any topic.
We bought this tool for our organization because we take employee feedback very seriously. We have been using the tool for 3 years. I have been using it as a regular employee for 2 years and as an HR professional (admin of the tool) for 1 year. It allows you to get regular feedback (at whatever frequency you prefer) and allows you to put team members into teams so that managers can get team-specific feedback. It also allows you to give "Good Vibes" so that any team member can provide recognition to their peers.
- It does not have a Performance Management feature, which other similar tools do. For the price point, I would expect more features.
- It does not have industry benchmark data for specific questions, which is something our ELT was hoping to see.
- It currently does not integrate with our HRIS, which I mostly fault to the HRIS but it means I have to manually add all of our members and put them on teams.
I have not personally used comparable tools but I have done demos with others. I think this tool is very clear (more so than competitors) on its anonymity policy which is very important to our employees. I also think Good Vibes is a fairly unique feature that our team heavily uses and appreciates.
People should consider what features they need the tool to have. This tool does not have performance management, which is something that many similar tools do. They should also consider pricepoint. Workleap is a high price point for the limited number of features. Overall, I think it is a great tool, just hard to justify the price considering it is lacking a crucial feature (performance management) that we will need soon.
Workleap has launched new features throughout our time using it and I know it is currently working on others. Good Vibes was a feature that was added due to requests, and it has been a great addition to the tool. It also has an amazing Customer Support system, where you can answer your own questions or if you can't, they are very prompt at responding.
It is very good for large organizations that want specific team feedback. It is also good for teams that have a large budget for employee engagement metrics.
It is probably not a good fit for a small company or a start-up due to its price point. However, I do think any company could benefit from the tool.
Peoplebox
Peoplebox deserves praise for many reasons, but our top three are its customizable reviews, seamless integration with Slack and Microsoft Teams, and ability to link reviews to OKRs/Goals. It also features an employee survey module, helping you promote open feedback and drive engagement further.
PROS
- Peoplebox’s performance reviews are easy to create, customize, and schedule.
- The platform seamlessly integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams for employee participation and notifications
- It’s easy to link reviews to OKRs and Goals
- follow-up 1-on-1s can automatically be scheduled upon review completion
- There’s an employee engagement module too, to run pulse surveys and gain feedback on workplace environment and culture, and not just performance.
CONS
- The platform is only available in English at this time, though forms can be created in any language.
- Occasional bugs and lags may be experienced.
- The minimum contract size is $4000, and the free trial can be accessed after scheduling a demo.
- There isn’t a mobile app at this time, but the web app is fully optimized for mobile use.
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Peoplebox offers a comprehensive and user-friendly performance management solution for both employees and managers. We tested their performance reviews and were impressed by how effortless they were to create and customize. We also appreciate how employees can participate in these reviews and receive notifications directly within Slack and Microsoft Teams for a friction-free experience.
Managers and HR can choose from four types of performance reviews, depending on who the reviewers and reviewees are: Self Reviews, where employees at any level review themselves; Peer Reviews, where employees provide feedback on their co-workers; Direct Report Reviews, where employees review their managers; and Managers' Summary, which are top-down reviews conducted by managers on their direct reports. You can define the frequency of these reviews, set a minimum and maximum number of reviews each reviewer can give, and add an Approval stage where a manager or third party checks the reviews for bias before they're factored into any evaluation.
Once reviews are complete, it's easy to link them to OKRs and Goals to ensure that all meaningful feedback is implemented. Setting, aligning, and tracking OKRs and Goals is straightforward as well. You can define goals at the individual, department, or company level, have them be public or private, and further break them down into milestones and smaller targets for better tracking and collaboration. Another notable feature of the review process is the ability to have follow-up 1-on-1s automatically scheduled upon review completion. For the evaluation process, HR and relevant managers can calibrate and analyze the review results in real time and visualize data in various ways, including a 9-box talent grid.
In summary, there's a lot to like about the Peoplebox platform. Its performance management and goals modules are well-designed and work together seamlessly. It's also worth mentioning that Peoplebox offers an employee engagement module, which enables you to run pulse surveys and foster an open, feedback-driven culture.
Over 500 companies use Peoplebox solutions, including HackerRank, Veriff, Disney, and Recruit CRM.
Peoplebox has five plans, priced as follows:
- Talent Management: for $7 per user per month, this plan gives you access to performance reviews, engagement surveys, goals, and check-ins.
