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How Performance Management Systems Enhance Employee Engagement

Businesses have many challenges in managing workforce, the performance management and the employee engagements are the two most crucial aspects. Employee engagement directly impact business success, engaged employees tend to be more productive, loyal and motivated. That is why any modern performance management system is incomplete without incorporating best employee engagement practices. Traditionally performance management focuses on setting up goals and achieving them, and the employee engagement on the other hand, focuses on fostering a positive and friendly work environment.

That is the reason the performance management and employee engagement are not only intertwined but interlinked also and for business success managers need to focus on both. The employee engagement not only have positive impact on overall performance of the organization, but it also elevates customer experience, product/service quality, and employee turnover. A motivated workforce is a key to success in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. If your employees are motivated they tend to produce better outcomes in any unconventional condition.

Studies showed that the employee engagement is declining since past few years, and businesses operating in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and other regions of UAE also felt that. This fueled the rapid adaptation of modern digital performance management system and practices. In this blog we will discuss how a modern digital performance management system can completely transform the employee performance management and employee engagement processes. Moreover a customized solution can be a great help in linking performance management with business outcomes which boosts productivity and profitability.

See Also: Performance Management System: Best Practices

How Performance Management Systems Enhance Employee Engagement
How Performance Management Systems Enhance Employee Engagement

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

A performance management system is a well-structured process to assess, evaluate and improve employee performance and the quality of the outcome produced by these employees. A modern performance management system just does the same with an addition of implementing a software solution which empower and improve each and every aspect of your performance management system. The modern performance management system is not limited to annual reviews and appraisals. It can vary in terms of complexity, design and features, but at its core it is a continuous process which includes continuously providing guidance, support and encouragement to employees, ensuring they stay on track and eliminating the obstacles which are or could compromise performance.

Businesses can design a tailormade performance management system as per their diverse and exclusive business needs. This is what makes custom performance management system more effective. A modern digital performance management system offer comprehensive tools and methodologies that continuously optimize employee performance throughout the year. Whether it is feedback, reviews, one-on-one meetings, performance evaluation, course correction or appreciation, the modern performance management system operates throughout the entire year.

Beyond only monitoring and improving efficiency the modern performance management system provides well-organized framework for employee growth and development, which is essential for trust building. With a modern performance management system both employees and management knows where they stand and do collaborative and constructive efforts to elevate overall organizational performance.

See Also: Employee Performance Management Process with PMS

What is a Modern Performance Management System?
What is a Modern Performance Management System?

Why Employee Engagement is Crucial for Business Success?

Businesses who implement employee engagement initiatives tend to perform much better than the business who still follow the traditional and outdated performance management practices. For example, continuous feedback loops, regular employee-manager interaction, including employee say in crucial internal processes and decision related to performance management, etc. All these help engaging employees, and give them a sense of importance and value. This sentiment is crucial for motivation and help HR and mentors to effectively boost operational performance and profitability. According to studies, engaged employees tend to be around 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than disengaged employees.

It is because the disengaged employees are demotivated and tend to be less efficient. Moreover the employee turnover is also greatly impacted by employee engagements, an engaged employee is 87% more likely to stay in the organization. Employee retention is one of the biggest challenge in modern performance management. Employees tend to leave for better opportunities, if you offer them great working environment, a positive organizational culture and keep them engaged, they are most likely to stay even if offered higher salaries and perks. That is why employee engagement is very crucial for businesses.

Furthermore the engaged employees has a sense of ownership and pride in their work, which fuels the innovation. The engaged employees are always the ones who came up with innovative solutions, creative ideas and tend to be more aligned with high-level organizational goals. A digital performance management system offer advanced tools for enhancing employee engagement.

See Also: Choosing a Performance Management System A Buyer’s Guide

Why Employee Engagement is Crucial for Business Success?
Why Employee Engagement is Crucial for Business Success?

How a Modern Performance Management System Increases Employee Engagement?

A modern performance management system offers advanced tools and intuitive dashboards for both management and the employees. This help businesses effectively implement their performance management strategies and polices, which resultantly amplify the impact of performance management and employee engagement processes. The modern performance management system greatly improve the following aspects to increase employee engagements:

Setting Clear and Realistic Goals Increase Employee Engagements

The modern performance management system digitalize the performance management process and various HR activities which drive efficiency. Moreover the performance management system can automate a variety of relevant processes which help improving the entire performance management process. Setting up goals, is one of the most fundamental and crucial aspect of performance management. The high-level organizational goals and strategic objectives are driven by organization’s vision, these are then channeled down to different business functions, departments, teams and till individual employee.

