Performance Management System Archives - Page 2 of 4 - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

August 18, 2023

How to Design a Modern Performance Management System?

The overall business landscape have drastically changed over the past decade, with the rise of smartphones, internet, social media and digital communication, the way business are building and nurturing their relationships with their customers have completely changed. In the modern fast-paced and highly competitive market environment it is crucial for a business to adopt to modern practices, methodologies and technologies. The performance management system is no exception at all, if you will compare the modern performance management system with the performance management practices just around a decade back, the present day performance management is totally unrecognizable. The modern performance management systems are designed with an aim to support every organization’s unique internal culture, minimize the influence of bureaucracy, increase transparency and maximize the impact of the performance management and human resource programs. Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other emirates of UAE are witnessing continuous growth, which is attracting more businesses and raising the competition. The governments are also turning toward a modern UAE government performance appraisal system in order to ensure excellent services for the citizens. Furthermore the rapidly changing market trends, and ever-increasing customer demands are compelling businesses to utilize their resources at the maximum potential in order to ensure stability and growth. That is what make performance management system a game-changing tool.

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

The major difference between the traditional and modern performance management system is that the old method relies on annual reviews, the modern methods offer more frequent reviews, better performance data collection and analysis, and include software tools which makes the employee performance management process more effective and impactful. When the employees doesn’t have a proper communication with their managers, they are blindfolded and couldn’t know if they are progressing in the right direction or not. Another biggest difference between traditional and modern performance management system is that it focuses on the people and help managers maximizing their potential. However, the traditional performance management system focus on what has been done in past, and have no visibility of the future at all. The software aided modern performance management system is more integrated, robust, responsive, and reactive and can easily be incorporated in the modern work flows. The modern performance management system offer a more contextual and comprehensive performance data which help managers and employees to identify the problems and help them set course for the future to achieve the excellence. The modern performance management system doesn’t only focus on the monetary incentives, but it offers in-depth employee development programs, it is more engaging and empowering, and help building trust on the performance management process.

What are the Characteristics of a Modern Performance Management System?

Businesses should be aware of modern performance management trends. Because in order to implement a modern performance management system you must understand what the characteristics of a modern performance management system are which distinguished it from a traditional performance management model.

Digital Transformation: The biggest advantage of a modern performance management system is that it enables digital transformation by implement software based solutions and tools. The performance management software help automating several tasks driving efficiency and accuracy in the process.
People Focused: The modern performance management systems focused on both the high-performing employees as well as the low-performer. It offer a great balance between the accountability and the development, which encourage all employees to perform better and also help low performers to achieve their goals while rewarding high-performing employees.
Continuous: The modern day employees want more frequent and instant reward, they don’t like the concept of waiting for an entire year. A continuous performance management system offer continuous communication, frequent reviews (biannual, quarterly, and even monthly), continuous feedback and frequent one-on-one meetings.
Transparent: Most of the business leaders and the employees don’t trust on traditional performance management system due to several factors. However the modern performance management system offers more transparency, it provide more accessibility to performance data and can keep the record of all past data, meetings, and reviews.
Adaptive: The modern performance management systems are great and offer castigation which enables them to adopt to changes in trends, needs and even allow businesses to implement customized performance management strategies and policies. The ability to integrate with other systems and collect performance data from multiple sources make them more adaptable.

These are the essential features which distinguishes between traditional and modern performance management system.

What are the Characteristics of a Modern Performance Management System?

Step-by-Step Guide on Designing a Modern Performance Management System

Now that we understood the difference between traditional and modern performance management system and its benefits as well, let us dive into the actual process of designing a modern performance management system which resonates with your organizational culture and performance needs.

Identify Your Needs: It is important to understand the needs of your organization. Every business have different priorities, different challenges and different culture, this is why it is important to identify your needs. You will have to review the current performance management model and then do some brainstorming to identify the needs of your new strategy.
Chose The Purpose: Once you identify your needs, you should chose the primary purpose of your modern performance management system. There are five major purposes of implementing a performance management framework, accountability, organizational alignment, cultural alignment, development, and recognition. You should prioritize each one as per your needs.
Understand the Workflows: Understand who is making decisions and how decisions are being made. How the information are flowing, what communication channels you are currently using and what you are planning to use in future. Understand how you are currently defining roles, goals and objectives and how the success should look like.
Performance Fundamentals: No matter what performance management model you want to use, the performance fundamentals are the same, reviews, feedbacks and goals. Implement mechanisms to make reviews fair and transparent. Implement SMART goals, focus on accountability, development and alignment and lastly implement continuous feedback model.

If you follow the above steps you can easily identify your needs and the scope of your new modern performance management system. There are two ways to implement a new performance management system. First you can acquire a ready-made commercial off-the-shelf solution, or the second and more effective way is to acquire a professional software development agency in Dubai, such as RSI Concepts and let them build a customized performance management system as per your needs.

Step-by-Step Guide on Designing a Modern Performance Management System

How to Analyze the Effectiveness of your New Performance Management Model

Once you implemented a tailor-made modern performance management system you will definitely witness improvements, however, in order to analyze the effectiveness of your new performance management system you can perform a thorough analysis using the following steps:

Start with market research, understand your industry trends, and set the performance benchmarks for your industry.
Set and enlist organizational goals and objectives and accordingly set the individual goals that you are planning to achieve with your new performance management system.
Based on your organizational goals and objectives define how the success should look like for individual goals, also classify performance in three categories, high-performer, low-performer and average performers.
Now compare your design of performance management system and its success measures with this performance management model based on industry benchmarks.
Now try to minimize the gap between both performance management models and you will get a most efficient performance management system.

This analysis will help you improving your design of modern performance management system and it will help you maximizing the impact of your performance management program.

How to Analyze the Effectiveness of your New Performance Management Model?

Conclusion

Implementing a modern performance management system can greatly improve your employees’ performance, engagements and help you increase retention. When the employees and managers both trust on the performance management models and tools they tend to perform well and it also help elevating their morale which is absolutely essential for productivity and efficiency. There are several modern performance management systems available in the market, however, it is highly unlikely that any off-the-shelf performance management software can fulfill all your needs and produce the desired results. That is why we recommend going for a customized performance management system. In this blog we have discussed the difference between a traditional and modern performance management system, we also discussed how you can design a perfect performance management system which will empower your management and workforce. If is important to critically analyze the performance management model that you are building for your business. You can revise your model many times before reaching to the optimum results. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design your new modern performance management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

August 16, 2023

Employee Evaluation and KPIs for Better Employee Performance

With the rise of technology, the customer expectations have increased, the market trends have been changed, and the competition is getting tougher day by day. Businesses need to be very productive in order to be able to survive in the current market landscape of UAE. An effective performance management is the solution to level up your game and out-perform your competition. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other parts of the country are well-aware of the competitiveness of the market and the skyrocketed demands of the customers.

That is why businesses are continuously seeking ways to optimize their internal processes, operations and workforce. Most of the large businesses, enterprises and organizations are using some kind of performance management process, to monitor and improve their performance. Whereas, small and medium sized businesses usually don’t focus much on this aspect. However, the performance management is equally important and effective for all types and sizes of businesses and organizations.

Employee Evaluation and KPIs for Better Employee Performance

It is important for a business to understand where they need improvements and how they can leverage the true potential of their workforce to achieve the business goals. For any business employee turnover is a very challenging aspect of HR. Employee retention is connected to employee satisfaction. The employee satisfaction and employee retention is linked to employee engagements. If you are providing a highly engaging environment to your employees where they are given a productive organizational culture, your employee turnover will be less.

Not only that the employee satisfaction also results in higher customer satisfaction which translates to growth and profitability. When it comes to performance management the employee evaluation and KPIs are they key factors. A good performance management system must provide a comprehensive framework to evaluate employees and monitor their KPIs. In this blog we will discuss how employee evaluation and KPIs can help businesses improve their performance.

For any business employee turnover is a very challenging aspect of HR.

What is the difference between a KPI and a metric?

People often confuse a KPI and Metric, however, both are different. A KPI or key performance indicator is a high-level indicator which provide context about the business goal and it tells how these goals are related to different business functions. The metric is a low-level perspective and it is used to track activities and processes of different business functions. For example, a business wants to increase its customer satisfaction by 20%. That would be a KPI.

In order to achieve that goal, different business functions such as customer service team, sales team, marketing, management and various other departments will have to improve their performance, each department or business functions’ metrics will be used to measure the impact of their activities and processes on the high-leave business goal. The best metric to measure customer satisfaction is the NPS or net promoter score, businesses can also use other metrics such as customer satisfaction index to understand their progress towards their goal.

What is the difference between a KPI and a metric?

How to set KPIs which are aligned with high-level business goals?

The most common mistake businesses made during their performance management campaign is not aligning their KPIs with their high-level business goals. Here are a few key points to consider while creating KPIs:

Start by setting up or analyzing your business goals, for example, if you want to increase sales, or raise customer satisfaction, etc.
Define what you will measure, for example, in case of customer satisfaction you can measure customer satisfaction index, and in case of sales you can measure the increase in sales.
Once you know what you will measure, you have to understand how you can collect that data, for sales, it is easier you can just see how much sales you made, for customer satisfaction you can use NPS or customer happiness gauge, etc.
In order to measure the performance you must have to be able to communicate and relate the KPI to the employees and managers. Your KPI should be able to engage the employees and it should be able to raise the morale and motivate them to put efforts towards achieving it.
Adopting SMART framework is a great way to boost employee engagement. The SMART stands for Scalable, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. Implementing SMART framework and defining the targets or target range is crucial.
Make an action plan for if the KPI falls outside of the target range, and ensure your action plan is realistic and executable given the circumstances and available tools, workforce or skillsets in hand.
Reviewing and analyzing the performance data is a continuous task, the KPIs should be monitored regularly and the data should be analyzed properly to extract meaningful insight from it.
It is important to fine tune your KPIs over the time to ensure your KPIs deliver value to your business and will remain relevant to your business goals, industry benchmarks and competitive landscape.

If you will follow the above steps it would be much easier to set effective KPIs and if you have to redefine them or improve them you can also do easily with the above mentioned steps.

How to set KPIs which are aligned with high-level business goals?

How to collect employee performance data?

When we are measuring something it is usually a number, however, the human performance is not something which can entirely be measured on the bases of hard numbers. Although a good performance management system measures employee performance in quantifiable metrics but this is not as that simple as measuring the weight or height. Here are a few most effective methods of measuring the employee performance:

Rating Scales: Using the rating scales or graphical rating scales is one of the best way to measure employee performance in different performance areas. The graphical rating scales are usually sequential numbers such as 1 to 10 or 1 to 5. Usually the rating scales are used to measure the behavioral competencies, for technical competencies other tools are used.
Feedbacks: The feedbacks or 360^O Feedback is one of the most commonly used and most effective method to collect employee performance data. The 360^O Feedback includes taking feedback from supervisor/manager, peers, customers, suppliers, cross-team management, and any other stakeholder and then it is analyzed for common trends and similarities.
One-to-One: The one to one meetings are a great way to quickly evaluate the performance and identify the areas of improvement. A good performance management system also facilitate one-on-one meetings and provide intuitive features to document them. The one-on-one meetings and discussions can help bridging the communication gap between the managers and employees which is essential for improving the performance.
Management by Objectives: The Management by Objectives or MBO is a process where the employees and the managers define the objectives with mutual understanding. Thus the employees have a better understanding of what is to be expected from them and how the success would be measured. This is a great way to increase employee engagement and improve communication between employees and the managers.
Self-Evaluation: The employee self-evaluation is one of the best way to increase employee engagements and motivation. Often employees are more critical of their performance than the managers are. Which help managers to compare the employee’s self-evaluation with their evaluations. It help finding similarities and provide a better understanding of the employee performance, it also help managers to build good employee development and training programs.
Check-list Forms: A simple check-list form is a great way to quickly evaluate an employee. It could be used for both behavioral and technical competencies. It will help managers identify the employees with major deficiencies in important performance areas and help them improve training programs and also in forming high-performing teams.