- OKR Platform: This plan costs $8 per user per month and comes with features for employee/team alignment, namely goal setting, business reviews, project management, 1:1s, and KPI boards.
- Full Suite - Professional: For $12 per user per month, this plan gives you access to everything in the Talent Management and OKR Platform plans.
- Full Suite - Premium: This is Peoplebox’s most popular plan, priced at $15 per user per month for everything in prior plans plus customer success management, as well as onboarding, implementation, and training support.
- Enterprise Plan: This is Peoplebox’s most premium plan, with all features included, plus custom integrations, dedicated customer success, tailored onboarding/implementation services, and SSO.
Note: Billing can only be done annually at this time. There’s also a minimum contract limit of $4000.
Best For
Midsize companies and enterprises looking for a performance management solution that can work within Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Peoplebox uses its ATS to sort applications, ensuring only the most qualified candidates advance in the hiring process. It also assists in creating job descriptions for available positions, ensuring clarity and consistency. The tool enables goal setting for the company and individual employees, providing a framework for measuring performance.
Peoplebox supports employee engagement by fostering a sense of appreciation and value within the company. It is a tool we rely on regularly to manage applications, track goals, and maintain a positive workplace culture.
Peoplebox enables goal-setting for the company and individual managers, aiding in performance evaluations.
It facilitates the scheduling of one-on-one meetings with managers to support their development.
It allows for monitoring managers’ performance, ensuring they stay on task and meet expectations.
As an organization, we were receiving hundreds of applications and were overwhelmed with the volume. We struggled to review them all effectively to identify the most suitable candidates for our open positions. The CEO discovered Peoplebox, which has been instrumental in streamlining the application review process, allowing us to focus on interviews and hiring the best fit for the company.
Peoplebox includes an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) that helps filter applications, highlighting those most qualified for interviews and further consideration. I have personally used Peoplebox for several months and have found it to be a valuable tool in our hiring process.
Peoplebox should allow for broader incorporation of employees, not just managers, in the engagement process.
The pricing model, which charges per person per month, should be revised to offer set rates based on company size to make it more accessible.
Peoplebox stands out by providing goal-setting features for both the company and individual employees.
It also facilitates one-on-one meetings specifically for performance evaluations, which is a unique offering.
When purchasing this type of tool, consider how many employees you will include on the platform.
Define the specific aspects of your organization you aim to improve, such as hiring, engagement, or performance tracking.
Evaluate the importance of employee engagement and satisfaction to your company’s success, as this tool excels in those areas.
Peoplebox has evolved by incorporating AI, which enhances job description creation and improves the ATS for more effective application filtering.
AI also streamlines scheduling interviews with multiple managers, minimizing conflicts.
Any organization that deals with a high volume of applications would benefit from Peoplebox, especially with its advanced AI features and application management tools.
Small businesses with fewer than 40 employees, particularly those that do not receive many applications, may not find Peoplebox beneficial.
Betterworks
Betterworks is more common among large teams due to its sheer amount of features. Businesses choose it to get a wider set of data points and tools for employee engagement, performance, and goal management.
PROS
- Supports manager-employee conversations on planning and setting up quarterly objectives and key results
- Users highly praise the e-learnings along the OKR setups.
- Has a user-friendly and clear UI.
- The customer support team gives timely responses and is helpful.
- BetterWorks helps you get the performance data you need, whenever you need it. You can calibrate the system to your standards and objectives – annually, quarterly, monthly, or on demand – or choose from a wide selection of filters to get exactly the information you want.
- There are a few features in place that can help you uncover hidden biases and uphold your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. For example, you can learn if talent decisions – such as promotions – are impacting certain employee populations unfairly.
- The platform is fairly easy to use with built-in analytics that help you understand how well you are doing toward achieving your goals.
CONS
- Limited integration capabilities
- Filtering isn’t in the best shape, leading to confusion as users navigate between individual and team goals.
- Its price tag makes it not friendly to budget-minded teams
- No free trials
- It can be difficult to know which goals are active, because the label ‘Active’ is set as the default.
- Betterworks offers considerable integration options with third-party solutions, but its main focus is on sending and receiving employee information between systems.
- Some users may find the Goals and OKR module overwhelming due to the sheer number of features, buttons, and options available. For example, a user complains that there's no need for three separate modules: Goals, Conversation, and Appreciation. The user should be able to click on a Goal and immediately start a conversation with the manager about it.