See Also: How the HR should select a Performance Management System?

The goals and objective give directions to employees and tell them what organization is expecting from them and how employees can succeed in achieving their goals. The modern performance management system provides tools, frameworks and methods to establish SMART Goals by collective and collaborative efforts. The SMART Goals is a complete goal setting framework which means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant, Time-bound. Here are a few things to consider while creating employee goals:

  • Break down large strategic objective or project into smaller, manageable and achievable tasks
  • Set realistic deadline to achieve those tasks, the accountability is a very important driver
  • Implement periodic/continuous monitoring policy, review and course correction for better results
  • Encourage employee feedback and suggestions in goal setting and relevant decisions
  • Critically analyze and enlist potential obstacles, short comings, disruptions and their solutions

Implementing SMART Goal setting framework and sensible strategy can greatly improve the success rate, it also gives employee clear understanding of their progress and build a sense of motivation and achievement. When employees successfully achieve small goals and milestones, it build a sense of success and increase their momentum to deal with bigger challenges. The sense of success, progress and achievement is a very powerful driver it keeps employee motivated, engaged and invested in their work.

See Also: The Future of Performance Appraisals: 6 Innovations and Changes [Quick Guide]

Set SMART Goals and Objectives
Set SMART Goals and Objectives

Continuous Feedback, Guidance and Positive Criticism Keep Employees Engaged and Motivated

The traditional performance management systems lacks seriously on their annual review practice. The modern and digital performance management systems on the other hand offer a continuous monitoring and review mechanisms which help businesses adopt and implement continuous performance management strategies. The employee can get regular feedbacks, guidance from managers, and they can also share their concerns to rectify the issues and to remove the obstacles that are or can hinder the performance. The regular interaction with supervisors, managers and mentors help employees critically evaluate their performance and enable them to make real-time adjustments in their performance. This is also vital for aligning employees with their and high-level strategic goals and objectives.

  • Timely Feedback Means Timely Actions: When the employees gets regular feedbacks, they have plenty of time to make adjustments and to improve their work instead of waiting for months for the reviews, which not only demotivate employees but also cause more damage to their performance and progress.
  • Encourage Growth and Improvements: Whether it is professional competency or behavioral competency, continuous feedback help employees identify their areas of improvement and also provide them guidance to make improvement. These improvements results in rapid growth and put employees in right direction, helping them to choose the right career path forward.

The regular feedbacks also foster confidence and trust. When the employee see their progress and achievements are noticed, their problems are proactively addressed, they tend to be more engaged and motivated. Regular inputs from managers build a sense of importance and value, it tells employee that the managers are committed to their success and growth which is vital for employee retention.

See Also: What are the Features of a Best Performance Management System?

Continuous Feedback, Guidance and Positive Criticism Keep Employees Engaged and Motivated
Continuous Feedback, Guidance and Positive Criticism Keep Employees Engaged and Motivated

Rewards and Recognition Engage Employees and Foster a Productive Work Environment

Rewards and Recognitions plays a crucial role boosting morale and improving performance. In fact these are some of the most powerful motivators. When employees’ accomplishments are acknowledged they feel a sense of value and pride which not only motivates them but also other employees to perform well in future. When the employees are appreciated they are more likely to work with more commitment, responsibly and with higher dedication.

Businesses operating in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and other regions of UAE always struggle with high turnover, a well-thought reward and recognition strategy could not only help attracting top talent but it will also be very helpful in retaining experienced workforce.

See Also: 5 Performance Management Problems and How to Solve Them

Appropriate rewards and appreciations help in:

  • Boosting Morale: Recognizing employee’s achievements, hard work, and efforts not raise job satisfaction but also boost their morale, which keeps them motivated for higher productivity.
  • Motivation for Others: When high-performing employees are recognized and rewarded, it also motivates others to strive for excellence.
  • Reduce Turnover: Reducing employee turnover is crucial for any business’s success, rewards and recognitions are two most impactful factors to keep employees satisfied and loyal.