There are several other ways and methods to collect employee performance data, however, the most important thing to understand is that the employee performance management requires continuous monitoring and tracking of the employee performance.

How to collect employee performance data?

Conclusion

No matter how high-tech or advanced your IT infrastructure, assembly line, production plant or customer service center it, one thing is essential and it is your employees who will be utilizing those technologies and resources to generate value. The value which will help you satisfy and retain your customers and help you build a good brand image. Markets in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi or in any other emirate of the UAE are very competitive, the customers tend to switch very quickly if a business fails to meet their needs or expectations.

In such a tough and competitive market landscape it is important to ensure you are utilizing your resources at their full potential whether it is human resource or non-human resource. That is why the performance management system is so crucial for a businesses of all types and sizes. The two core aspects of performance management are employee evaluation and KPIs. In this blog we have discussed what KPIs are and how businesses can utilize them to harvest the highest possible value form their resources.

If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to implement a highly cost-effective and tailor-made performance management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

August 2, 2023

Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?

In the fast-paced business landscape it is extremely important for a business to utilize its resources at fullest potential. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and anywhere else in UAE are well aware of the fact that the markets in this country tend to change very quickly, the customer demands are also increasing endlessly. That is why businesses all around the UAE give a lot of attention to performance management system. The performance management is one of the primary task of the HR department and that is the reason HR leaders and businesses are ready to invest a lot in performance management systems and programs.

There is another strong reason for investing in performance management system which is the adaptation of agile processes and methods. When businesses adopt agility, a gap is formed naturally between the managers and the employees. Most of the time the business leaders and managers failed to implement proper people management practices which results in dissatisfaction and distrust among the employees and undermine their performance and productivity.

Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?

The modern day employees are also more concerned about their personal development and growth, they want more frequent feedback from their managers which help them improve their skills and productivity. There has been several surveys and studies all around the world which suggested more than 80% of the business leaders lost faith on the traditional performance management practices and annual appraisal processes. Almost similar percentage of employees also express their distrust on traditional performance management methods. Therefore a modern, digitalized and technology based performance management system is needed.

Basically a performance management system is a software tool, which can provide a continuous performance monitoring tools and analytical data and allow both managers and employees to access valuable performance management data in a very intuitive and interactive manner. Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses. In this blog we will discuss why a custom performance management system is more effective for your business.

Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses. — Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses

What is the Difference between a COTS and Custom Performance Management System?

Before we discuss what is the difference between a custom and COTS performance management system it is important to understand that a performance management system is a software which is used to streamline and improve the performance management processes such as one-on-one meetings, acquiring feedback, appraisal, developing personal development and training programs and other such tasks. For any HR department it is their prime goal to retain and sustain a skilled workforce and ensure other business functions can get the required talent and skillset. The performance management system is built on a powerful analytical and statistical engine, along with smart algorithms and AI software tools which makes it more efficient, impactful and effective.

When it comes to acquire a new software tool there are two options, one is hiring a professional software development agency like RSI Concepts and have a tailor-made solution which matches 100% of your business needs. The second option is to quickly implement a cloud-based solution or acquire a ready-made performance management software. Both the ready-made and cloud-based solutions are COTS software, it means Commercial Off-the-shelf Software. The COTS are not designed for a single business or a specific set of users, in fact they are general purpose tools which are designed and available to a mass audience ranging from a few hundred to millions of users.

What is the Difference between a COTSand Custom Performance Management System? — What is the Difference between a COTS and Custom Performance Management System?

What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?

Whenever a business needs a software solution and they decide to go with a commercial off-the-shelf software or COTS they usually seek to match as much of their needs as possible, on an average a good COTS solution will meet your 80% of needs. That means you will have to make compromise for the rest of the 20% of your needs. That is one of the major reason business prefer to have a tailor-made custom software solution because a custom software solution is capable of meeting 100% of your needs as it will be exclusively designed for your needs.

Another great advantage of a custom performance management system is that it can provide a great competitive advantage. Furthermore the custom performance management system is exclusively designed for your business, so you also hold the ownership rights for the product. This will free your business from vendor-dependency. Businesses can manage, customize and upgrade custom performance management system in-house as well as they can choose any vendor to do so, as the entire software tool and its resources such as source code, databases and integration tools are handed over to the business who will be using it.

What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?

Here are some key advantages of choosing a custom performance management system over a COTS solution:

Custom Performance Management System: Effectively Implement Strategy

It is important to understand that the performance management is a very flexible concept. Every business has a unique organizational culture so does the strategy to implement different performance methods. It is due to the preference which every business have different from the other. These preferences are based on the business goals, strategic objectives and their desire to improve certain aspects of the performance. For example, some businesses might prioritize the technical competencies and some might want to focus on behavioral competencies and so on.

Along with that for a different set of employees the KPIs are different the desired outcome is different, hence the strategy and focused performance aspects would be different. Furthermore there are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice, on top of that most business leader prefer to use a combination of two or more methods to implement their own unique performance management strategy. That is the reason the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions can never fulfill all of your needs. Furthermore the COTS are built as per industry standards and offers more rigid framework.

However, a custom performance management system can offer you more control, flexibility, freedom and customization which enable you to effectively implement your own unique performance management strategy. You can utilize in-built templates and configurations wizards to setup your own customized KPIs, OKRs and performance metrics as per your needs. This allow you to laser focus on your prioritized aspects of the performance management which can greatly improve the impact and outcome.

There are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice

Custom Performance Management System: Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems

The entire performance management system depends on collecting, flow and analysis of the data. It is extremely important to understand that if data collection would be easier, the outcome would be more accurate. That is why most modern performance management systems have ability to automatically collect data. Businesses can manually upload data too or they can use dedicated dashboards to input the data but it is important that uploading data or integration and automated-data collection is as per the needs of the business. The IT infrastructure of any organization is a very complex eco-system, it develops gradually and evolve as per the needs and changes within the organization or due to the impact of external factors.

This means there would be a lot of different system some of which might be integrated already with the central information system. There could be a lot technology platforms and different vendors that a business is using to form their IT infrastructure. When a new software application is deployed in such environment the biggest challenge is integration and communication between different third-party systems and tools. Since the commercial off-the-shelf software are usually standardized tools, hence integration could be a big challenge, it could be very expensive and in some cases it could be impossible.

However, the customized performance management system is exclusively built for your needs, so all these problems are already accounted for. All these challenges can be dealt effectively and with convenience when you have full control over the structure of the software that you are building. That is why the customized performance management system are more effective in integrating with third-party tools and databases, which allow them to easily attain automation and built innovative features to minimize the effort and workload of the users. Even in case of manual uploads or dedicated dashboard to input data the customized performance management system is much more effective and far superior to any COTS solution in the market.

Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems

Custom Performance Management System: Get Customized Features and UI

Similar to performance strategy implementation, the features of the performance management system also require customization if you want to align the system with your needs. The biggest problem with the commercial off-the-shelf performance management software is that they are built according to the industry standards and only follow standardized procedures and processes. Which is helpful but sometimes it could be a hurdle instead of support. The custom performance management system software is exclusively designed as per your requirements hence there is no such barrier or limitation. You can customize each and every feature, process, SOP, protocol and even the reporting formats and designs.

For any performance management system the ultimate goal is to collect performance data, drive reports from the data and then take informed decisions to maximize the probability of the success. There is another most important aspect which is the user interface (UI). Most of the businesses doesn’t focus much on it, however, it is extremely important aspect of any software application. With the custom performance management system you can customize the GUI or UI as per your requirements, you can have your customized branding, and even functionalities can be customized and labeled as per your needs which can greatly enhance the efficiency and efficacy of the performance management system. The stock or off-the-shelf solutions doesn’t offer such customizations.

Custom Performance Management System: High Scalability and Easy Upgrade

Whenever businesses are acquiring any software solution, the scalability and ability to upgrade it in future are the two most important aspects to consider. The commercial off-the-shelf software comes with several restrictions and limitations. Similarly the commercial off-the-shelf performance management system could be easier and quicker to deploy but down the road it will pose more challenges. Furthermore these software are usually cloud-based and comes in different tiers and plans which are designed to target a specific size or industry. Hence if you need some features which are not available in your plan you might have to subscribe for additional plan, which will be more expensive and at the end of the day most of the features comes with expensive plan might not be useful for your business.

The markets evolve very fast, the customer demands could change over the night, and business need to be very vigilant and responsive towards such changes, which is usually not possible with the commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Furthermore these applications take ages to develop and build new features, there are several challenges for the vendor to upgrade them. Businesses keep growing and after sometime scaling up these software would cost you a lot. The custom performance management system is completely free from all those limitations and restrictions. You can customize it whenever you want, you can scale it up or downsize it whenever you need and without paying even a single dime.

Furthermore you can also customize your custom performance management system to add new features or to make changes at a nominal cost unlike the COTS which incurs hefty fees and charges for such requirements.

Custom Performance Management System: Cost-effective and High ROI

When we compare the initial cost of the commercial off-the-shelf solutions and the customized software applications, the COTS apparently looks more cost-effective. However, that is not true at all. The COTS can be deployed quickly but won’t be able to fully match your 100% of the requirements, however, the custom performance management systems have higher initial cost but can fully aligned with your requirements and fulfill your 100% of the needs. In order to compare the cost we will have to look at the ROI over a longer period of the time. The stock or commercial off-the-shelf solutions have regular subscription charges which you will have to pay on monthly, quarterly or yearly bases as per your plan. You will have no control over the software vendor, the vendor will own the application and in some cases your data is also stored at vendor’s server which is not as that secure.

However, the custom performance management system is exclusively designed for your business, the vendor doesn’t have the ownership of the application, instead you will own the ownership rights of the software and you will also own all the software code, resources and the entire application which will be handed over to you. You can have full control over your custom performance management system, there is no vendor dependency, you can chose any vendor or even in-house team to maintain and upgrade your software. Your data will be hosted with you or at the server/cloud of your choice which offers better security. There will be no subscription fee or hidden charges, the customization will be very cost-efficient and if you calculate the ROI over an extended period of time the custom performance management system will cost you less than half of a reputed commercial off-the-shelf performance management system.

The custom performance management system have longer life-cycle which can be further extended by making few changes and iterations, but in case of COTS you might have to acquire a completely new software after a few years.

Conclusion

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other emirate of UAE knows that very well that the markets here are very competitive. The overall government policies and environment is very investor-friendly hence the competition will keep rising in future too. Furthermore the customer demands are also skyrocketing and the market is subjected to rapid changes. In such environment if a business want to maintain a steady growth it is extremely important for them to have a proactive performance management strategy.

