We test and compare nine human resource (HR) management tools that can customize, automate, and streamline your employee performance management process.
Attracting top talent to your organization is job number one for human resources (HR) professionals, but retaining that talent, managing it, and helping it grow is not only as important, it’s potentially harder. This is because it requires more time and commitment from both sides, employer and employee. To help, companies are investing billions in HR software. These HR tool suites vary in their coverage but most include all or part of the following: applicant tracking (AT), attendance and time off, benefits administration, payroll, performance management (PM), shift scheduling, and training. While all of these tasks are core to maintaining a healthy workforce, PM is likely the most important when it comes to retaining and growing talent within your organization.
While there are dedicated PM software platforms and services, for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) in particular, incorporating this toolset as part of an integrated HR tool suite makes more sense. This is true not just from a cost perspective, but also so that SMBs can more easily track how an employee’s performance is reflected elsewhere on the HR scale (especially payroll for bonuses and compensation, and training for certification and skills advancement).
While we have two Editors’ Choice winners in the features table above, it’s important to note that BambooHR is a holdover from our recent review of all-around HR software and management systems. However, its Editors’ Choice award also stands in this PM category. BambooHR did an exceptional job of integrating a thorough PM feature set into a well-rounded, intuitive HR platform that’s easily accessible by SMB operators. Along the same line, Deputy is the best scheduling tool on the market but it’s not primarily a PM tool. However, Deputy offers enough solid PM functionality that it warrants your consideration, especially if scheduling and PM go hand in hand within your organization.
A new Editors’ Choice award solely for the PM category goes to SAP SuccessFactors. This is a platform that started out dedicated to PM but is quickly evolving into an all-around HR management tool suite. While SAP SuccessFactors didn’t win an Editors’ Choice as an all-around HR solution, it’s by far the best PM tool we reviewed and easily earns the award in this category.
When comparing these solutions yourself, it’s good to understand what kinds of features and capabilities are available under the PM umbrella. As a rule, basic PM should cover some or all of the following three tasks:
For example, a casual culture might be satisfied by a joint journaling feature that lets both manager and employee keep a free-form log of ongoing coaching and growth. On the other hand, a more formal process (one dictated by stringent compliance regulations, for example) might require a more structured process involving specific documents and forms, multiple levels of approval, and numeric scoring.
For many years, most of us have grown accustomed to PM being an annual chore conducted primarily by an immediate supervisor and an HR professional many of us never even meet. Goals are designed to be achieved on at least a semi-annual basis and are reviewed only once every six or 12 months. While that has some benefit, most of the tools we reviewed espouse a more agile PM discipline for today’s business managers.
By automating the performance process through email, document routing, or dedicated workflow capabilities, many of these tools make PM part of everyday employee management simply by providing a way to track and document employee/manager communication. This isn’t meant to turn an employee’s work life into a police state. Rather, it’s designed to let performance tracking become more agile and responsive.
After all, the job goals and requirements that really matter can change on a daily basis, not a semi-annual one. By providing tools and dashboards that let managers track how an employee is doing on such a cadence, HR gets a much clearer and granular understanding of the employee’s performance, skills, and needs. The trick is delivering these capabilities in such a way that they don’t become a burden on how managers and employees do their day-to-day jobs.
That’s why HR software vendors are putting more emphasis than ever on usability rather than just acting as buckets for annual metrics. Many solutions provide advanced reporting and analytical capabilities, including new ways to build custom reports and features, letting managers and HR professionals view employee data visually. Another example is mobile access, which seems like a superfluous feature until you view it under this new HR-all-the-time lens. In a culture where PM is part and parcel of daily employee management, offering mobile access to dashboards and communications capabilities is critical to long-term success.
The bottom line is, if you’re in the market for HR and PM software today, then take a moment to re-evaluate how your company can use these disciplines to more effectively manage your workers. The software vendors presented in this PM review roundup have worked hard to not only deliver basic HR capabilities, but they also give you new ways to benefit from HR, maximize your employee investment, and retain top talent.