A good performance management system not only help businesses build effective reward and recognition strategies but it also help them evaluating the impact of these strategies which is an excellent feature to make improvements in future. Some proven reward and recognition strategies are:

  • Tangible Rewards: The tangible rewards can be offering merchandises, gift vouchers, movie tickets, meals, cash bonuses, and such things can be a great motivator for higher performance.
  • Intangible Rewards: Non-material rewards can boost morale and drive high performance such as, additional vocations, flexible work hours, opportunities for personal development, etc.
  • Social and Public Recognitions: Recognizing employee’s achievements publicly such as in meetings, company-wide email notification, or at social media can be a great motivator.
  • Personalized and Private: Customizing the recognitions as per individual employee’s preference or acknowledging their achievements in private/direct communication can be a great motivator.

The modern performance management system makes reward and recognition more impactful by linking them with the specific goals, milestones, or any other professional or behavioral competency. Which not only increase employee engagement but also amplify the impact of the reward and recognition program.

See Also: How to Customize Performance Management System

Rewards and Recognition Engage Employees and Foster a Productive Work Environment
Rewards and Recognition Engage Employees and Foster a Productive Work Environment

A Well-Structured Communication Framework Empower and Engage Employees

A modern performance management system comes with a comprehensive software application. The performance management software is a very smart and intuitive tool, it offers tons of in-built features along with ability to customize as per your business needs. Businesses can customize any workflow or process as per their needs, which align well with their organizational goals and objectives. However, when it comes to employee engagement tools, the communication is one of the most crucial aspect. Without an effective communication strategy a business can never engage its employees. The performance management system ensures honest, open and productive dialogue between managers and the employees.

It also encourage employees to approach managers to discuss their concerns and needs. Easy communication and a well connected organizational culture help fostering a culture of collaboration and collective efforts which elevates performance and productivity. A performance management system not only help establishing strong communication channels but it also help implementing various communication strategies for elevated performance.

See Also: Top 5 Performance Management Trends

  • Regular One-on-One Meetings: The performance management system (PMS) provide a structured framework where the manager and policy maker both can setup a communication policy. The one-on-one meetings are considered to be very effective in increasing employee engagement. The managers can discuss employee performance, goals, obstacles, concerns and needs in one-on-one meetings. The performance management system automates scheduling of meetings, it ensures a safer and free environment is provided to the employees to express themselves freely. Later on the transcripts, minutes of the meetings, key discussion points, etc. can be utilized for timely feedbacks, coaching, training and mentoring.
  • Effective Review and Feedback Mechanisms: The performance management system offers a variety of feedback management tools. Whether it is manager-employee feedbacks, whether it is a full-on 360 degree feedback, the performance management system convers all. The performance management system provides a fully or semi-automated feedback delivery system. It not only facilitate manager’s feedback but it also provide employees a chance to share their thoughts, and even anonymous feedbacks can also be facilitated to encourage more honest and fair discussion. The performance management system can also implement the feedback policy, a customized feedback form can be triggered upon a specific event, etc.
  • Leveraging Technology and Digital Tools: The performance management system provides intuitive and bespoke tools to facilitate communication. That is not all, it also provide tools and features which help managers and employees to track progress. Businesses can integrate various third-party tools, such as appointment booking, video conferencing, company’s internal communication tools, emails, and much more. The management can automate various processes, which save them a lot of time and at the same time it makes communication more effective and impactful. By leveraging technology, businesses can foster a culture of honest and open communication, build trust and encourage collaboration which amplify employee engagements.

A good communication is essential for building trust and trust and openness is one of the most effective aspect of employee engagement. When the employee feel heard, their opinion valued, and their concerns addressed, they feel more valued, motivated and connected with their duties and objectives. A modern performance management system not only provides a variety of communication tools and mechanisms to enhance communication, but also provide effective tools to gauge the progress.

See Also: The Risk of Poor Performance Management and How to identify it?

A Well-Structured Communication Framework Empower and Engage Employees
A Well-Structured Communication Framework Empower and Engage Employees

Personal Development Programs (PDPs) for Employee Growth and Engagement

The personal development programs or PDPs are a great tool to enhance and elevate employee performance. Every employee wants to grow, everyone wants to improve and elevate their professional competencies and skillset. Businesses leaders and HR needs to develop employee development programs that can personally target each employee, hence personalized personal development programs are always more effective than any generic training program.

The employee development programs are developed on the bases of skills needed to perform a task with at most efficiency and to align employee’s skills with the organizational needs. However, a performance management system offers tools which not only include employees in personal development programs but also engage them in whole process.