The modern day employees need higher engagements and the business leaders also want more productive and effective tools to maximize the performance and productivity of their organization. That is why businesses deploy performance management systems which are mainly a dedicated software application designed to streamline the performance management processes and aid management in performing performance management tasks.

When it comes to acquire a performance management system software, businesses have two way, one is finding a suitable commercial off-the-shelf solution and quickly implement it and the other is slightly longer path, which is to develop a tailor-made and fully customized performance management system which is exclusively designed for the business by keeping in mind all the needs, requirements, and existing IT infrastructure.

In this blog we have discussed several aspects of performance management system and tried to highlight the aspects which make custom performance management system more superior, effective and impactful then its counterpart, the commercial off-the-shelf performance management software. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop an exclusive tailor-made custom performance management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

July 11, 2023

Characteristics of a Good Employee Appraisal System

The employee appraisal is the most important aspect of performance management. Every business wants to increase its performance, with the limited resources in hand every business wants to generate more outcome with limited inputs. That is why business adopt various workforce optimization methods and implement performance management strategies to improve the outcome and minimize the operational cost. This can provide businesses with a great competitive advantage and help them grow and achieve its goals.

The employee appraisals are extremely important as it will help businesses identifying any areas of improvement by evaluating employee performance and measuring the effectiveness of the employee. The employee appraisal system is a great tool for workforce optimization and performance management it help businesses implement their performance management strategy and align employees with the mission of the business by leveraging the employee performance data and various techniques that are designed to evaluate employee performance.

Characteristics of a Good Employee Appraisal System

What is Employee Appraisal System?

The employee appraisal system is a combination of tools, strategies and methodologies which are used to measure the employee performance against a pre-set goal, and employee appraisal help setting up the goals for future and provide guidance for employee development and training programs. The employee performance appraisal provides a framework for the mangers to identify the areas of improvement, highlight the causes of failure and success and from future performance strategy.

Businesses and organizations in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and everywhere in UAE are investing heavily in employee performance management solutions such as employee appraisal systems. We have witnessed this trend increasing since past five years. The actual reason of deploying an employee performance appraisal system is to unlock the true potential of the employees, enable them to perform at their best and achieve the highest organizational efficiency which drive growth and long term success.

Here are the characteristics of a good employee appraisal system:

Employee Appraisal System: Objectives

For any employee performance management strategy the most important point is to clearly define and communicate the objectives to the employees. An employee performance appraisal system does the same. It help management clearly define objectives which aligns with the organizational high-level goals and objectives. The employee performance appraisal system provide specialized tools which help management create objectives that are well-defined, aligned with mission, easy-to-understand, achievable in timely manner, and can be communicated to the employees.

The employee can easily understand what success will look like, it help them understand what business/employer is expecting from them and what has to be done from their side to create valuable outcome. The employee appraisal system not only help making objectives quantifiable but also help managers to correlate the objectives with the employee’s skills, experience, capabilities, and resources they have along with a complete historic background of past performances which is a great way to set goals and expectations for future. The systematic approach and specialized tools of employee appraisal system increase the success rate.

Employee Appraisal System: Reliability

The trust and fairness is the main driver of the performance, if the employees think that the appraisal process is not fair or if the think the employee appraisal system is not reliable they will lose morale which can kill the performance and productivity. The employee appraisal system ensures transparency and fairness in the process and help gaining employees’ trust. The reliability is the key component to introduce transparency and gain employees’ trust. The employee appraisal system is a digital tool which offer intuitive features and empower both employees and the managers.

It ensures that the performance metrics and data used for appraisal are valid, reliable and accurate. Usually the data is related to the employee’s progress toward the assigned goal, how much time it took them to accomplish the goal, and the status of the goal, all this data is stored in the system along with complete historic accomplishments of the questioned employee. The employee appraisal system can also provide contextual data which also help managers understand employees’ certain behavior and decisions they take during the performance cycle. Employees and managers trust the system when they have access to accurate and reliable data.

Employee Appraisal System: Standardization

Standardization is one of the most important characteristic of employee appraisal system. Obviously every business and organization is different from each other, even two businesses who operate in same domain, have same products and services and same targeted audience could have greatly different internal processes, procedures, strategies and methodologies. However, when it comes to employee appraisal the main difference occurs when the managers took two different employees to assess who belongs to a same employee set/class or category.

For example if the assessment is required for two computer programmers who work on Native Application Development within the team, the assessment process, methods and criteria should be exactly the same for both of them. In manual practices and traditional appraisal methods, the managers have too much influence on the process hence the personal bias or emotions can hamper the quality of the assessments made by the same manager. The employee appraisal system completely remove this from equation, it standardize the evaluation criteria, performance metrics.

Furthermore it provides a comprehensive framework which make employee fully aware of appraisal standards, process, and decisions hence everyone knows how their success is being evaluated. The standardization can greatly increase employee trust on the appraisal process.

Employee Appraisal System: Standardization

Employee Appraisal System: Communication

The communication is the backbone of any performance optimization or workforce optimization campaign. For the employee appraisal the communication is most crucial component of the process. The employee appraisal system help businesses and organizations to enhance communication between the employees and managers using specialized tools and unconventional methods. The managers must communicate the goals, objectives, mission and vision and the criteria of appraisal to each and every individual employee. If the employee doesn’t know about the system or doesn’t have clear information about any process or step, they will lose trust form the appraisal process which can easily kill productivity.

The employee appraisal system help integrating employee feedback at various stages, especially in goal setting process. When the employee and managers have shared vision about a particular goal the employees tend to perform well and their motivations and morale raises. The employee appraisal system strengthen the communication between the managers and the employees with more frequent feedbacks, discussions and interactions which help identifying and rectifying problems that employee might be facing and also help managers to correct course in order to ensure success by the end of the appraisal cycle.

Employee Appraisal System: Communication

Employee Appraisal System: Development

The employee development is most important aspect of any employee appraisal system. Businesses and organization always want to minimize the employee turnover rate. This is essential in order to develop a highly skilled and experienced workforce. But if your employee keep leaving the organization, then you must have to bear the additional training costs, onboarding costs, time wasted in integrating a new employee and obviously the delay in the work, sometimes when the employees from key position left they could hinder the performance of the entire team or department, especially in startups, SMEs and very specific businesses.

Every employee wants to grow, everyone wants to improve their professional skills and every single employee wants to learn new things which add value and increase their worth as an employee. However, most of the time the employees are confused about selecting a right career path and the managers too rely on guessing while selecting a career path for an employee or designing a personal development plan .However, the employee appraisal system provides in-depth understanding of the employee performance, their capabilities, skills and ability to grow.

That is why with the employee appraisal system managers can design more effective and attractive employee development plans which help them raise employee satisfaction and reduce the employee turnover.

Employee Appraisal System: Training

When it comes to training, businesses often focus on the employee training. However, the managers’ or evaluators’ training is also very important. The evaluator and managers who are conducting the appraisal should also be well-trained in principles and processes of the appraisal along with the employee appraisal system tools. The evaluators and managers should be trained and provided with sufficient knowledge which enable them to effectively design and conduct appraisals. Conducting appraisal interview is a very crucial part of employee appraisal process, the evaluator or manager must have proper training to be able to conduct those interviews. Apart from that the employee training is the core of the employee appraisal process.

Every business or organization have such employees who just need a little training or polishing in order to unlock their true potential. But the question is how to identify those employees and how to design the training programs for them. The employee appraisal system provide insight to employee behavior, it provide highly accurate employee performance data and provide a greater understanding of employee’s skills and capabilities which are essential to design effective training programs. Effective training will help businesses achieve higher productivity and it also help gaining employee trust and loyalty.

Conclusion

Performance management, workforce optimization, employee appraisals, training programs and various such activities are a part of any growing organization. Every business wants to generate as much outcome as possible with the limited resources and inputs. High performing teams and employees are a great asset of a business and can provide a much needed competitive advantage as well as help boosting performance, profitability and growth of the business. That is why businesses conduct employee performance appraisals. However, when it comes to employee appraisals, it is a very sophisticated and crucial process. That is why businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE uses specialized tools such as employee appraisal system in order to make the appraisal process more effective and efficient.

The employee appraisal system helps setting and communicating goals and objectives, it improves communication, it increases transparency and help businesses gain employee trust and satisfaction. In this blog we have listed some key characteristics of employee appraisal system, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement and customized employee appraisal system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

February 13, 2023

Benefits of Implementing a Modern Performance Management System

Every employee wants to grow, develop and praised by the management, everyone wants to achieve their goal and everyone wants to perform well at their workplace. However, there are certain factors in organizational culture, work environment or even external factors which demotivate an employee and cause them to fail. Most of the time employees are way too capable but due to these factors they can’t reach to their true potential. It is the job of HR department and business leadership to provide employees a culture and environment where they not only perform well but also pursue their personal development and become more useful for the business over the time.

The performance management system is the ultimate tool to do that. The performance management system is not like any other tool, in fact it is an integral process of the regular business operations. However, the problem with the traditional performance management system is that it is manual, which means it requires hundreds upon hundreds of work ours of your employees, HR team, and managers to complete this process.

Furthermore, the quality of the performance data is poor, the organizational and individual impact of the process is very limited, the reviews are once or twice in a year and on top of that both management and employees don’t trust it much. That is why business have started adopting to modern performance management systems.

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

A modern performance management system is a technological solution based on software and online platforms which help businesses and organizations to monitor, evaluate and improve the performance of their employees and help them align their available resources with their high-level goals and objectives. The modern performance management system help businesses implement modern performance management practices and enable them to adopt and implement more innovative and impactful strategies by introducing digital components and automation to the process.

By implementing a modern performance management system businesses can significantly reduce the time, efforts and expense on the performance management process and above all the modern performance management system also have huge impact on individual level and organizational level. The efficiency and convenience enable businesses to focus on continuous performance management instead of once or twice in a year.

The modern performance management system help businesses develop a culture of higher collaboration, continuous learning and coaching, highly engaging, transparent and continuous feedback which help business and organizations to maximize their performance and increase employee satisfaction.

Benefits of Implementing a Modern Performance Management System

A modern performance management system provides a highly structured and efficient framework which help businesses to improve the overall performance, efficiency, productivity and profitability of the entire organization by improving the performance of the individual employees, teams and even managers. The performance management system has become an integral and very crucial business process, it help businesses keep improving their workforce and help building strong relationship between the employees and the employer which reduce employee turnover and strengthen the workforce.

There are many benefits of the performance management, in this blog we will list a few most important and impactful benefits of the performance management system.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Frequent Feedbacks

The performance management system provides a highly structured and well-organized framework to enable businesses to collect more frequent feedbacks. Whether it is quarterly reviews, monthly discussion, project-based reviews, frequent goal setting, one-on-one check-ins or just open-discussions, the performance management system provides a systematic approach with added benefits of automation and digitalization. All the data, surveys, feedback forms, or any other inputs is digitally stored in a centralized data repository and information system which allow managers to access and compare historic data and understand improvement patterns and behavioral insights.

