Businesses today face challenges that even a few short years ago would have been thought unimaginable. While it’s true the last several years have revolutionized what constitutes business as usual, the importance of effective performance management within your enterprise has only become more pronounced.
Nobody wants to introduce new systems and protocols into their organization unless there are measurable positives—both for the bottom line, and for the development of a confident and competent workforce. Evaluating all of the options available can feel like an overwhelming task: where to begin? What features are important? How do I know which one is right for my team?
If you’re considering investing in performance management software, here are five questions that should be kept in the forefront of your mind as you evaluate the options.
1. Does the application have pre-built templates?
No two businesses are truly alike, and similarly, management and workflow styles vary from organization to organization, as well as industry to industry.
With that in mind, nobody wants to welcome a performance management system into their enterprise if it’s going to be demoralizing or time consuming to set up. Fortunately, many of the best examples of performance management software today utilize templates that offer a more ‘plug and play’ approach and can be customized to your specific business needs.
Getting your teammates up to speed on a new system quickly is important to avoid lost productivity. There is often a fine balance between training leaders and colleagues on a new system and losing valuable traction on your latest KPIs and organizational goals.
By taking advantage of prebuilt templates, your performance management software has the foundations laid to segue efficiently into your most active verticals.
2. How will the software affect your company culture?
Company culture is a strength that few leaders truly know how to pin down and quantify, making it challenging to get just right. Anything that can disrupt it should be considered with great care before being implemented.
While 98% of brand owners agree performance management is necessary, over 50% of employees find that this level of oversight saps their workday motivation. Understanding what drives your team, what enables them to feel free to do their best work, and what measurables and deliverables they find the most agreeable and nonintrusive to measure, are key conversations to have among your colleagues and direct reports.
3. Can my managers track progress, data, and metrics?
Bearing in mind the previous discussion about company culture and employee freedom, performance management software can miss the mark if it’s implemented in such an open-ended way that leaders cannot effectively track employee growth, project progression, or the realization of goals.
Good performance management software enables business leaders to set realistic goals and establish means of tracking employee productivity in ways that are neither overbearing nor intrusive.
With those goals in mind, it’s important to ensure your performance management software offers data visualizations and actionable insights at a glance, helping leadership remain agile and adaptable
4. How does it work for hybrid teams?
Now that hybrid and work is here to stay in many industries—often the industries now aching the most for qualified talent—it’s essential for performance management software to be able to keep a level playing field between physically-present and remotely-contributing members of staff.
The core secret to success here is inclusivity, ensuring that the metrics you measure, deliverables you expect, and the communications you establish are egalitarian between those who are working from the office and those who are not.
This can prove to be an invaluable method for managers to grow their competencies too,eliminating proximity bias when choosing who should spearhead certain projects or be considered for positive performance bonuses and promotions.
5. Can I customize it as my company grows and changes?
Who can truly say their business today in any way resembles the organization it was one, two, five, or ten years ago?
As our enterprises evolve, so too must the performance management software put to use in measuring objectives, delivering results, and indicating pain points—which themselves change over time as well.
You need performance management software that shows where you are short-staffed in crunch times as much as it demonstrates where information silos are stifling progress when you’re growing.
Leave the talent crisis behind
As a result of the pandemic, countless companies have learned the hard way that talent doesn’t stay where it doesn’t feel heard, respected, and nurtured. With many organizations still reeling from the intense shockwaves of the opening events of this decade, understanding how best to engage and motivate your teams has never been more vital.
The Mentor Method specializes in tools and software capable of measuring the aspirations of every individual on your payroll while identifying how to encourage them to bring their whole selves to work—all while helping them to find your organization compelling and inspiring to work for.
Talk with our team today and see how we can help.