By closely monitoring the employee performance, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, businesses can develop personal development programs that not only help employees grow but also make them more productive and efficient asset for the organization.

See Also: Why do businesses need both the performance management and performance appraisal?

Here are a few key benefits of personal development programs that are focused on employee growth and well-being:

  • Increased Employee Engagements: When a business offer employee-focused personal development programs, the employee feel more valued, trusted, connected, motivated and engaged. It encourage employees to deliver their best and perform well.
  • Boost Employee Performance: When business start focusing their development programs on covering the gaps between performance and goals, the employee acquire competencies that support them achieve their goals and results in great improvement in performance.
  • Better Employee Retention: For any organization retaining the top talent is a big challenge. By developing personalized development programs, businesses can show their commitment to employee’s individual growth, which help retaining high-performing employees.
  • Long-term Business Success: By personalized employee development programs, businesses can foster a highly motivated workforce with up-to-the-mark skillset. This also help businesses growing in a diverse, dynamic and highly competitive market landscape.

A modern performance management system offer comprehensive tools and features for both managers and employees to assess and evaluate performance with higher accuracy. The employee KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), their alignment with goals, their progress and feedback, are all designed to empower both employees and managers.

  • Guidance and Mentoring: The performance management system provide in-depth performance analysis which enable managers to deliver personalized and targeted guidance and mentoring for the employees in much needed areas.
  • Setting Up Realistic Expectations: A performance management system is equipped with AI (artificial intelligence) and smart data collection tools, which provide in-depth analytical data and insights that enable managers to set the most accurate and realistic expectations of PDPs.
  • Identifying Learning Needs: The performance management system not only help managers identify the learning needs, but it also help employees to evaluate their progress by themselves. They can also give their inputs in showing their interest which makes PDPs more appealing.
  • Creating Action Plans: The performance management system not only provides SMART Goal setting framework but it also offer tools to make a comprehensive plan-of-action, which help identifying the needs of resources, skills and training needs to achieve those goals.

Employees in general value personal growth a lot, when organizations start developing personalized development programs it empowers their employees. The employee feel valued, they trust the organization and become more loyal. This also help organization in fostering an up-to-date workforce, which can not only help them outperform competitors but also help them dealing with emerging challenges and changing market trends. Well-trained, engaged and motivated employees help fueling the innovation and achieving higher employee autonomy which are two major contributor for success.

See Also: Employee Performance Management is a small part of Performance Management System

Personal Development Programs (PDPs) for Employee Growth and Engagement
Personal Development Programs (PDPs) for Employee Growth and Engagement

Conclusion

By adopting and implementing modern performance management systems businesses can revolutionize their workforce management practices, which not only help them increasing employee engagements but also make them more competitive, efficiency and productive. The operational efficiency is a key to innovation and profitability which are the two key metrics for a successful business. A modern performance management system is a combination of highly advanced performance management practices, strategies and a performance management software. Businesses can yield real-time performance monitoring and management by implementing a modern performance management system and levering its highly engaging features to bridge the gap between employees and managers.

By encouraging honest and open communication between employees and managers, businesses can foster a culture of engagement and collaboration. A modern performance management system offers advanced tools such as continuous and real-time monitoring, feedbacks and reviews. These tools provide in-depth understanding and a variety of analytical metrics, which help managers take more informed and data-driven decisions to course correct, make performance adjustments, identify resource and training needs, etc. Clear and realistic goals, well-structured communication mechanisms, and frequent guidance from managers keep employee engaged and motivated. The engaged employees not only perform well but also tend to be more innovative and adaptable for emerging challenges.

Furthermore the performance management system drives transparency, fairness and accuracy in employee evaluation, assessments, and reviews. This help gaining employee trust, which also help fostering a culture of loyalty and collaboration which help organizations in retaining the top talent. The transparency and in-depth smart analytical data driven decision making also enhance and improve employee reward and recognition programs, it also help improving the development and training programs and help elevating the overall competencies of individual employees. When employees feel empowered, valued and trusted, they tend to be more engaged, motivated and loyal with their work. Cultivating a positive and collaborative culture help organization success in long term.