The easy access to such data help managers prepare more effective and impactful feedback for the employees and help them take actions and steps to maximize the performance. It really doesn’t make any sense to set course and get guidance for a year in just single meeting that is why the more frequent feedbacks are a pillar of a modern performance management system and can greatly boost the performance.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Multi-Source Feedbacks

Another great feature of a modern performance management system is that it doesn’t only increase the frequency of the feedbacks but it also allow businesses to collect feedback from multiple sources. Such as the 360 degree and 720 degree feedback strategies. Where the users can submit feedback for their peers, upward, downward, cross-departmental feedback, and any stakeholder can share their feedback. Furthermore it also account for the feedback from external sources such as customers, suppliers, business partners, contractors, etc. Which further help broadening the scope of the feedback and enable businesses to collect more in-depth insight.

All these feedbacks are stored in a common data repository and allow managers to perform various different analysis on the data using the in-built analytical tools. The data is already available for all relevant users, and the data, reports or analysis can be shared to specific users (employees or managers) and it can be downloaded as printable formats as well. All these features help preparing actionable reports and driving meaningful outcomes to achieve higher performance and productivity.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Increased Productivity

The modern performance management system offer a multitude of features which help HR and business leaders to set shared or common goals, align individual goals with the high-level organizational goals, empower communication and enable both parties to understand the objectives and the relevant outcome which help motivating employees and set clear expectations. Moreover the real-time monitoring, continuous feedback and multi-channel communication help maximizing the productivity. When employees gets guidance whenever they need and wherever they need, and when their problems and concerns are addressed in timely manners, the efficiency and performance automatically increased.

Furthermore each business have different objectives and different standards to measure the success. For each business there are different challenges and problems to address. The modern performance management system doesn’t only streamline reviews, but it provides a very effective problem-solving tool which help businesses to customize their performance management strategies as per their goals, for example, some businesses might be interested in improving the training programs, some might need to focus on accountability, and some might be seeking a way to align employee performance with the high-level goals, all these features help significantly boost the productivity of the employees and teams.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Transparency & Trust

When it comes to performance management system the biggest concerns of most of the HR and the business leader is that their employees and even managers also don’t trust the system. The employees have a lot of transparency concerns and even the managers are unable to fully justify their judgments based on the incomplete or poor performance data. This is one of the major cause of the failure of a performance management systems. Usually with the annual performance reviews the managers often forget about the a few months old events, that is why the annual performance reviews are majorly based on the very recent few months’ events, interactions and incidents, which is totally unfair and couldn’t justify the entire year’s performance.

Furthermore due to manual process the human factor is also considerable, majorly the manager’s bias and favoritism cause the most damage, and due to lack of a comprehensive framework in place, most of the time the managers start applying their own ideas and strategies which can derail the process. A performance management system on the other hand, provide a complete historic data, it didn’t even miss a single bit, the managers can access the past data, both managers and employees knows the expectations, there is no room for micro-management and everything is streamlined, well-organized and in a systematic order which help building trust and make the performance management process highly transparent.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Digitalization

The digitalization have many benefits, when business implement a modern performance management system it help them make the process more cost-effective, efficient and impactful. The digitalization help bringing automation which reduce the human efforts and make process more convenient. That is the reason businesses who implement performance management system can easily adopt to most modern performance management practices which help them maximizing the employee engagement and satisfaction and also provide highly accurate performance and business intelligence data. Moreover the HR data is considered to be the most critical for any organization, businesses always have protective measure in place to protect it.

The performance management system beef up the security and privacy of the data with the help of password protection, administrative access control, data encryption and multiple firewalls and other security measures. The digitalization also make the performance management system more impactful by enabling simple and easy integration with other business tools, databases, and communication channels. This is what makes a modern performance management system far superior and beneficial than an ordinary traditional performance management system.

Conclusion

The performance management is absolutely vital for business who want to compete and grow in the modern fast-paced technology driven marketplaces. Businesses in Dubai and anywhere else in UAE are rapidly adopting to modern performance management practices and solutions. The traditional once or twice a year performance reviews are not enough, employees need more continuous guidance and the management need more frequent feedback to deal with the disruptions and unexpected challenges of the modern day marketplaces. The modern performance management system allow business leaders and the HR to improve the organizational culture and work environment. It help managers to get timely information and updates, and it help employees to get timely guidance and support.

The innovative features of a modern performance management system can be a game-changer for the business. In this blog we have listed the key benefits of implanting a software-based modern performance management system, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement a highly cost-effective tailor-made performance management system solution for your business. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

February 11, 2023

Performance Management System: Best Practices

The HR and business leaders in Dubai and all around the UAE are largely agree that the traditional performance management methods are outdated and unable to meet the needs of a modern fast-paced, digitally connected, and data driven workplaces. This is because two major factors, first the conventional performance management process is manual which makes it very expensive and time-consuming, the second problem is the poor quality of performance data which also raise transparency concerns. The modern performance management systems are based on AI (artificial intelligence) powered smart software engine and autonomous algorithms which can produce far more superior qualitative and quantitative performance data.

The traditional performance management methods have failed to enable businesses leverage the true potential of their employees. In the modern highly competitive and dynamic market landscape the flawed performance management practices could harm your performance and can have negative effects instead of improving employees’ engagement and productivity.

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

Well the definition of the performance management system is still the same, no matter if it is a traditional or modern performance management system. The performance management system provides a structured framework which help businesses monitor and improve the performance of their employees and align them with the strategic goals to help business increase its effectiveness and operational capabilities and drive progress and growth towards the high-level organizational goals and in long terms, excel towards the mission and vision of the business.

However, the modern performance management system is a software based solution which help streamlining several processes, introduce automation to the system and maximize the efficiency of the process. The modern performance management systems are so effective and efficient that a business can easily convert the traditional once-a-year performance management process into a round-the-clock process enabling businesses to leverage the benefits of agile and continuous performance management practices.

Modern Performance Management System Strategies and Best Practices

The primary goal of implementing a performance management system is to maximize employee engagement, satisfaction and provide them a culture and environment where they can unlock their true potential and help business achieve its high-level goals. In the last two decades we have witnessed a huge evolution in the markets all around the world. The major cause is massive adaptation of the technology and IT solutions. Furthermore the technology penetration in an average person’s daily life has also been causing paradigm shifts in market trends and customer behavior.

This have changed the way businesses were operating in the past. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE where the technology has deeply penetrated the entire society and markets are very dynamic the businesses need to adopt to modern methods, practices and technologies in order attract and retain customers. The performance management was one of the most overlooked process, and still to this day a lot of businesses in the country are following the traditional methods.

However, this is changing rapidly and we will see within a couple of years the conventional performance management will become obsolete. When it comes to modern performance management systems, there is no one solution that fits all. Every business develops and evolves differently and every business is unique, two businesses can never be same even if they operate in same market and industry.

However, there are some common strategies and best practices that can be equally beneficial for all. In this blog we will compile these best performance management practices which can be a real game changer for everyone, regardless of industry, size or type of the business.

Performance Management System: 1. Continuous 360 Degree Reviews and Feedbacks

The 360 degree reviews were and still are one of the most important part of performance management system. The 360 degree performance reviews are feedback from multiple sources including managers, supervisors, peers, team leads, cross-department teams/management, stakeholders, and even external sources such as customers and suppliers, etc. The modern performance management systems are very robust, intuitive and make it very simple to conduct continuous 360 degree feedback campaigns. The continuous feedback from manager will help them understand their performance and progress, it is also very helpful in aligning the employees with the most important strategic goals.

The annual reviews and feedbacks are outdated, both employees and the managers have concerns about this practice. The continuous feedback on the other hand help employees perform well, in fact businesses have witnessed 3 to 4 time better performance by enabling continuous performance feedbacks and reviews. The intuitive performance management system can greatly help in improving the process and making it easier and convenient for all participants.

Performance Management System:2. Agile Goals and OKRs

Setting up goals, building strategies and making plans are the foundation of any performance management system. The goals are the ultimate guideline for the entire process, however, most of the time business leaders and HR don’t emphasize much on the process of setting up goals. The long-term and high-level organizational goals and objectives are hard to swallow by an ordinary employee, however, when the same goals are broken down into smaller goals, it immediately start making more sense. When the high-level goals are segmented into smaller attainable steps or key results, it become easier for an employee to understand them and achieve them.

The OKR stands for objectives and key results, usually the goals are set at the beginning of the performance cycle, however, there could be interim reviews to revise the goals according to the circumstances. The performance management system provides a dedicated dashboard for the 360 degree reviews and feedbacks along with innovative features to further simplify the process which help increasing employee engagement and improve the outcome.

Performance Management System:3. Increased Employee Engagement

The employee engagement is one of the pillar of any performance management process. Businesses who do not listen to their employee’s or doesn’t include them in the planning and strategy building stages of the performance management process are tend to have lesser performance and productivity. No matter how strong and frequent the communication is between the employee and the managers, there are certain things that might be hidden form the sight of the manager. Especially during the goal setting processes, building strategies and making plans to execute those strategies, the employee involvement can boost performance to several times.

Involving employees in those processes not only help management increase the success rate but it also motivate employees to put more efforts which definitely boost the performance. When employees are heard by the management and their say is included in the decision making processes, they feel more connected and responsible, which raise their morale and encourage them to perform better.

Performance Management System:4. Public and Social Recognition

With the integration of the Gen. Z and a monumental shifts in the market trends and overall behavior, the monitory compensations which were the strongest motivator just about two decades ago have lost its power. Now a days the monitory compensations and social recognitions works side by side, in fact many market researches and surveys have proven that the employees value public praises and social recognition more than the monitory rewards. According to these surveys the Public Recognition or Social Recognition was the most memorable recognition according to the majority of the participants.

The performance management system offers a variety of tools and features to enhance your reward and recognition process. It provides dedicated dashboards and employee community hub where employees and the management can share their remarks and appreciations. These public and social recognitions are visible to each and every employee, hence when the employees are publicly praised for their achievements, they feel more proud of their accomplishments which help to boost their morale and performance.

Performance Management System:5. Continuous Development Discussions

The more frequent and regular discussions help management to understand the performance and progress of the employees and give employees a chance to discuss their problems/obstacles or to seek guideline and help from the managers which can significantly increase their success rate. The continuous development discussions and check-ins help employees achieve their goals and give management a chance to course-correct and align employees with high-level goals to keep them on track. The collaborative conversations are always empowering, it help employees express their concerns and understand the management’s expectations.

The performance management system offers great features such as scheduling continuous development discussions and check-ins on a pre-set time frame and frequency to align the employees with the goals and to help them with their professional and personal development needs. The employee development discussions are very helpful in improving employee engagement and strengthening their relationship with the management.

Conclusion

The HR and business leaders in Dubai and all around the UAE are agreed that the traditional performance management system has lost its value and flawed performance management practices can bring harm instead of benefiting the business. Therefore almost all categories and industry sectors are rapidly adopting to a more technology-based modern performance management system. The modern performance management system is a software based highly integrated application which not only greatly increase the data quality and quantity but also help businesses to implement the modern strategies and adopt to market-proven performance management practices.

The HR and business leaders should also understand that every employee wants to succeed, they want to grow and develop both professionally and intellectually, and the employees want to achieve their goals and like to be praised and admired. In this blog we have listed the best modern performance management system practices which will help you make your performance management process beneficial and appealing for both employees and the management.

If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to implement a highly effective and tailor-made performance management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

January 18, 2023

5 Performance Management Problems and How to Solve Them

The businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are facing many challenges, especially when it comes to talent acquisition and retention. The HR is not only responsible for hiring skilled staff but they will also have to establish a system where they can nurture the relationship between the employees and the business. This system should be able to help HR and management to foster the hidden talent of their employees. This system will have to provide a framework which help businesses to laydown excellent training and development program which up lift their employees and help them identify the future leaders. This system is called performance management system.