Betterworks provides a smooth performance journey to end users with an intuitive UI that’s easy to navigate. The software enables employees and managers to understand where the organization is trying to go and how they impact these goals by providing users with regular check-ins, OKRs, feedback, and recognition.
The web-based performance management platform gives visibility into the objectives of both individuals and the whole team, their progress, and how it all ladders to the set goal. Admin users can create regular reports to keep track of all conversations and measure the impact. We heard a lot of positive feedback from users on the tutorials built-in along the OKR setups and also its customer support.
Hulu, Kroger, FedEx, Udemy, Posadas, University of Phoenix.
- SMBs (5 to 1000 people): $7.00 per user per month (billed annually)
- Mid-Market (1000+ employees): custom pricing
- Large enterprises (5000+ employees): custom pricing.
Best For
Organizations (midsize or larger) looking for a robust and feature-rich PM software.
I primarily use Betterworks for team building. It is helpful in tracking progress toward goals. Betterworks has helped the team in strategizing improvements across the organization. The service also allows for feedback between staff. It also has a very helpful scoring system for employees.
Betterworks is great for building team collaboration. It has a well developed information hub. Betterworks also has a mobile app that is popular with employees.
Betterworks was purchased to streamline collaboration among the team. It is primarily used in employee goal setting across the organization. It provides team members with the ability to recognize and congratulate each other on accomplished goals. It integrates with multiple systems that we use. I have used Betterworks for 1 year.
It is very expensive and not suitable for small teams. It also has issues with integration across several systems that we use. Customer service isn’t super responsive.
There are other more cost effective and less buggy tools to use. However, its goal setting capabilities are impressive.
Betterworks is built for teams that are 1000+. It is an investment at its price point. I have run into technical issues and had issues with customer service occasionally.
They have added features to be more competitive and updated their goal setting capabilities.
Betterworks is good for large organizations with a large budget and someone to keep track of interface issues.
It is not a good fit for organizations with a small budget or those that can manage their OKRs on their own.
Small Improvements
Small Improvements delivers an easy-to-use performance management system that prioritizes meaningful interactions between managers and employees, supported by customizable features and thoughtful AI enhancements.
PROS
- Exceptionally easy to use, with minimal training needed for admins and employees.
- A flexible feature set supports Performance Reviews, one-on-one meetings, continuous feedback, Objectives, and Praise.
- New Manager Activation Score and post-1:1 ratings help identify and support struggling managers.
- The AI Writing Assistant enhances feedback quality without compromising the human touch.
- Lightweight and customizable exports for reporting needs
- Broad integrations with HRIS and tools like BambooHR, Personio, Namely, Kallidus, Workday, Google Calendar, Outlook, and Slack streamline implementation.
- Exceptionally easy to use, with minimal training needed for admins and employees.
- A flexible feature set supports Performance Reviews, one-on-one meetings, continuous feedback, Objectives, and Praise.
- New Manager Activation Score and post-1:1 ratings help identify and support struggling managers.
- The AI Writing Assistant enhances feedback quality without compromising the human touch.
- Lightweight and customizable exports for reporting needs
- Broad integrations with HRIS and tools like BambooHR, Personio, Namely, Kallidus, Workday, Google Calendar, Outlook, and Slack streamline implementation.
CONS
- Limited analytics and reporting compared to more enterprise-focused solutions.
- No standalone module purchasing; bundled pricing only.
- The current cascading objective setup is still under development (expected Q3 2025).
- Some customers note that the system lacks advanced customization for complex organizations.
- 360 feedback cycles allow only one questionnaire per cycle, limiting advanced workflows.
- Limited analytics and reporting compared to more enterprise-focused solutions.
- No standalone module purchasing; bundled pricing only.
- The current cascading objective setup is still under development (expected Q3 2025).
- Some customers note that the system lacks advanced customization for complex organizations.
- 360 feedback cycles allow only one questionnaire per cycle, limiting advanced workflows.
Founded in 2011, Small Improvements has carved out a niche as a minimalist, highly usable performance management tool. Unlike heavy enterprise systems, it focuses on essential features done well: structured reviews, feedback, 1:1 meetings, and lightweight goal setting.
When we ran through a performance review cycle in Small Improvements, we were impressed by the intuitive workflow. We set up a customizable questionnaire, asked employees to complete their self-reflections first, and then reviewed their input as managers. The helpful resources panel gave us quick access to past reviews, 360 feedback, goals, and praise, offering a complete context before writing feedback. We found the AI Writing Assistant especially useful here, not generating feedback from scratch but refining our phrasing for clarity and constructiveness.
