Introduction
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Sharply focused on the performance management software niche, PerformYard provides software tools that allow their customers to build out a performance management strategy that fit's their organization.
Ratings
Ease of Use
Best For
Key Differentiator
Price
Free Trial
PROS
- 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
- 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.
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We first came across PerformYard in Spring 2022. Apart from the sleek design of the tool and the richness of its performance management-oriented features, we were struck by the philosophy behind the product.
Said philosophy revolves around three concepts: flexibility, ease of use, and a personal touch.
A Flexible Approach to Performance Management Software
Let’s start with flexibility. From the get-go, PerformYard has been all about performance review. It’s not a product that started with other categories in HR tech and then started offering a performance management tool because it made sense. Rather, they started on this niche and had strived to perfect it through the years.
By perfecting it, they mean creating a tool that can accommodate a wide range of approaches to performance management. It’s not about a single style or strategy of this business practice, but whatever mix an organization happens to have that is working for them; or what they’re keen on trying next.
Whether you use annual reviews, continuous feedback, or monthly check-ins, the folks at PerformYard think you shouldn’t be constrained by software when taking this process digital. Their platform can accommodate all sorts of performance management strategies and they are frequently putting out new features with the help of their client’s feedback.
Intuitive, Albeit with Whiteglove Service
Naturally, that is where the ease of use comes in. Although every customer gets a dedicated customer success manager who’ll provide training on an ongoing basis, the system is fairly easy to navigate and figure out on your own.
You’d start by setting up profiles and then creating performance tracking channels like mid-year reviews, monthly goal check-ins, anniversary-date 360s, and surveys, and tie them to company, team, or individual goals. Once the system is up and running, supervisors and managers can view and access performance data on each employee’s page.
By the same token, employees can upload documents, fill out forms and surveys, and even have 1:1 chats with their managers or request an on-the-post check-in. This exemplifies the third concept behind PerformYard’s philosophy; keeping the human touch on your newly-digitized performance management program.
Putting Employee Experience First
The platform is designed for the employee experience to be highly focused on the feedback and interactions between employees and managers. For example, employees can have private chats with managers; a feature that’s aimed at approaching the conversations that could happen in person.
Managers get automatically generated dashboards to make it clearer to approach all this information, like the organizational chart/directory. Depending on their permissions, managers can also look into the reviews within their hierarchy and communicate with each other about a particular survey or employee, for example.
PerformYard is completely web-based, mobile-optimized, and quite customizable (all the forms and surveys are tweakable, for instance).
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.
Companies with a large percentage of deskless workers who likely don’t use a computer for work would not be a great fit for PerformYard. Also, since the tool is available only in English and oriented towards the North American market, companies outside of that geographic area would have to be willing to adapt to the tool and team.
Most of PerformYard’s customers are SMBs from the US that you may or may not have heard of depending on where you live. In some cases, they could be a local business that you know or that even your friends or family work at or do business with. As for well-known names, Amnesty International happen to be happy users.
- Goal Management: The system lets you add individual, department, and company goals and tie them to each PM initiative. For each goal, you can set start and end dates, tie it to a specific category, and even close it (or create a new goal) at the end of one of the reviews, without jumping into another module.
- Reviews & Check-ins: Through PerformYard, thousands of SMBs facilitate their review processes, whether it’s monthly, 1:1, annual, 360, and more.
- Managers view: See direct reports, active data entry
PerformYard also has boasts:
- Email notifications
- Peer-to-peer recognition
- Customizable forms
- Reporting
- Continuous Feedback
As the best Performance Management software should, PerformYard integrates with a good variety of HR and business software. Some noteworthy cases follow:
- HRIS / Payroll: ADP, BambooHR, Gusto, Rippling, UKG, Workday, Paycom, and more.
- SSO: Google Workspace, Office 365, Okta, and more
- Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams
PerformYard’s pricing is done on a per-employee per-seat basis. This price would range between $4-8 USD per employee per month, depending on the total number of seats you need.
PerformYard typically works best at organizations with between 30 to 2,000 employees. Their system is used in all kinds of industries, but it’s definitely more oriented towards desk-based businesses in the United States.
Onboarding and customer service are one of the things that PerformYard is very well-known for. Upon signing up, every customer gets a dedicated customer success manager that will manage implementation. Once that’s done, the same manager will be responsible for providing training in ongoing cycles, in most cases.
Going a bit further into the Customer Success approach at PerformYard, our research and interview with them showed us that they’re quite serious and energetic about having the best support in the industry.
The dedicated success manager develops a 1:1 relationship with you as the customer, providing live employee training and phone support, whether it's before you launch the first review cycle or by the time the end of the year surveys need to be sent.
PerformYard began in late 2013. The company was founded by Ben Hastings (current CEO) and Jon Malpass (current SVP of Product/Operations). From day one, their focus has been completely towards performance management, since they noticed that few tools in the space were exclusively devoted to PM. Most available tech was offered as side features within a larger Core HR system.
So, since the beginning, PerformYard has strived to make sure every small business that picks the tool can meet their entire PM needs within, instead of having to adapt to it. This ethos has stayed with the company all along and has allowed them to keep growing consistently year after year.
Company HQ
Arlington, VA
Number of Employees
50+
Year Founded
2013
Amount Raised
Last raised nearly 1.5M in a Seed round during January 2014.