The performance management process is becoming more complicated day by day. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the high employee turnover rate is a very common problem. There are many factors that can contribute to that problem which is what makes its solution more complex. That is why the HR leaders always emphasize on the use of a modern digital performance management system which help them laydown excellent plans, enable them to collect valuable performance data, improve the employee assessment practices, and help them build impactful training and development plans.

No matter how excellent your performance management process is or how great your plans are, you could still run into some really challenging situation, it is your response and capabilities to handle those challenges which will determine the success of your performance management program. A modern digital performance management system is a very capable and powerful tool which is used by the businesses and organizations to boost their employees’ performance, improve and groom their talent, increase their retention and engagement and maximize their outcome to succeed in achieving high-level goals and objectives.

However, when businesses and organizations failed to use this tool correctly they face a lot of problem, the problems which could complete derail their performance management efforts and could inflict significant damage to the growth and progress. The work environments, employees’ mindset, and business practices differs from country to country, here in Dubai and anywhere else in UAE the markets are very dynamic, the HR manager and business leaders need to be more active to increase employee engagements and productivity.

In this blog we will highlight the 5 most common performance management problems businesses are facing in Dubai and all around the UAE and we will also discuss how you can solve them with a modern performance management system. A modern performance management system enable businesses to adopt to best performance management practices and tailormade tools which help them to effectively focus on the areas of improvements.

Performance Management Problems: 1. Failure to Set and Communicate Clear Goals

Setting up goals and objectives for a performance management cycle is essential and everyone does that. However, most of the HR managers or business leaders failed to clearly define goals and their strategic objectives which is the root cause of several problems. When the goals and objectives are not clear or not communicated properly the employee will lose focus, direction and motivation to achieve those goals. If you don’t clearly know what is to be expected from you, how could you do that? That is why most of the performance management failures are caused by unclear goals and lack of communication.

It is extremely important to set clear, achievable and easy-to-understand goals and it is equally important to communicate them properly to your employees so they can have a clear sense of direction which will help them focus on their progress. Setting up clear goals and communicating them properly will help employee understand the expectations from them and will provide them a standard for the success hence they will know what the success will look like and what is the measure of the success and how their contribution will add up to the high-level organization goals and objectives.

A good performance management system offers a variety of in-built features along with customization abilities which enable businesses to easily set goals and communicate them with the individual employees. The performance management system also provide a clear understanding of the performance evaluation metrics and will help employees understand their progress in real-time. The success and performance metrics further simplify everything and set clear expectations which help employees align themselves with their goals and objectives. Any modern performance management system will offer OKRs (objectives and key results) and KPIs (key performance indicators) to set clear goals and also set metrics to measure the progress toward these goals.

The SMART framework is ideal for setting up goals and performance metrics. The SMART Goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant/Results, and Time-bound. Every goal should be time-bound, without a measure of time there is no point in setting up a goal. The performance of each employee should be evaluated as per their progress during a specific time period. That time-period is usually called performance cycle, which will help employee understand what is to be expected from them and when so they can prepare themselves to achieve those specific tasks during the given time period. That is why a digital performance management system is a great solution to fix this problem.

Performance Management Problems:2. Poor Communication

The communication is considered to be the lifeblood of any corporate environment, whether it is performance management or any other process, the communication is an absolute essential for everything. Without good communication businesses can never utilize their resources at full potential, the performance management process in particular is designed to break down the silos and to encourage engagement between employees, different teams, departments and management as well.

The poor communication can create a lot of problems and it can have huge negative impact on the overall performance of the business or organization. There could be many reasons of poor communication and many factors that can undermine your communication, here are some of the most common factors which have huge impact on your communication:

Poor communication network which is unable to deliver the required information to the relevant personals or team within time
Unproductive and unregulated meetings and discussion which ends-up going off-topic
Poor feedback framework which fails both managers and employees to deliver their concerns to one another or highlight the problems they are facing
Poor email communication which results in incorrect or lack of actions

The poor communication can have very negative impact on the employee performance management process, furthermore it also demoralize them, harm the relationship between employees and the managers, it hurt the trust and it gradually increase the employee turnover rate.

The poor communication is one of the most common cause of the poor performance, if this problem persists for a longer time, it could cause unrepairable harm to a business. That is why not only to achieve higher efficiency but in order to keep the operations running a business need to solve the poor communication problems. There are certain types of communication that are more important than the others. However, the management frequently utilized different channels to communicate with the employees on regular bases but certain communications are necessary to boost the performance.

Such as regular discussions, one-on-one meetings, regular bidirectional feedbacks, frequent performance reviews, and other such communication types which are associated with the performance management are a key to a successful performance management strategy. Implementation of a good performance strategy by deploying a modern digital performance management system and integration of a multi-channel communication framework within the work environment can solve almost all major communication problems.

Furthermore the businesses can implement strategies to make sure the written and verbal communication is delivered and understood by concerning parties. Reaching out to the employees, even if they are off-campus is essential for employee engagement. Personalized communication is also very important. The performance management system provides a comprehensive communication strategy which help solving all communication related problems.

Performance Management Problems: 3. Lack of Transparency and Trust

Another most common cause of failure of a performance management strategy is the failure to satisfy employees with the sufficient steps to ensure transparency in the system which is essential to gain employees’ trust. Without trust on the system the employee can never get motivated. There has been several studies and worldwide researches which have suggested a positive relationship between the trust and the employee performance. The problem with the traditional performance management practices is that there is no framework to ensure fully transparent evaluation and reviews.

Most of the time it the traditional performance management systems are designed for annual or biannual evaluation. This biggest problem with that system is that when the managers are evaluating an employee they might not be able to recall all of the events in the distant past, they might focus on the activities and achievements of the past few months. Furthermore the personal bias, favoritism and other factors also cause the lack of trust by the employees.

If an employee doesn’t trust on the business and their manager, the leadership and mentorship efforts goes straight out of the window. A leader or a mentor can only be a leader or mentor if the people he/she is leading will trust them. That is why the lack of transparency and trust is one of the most common cause of poor performance.

The solution to that problem is to implement a modern and technology based performance management system which not only introduce transparency but also address the most common concerns of the employees and gain their trust. If the employee don’t trust of the system or if they are not aware of how the system is working and how they are being awarded or if the performance metrics are confusing the employee will lose the trust and they might not support the system. However, a performance management system which clarifies all these confusions and offers clarity and transparency in the system could help gaining employees trust.

Furthermore the digital performance management system also remove the most common problems with the traditional performance management system such as lack of understanding, poor communication, biased opinions and reviews, lack of performance data and much more. This will help business leaders and HR to establish employee trust on the performance management system and process and encourage them to support it.

The dedicated features of the performance management system also improve the employee reviews and appraisal processes and make them more transparent which further strengthen the relationship between the employee and the managers. The digital performance management system transform the process into a proactive process rather a reactive process which help quickly addressing employee problems and concerns and raise their satisfaction.

Performance Management Problems: 4. Too Much Relying on Technology

Another common reason to fail in performance management is the ability of managers and leaders to understand that the technology alone is not the solution. We have witnessed in Dubai and all around the UAE the business leaders and the HR managers implement advanced technologies and software based performance management system and then expect that everything will improve automatically. However, that is not true. The performance management system is not just implementing a highly advanced and popular performance management system and not focusing on the right areas. The lack of strategy or poor performance management strategy can also result the same.

But most of the time is not the performance management software or tool that you have implemented but it is your inability to focus on the right areas and lack of integration of processes and technology in the organization’s work flows. The prime goal of the performance management is to ensure the growth and profitability however this can only be achieved by employees’ individual growth and development. The business leader most often doesn’t realize that the performance management system should be able to improve your workforce and help you identify the need for the new skills in future to get you prepared for coming challenges.

The technological advancements and innovation is definitely transforming the businesses and also the performance management systems. However, the technology is solely not the solution to your performance management problems. The HR managers and the business leaders should have to actively participate in the performance management process to ensure higher employee engagements and to lead employees to ensure higher success rate. The managers should understand that if they are failing to solve the problems or addressing the concerns that their sub-ordinates are reporting or having, then there is no point for these employees to help you out or to support you with higher goals.

That is why an active involvement of the management is essential for the success of the performance management strategy. Another most important point to consider while utilizing a digital performance management system is to ensure the performance data and information are regularly shared with the stakeholders. For example, generally all performance management systems allow employees to see the performance of their peers and other employees to encourage them to outperform the others.

Furthermore the self-assessment and your own performance data should be presented in an easy-to-understand format which will help you perform better in order to achieve your goals. Similarly there are tons of other features that a performance management system offers but it is the management who will determine if all those features are utilized to gain the benefits or not. So the technology alone is not the solution the performance management also needs full involvement of the management in the process.

Performance Management Problems: 5. Micromanagement

The micromanagement is one of the main concern of the modern workplaces. It is a culture that is being discouraged all around the world, but in reality every business or organization have to deal with it. The biggest problem with the micro-managers is that they firmly believe that they are doing the right thing for their employees, teams, and even the organization, however, in reality they are just harming the performance of the employees by demoralizing them and taking their confidence away.

The micromanagement causes a lot of problems as the micro-managers usually don’t focus on the macro level in fact they are completely occupied by the minute details and focus only on the very small issues and problems. They want to control or inspire each and every tiny action of their sub-ordinates and they want to get everything done in their own way, which they think is the only way to do a certain thing. It is this belief that led to a lot of problems and cause frustration and hopelessness among their sub-ordinates.

Furthermore when the employees are dealing with a micro-managers who doesn’t regard of their skills, experience and capabilities the feel worthless, they start suppressing their ideas which kills the innovation and creativity. They start focusing only on pleasing their manager no matter even if they will have to cheat the system or they will eventually rebel which result in higher turnover.

The problem with the micro-managers is that they think they are acting in the best interest of the organization, their this belief prevent them from trusting others as they always keep correcting others and start believing that no one else is loyal to the organization. This mindset can completely kill the relationship between the employee and the managers and it also harm employee loyalty. Another most common trait of a micro-manager is that they always need updates, they always try to check-in to know the progress and they always want to see the progress of the work.

These all problems can be solved by implementing a digital performance management system which not only provide real-time performance data to the managers and employees but it also provide a complete communication framework which reduce the unplanned follow ups and communication. Hence the employee gets the space they need to breath. They don’t get interrupted too often, they remain focused and their performance and progress is shared with the managers automatically.

Furthermore it will also help the micro-managers to focus only on the employees who are lacking or not doing so well. The fully structured and pre-planned performance discussions also prevent micro-managers to reduce interruption and let them focus on more important tasks. Furthermore the performance management system also help managers to understand the performance management process and improve their skills to conduct the regular performance management tasks and help improving the overall performance of both the employees and the managers.

Conclusion

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are eagerly adopting to modern technologies and solutions to maximize their operational capabilities and to gain a competitive edge which will help them to attract more customers. No matter how much you have invested in technology or modern solutions, if your employees are not up-to-the-mark then everything will be in vain. Businesses need to integrate a technology based performance management system and the HR and the business leader should invest their time and efforts in the performance management process in order to achieve the full benefits of the system.

