Today’s workforce does not look forward to the mundane ritual of annual performance appraisals. They find it lacking in substance. Generally, employees view appraisals as an activity undertaken for the sake of doing and getting over with. Manual performance management systems tend to disengage employees and create more problems than they solve.
Not just employees, even managers, and HR leaders are tired of this yearly chore. The time and effort expended in administering performance reviews often go in vain as there is very little value addition in terms of improving the performance of the employees and in turn, improving the performance of the business.
According to a poll, 95% of managers are “unhappy” with traditional performance management, and feel that it could be improved. In addition, a full 59% of employees think that traditional performance reviews have “no impact” on their performance.
The Need for a Modern Performance Management System
What is needed is a more robust and modern performance management system that is devoid of bias and favouritism to deliver desired outcomes. This is where technology can play a huge role in terms of automating and innovating performance management systems. If done well, they can not only make appraisals appealing for employees but also reduce the administrative burden of HR and managers in conducting effective performance appraisals.
Avoiding automation is like willingly taking a step backwards in today’s fast-paced world of digitisation. Automation in employee performance management is now a common practice. Click To TweetA Global HR Trends report shows that nearly 70% of organisations have started to reinvent their performance management process to incorporate new technologies and methodologies.
It has paved the way for organisations to streamline and innovate the process of performance management without its inherent challenges.
The integration of technology does not necessarily replace or substitute human interaction but it does play a supplementary role in optimising the entire process. It makes appraisals efficient, not just a ritual that employees and HR managers detest.
Why Automate Employee Performance Management?
With a futuristic outlook, organisations don’t just want to know the past performance trends of their employees. They are more focused on deciphering how to improve employee performance in alignment with the overall goals of the organisation.
Technology can help the top management envisage what needs to be done to improve the bottom line of the business, a key part of which is talent management. With an effective performance management system, HR can deliver high-quality, accurate, and consistent employee evaluations with minimal effort in less time. It can help them get greater buy-in from managers and employees alike.
Here are the top benefits of automating employee performance management:
1. Instant Feedback
In this digital era of instant gratification, we want everything in-the-moment, and that includes feedback too. Employees don’t want to sit around and wait for their yearly performance reviews. Instead, they prefer frequent, informal, and development-oriented performance discussions.
Automated employee performance management systems can facilitate managers and HR to keep in touch with employees constantly. Thereby, consistent and constructive feedback results in on-time communication that matters the most to employees.
2. Real-time Visibility to Performance Trends
The management need not wait for performance reports to be generated or collated periodically as they tend to get obsolete before reaching the top tiers. There is a growing need for greater transparency and visibility, which is where real-time performance reports and trends help tremendously.
Automated performance management systems can also come in handy to provide the management with up-to-date analytical reports and insights to make data-driven decisions. Continuous feedback, ratings, and evaluation is a precursor to such reports.
According to a report, 91% of companies that have adopted continuous performance management using automated technology and tools have better data for making informed people’s decisions.
3. Manage Performance Management Workflows to Innovate, Customise, and Streamline Performance Processes
Automated performance management systems enable the organisation to devise dynamic and custom feedback forms relevant to each role. This manages the workflows efficiently, without the need to create cumbersome manual records. Typically, performance management software comes with in-built functionality to control access, update forms, and pass it to the next action item according to workflow, etc.
Automation significantly reduces the administrative burden of delivering performance evaluations on time. Organisations can thus conduct frequent performance reviews to monitor progress and assess development needs, culminating in the year-end performance appraisal.
4. Less Time on Administrative Tasks, More on Strategic Execution
In manual practice, HR is generally inundated with loads of administrative tasks during performance evaluation. This includes distributing relevant forms – self-appraisal, manager appraisal, and following up with people to complete the tasks. In short, processes are never completed on time.
In contrast, an automated performance management system eliminates manual tasks to achieve on-time completion so that HR can now focus on process improvement.
5. Cost Savings
In addition to saving time and energy, automation also enables significant cost savings. As organisations are making a shift from manual paper-based evaluations to web-based performance management software, these tools are relatively cost-effective.
According to a survey, using a performance management system or tool, increases both organisational sales and profits, and reduces overhead costs by 25%.
6. Accessible Repository of Information
It’s hard to keep track of progress, milestones, and achievements over time if it’s not recorded and retrieved at the right time. Performance review automation software helps employees and managers refer to past activity and performance records and brush up their memory during the discussion sessions.
This way, managers can deliver fair, transparent, and meaningful reviews and development recommendations to employees.
The result – employees are typically more confident of reliable evaluations and are more involved in the process.
7. Improved Employee Alignment
Finally, with an automated review management system, the organisation adopts an overall focus on employee performance and development. This, by itself, serves to ensure that employees are well-aligned with the goals of the organisation.
Employees benefit from consistent feedback, coaching, and development. Tracking progress is easily implemented with a tool so that everybody understands what needs to be done. This improves employee engagement and retention levels as the basic needs of employee recognition are met.
The power of performance management automation can be leveraged to break conventional barriers and achieve efficient performance management that results in higher productivity, faster growth, and greater collaboration.
Discover the power of continuous employee performance and engagement with an automated performance system.