We also tested the 1:1 meeting setup. After sharing performance feedback, we easily scheduled a follow-up meeting directly in the platform, pulling in key talking points from the review. We appreciated that both the manager and employee could add action items, which stayed visible until resolved — a thoughtful way to maintain accountability between meetings. Syncing meetings from our calendar (we used Google Calendar, but Outlook works too) into the platform ensured we stayed organized without double-booking or skipping critical follow-ups.
Additionally, we explored the Objectives feature by creating a goal for a direct report, assigning key results, and setting deadlines. While currently focused on individual objectives, the upcoming Cascading Objectives rollout promises to connect these goals across teams and departments, aligning individual efforts with broader company priorities.
Although Small Improvements isn’t built for companies needing deep analytics or complex workflows, it shines for teams that want to foster continuous development in a straightforward, human-centered way.
Notable customers include Duolingo, Zapier, SoundCloud, and several SaaS, tech, and service organizations.
Pricing starts at:
- Launch Plan ($3/user/month): Performance Reviews, Praise, HRIS integrations.
- Grow Plan ($6/user/month): Adds 1:1 Meetings, Objectives, 360 Feedback, and productivity integrations (Slack, calendar).
- Elevate Plan ($9/user/month): Adds advanced customizations, weighted objectives, insights, and early access to features.
Best For
Small to midsize businesses looking for an easy-to-adopt, flexible performance management system without the overhead of enterprise platforms.
Lattice
Lattice helps managers form a well-rounded approach to performance management, packing reviews, OKRs, goal management, and engagement in single, enterprise-ready platform.
PROS
- Has a modern design
- Helps you conduct 1-on-1s and reviews smoothly and in an organized manner
- Allows you to keep track of all meetings’ agendas, action items, and shared notes
- It’s quick and easy to see people directory and org structure
- Seamless integration with Slack and Google Workspace
- Lattice allows managers to record their 1:1 meetings with employees in real time. That way, both parties can go back later and revisit what was discussed during the meeting – as well as make sure nothing gets lost in translation!
- The platform has a host of tools supporting employee development and performance-based compensation setting, which isn’t common for the average performance management product.
- Review templates and survey questions are among several things that can be customized to ensure you’re getting relevant data.
CONS
- Updating OKRs is not the easiest. The goal view resets as users add or update a goal.
- Doesn’t have the option to do the feedback/suggestion box anonymously yet
- Sometimes it's not always intuitive when it comes to looking back at old reviews or adding someone to a survey.
- The mobile app has very limited functionality.
- Starting at $11 per person per month, Lattice’s pricing is on the expensive side compared to competitors.
- The platform is feature-rich, which is great but also means that it takes some time for the average user to get acclimated with it.
- The available selection of third-party integrations is rather limited, with a few users complaining that their HRIS isn’t covered. That said, Lattice does have an open API that allows users to plug-in other third party tools.
Lattice’s performance management solution provides managers and HR teams with a comprehensive view of their organization. It features highly customizable reviews, with built-in tools to help users automate review cycles. Engagement is also taken into account, with users having the option to give feedback and appreciation privately or publicly (on integration apps like Slack or Teams), and request feedback from people both inside and outside the company.
Furthermore, the Updates feature connects employees and managers on progress and roadblocks. There’s also a mobile app available on both iOS and Google Play stores, but it has limited functionality compared to the web-based version.
Lattice has over 2,000 customers, including Reddit, Slack, and Asana.
Lattice pricing is very flexible:
- Performance Management costs $8 per person/month
- OKRs & Goals costs $8 per person/month
- Performance management plus OKRs & Goals costs $11 per person/month
- Performance plus OKRs & Goals plus Engagement costs $15 per person/month
- Performance plus OKRs & Goals plus Grow (targeting employee growth and development) costs $15 per person/month
- Performance plus OKRs & Goals plus Compensation (linking performance and compensation) costs $17 per person/month
- Enterprise plan has custom pricing
Best For
Growing teams looking for a platform that combines surveys, performance management, feedback, and goals will benefit most from the scalability and feature wealth of Lattice’s offerings.
As a Recruiting team, we leveraged Lattice to create candidate surveys that gave us actionable insights. This meant the RecOps team worked closely with Recruiting and Business leadership to identify areas they wanted to measure. We then built these into the surveys and used the results to redesign our interview process and measure our NPS score. The integration with our ATS made that easy as well.