See Also: Why Performance Management System is a Necessity for Companies in Dubai

Adopting a digital and modern performance management system not only help organization retain top talent, but it also help organization in leadership development. Businesses can identify the potential in employee to become efficient managers and leaders in future. This helps management to direct and focus their resources to groom such employees who have higher potential and skills. Businesses can not only enhance and elevate the performance but they can also improve the entire workforce by fostering a culture of appreciation and collaboration. Implementing a modern performance management system doesn’t mean to have a more complex and sophisticated accountability tool, but it is an investment in the future of the organization which make businesses more competitive, productive and profitable.

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE know how rapid the market trends changes, and how competitive business landscape is. In such markets it is extremely important for a business to leverage the full potential of the talent and resources thay have in hand. For that the efficiency, productivity and adoptability are crucial. A modern performance management system aided with a customized software application can help businesses position themselves for sustainable and long-term growth. In this blog we have briefly discussed how performance management systems can help enhancing the employee engagement and overall organizational culture. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement a tailor-made performance management system for your business or 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.


The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement

In a modern competitive market landscape it is crucial that a business fully leverage the true potential of its workforce. The HR is responsible for ensuring every employee is working at its full potential while being happy and satisfied with their work. The employee engagement is a crucial function because it can impact each and every aspect of the business such as operational efficiency, technical capabilities, product and service quality, customer experience, employee satisfaction, profitability, etc. A performance management system provides a comprehensive framework, which help businesses in performance management process and it can greatly increase employee engagements. The performance management systems are designed to align individual employee performance with the high-level organizational goals and strategic objectives.

The performance management system seamlessly integrates various processes such as performance evaluation, feedbacks, reviews, appraisals, goal setting, etc. The performance management system is a modern software based solution which offers various tools and features which aid in performance management tasks. The performance management system is equipped with advance data collection tools, analytical reporting tools, and various other features which can help in performance management activities. In this blog we will discuss the role of performance management in employee engagement.

The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement
The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement

What is Employee Engagements?

Employee engagement is not just a single measurable substance, it is an entire spectrum of emotions and feelings an employee could have towards their organization, individual job role, daily work, co-workers, or team. The employee engagement is absolutely essential for the success, here is why:

  • Passion: Enthusiastic and passionate employees tend to work harder, as their work is very important for them and these types of employees are always read to meet new challenges.
  • Dedication: The engaged employees are more dedicated towards their work and goals, they believe in organizational goals and understand the value of their contribution to it.
  • Higher Purpose: Engaged employees believe in higher purpose, they feel their job role and work has a higher purpose which contributes to something higher-than themselves.
  • Growth: The engaged employees tend to be more eager towards growth and development, they tend to outperform the poorly engaged employees and tend to be more productive and skillful.
  • Recognition: The recognition and acknowledgement are the key factors, when employees feel valued they become more energetic, enthusiastic and dedicated towards their work.

See Also: Performance Management System: Best Practices

The business leaders and HR utilizes various methods and techniques to enhance employee performances. The performance management is one of the most widely used methods to increase employee engagement, productivity and efficiency. However, the traditional performance management methods are losing their impact, now a days, a modern software based performance management system is taking over. The modern performance management system provides a comprehensive framework coupled with modern performance management methods and practices. Businesses all around the UAE are adopting to modern performance management systems for higher employee engagements.

What is Employee Engagements?
What is Employee Engagements?

How Performance Management System Enhance Employee Engagements?

A modern day digital performance management system is a structured solution offering a comprehensive framework to implement modern and advanced performance management methods and strategies. The performance management system offers advanced monitoring and analytical tools, helping analyzing various aspects of individual and team performance. Furthermore the performance management system helps implementing policies to increase employee engagements and overall employee satisfaction.

See Also: What are the Features of a Best Performance Management System?

A well-implemented performance management system can greatly increase employee engagements:

  • Goal Setting: The performance management system streamline goal setting process with in-built features for objective key results (OKRs), SMART goals, and customized KPIs. The performance management system also help communicating goals to individual employees.
  • Alignment: When the employee goals are clear and communicated effectively, they knows what is expected from them, this also help them understanding how their efforts align with the high-level strategic goals and objectives.
  • Advanced Feedback: The performance management system provides a systematic and structured approach to streamline communication and feedback, encouraging continuous feedback and more frequent interaction help boosting employee engagements.
  • Employee Development: The performance management system not only monitor employee performance but it also help identifying strengths and weaknesses of the employees, highlighting the development opportunities and boosting employee competencies.
  • Reward and Recognitions: Appraisals, rewards and acknowledgements are essential for boosting employee morale and when the employees are admired, valued and have a sense of importance they tend to be more engaged and perform well.
How Performance Management System Enhance Employee Engagements?
How Performance Management System Enhance Employee Engagements?

