4 Performance Management Tools that Every SMB Should Know About

By digitizing performance management, small-to-mid-sized companies can better utilize their workforce, ensuring engagement and maximum productivity. We look at performance management software tools which are relevant to SMB scenarios, each offering a differentiated USP for the organization.

For small-to-mid-sized businesses, reviewing their employees and addressing performance gaps is often a manual process. With a limited team size or a distributed workforce across multiple stores/sites, digitization is perceived as complex and expensive. However, this isn’t actually the case. In today’s HR technology environment, there are several performance management software options out there, including dedicated performance management software tools for small-to-mid-sized businesses. These are easy-to-implement and often hosted on the cloud so that no in-house infrastructure is required.

Also read: 4 Steps to Modernizing Performance Management, the People-first WayOpens a new window

Here are four performance management software platforms that  SMBs could explore in a bid to accurately identify employee performance gaps and boost business productivity.

1.ZOHO People Offers a Range of Integrations for SMBs

ZOHO Opens a new window is popularly recognized as a one-stop solution suite for small businesses, covering everything from sales and marketing to finance, from project management to analytics. Their comprehensive HR suite is called ‘People’ – featuring all of the functionalities that small business might need to manage their employees – core HR, documents management, employee self-service, issue resolution, ass well as performance management. Employers can set specific KRAs and individual goals, collecting qualitative feedback and skill-set scoring.

ZOHO People is admittedly not the most powerful performance management software available. However, it more than makes up for it via seamless integration with other business modules, allowing SMBs to create a fully digital business ecosystem on a singular platform.

Also read: 5 HR Outsourcing Tools You Can’t Afford to IgnoreOpens a new window

2. Reflektive Links Performance Management to Employee Engagement

The people management software, Reflektive, recently announced that it is linking its Performance and Intelligence solutions with a new engagement module. This will simplify HR pipelines by giving the management actionable insights into the workforce, performance, and culture. Like ZOHO, there are a couple of useful integrations including Bamboo HR, and other HRIS and ATS systems. With the latest Engagement moduleOpens a new window , SMBs can evaluate engagement through surveys and targeted polls, powered by rich visualizations, and customized reports.

Reflektive has several small-to-mid-sized customers, in segments as diverse as retail, insurance, tech, and healthcare.

3. Lattice is a Performance Management Software for Project-based Organizations

Matching the standardized notions of appraisal and performance management to a project-based scenario has always been one of the big challenges for employers. Small-to-mid-sized businesses in Media, Marketing, Sales, and other project-based sectors struggle to accurately capture and evaluate employee performance data on an ad-hoc basis. Lattice was launched late last year Opens a new window to bridge this gap, offering project-based reviews and performance assessments without being bound by traditional hierarchical structures.

4. Culture Amp is Great for Businesses of all Sizes

Catering to companies in the 50-200, 200-2000, and 2000+ employee segments Culture Amp is focused on creating a culture of feedback for progressive organizations. The solution includes support for employee engagement, employee experience, employee effectiveness, and performance management software. The last one is powered by Culture Amp’s recent acquisition of ZugataOpens a new window , which brings small-to-mid-sized companies the options of Objective Performance Management or Continuous Development Feedback.

Also read: What is Continuous Performance Management and 4 Reasons You Need ItOpens a new window

Interestingly, Culture Amp is priced at USD 4,500 per year for up to 200 employees (smaller businesses) going up to USD 10,500 per year for mid-sized enterprises and custom-priced for large companies.

In Conclusion

There you have it – these are the four promising performance management software tools, SMBs could look at when digitizing their HR function. “The world of work is changing and we’re increasingly trying to work with people’s minds and not just their hands. This whole shift in what we’re trying to motivate has led to a need for more HR solutions,” remarked Didier Elzinga, CEO and Founder of Culture Amp, in an exclusive interview Opens a new window with HRTechnologist. 

While manual processes are still common, they are prone to errors, subjective assessment, and bias. All of this could hold back an SMB as it tries to achieve exponential growth and maximize its talent base. Leveraging performance management software is a major step in the right direction, empowering small-to-mid-sized businesses.

Which are your top picks for performance management for 2019? Share your insights with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.