In this blog we have addressed the 5 most common performance management problems and how you can solve them using a digital performance management system and a well-crafted performance strategy. The lack of trust and transparency, poor communication, unclear goals and objectives and difficult or confusing performance management processes will undermine your performance management efforts. That is why it important that the HR managers and the business leaders doesn’t only rely on the technology but also put sufficient efforts to it.

Businesses who have properly implemented performance management systems have witnessed huge improvements in their outcomes, productivity, and profitability. A performance management is a long term success strategy, it help businesses retain the required talent and develop their employees and an organizational culture to unlock the true potential of their workforce and resources.

RSI Concepts is a leading performance management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design a customized performance management system for your organization, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

January 4, 2023

How to Customize Performance Management System

The performance management is an integral part of a business’s growth strategy. The performance management help improving the operational capabilities, improve resource management, align employees and resources with high-level goals and objectives, maximize the productivity and profitability of the business and make them ready to be reactive and responsive to the abrupt changes in the market and customer trends. The modern businesses face modern problems, the markets are evolving on a rapid pace, the customer demands are skyrocketing, the workplaces become more dynamic, the employee’s demands and needs are also continuously changing. Above all the Dubai and in fact the entire UAE is a very competitive market. The human resource management have evolved a lot over the past decade, with the introduction of Gen Z in worldwide marketplaces the values, norms and standards have transformed a lot. Several surveys are market research proved that the managers and even the employees felt difficult to share an honest opinion in a fear or harming the relationship with their employees, managers or peers. It is not that this bias is new, however, it got amplified in the recent years.

Similarly there are several other variables, such as intense integration of the technology, which have completely transformed the work environment and digital ecosystem. The communication channels have been changed, the digital customer experience is paving its way, the customers are more focused on having a good experience, the competition is becoming tougher day by day, and the customer retention needs more focused efforts than ever before and so on. We can discuss hundreds of different factors that have completely changed the work environment, culture, customer behavior and marketplaces over the years. However, the important thing is to understand that a performance management system is an absolute necessity for a high-performing business. When a business or organization will have to choose a right performance management system they can easily get overwhelmed with the variety of available solution in Dubai and all around the UAE. However, a good one-fit-for-all type of performance management system or solution doesn’t exists, otherwise it wouldn’t be so difficult for many enterprises to implement a best performance management system. That is why the customization is the only way to implement a good performance management system/software which can full-fill all your business needs.

What is a Performance Management Software?

The modern performance management system is software application which is exclusively designed to support a business’s performance management processes. It is like any other software tool that a business might use to improve any other work flow or process. For example, a document processing tools or a complaint center tool is a digital solution to improve the efficiency and performance of the document processing and complaint management processes. Traditionally the performance management was done manually, where the evaluation is majorly based on the reviews by the managers. However the digital performance management system or performance management software is a modern digital solution that help businesses to increase the efficiency and efficacy of their performance management process. By leveraging the performance management software businesses can easily adopt to:

Agile Performance Management
Continuous Performance Management
Contextual-based Performance Management
Project-based Performance Management
KPIs, OKRs, Balanced Score Cards
Performance Management by Objectives
Modern Performance Metrics

And much more. The performance management software help businesses adopt to modern practices and methodologies to maximize the outcome of their performance management campaign. Furthermore the performance management software is a great tool to digitalize the performance management processes which brings automation, accuracy and transparency to the system.

How to Customize a Performance Management System that fits all your Performance Needs

Every business and organization have its own very unique culture, work environment, practices, business processes, management structure, strategies, plan, goals, work flows, etc. which make it significantly different from others. The organic evolution, natural growth and the leaders are responsible for this uniqueness and it is considered to be one of the best competitive advantage one can have in highly dynamic markets. This uniqueness also means that every business and organization have different needs hence they need a different performance management solution. There are two major categories of software solutions, whether you are acquiring a software solution for any internal or external business processes, these two categories remain same. The first one if the commercial off-the-shelf solutions (COTS) and the second category is customized, tailor-made or bespoke software. The customized software are exclusively designed to meet the very unique demands of a business hence are more reliable, perform well, integrate within organization easily, and produce much higher and better quality outcome. In this blog we will discuss how a business can customize their performance management system software to unlock the true potential of their workforce and achieve higher goals and objectives.

Customize Performance Management System: Engage Employees in Discovery Phase

Like any other software the performance management system also require a comprehensive discovery phase. Since you are aiming to develop a customized performance management software you need to do proper research before making a plan for the software. Usually business pay adequate amount of efforts in the research and discovery phase however, the most important thing that most of the businesses undermine the importance of engaging employee in the discovery phase. Most of the times businesses doesn’t include employees in the discovery phase or any other phase of the performance management system development. However, engaging employees in the early stages of the performance management system development will help you build a better and more compatible system which will align with the needs and expectations of the employees as well as the business goals. This will help you define the metrics, incentives, goals, objectives, critical success factors, and much more in a way which make sense for the employees. This also help businesses in implementing the new customized performance management system and enable them to adopt it with a more positive attitude and help you achieve better efficiency and efficacy of the system.

Customize Performance Management System: Make a List of all Required Features and Performance Metrics

One of the biggest advantage of a customized software is that you can add all the features you want. Every business have different performance objectives and even goals also. The performance management process and practices also differs from case to case, that is why each business requirement is different from the other. It is important that you include all the features that you need. Such as goal setting features, communication framework, performance metrics and data analytical tools. Whatever you want you can include in the system at this stage. The best is always to consult with the external consultant or the performance management software development company. As they would have more experience with the performance management system and their feedback can be very vital. It is important that all the performance measurement metrics are also discussed internally with all stakeholders and relevant personals. You can also engage employees at this stage and consolidate all the feedbacks in one document then refine that document and for a charter document or scope of the work. This charter document or scope of the work will include all the features that you will be getting in your customized performance management system. It is important to invest as much time and effort as you could in this stage as it is the most crucial aspect of the customized performance management software development.

Customize Performance Management System: Intuitive UI (User Interface)

For any software the UI or user interface is a key to success. Studies have revealed that people tend to avoid complex software and their efficiency declined with complex UIs and difficult user experience. Same is applicable for your customized performance management software. If the UIs are simple and easy-to-navigate the user response will be good. Furthermore it is important to customize your UIs look and feel to match with your company branding. The navigation of your customized performance management software should be simple enough to let user access the tools/features or information within a few clicks. Performing different tasks should be simple, such as defining KPIs, setting up goals and objectives, viewing performance data or any such feature should be easily accessible for all the users. Furthermore several features can be added in UIs to make them more intuitive and user-friendly such as adding tool tips, mouse hover functions, dialog boxes to share instant help materials, a dedicated help and FAQs section and guidance for the users to understand each feature of the customized performance management system. Offer simple options to save the work and continue it on the next day/session. That is a very useful feature. The textual content should be simple, avoid using complex and technical terminologies and use plain and simple language to make the system more understandable.

Customize Performance Management System: Digitalization and Automation

One of the biggest advantage of implementing software based solution for manual processes is the digitalization and the automation. The digitalization means that the performance management software will convert manual processes in digital which are more convenient. It also allow several dashboards for different users with different level of access and according to their job roles. The administration or higher management and power users will get maximum system access. This enable businesses to make a process simpler and convenient. For example, if a manager want to schedule a one-to-one discussion or meeting with an employee, they can schedule it in the system. If reviews are to be conducted this can be scheduled, and the management will get full overview of what is happening. If a review is pending they will immediately know, if they want to get the information that who conducted the review and what were the findings, etc. and all that can be done with a few clicks. Furthermore the automation help managers collect the performance data automatically which can save a lot of time and efforts and make the processes even more convenient. These are the advantages which enable businesses to easily adopt to continuous and agile performance management practices and other more frequent performance reviews.

Customize Performance Management System: Third-Party Integration

In today’s modern work environment the organizational software, tools, and databases work in harmony with each other where a well-connected network and data sharing mechanism is development to increase collaboration and communication between different software and tools a business is using. The performance management software is not different, it also support different levels of integration. However, most of the time the HR managers or the decision makers doesn’t realize that certain technological platform are better in integration than the others, furthermore it also depends on the existing network and digital ecosystem. So, the technology that you are selecting to develop your customize performance management system should be able to integrate with your existing business tools, enterprise solutions, databases and central information center. The central information center is a digital hub which hosts the data of all connected software and tools. Your new customized performance management software should be able to integrate. It doesn’t matter if you need integration or not, but the compatibility should be there. As organizations and businesses keep growing and high-performing enterprises need support from their IT infrastructure. That is why it is important to ensure your new customized performance management software will support the required third-party system integration.

Customize Performance Management System: System Administration and Configuration

Usually the HR managers or other decision makers doesn’t emphasize on the customization features and abilities of the system’s administrative panel. Most of the time when the word customization comes, people often think it is having a change in the source-code of the program or layout, which is only done by skilled professionals. However, every software also have an administrative control panel which allow certain level of customization which help system administrators and power users to manage and modify the system’s features and certain aspects. That control panel is very vital for a performance management software. Obviously it depends on the vendor, but on your part you can think of different scenarios that you could face in future which might require to make certain changes in the system. For example, currently you are conducting employee performance evaluation twice in a year, you might want to ramp up the frequency by conducting performance evaluation after each quarter. You might want to set up on-demand based reviews and assessments such as project-based performance evaluation, etc. Similarly there could be so many different scenarios and practices which you are not needing today but maybe in the distant future you might going to need them. Similarly you might want to control the alerts, notification, or even the data access for different users, etc. All these features will be available on the administrative control panel which will allow you to change or customize the system configuration to suit your needs and requirements.

Customize Performance Management System: Mobile Compatibility

The performance management system is a very important tool, the key to better performance management is always communication, in case of a performance management software you will always want your employees to interact with it more often. However, usually businesses keep the access to such systems restricted within their networks, or even the access is not the issue such software and tools come with desktop version only. The administrative and user access panels and dashboards are mostly web-based interfaces. Which means that an employee will have to login to a web-page in order to interact with such systems and software. The modern performance management system is also a similar software, it offer multiple web-based UIs (user interfaces) which can be accessed through a web browsers. However, these days the smartphone and mobile technology have completely transformed our work and personal behavior. People tend to spend more time on their smartphones and mobile devices. Above all there would be a lot of employees who will be always on the go or who will be working off-campus. For all such employees interacting with performance management software could be a big problem. That is why offering mobile compatibility can significantly increase their interactions and engagements which also have positive impact on the performance. The mobile compatibility can be achieved by two methods, one is making your UIs responsive and the other is offering a dedicated smartphone application. Both methods are good, but the dedicated smartphone applications tend to offer a better user experience.

Customize Performance Management System: Scalability, Upgrades and Maintenance

The scalability, upgrades and the maintenance are the most important components of any custom software development project. Similarly your customized performance management system should also have a crystal clear strategy, plans and mechanisms for the scalability, upgrades and maintenance. Another great advantage of the customized software application is that they are exclusively designed for a particular business and the ownership belongs to that business and not the vendor or outsourcing contractor who is developing the software. This completely solve all commonly associated problems with the scalability, as the customized performance management software is completely owned by the business itself, hence they can expand it as much as they want, they can have unlimited numbers of the users without paying anything extra. There would be no monthly or annually fees or subscription charges or associated licensing fees. The upgrade policy can be mutually worked out with the vendor or outsourcing contractor. Since you will own the customized performance management system software hence you are not bound to the same vendor, you can have in-house team to keep the system up to date or upgrade it whenever needed or you can sign an agreement with the vendor or any other third-party software development company who is familiar with the technology and can support your with further customizations in future. Same is the case with the maintenance too.