See Also: The Impact of Performance Management on Organizational Culture

Furthermore the performance management system offers a variety of features and tools which can be very helpful for the management to keep employees more engaged and productive. Businesses can also customize these tools and digital features of the system to enhance its impact and adoptability. Here are a few more features that can be integrated in a performance management system to boost employee engagements and satisfaction:

  • Regular Feedback: A performance management system can help implementing a more frequent, regular, and continuous and even real-time feedbacks. The feedback is crucial in engaging the employees, it also keeps them motivated and help management course correct.
  • Customized Software: The modern performance management system relies on a software application, the performance management system software should be customized as per unique business needs to amplify its impact and to boost employee engagements.
  • Collaborative Culture: The performance management system can provide essential tools and features to enhance collaboration, communication and peer-to-peer feedbacks. Streamlined communication and peer recognitions help engaging and employees.
  • Mentorship Program: The mentorship program can greatly increase employee engagements. Managers and senior employees can be appointed as mentors to guide and coach the new or inexperienced employees and help boosting collaborations.
  • Training Program: When businesses invest in employees they tend to become more motivated and perform well. Personalized training programs, workshops, and learning opportunities can help boosting employee morale and increase their engagements.

With the advanced features of a performance management system businesses can conveniently foster a culture of highly engaged employees. Engaged employees tend to be more active, innovative, creative and confident. Employee engagements are crucial for higher performance and high-performing employees are crucial for long-term sustainable success.

See Also: 5 Performance Management Problems and How to Solve Them

The Performance Management System Offers a Variety Of Features and Tools
The Performance Management System Offers a Variety Of Features and Tools

Conclusion

Employee engagement is a powerful catalyst to boosting the entire organization’s performance, productivity and profitability. A modern performance management system is not just an appraisal tool used to evaluate the employees, but it is a highly structured and systematic approach to elevate the entire organizational culture. A digital performance management system comes with a customizable software application that can greatly enhance the impact of performance management.

The performance management system empowers employees, encourage communications, and provides a structured approach for regular and continuous feedback fostering a highly collaborative and connected organizational culture boosting employee engagements. In this blog we have discussed the role of performance management in employee engagement. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want to our help to design and implement a bespoke 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.

See Also: Performance Management System Trends in 2023

See Also: Choosing a Performance Management System A Buyer’s Guide


Performance Management Trends in the Digital Era

In the era where digitalization is reshaping each and every aspect of our work and personal life, the performance management systems stand at forefront of business transformation. Performance management is a framework which provides a systematic approach to monitor and improve the performance of any organization. The workforce of any business or organization is its core strength, if your workforce is performing at its best you can produce more and high quality outcome by investing less resources. Think of the employees at a customer service center, one employee is able to serve 45 customers in a shift whereas another is only able to serve 20 – 25 customers a day.

How would this impact your operational cost? The performance management not only streamline human resource processes, but it also help enhancing employee productivity and satisfaction. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other regions of UAE are well aware of the fact that the employee retention is one of the biggest challenge of modern day business landscape. The high employee turnaround causes a lot many problems and indicates even more problems.

Therefore in order to keep your workforce engaged and to offer them a productive organizational culture businesses turn towards modern performance management systems. A modern performance management system is a digital tool which consists of software application, analytical tools, and techniques to enhance performance and employee satisfaction. In this blog we will discuss how a modern performance management system can be game changer for your business.

Performance Management Trends in the Digital Era
Performance Management Trends in the Digital Era

What is Performance Management?

By definition, the performance management is a business process which involves continuous communication and feedback between the managers/supervisors and the employees. Traditionally the performance cycle is one year long, and at the end of each year the managers sits with the employees, interview them, get their feedback, analyze their progress towards set goals and objectives and on the bases of these feedbacks, reviews and progress manager determine how well or poorly an employee performance throughout the year. The primary goal of performance management is to align employee objectives with high-level organizational goals.

See Also: How Performance Management Impact on Organization’s Culture?

