5 Performance Management Tools You Need to Try

Performance management tools help you support your employees in realizing their personal goals while also supporting the organization in achieving its business goals. Implementing performance management tools helps drive alignment, strengthens communication, and highlights which resources are needed to accomplish certain tasks. Having a performance management tool improves workforce planning, boosts productivity, and helps you identify high-performing employees, track goals, and document important decisions. 

This article will cover what performance management tools are, why performance management tools are important, some things to consider when choosing a performance management tool, and our top five recommendations for performance management tools. 

• What are performance management tools? 
• Why are performance management tools important? 
• Factors to consider with performance management tools 
• Top 5 performance management tools 

What are performance management tools? 

Performance management tools are platforms that are designed to track employees’ performances, tasks, and goals. The purpose of a performance management tool is to help leadership or management identify whether employees’ personal goals are aligned with the company’s goals. These tools also help identify which employees are performing well and which individuals may need a little bit more guidance, support, or training. Often, performance management tools can integrate with other systems and tools that you’re already using to optimize your productivity, organization, and efficiency in attaining goals.

Why are performance management tools important? 

Performance management tools are important because they help identify training gaps, they boost employee morale (thus affecting both productivity and performance), and they also optimize the retention of your top talent, which reduces employee turnover. Using tools like this are a great way to support your employees and invest in their development. When employees know that you’re invested in their development and want to support them, they will feel more motivated, more satisfied, and more valued at work—this tends to result in better work morale, collaboration, productivity, and autonomy. Performance management tools also drive alignment, in that employees can also track their performances and make necessary changes accordingly. 

Factors to consider with performance management tools 

• Usability 
• Feedback features
• Training features 
• Budget and cost
• Analytics 
• Integrations 

1Usability 

First, you want the usability to be extremely easy and the user interface to be clean and attractive. When you’re considering the integration of a performance management tool, you want to select one that is easy to learn and to eventually master. It’s also important to consider whether the tool that you select offers good customer support, technical support, user support, tutorials, training, and other helpful resources. 

2Feedback features

The next thing you definitely want to consider is the feedback features that a performance management tool offers. You want to select a tool that will enable you to provide constructive feedback that is actionable. Performance management tools should ultimately help your team members learn, grow, and improve. You can’t expect great productivity, efficiency, and results if you’re not guiding and supporting employees in achieving their goals. Try to select a tool with which you can give effective, real-time feedback to your employees on meetings, projects, and performances. Fellow enables your team to share real-time feedback on meetings, projects, and performance.

3Training features 

Make sure you select a tool that has some training features. Consider if the performance management tool offers a means to create training and implement learning content for your team. Think about whether there are content creation opportunities for training so the tool can be personalized to your team’s needs; if there aren’t, take some time to identify if there are any courses that come with the performance management tool that may be useful to you. 

4Budget and cost

Of course, the budget and the cost of a performance management tool is something that needs to be considered before you make a decision. Thinking about what kind of budget is available to you is a great starting point. You also want to think about what the price is for the features that are being offered, the tool’s capabilities overall, and how it may fit in with the way in which you and your team members work. Think about if the pricing options are clear and if there is some flexibility. 

5Analytics 

Analytics are important when you’re considering a performance management tool. You want to identify if the analytics that are being offered can highlight important and relevant performance metrics. Think about what your expectations are for analytics and whether the reporting tools are customizable, easy to work with, and robust. Something that delivers clear information is essential as it allows management and employees to consider more quantitative insights. 

6Integrations 

Lastly, you need to consider if the performance management tool that you select will easily integrate or connect with the other tools that you and the team are already using. If there are existing, pre-built integrations, this tends to make for an easier transition into using a performance management tool. 

Top 5 performance management tools 

• BambooHR 
• Fellow 
• Kallidus
• PerformYard
• Eden

1BambooHR 

BambooHR is an end-to-end, multipurpose human resources (HR) management software. Performance reviews are just one of the various functions that are available with this tool. It promotes honest feedback through its peer review function, allowing several individuals to partake in the review process and make the performance review more accurate and honest. BambooHR creates detailed performance review reports that capture high performers and underperformers, and provide comparisons of employee performance, all while tracking progress on an individual and organizational level. Leaders can also add review notes that are built directly into the reports to provide even more detailed feedback.  

Price: Contact for a free price quote. 

2Fellow 

Fellow is a meeting management tool that is designed for teams to enable them to have productive team meetings and meaningful one-on-ones, build collaborative meeting agendas, record decisions, and keep each other accountable. Fellow is rated the number one meeting management software on G2 and is loved by leading engineering companies. This tool drives engagement and productivity before, during, and after every meeting. Fellow’s 360-degree feedback tool is especially effective for engineering performance reviews because it provides a clear reflection of how your direct report is doing. You can use Fellow’s 360-degree feedback tool to customize the questions for each group, send out the requests, then have all the feedback gathered in one place for easy review. Fellow even integrates with a multitude of tools like Gmail, Slack, Jira, Zapier, Zoom, and more. 

Price: Starts at $7 per user per month

Learn more about Fellow’s plans

3Kallidus

Kallidus is known first as a learning platform to drive training and development for employees, but it also has great performance management functions in place. This tool is specifically great for tracking employee performances and supporting employees in achieving their goals. Kallidus allows for an all-around better employee experience by fostering great learning and development opportunities, which will in turn drive better engagement and higher compliance and will let employees know that they are fully supported in working towards their goals and higher career aspirations. Kallidus integrates seamlessly with several other software such as SaaS, Web-based, Mac (desktop), Windows (desktop), and Linux (desktop). 

Pricing: Contact for a free price quote. Free trial available. 

4PerformYard

PerformYard has several different HR functions, with a major one being the employee review process. This management tool allows you to set an effective review schedule with a personalized format based on the team or the employee under review. Both employees and management receive automated email reminders, so the organization ensures that all parties involved are completing the review cycle on time. The review process with PerformYard is more simplified than in other tools, which allows employees to focus on feedback and work towards their goals. With PerformYard, you can assign customer success managers for every customer, so you can manage them from onboarding to training and provide continuous support. 

Price: From $5 per user, per month. 

5Eden

Eden is another HR management tool that includes several great functions like desk booking, room scheduling, visitor management, health and safety, deliveries, and internal ticketing, which can specifically be used for customer service, IT support, or other HR requests. With Eden, you can develop customized employee review cycles that are created for any level of employee and to cover the topics that are most important to your employees. Eden also has a 360-degree peer feedback and self-review feature, which creates the opportunity for several review cycles to take place simultaneously. This also makes historical data of previous performance reviews easy to access.

Price: From $3 per user, per month.

Parting advice 

Consider these techniques when you feel that you and your team are ready to implement a performance management tool and optimize employee performance as well as employees’ satisfaction and happiness at work. Performance management tools drive alignment across the whole team because management and employees can track their performances and make necessary changes accordingly. Implementing these tools or management systems is a great way to support your employees and invest in their career growth and encourage motivation, satisfaction, and a sense of purpose at work. If you’re looking to support your employees and retain your top talent, implementing performance management tools is a great place to start!