- Data/Reporting
- Integrations
- Customer support team
- Webinars/thought leadership
Our organization chose to buy Lattice for a few reasons. At the time, they were one of the few companies offering a people management platform at an enterprise level that had been shown to deliver results. Additionally, they provided customization and data through their engagement surveys that helped make a difference at a company level. We also were able to connect it with our ATS for better candidate engagement surveys.
I can't recall anything that we disliked when we were using Lattice. I think the initial setup of integrating it with our ATS and then permissioning to be able to see results was difficult but that wasn't necessarily a Lattice issue as much as an internal controls one.
Lattice competed very strongly with WorkdayHCM and CultureAmp. I generally preferred Lattice and CultureAmp equally though I like the webinars and thought-leadership that Lattice puts out a lot, so that is where I might give it the edge.
- Integrations
- Overall usage
- Ease of use
- Ability to share/collaborate on with the information
- Cost per user or survey
When I was first introduced to Lattice, it seemed everyone talked about the survey capabilities. Since though I've seen it discussed more for the analytics and internal mobility elements. Given how the world has changed, seeing it evolve in that direction is cool.
- People Teams (HR/Recruiting)
- Managers
- Business Leaders
- C-Suite
Not really... there are so many important aspects to the results Lattice can provide. What matters is if you are a consumer of the data (which most departments/users are) or need to work behind the scenes with it. So if you are a data consumer, you might not be a good fit for what Lattice has the power to do.
What Is Performance Management Software?
Performance management software is a digital tool that helps organizations track, analyze, and optimize employee performance in alignment with business goals. It replaces manual processes (like spreadsheets or once-a-year in-person meetings) with automated workflows, real-time feedback, and data-driven insights—creating a continuous cycle of improvement for both employees and the organization.
Why Performance Management Software Matters:
- For HR Teams: Streamlines administrative tasks (reviews, goal tracking) and uncovers actionable insights to drive retention and productivity.
- For Managers: Provides tools to coach teams effectively, align priorities, and recognize contributions—reducing bias and guesswork.
- For Employees: Fosters transparency, growth, and engagement by making expectations clear and feedback actionable.
- Without a system, performance management often becomes reactive, inconsistent, or lost in spreadsheets—leading to disengagement, missed goals, and turnover.
Performance management software's most commonly used features are structured 1:1s, annual reviews, development plans, and workflow automation. Each of these modules relies on this tool's powerful, underlying function: discerning analytics.
Performance management software is like an employee analytics flashlight. Whether taking it all in from a distance or closely looking at one tiny element, the illumination can help HR and business leaders observe and interpret the entire scope of company activities.
I saw the impact this tool could have early in my career. I was consulting for a bootstrapped startup, helping them identify spending leaks. It was a young company, so their recordkeeping could have been better. By chance, one of the founders had a beta version of a performance management platform she’d been asked to test drive. So we thought, why not? Nobody expected what would happen next.
The software uncovered overspending in multiple areas, including unused software and hardware expenses that were four times higher than necessary. We also found operational redundancies and costly oversights.
It’s ironic that the free software saved the day, but it really did!
This anecdote illustrates an important point. What we were slowly uncovering with hours of work, the platform captured at a glance.
This is the magic of performance management tools. The ability to comprehend all the moving parts, from the whole org to a tiny element, can rapidly empower improvement at any scale.
Not only can these platforms drive significant, systemic overhauls across departments, but they can also work on the individual level. They can provide the context and perspective to help employees understand where they fit into the larger organization, which can lead to performance improvement.
Performance Management Software answers questions like:
- Big picture: what is the entire organization working on?
- Mid-range: what are departments, divisions, and teams working on?
- Small-scale: what are individuals working on?
With the above questions answered, leadership can develop innovative, precise, and effective strategies to enhance the company’s performance.
What Are Use Cases for Performance Management Systems?
Performance management software is helpful to an organization in more ways than we can cover in one article. The following are among the most common, but every company is different, and your mileage may vary.
According to our contributor Tracie Maire, who has used performance management tools for team sizes from 25 to 3,000, the tool can benefit teams of any stature. She notes that the right time to start using one isn’t based on headcount. Instead, factors specific to your business, your culture, and your structure determine the right time to buy.