Conclusion

In the present day’s dynamic marketplace and skyrocketing customer demands, it is crucial for a business to efficiently and effectively utilize its resources. For that every business have some kind of performance management strategy. Usually businesses follow traditional by-book methods to execute a performance management strategy. However, the marketplace have changed very rapidly and the performance management is also not the same as it was a decade ago. This require businesses to be more proactive and reactive towards abrupt market changes which is why businesses adopt and implement technological solutions to increase their capabilities, productivity and readiness to respond to the market changes. A performance management system is one of the most important part of any business’s success strategy. However, recently businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have started adopting customized software and application instead of going for COTS or commercial off-the-shelf solutions. The biggest advantage of the customized performance management system software is that business can design is exclusively to meet their specific and unique needs. Unlike COTS the customized software doesn’t require you to adopt the new system and make changes to your existing processes, practices and methods.

The customized performance management system can easily integrate in the existing digital ecosystem and it can be designed as per the user’s demands hence very less or no training is required. Furthermore the businesses own their customized performance management system which means that their data will be more secure and they can customize the system the way they want in future as well. There are several other advantages of the customized software which make this method far superior than acquiring a commercial off-the-shelf software solution. That is why reason we wrote this blog to help our audience understand how they can customize their performance management system software to maximize its efficiency, impact and efficacy. If you have any question or if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you design and develop your new customized and cost-efficient performance management system software, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: The Key Elements of Efficient Software Development Project Management

November 21, 2022

Top 5 Trends that will Change Performance Management Forever

The performance management is a crucial business process. It is extremely important for a business to align all its resources with its goals and objectives. The performance management help businesses unlock the true potential of its employees, teams and departments. The performance management help businesses in establishing a high-potential workforce to ensure maximum productivity. Maximum productivity means high profitability and long-term sustainable growth. Another most important aspect of performance management is the employee retention. The businesses can’t retain an employee if the employee is unsatisfied or disengaged. The performance management help managers motivate the employees, increase their engagements, provide them opportunities to grow and develop themselves. When employees are motivated and happy with their job they tend to perform excellent. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the market conditions are very favorable, the government policies are supportive, and it is very easy to startup a new business. This lead to higher competition, which makes performance management even more important.

The performance management is not a new thing, it was a very old processes and businesses are applying these methods since the early ages of modern business. However, it has been continuously evolving and improving. The modern day performance management is heavily relying on technology based software solution which help businesses improve the process and make it more efficient. The digital performance management system or software help managers easily and quickly do the reviews and evaluations, earlier this took a lot of resources, time and efforts. This also enable businesses to conduct multiple performance reviews and evaluations in a year. Furthermore, the performance management software or PMS helps automating several steps, it provide a well-structured framework which makes it even more efficient. The performance management systems allow businesses to adopt to modern methods and trends. The performance management have become a highly advanced and sophisticated process, however, it is still evolving. Businesses might think how they could adopt to the most modern and effective performance management methods and tactics, in this blog we will discuss top 5 trends that will serve as a foundation for the modern performance management in the future.

Performance Management Trends: 1. Continuous Performance Management

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE or in fact all around the world have realized that the traditional performance management is losing its impact and is no longer viable. Another drawback of traditional performance management is that it is a manual process, it requires a lot of resources, efforts and consume a lot of time too. Usually the traditional performance management have once a year evaluation or at most twice a year, which is not enough. The manual methods lack transparency, and cause employees to lose trust on the system as well as the business. Then the bias and favoritism is also a very impactful factor which can completely undermine the benefits of the performance management. That is why a continuous performance management system or agile performance management has started replacing the traditional performance management. The continuous performance management have more frequent reviews, evaluations and discussions.

Most of the business in Dubai and all around the UAE prefer performance management activities once in a month. However, some businesses do it on weekly bases and some do it on project bases, which is usually less than 3 months. The modern businesses are very dynamic, fast-paced and required to respond to the continuously changing market and customer trends. Businesses need agility to grow and be competitive in the market. This require a continuous monitoring mechanisms which can provide up-to-date data. The continuous or agile performance management also help managers to quickly identify a problem or if someone loses the focus or get off the track, etc. the manager can easily identify such issues and take actions to ensure all resources align with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. More frequent discussions, one-to-one meetings and reviews boost employee engagement. Employee engagement is an essential ingredient for the better performance.

When employee are engaged and connected with the business they tend to perform well. It also help them align with the high-level organizational goals and objectives and it also help managers to improve communication. The continuous or agile performance management also encourage collaborative goals and objectives setting, which itself is a great method to boost employee performance. These are some of the main reasons why continuous performance management is getting popular and this trend will continue for several coming years. The continuous performance management also provide real-time performance data to the higher management and strategy makers, it gives them a chance to correct course and remodel their objectives as per the current scenarios. In general the continuous performance management increase the readiness of the organization to deal with incidents, disruptions and unexpected scenarios.

Performance Management Trends: 2. Collaborative Goals & Objectives

For any performance management strategy the goals and objectives are the most important and crucial part of it. Traditionally the high-level organizational goals and objectives are set according to the mission and vision of the business. Then these goals are scaled down up to the individual level. The managers set the goals and objectives for the individual employees, and make plans for them. However the modern performance management system also include the say of the employee in the goal setting process. It is important to understand their point of view and let them participate in the vital decision making processes. There are several benefits of including employees in the goal setting process. The collaborative goals and objectives are more likely to be achieved. As the employees were agreed with the managers in setting up a particular goal or objectives, they feel more responsible for completing it. These methods increase employee engagement, give them more trust and help bridging the gap between the strategy and implementation.

Another great advantage of collaborative goals and objectives method is that it allow managers to acquire a deeper insight of the employee performance, their capabilities and the actual situation on the ground. When the managers and employee discuss the high-level organizational goals the employee knows what is to be expected from them in order to achieve company goals. Most of the time managers are not fully aware of the employee situation, the limitation and obstacles they might be facing, only the employee knows very well what they can achieve. But important thing here is to understand that the goals shouldn’t be too easy to achieve, they should be challenging but realistic. If a goal is too easy, then it might not produce enough value, if it is too hard or extremely difficult, then the employee might not even attempt to complete it. That is why the collaborative goal setting process is a great method to help managers achieve a balance between the value and the attainability of the task. The collaborative goals and objectives tend to produce the maximum value and help achieving high performance and efficiency.

Performance Management Trends: 3. Employee Engagements

The employee engagement is basically the emotional attachment or connection that an employee has with the business and its goals. It is easy to understand why the employee engagements are considered to be the most important factor in performance management. When an employee is emotionally connected to the business and its goals, they will behave differently, they will take more responsibility, the will get motivated and work harder, and they will become more efficient. There are several factors that help increasing employee engagement and there are several factors that could distant employees from the business. The employee engagement begins with communication, if there is no effective communication between them and the manager they will feel disconnected from the system. It is important to establish a healthy two-way communication channel between the employee and the managers. The best way to do is to increase the one-to-one discussions and meetings.

The recognition and acknowledgement of the good work is one of the best way to increase employee engagement. A positive constructive feedback can significantly boost the employee morale and encourage them to perform well. The managers should focus more on meaningful feedbacks, such as if an employee showed a great performance at some task, the managers will appreciate them. But it is also important to explain them the impact of their good performance/achievement on the high-level organizational goals, team objectives, and their personal development. Furthermore the employee engagement can be increased by gaining their trust. The managers should communicate the high-level organizational goals and objectives with the employees, they should explain them why these goals and objectives are important, and they should allow the employees to come up with their own goals and objectives that they think will produce some value aligned with the company goals and objectives. Such activities and discussions can significantly boost the employee engagements.

Performance Management Trends: 4. Digitalization & Automation

The traditional performance management is a manual process, it requires a lot of time, efforts and resources. That is the reason the conventional performance management is done only once or twice a year. However, the modern performance management heavily rely on digitalization and automation which makes it quick, low-cost, and an easy task. The modern performance management system is based on a software. The performance management software is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) based application with smart analytical algorithms which makes it more effective and convenient. The modern IT infrastructure is usually based on a centralized information system which is linked with almost all other digital systems. The performance management system can integrate with other systems and get valuable performance data automatically. This digitalization and automation simplify the performance management and make is easier for both the managers and the employees.

It also provide a structured framework for communication, reviews, rewards and development programs which further enhance the effectiveness of the performance management program. A well-organized performance management system not only boost the outcome but it also help dealing with several inherent performance management problems and obstacles. For example, a structured communication framework facilitate one-to-one discussions and review processes. The digital data inputs enhance the accuracy and transparency of the system. The performance management software provides dedicated dashboards for different user groups. The senior managers can conveniently view the performance data at their dashboard, similarly the line managers, and even the individual employees can view their progress in real-time on their dedicated dashboards. Moreover some businesses also enable visibility for peers, other teams and even departments, to encourage competitiveness. The digitalization and automation make performance management more convenient and effective.

Performance Management Trends: 5. Project-Based & Contextual Performance

The project based performance management and evaluation is a relatively new concept. The project based performance management is s two-step process, the first step is to monitor and measure the performance in real-time which is done after the completion of a project or after achieving a milestone. The second step is almost similar to as the traditional performance management, the annual review. Thus the project based performance management includes both micro view and macro view. Most of the time when the annual reviews are conducted it is very hard for the managers and the reviewers to remember the performance for a project that was completed a few months ago. That is why the project based feedbacks and reviews are recorded. With the modern performance management system the project-based performance management has become simpler and convenient. The project based performance is rapidly gaining popularity among all business sectors.

The modern performance management leverage the technology. Which makes the performance management very convenient and less expensive and it also provides businesses a chance to adopt continuous or agile performance management. The modern performance management is transforming into a more context based evaluation process. Because there are several factors that can impact the performance of the employees, especially the external factors that are not visible to the managers. For example, if someone is having some problem at home, or if someone is having some other personal matter which is not letting them focus on their work and so on. These factors can have huge impact on the employee performance. But as soon as those problems are solved the performance resumed gradually. That is why the project based performance management include the employee performance at every milestone, project completion and also at the end of the year to improve the accuracy.

See More: 5 Challenges in implementing Performance Management System

Conclusion

The performance management is one of the most crucial business process. Businesses need to build a strong workforce in order to gain competitive advantages. The skilled and high-performing workforce is not only about recruitment, but it take continuous nurturing and gradual improvements which results in the brilliant and efficient workforce. The performance management is a tool that help businesses improve the employee performance. The modern day performance management system utilize technology and make the process simpler, easier, less expensive, semi-autonomous and very convenient. The digital system is very capable and it can automatically collect valuable performance data from various other systems and central information center. In this blog we have covered top 5 trends that are most likely to shape the future of the performance management. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to implement a very cost-efficient tailor-made performance management system, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and someone will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Why customized CRM Software is better than Off-the-shelf Solution?