Among our team at SSR, our collective experience of buying and implementing these systems with companies of all types aligns with her sentiment. Among our staff of writers and HR professionals, I agree that there is no good standard time to start, but luckily, the use case for performance review software is evident.
1:1 meetings: Make the most of these critical interactions by using a tool to fold them into your Big Picture strategy. Performance management software can help managers and employees collaborate to create (and actually stick to!) an agenda and a regular schedule. They can review notes from past meetings, use pre-built conversation starters, and tie 1:1s back to goals and feedback. From either side of the manager or direct report line, I agree: 1:1s with purpose enhance productivity. But in my experience, that’s not all they can do.
When I worked in HR, a new manager approached me for support. He was overwhelmed by his new responsibilities, so I suggested that he use the company's performance management software, particularly structured 1:1s, as a training tool. I encouraged him to look for insights into goal-setting, targeted feedback, productivity measurement, and data analysis. He incorporated these strategies into his fledgling management philosophy, his confidence grew, and he became a well-respected member of leadership.
Objectives and key results (OKRs): Most performance management software contains a goal-setting feature that allows businesses to list their OKRs and record progress toward them.
Goal setting cuts an unambiguous path between an output (whether individual or division-wide) and the organization’s goals. The benefits of clarity around a central purpose and the ability to track progress toward it are conspicuously missing in many organizations, often due to the effect of information silos.
Performance Reviews: Many need help remembering what happened last week, let alone any details from six months ago!
The right platform can facilitate meaningful conversations that stand the test of time. By implementing structure, cadence, and documentation, companies can avoid the two worst types of performance evaluations. First, the rushed, scattershot, far-too-general-to-be-useful type, and the second, the rushed, narrow, we-can’t-remember-last-week-let-alone-details-from-six-months-ago type.
Employee Performance Management: From onboarding to 360-degree feedback and regular check-ins, modern performance management systems provide managers with a complete picture of employee performance. It creates and monitors measurements for productivity and illuminates the connection between daily activities and long-term company goals.
I’ve seen this from both the direct report and the manager's side. While the benefits are not as easy and obvious as the focused 1:1s (more on that later), a well-managed review cycle can be transformative.
People Analytics: Fluent in both process and people, these platforms generate high-value analyses that can illuminate the relationship between the two. Insights on using the platform, the need for more training, adherence to OKRs, and the formalization of 1:1s are abundant.
6 Common Pitfalls of Performance Review Software (And How to Avoid Them!)
Now that you know what it can do, let’s look at a few common mistakes companies make in buying, implementing, and capturing the value of this tool.
1. Limited Product Suite: Some vendors offer stripped-down suites with limited capabilities or single features a la carte. Though they are often more affordable, they should be avoided.
We recommend a feature-rich product with supplemental offerings you can use now or deploy in the future. Your long-term people strategy should always be top of mind, especially when shopping for a tool deeply embedded in a worker's daily activities.
For example, if you plan to roll out an employee engagement initiative in the next 18 months, a performance management platform that lacks this feature is a bad choice.
2. Culture Change Catastrophe: A common mistake to avoid is inadequate planning for this tool's impact on company culture.
I’ve seen things get ugly when this kind of tech is applied at the wrong time or with the wrong message. What do I mean by “ugly”? Ugly is what happens when the effect of buying and implementing new software is net negative either in terms of ROI or in terms of employee engagement.
The topic of worker productivity is well-studied and notoriously complex. The U.S. has a long-established history of laws and institutions created to protect workers’ rights, but a persistent sense of threat remains. Some believe the best interests of workers and the scrutiny of their output are at odds.
While I’m not suggesting that using performance management software requires a company-wide curriculum on the comprehensive history of labor relations, you should be aware that adopting a tool that monitors your worker’s daily activities may cause alarm. Keep reading for our recommendations on handling this, but first, let’s survey the landscape.
If you’re shopping for an enterprise-level tool, the culture change process will be part of the package you buy. In most cases, you’ll have access to a professional change management team to help with messaging and implementation. However, if you are like us and most other small businesses, you can’t afford Deloitte! So focus on what you can control: the message and how you deliver it.
While a white-glove consultancy service may not be your thing, you do have distinguished, dependable, and highly skilled messengers at your disposal: your human resources team.
A known and trusted entity, HR has a tremendous advantage over a consultancy: they are the architects of your culture. No team is more well-suited to bring people on board (literally and figuratively) with enthusiasm and solidarity.