November 14, 2022

5 Challenges in implementing Performance Management System

The performance management process have become very complex and sophisticated over the time. Often the HR and the employees both got confused with the performance management processes. Businesses use a lot of methods and tools to monitor and improve the performance. The performance management is one of the most crucial business function, it help businesses understand their strengths and weaknesses. Businesses can highlight flaws and weak points which help them grow. A successful performance management can provide a greater competitive advantage. However, we have noticed that even some of the very large companies and businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are not effectively utilizing the performance management. Hence, they are unable to work at the full potential which slows their growth and it also have financial repercussions too.

It is not that the HR or the management doesn’t have the knowledge of the performance management, but most of the time they are not doing it right, sometimes just few minor mistakes could have larger and long term impact on the performance of the business.Here in Dubai and all around the UAE businesses usually prefer a digital performance management system/software which is far better than the traditional manual performance management and appraisal processes. There are two major reasons of moving away from the traditional methods and adopting to technology based modern performance management practices. First is that the manual performance management is a very time and effort consuming process, the second is that the traditional annual reviews are losing their impact, as the more rapid changes in the markets, trends, customer demands and competition demands a more frequent and continuous performance management.

However, adopting to modern solutions is also not an easy task and that is the reason why most of the businesses made mistakes in implementing a modernized performance management system. In this blog we will discuss what most common challenges a business face when they implement a modern technology based performance management system and software solutions.

What is a Performance Management System?

The performance management system is basically a very powerful AI based software application that help businesses implement the modern performance management strategies to make the individual employees and the entire business more effective in achieving the high-level company goals and objectives. The performance management system help providing a complete framework which facilitates the performance management activities and processes. The performance management is a process that enables gradual and consistent improvement and make businesses more efficiency and capable. It help management lift up employees, groom them into leaders, train them to acquire better knowledge and skills, and help improving the entire workforce. This gradual improvement lead businesses to achieve their long-term and short-term high-level organizational goals, objectives and vision.

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Customized Software

One of the biggest challenge in implementing a performance management framework is the selection of the software. Usually there are two types of software implementation, one is commercial off-the-shelf software also known as COTS, and the second is customized software development. The customized software development is the best approach for the performance management software implementation. The COTS are designed for masses, hence are general purpose, and usually follow the industry standards. Whereas the customized performance management software is a tailor-made solution that is exclusively designed for the business keeping in mind their needs. The customized performance management system not only fulfill all business needs but it have very low impact on the organization. It integrates seamlessly within the existing environment.

The performance management system tend to integrate with existing internal systems, tools, databases and central information center. This allow the performance management system to collect data automatically from the relevant sources. The automation reduce the human effort and make the performance management process simpler and convenient. Furthermore the customization also allow businesses to make the user interfaces more intuitive and customized which make system more user-friendly. Furthermore for different businesses the performance management process is different, their needs and priorities are different, hence the customization allow them to focus more on their important things and maximize the usability of the performance management system. The customized performance management system is also cost-effective and tend to have longer lifecycle than the COTS.

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Goals & Objectives

After deploying a customized performance management system or even a COTS app, the first and most important step in performance management is setting up the goals and objectives. The most common problems in setting up goals and objectives is the over-ambitious goals and unrealistic or extremely difficult to achieve objectives. Another common problem with the smaller and mid-size organizations is having too many goals which unfortunately distract the employees from high value goals. Too many or too difficult goals will disconnect the employees form the goals and most of the times result in stress, lack of interest, hopelessness and frustration among the employees. The best approach is to have fewer and realistic goals. The individual goals should be aligned with the team’s goals, department’s goals and the high-level organizational goals and the high-level company goals are always aligned with the company vision, mission and values which also known as VMVs.

The performance management system provides a complete framework for the goals management. It enables businesses to implement SMART framework to set goals and KPIs. The SMART stands for:

Specific: Should be simple, logical and of high value
Measurable: Should be quantifiable, easy-to-understand and motivational
Achievable: Should be attainable given the availability of the resources and circumstances
Relevant: The goal should be relevant to the employee, his/her job role, capabilities and skills
Time bound: So the employee knows the timeframe to accomplish a goal

The goals and objectives both can be set using the SMART framework. The employee will understand what they have to accomplish, this will clear their mind and let them focus on the most vital goals and increase the value of their contribution. The fundamental of performance tracking is to define a goal in a way that it can be translated to a measurable and quantifiable matric. The goals and objectives should be realistic and achievable in the given environment and circumstances. The employees’ skills, experience and knowledge should align with the goals and objectives. The employee should know when their progress will be evaluated so the goals should be time-bound.

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Evaluation & Feedback

The biggest problem with the traditional performance management systems is that the employee evaluation is based on manual feedback. Traditionally the employee evaluation and feedback is done once in a year which reduce the quality of the outcome. Most of the time the reviewer tend to consider only the most recent performances and some prominent events within the year. It is because we as a human can’t remember everything, if a managers is reviewing a team then it is nearly impossible to remember everyone’s full year’s performance by the end of the year. This results in lack of trust on the system and also on the managers. Furthermore the human emotions are also a huge factor, which results in favoritism and bias. Which further crumble the trust of the employees on the system. That are some of the main reasons the employees and most of the managers also not trust the traditional methods.

However the employee performance management system provides a complete framework to collect feedback and schedule one to one meetings between the employees and the managers. This also help increasing employee engagement and fill the communication gap. Furthermore the performance management system provides dedicated dashboards which help collecting more untraditional performance data and also improve the communication. The well-organized performance management process also eliminates several other problems. It also allow managers to easily conduct the reviews, which makes it possible to evaluate employee via this performance management system. Furthermore the performance management system also provide real-time performance data, which help managers to get instant updates and take actions if needed without any delay. These features help businesses significantly improve the effectiveness of the performance management system.

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Rewards & Development

Reward and employees’ personal development is one of the most important part of the performance management system. These two are the major contributor of the employee turnover. Employees who don’t find reasonable personal development program and adequate acknowledgment they tend to lose interest in their job and are most likely to leave. It is very frustrating for the employees to not to achieve something and keep working on. No or very less appreciation will detach employees form the business, which have very bad effects on the employee performance. No employee development plan will give them an impression of getting stuck at a job which doesn’t add value to their career or personal skills and knowledge. The traditional performance management methods lacks transparency and accuracy, which reduce the impact of such efforts made by the management and demoralize employees.

A digital performance management system can effectively eliminate the poor accuracy and increase employees trust. However, it is not easier to achieve, that is why the performance management system provides a full framework to appreciate the employees in form of rewards, acknowledgments, bonuses, incentives and other perks. Due to autonomy and a better employee review and evaluation process, the employee start trusting it and get more engaged and attached with the business. Employee happiness and engagement can boost the performance. The performance data also help management in planning different training and employee development programs. The semi-autonomous mechanisms for reward and compensations also help increasing employee trust over the management and the system. That is why it is important to setup employee development and reward programs in the system.

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: System Integration

Most of the time a business implements a modern performance management system and thinks that is it and it will somehow dramatically boost their performance and progress. However, that is not the case at all. A performance management system is a software tool, from the technical prospective it require a server environment to host its all AI based algorithms and source code. That is it. However, from the users’ point of view, the general trend among the world is that people tend to oppose any new major change in their routines. That mindset could cause a lot of problems. That is why it is crucial to implement a modern performance management system with a comprehensive user training program. Furthermore the performance management system should be fully integrated within your performance management practices and the workflows as well.

The performance management system offer a ton of customization facilities. Which can be very helpful, it is ideal that the business follow another popular tool as a reference for the UI (user interface) and UX (user experience). When the performance dashboard looks familiar it is much easier to train the employees and the managers to use it. The managers also require a lot of training before they become able to utilize the performance management system at its full potential. The performance management system must be integrated with the HR system/department. Only then the HR can ensure the business have a decent talent pool all the time. The technology itself will not going to improve the performance, in fact it is how you utilize the technology can make a bigger difference. That is why it is important that the business integrate the system within existing IT environment as well as it trains its managers and employees to be able to use it. This will increase the effectiveness of the performance management system and will help you reach your high-level organization goals and objectives.

Conclusion

A modern day performance management system is basically a very powerful software tool which help business in improving their performance management process and enable them to utilize it at its full potential. There is no doubt that the performance management system have become a necessity after the traditional performance management and review methods have failed the businesses and the employees too. The business can have a customized performance management system which could eliminate several implementation challenges. The integration and adequate employee training could also be very helpful in eliminating the issues normally associated with the implementation of a digital performance management system/software. RSI Concepts is a leading performance management system provider in Dubai, UAE. We are expert in offering very cost-effective tailor-made and customized performance management systems/software. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you implementing your next performance management system. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Why customized CRM Software is better than Off-the-shelf Solution?

BLOG OF RSI CONCEPTS

Category: Performance Management System

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

What are the Characteristics of a Modern Performance Management System?

Step-by-Step Guide on Designing a Modern Performance Management System

How to Analyze the Effectiveness of your New Performance Management Model

Conclusion

What is the difference between a KPI and a metric?

How to set KPIs which are aligned with high-level business goals?

How to collect employee performance data?

Conclusion

What is the Difference between a COTS and Custom Performance Management System?

What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?

Custom Performance Management System: Effectively Implement Strategy

Custom Performance Management System: Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems

Custom Performance Management System: Get Customized Features and UI

Custom Performance Management System: High Scalability and Easy Upgrade

Custom Performance Management System: Cost-effective and High ROI

Conclusion

What is Employee Appraisal System?

Employee Appraisal System: Objectives

Employee Appraisal System: Reliability

Employee Appraisal System: Standardization

Employee Appraisal System: Communication

Employee Appraisal System: Development

Employee Appraisal System: Training

Conclusion

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

Benefits of Implementing a Modern Performance Management System

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Frequent Feedbacks

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Multi-Source Feedbacks

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Increased Productivity

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Transparency & Trust

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Digitalization

Conclusion

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

Modern Performance Management System Strategies and Best Practices

Performance Management System: 1. Continuous 360 Degree Reviews and Feedbacks

Performance Management System:2. Agile Goals and OKRs

Performance Management System:3. Increased Employee Engagement

Performance Management System:4. Public and Social Recognition

Performance Management System:5. Continuous Development Discussions

Conclusion

Performance Management Problems: 1. Failure to Set and Communicate Clear Goals

Performance Management Problems:2. Poor Communication

Performance Management Problems: 3. Lack of Transparency and Trust

Performance Management Problems: 4. Too Much Relying on Technology

Performance Management Problems: 5. Micromanagement

Conclusion

What is a Performance Management Software?

How to Customize a Performance Management System that fits all your Performance Needs

Customize Performance Management System: Engage Employees in Discovery Phase

Customize Performance Management System: Make a List of all Required Features and Performance Metrics

Customize Performance Management System: Intuitive UI (User Interface)

Customize Performance Management System: Digitalization and Automation

Customize Performance Management System: Third-Party Integration

Customize Performance Management System: System Administration and Configuration

Customize Performance Management System: Mobile Compatibility

Customize Performance Management System: Scalability, Upgrades and Maintenance

Conclusion

Performance Management Trends: 1. Continuous Performance Management

Performance Management Trends: 2. Collaborative Goals & Objectives

Performance Management Trends: 3. Employee Engagements

Performance Management Trends: 4. Digitalization & Automation

Performance Management Trends: 5. Project-Based & Contextual Performance

Conclusion

What is a Performance Management System?

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Customized Software

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Goals & Objectives

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Evaluation & Feedback

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: Rewards & Development

Challenges in Implementing Performance Management System: System Integration

Conclusion