Pro tip: Focus on the development aspects of the tool. Advocate for a frame of mind that sees the implementation primarily as a means to develop each employee’s strengths. To this end, integrations with tools that manage incentives like bonuses, rewards, and recognition can be helpful to the cause.
When I used the words “get ugly” earlier because this critical element was overlooked or under-resourced.
3. Misguided Compensation Alignment: Are YOU ready to question one of the foundational elements of modern capitalism? Sorry if I caught you off guard, but here we go!
Compensation is often tied directly to an individual’s achievement of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). It follows that a person who meets 100% of their OKRs has earned their keep by doing 100% of the job they were asked to do. This makes sense until you consider how one might measure and reward accomplishments that exceed expectations.
The solution: OKRs should only be 60-70% attainable.
The space between 60-70% and 100% is the domain of discretionary effort, and that should be made clear to your employees as you roll out your very OKR-focused program. Let your team know that their compensation and achievement of OKRs are not directly proportional, and support them in the counterintuitive task of creating goals that they won’t meet 30%-40% of the time.
When I’ve laid this out to the various teams I’ve worked with, truthfully, only about half of the minds are blown. The other half have MBAs or have otherwise acquired business acumen that made them immune to the effects of this news.
4. Rushing the Roll Out: Avoid whiplash going zero to sixty with your rollout: don’t redline your implementation! 1:1 meetings with OKRs are an excellent place to start. If possible, you can pace yourself as you shift to a new program by finding a solution that overlaps your current system. The same is true if you’re starting from scratch— avoid the temptation to do too much, too fast.
How do I know this? This advice comes straight from the headlines of the team's real-world experience at Select Software Reviews. In other words, been there, done that: rushed it, regretted it.
I once witnessed a performance management software rollout tank because it was both rushed and scatter-shot. The tool's promise was squandered by pushing too hard: the training was minimal, the expectations needed to be more attainable, and the integration needed to be more robust. The company lost thousands of dollars and invaluable measures of trust from the workers.
You should schedule one to four months per module and dedicate copious resources to education for managers and employees. It’s essential to be patient when asking people to change their behavior. With a thoughtful, phased rollout, you’ll give your team time to adjust and the software the chance to justify itself.
5. Adding Another Login: If you chose a tool that requires your team to log in to anything other than what they already do, you’ve chosen the wrong tool. Many factors contribute to workplace stress, and extraneous tools can be counted among their ranks. Fortunately, many of these systems are built with an open API and integrations in mind.
Your platform should provide seamless integration with email, internal comms tools like Slack, project management tools like Jira, and any other virtual environments where you will likely find your team. Well-integrated tools increase the chances of high engagement and bottom-line impact.
Here’s some water cooler gossip: unless your team is using a password management system like it 100% definitely should all of the time, one of the best ways to introduce security threats to your company is to tempt people to reuse passwords by giving them too many things to log into.
6. Misaligned Goals: Employees will instinctually set OKRs that are directly related to company goals, but sometimes this needs to be corrected.
For example, if an organization aims to cut costs, you can expect to find this item listed among individuals’ OKRs.
But here’s another true story from one of our HR pros who was an eyewitness to this misalignment pitfall: following what they thought was the direction of the company, a person from the marketing team included “cut costs” among their OKRs. Somehow, nobody noticed. The sun didn’t crash into the earth. Still, heaps of time was wasted scrutinizing transactions to cut costs when the company's needs would have been better served by this person spending on initiatives that support creativity and innovation.
The key to goal alignment is education. When structuring OKRs, individuals must be supported by managers who, in turn, were well supported when learning how to educate their direct reports.
4 Key Performance Management Platform Features
The features listed below represent the fundamental functions standard to these platforms. Your company may require more, less, or alternate options, but these four define the baseline.
1. Integrations: Though more of a characteristic than a feature, software seamlessly integrating with your existing tools is crucial for maximizing productivity and reducing operational costs. A tool that integrates with your current stack minimizes the need for manual data entry, avoids potential data errors, and allows for a smooth workflow between different systems. In short, easy integration saves time and resources and provides for a more effective and streamlined operation.
2. Check-ins: Employees want and deserve frequent check-ins with managers. Comprehensive annual reviews have their place too, but OKR-driven 1:1s and regular check-ins keep employees engaged and focused. They can be an opportunity to teach skills that improve performance.
100% of Select Software Reviews employees agree on this one. It’s a no-brainer and should be baked into the platform you buy.
2. Automation & Workflows: Look for a tool with integrated automation options from top to bottom—one must-have feature: automated 1:1's with templated questions and built-in scheduling. Integrations with your other HR tech and internal comms like Slack and Outlook are also critical.
3. Annual Employee Evaluations: The awkward yearly review is quickly becoming a thing of the past (hooray!), but that doesn't mean employee evaluations have disappeared completely – they've simply evolved.
When choosing your software, take a hard look at how the tool streamlines and improves this part of your talent management strategy. Ideally, the tool will ensure the year’s worth of 1:1s and check-ins have been purposefully designed to lead to a meaningful, comprehensive retrospective. The best among the best will also curate a well-informed vision of the future.
Our take on this feature is unified: it is essential to get this right! All roads of your performance management system should lead to this point, and it should be (assuming the best of everyone) a positive experience across the board.
4. Development Plans: Look for a platform with features focused on helping your workforce develop skills to meet company and personal goals. At a minimum, the system must track OKRs to ensure development is headed in the right general direction. On the other end of the spectrum (and, usually, price range), we’ve seen companies reap massive benefits from platforms with built-in learning management capabilities. The more specific the educational material, the better.
About half of our team (all dignified HR professionals, mind you) scoffed at this and said something like, “Okay, we’ll just take the company jet to meet with the dignitaries from the Learning Management Department of the Performance Management Software most small businesses can barely afford.” Point taken, fellow pros. There are not many options for SMBs who want good performance management software. But keep this in mind: while much of what I’ve discussed is specific to (game-changing) software, much of what I hope to get across are tactics that can be deployed for the low price of free-ninety-nine.
For example, here are three things that zero dollars can buy you:
1. A Source to Learn Better People Management Skills
2. A Nuanced Understanding of Performance Management
3. A Way to Ensure a Positive Effect with a Performance Management Strategy
Questions to Ask in a Demo
Ask these questions to each company you speak to. Do your research beforehand, but have these in your back pocket.
- What is your product roadmap? How do employee engagement, recognition, and rewards fit into that vision?
- How does your solution integrate with my existing HRIS or HRMS?
- How does this tool integrate with our project management software?
- What is your change management playbook? How will you help our employees and managers transition to this solution?
- Do you have recommendations for the rollout? Which modules go first, and why?
- 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? Is it best for small businesses, enterprise/knowledge workers, retail, remote teams, etc.?
- Can I export the data to cross-reference with other KPIs kept in other systems? Which systems?
- How does the annual performance review process work?
- How does the tool navigate systematic reviews?
Our #1 Pro Tip: Divvy up the Lift
Don’t underestimate the resources involved in making this choice or the impact of your selection. You’re not simply buying another piece of software.
You are introducing an operational paradigm shift by selecting and deploying a change-making, eyebrow-raising, OKR-activating transformative powerhouse. Don’t do it alone! Build a team for this task.
A cross-functional buying committee is a small team assembled to speak to the needs of the departments they represent. In addition to the benefit of their perspectives, their collective knowledge, skills, and “weight” will help secure the budget you need to support the program. Equally important is the personal connection to their divisions, amplifying the sense of safety and trust needed for a successful implementation.
I have seen firsthand how helpful this type of coalition can be, and I cannot recommend this enough.
Performance Management Software FAQs
What does performance software do?
It does a lot! This includes but is not limited to scheduling and scoring performance reviews, measuring OKRs and goals, scheduling check-ins, and analyzing employee data.
What benefits does it provide?
Increased retention, a better understanding of your organization, easy tracking of performance data, and increased employee engagement.
What are the primary features?As mentioned above, check-ins, workflow automation, annual evaluations, and development plans are the standard functions, but integration is the feature that ranks above the rest.
Final Advice
Performance management software is a powerful tool that operates in the space between behavior change and analytics. For maximum effect, sustained resource requirements must be accounted for.
Buying, implementing, and maintaining this type of software requires a commitment to the continual process of operating it. Out of the box, it provides a framework and analytic capabilities, but it must be tuned into your team’s specific needs to be effective and well-received.
Remember that HR tech is a highly dynamic market, so be patient and prepared to sort through dozens of options on your way to the best fit.
Don’t underestimate the pace of evolution in this space. Fundamental business principles and HR best practices are essentially unshakable, but HR tech tools are in a state of constant, rapid development. Don’t fall behind!
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