The performance management system not only aligning employee objectives with organizational goals but it also ensures that the employee develop and become more skilled while ensuring a steady and sustainable business growth. The performance management system provides tools and streamline processes which help businesses create more effective employee objectives, while utilizing a systematic approach and digital framework to closely monitor employee performance and ensure every employee achieve their goals that contributes to the high-level organizational goal and objectives.

See Also: Linking Performance Management to Business Outcomes

What is Performance Management?
What is Performance Management?

What are the Drawbacks of Traditional/Manual Performance Management?

The traditional performance management system are manual, usually following a one year long performance cycle, which means the appraisal is done at the end of very year. This process in itself is outdated, and incapable of meeting the modern needs of the businesses. However, there are several drawbacks of using traditional/manual performance management methods such as:

  1. Lack of Flexibility: The traditional performance management methods are annual or bi-annual which lacks the flexibility require to deal with dynamic job roles and frequent changes in the goals and objectives, which are crucial for course correction.
  2. Personal Bias: One of the biggest drawback of traditional/manual performance management process is that it is prone to human bias. Sometimes managers have bias towards certain employees, but most of the times employees think that their evaluation is not fair due to manager bias, hence reduced the overall fairness, accuracy and transparency of the system.
  3. Limited Feedbacks: Since the manager and the employees are not engaged throughout the year, the reviews and feedbacks are also infrequent, therefore it forms a gap between the needs and the actions hindering the improvement process and reduce the overall efficacy of the system.
  4. Lack of Employee Engagements: The employees are very less engaged in the performance management activities as most of the decisions are unilateral and employees have absolutely no or very little say over the policy making and even on their own development processes.
  5. Time-Consuming: The traditional or manual performance management process is very time consuming, majorly based on manual reviews and feedback processes involving a lot of paperwork and manual analysis. Furthermore the HR and employees both have to spare a lot of time for these activities.
  6. Unsatisfied Employees: The traditional/manual performance management system lacks the ability to satisfy employees because most of the employees and the HR leader doesn’t trust the system and are very skeptic. Poor communication, infrequent feedbacks and lack of engagement lead to further distrust and failed to satisfy employees, unsatisfied employees tend to leave sooner or later, causing more problems for the HR and the business as well.

The modern day employees wants instant gratification, they need more frequent feedback, higher contribution to the process and demand higher engagement. Which is not possible with traditional/manual performance management systems. Therefore businesses and organizations are turning toward digital performance management systems.

See Also: How to Customize Performance Management System

What are the Drawbacks of Traditional/Manual Performance Management?
What are the Drawbacks of Traditional/Manual Performance Management?

What is a Digital Performance Management System?

A digital performance management system is a technology-based solution that help businesses implement and adopt to modern performance management processes and techniques. The digital performance management systems are the latest trend in the rapidly evolving performance management sector. A business’s success very much depends on the performance of its employees, in order to boost this performance businesses implement several technologies and adopt to modern practices which help them make their employee more productive, happy and satisfied.

See Also: Customizing Performance Management Systems for Diverse Workforces

A digital performance management system not only meet the modern performance management needs, but is proven to be many times more effective and accurate from the traditional/manual performance management practices. The digital performance management systems comes with a centralized software application and customizable tools which help businesses and organizations to implement modern performance management practices as per their needs and help them boost employee productivity with better monitoring, evaluation, transparent and accurate analytical and software tools.  In this blog we will discuss the emerging performance management system features and top trends.

See Also: Choosing a Performance Management System A Buyer’s Guide

What is a Digital Performance Management System?
What is a Digital Performance Management System?

Challenges Businesses can Overcome with a Digital Performance Management System

A digital performance management system can address several challenges modern day business are facing. It provides a comprehensive framework and support tools to improve the efficacy and impact of the performance management process. Here are some common challenges of the traditional methods which modern digital performance management system can easily overcome:

  1. Continuous and Real-time Feedback: The modern digital performance management systems offer continuous and real-time feedback data. The continuous feedback and real-time data increase managers’ visibility enabling them to take timely actions and course correction.
  2. Informed Decisions: The modern performance management systems offer a variety of monitoring tools and real-time updates, enabling managers to quickly identify the obstacles and problems. Comprehensive and customizable reports enable data-driven decisions and timely actions.
  3. Digitalization and Automation: The modern performance management system comes with a highly effective performance management software which digitalized several performance management processes, making it more effective and hustle free. The digitalization also drive automation lifting up the heavy workload from the HR team and managers.
  4. Flexibility and Adoptability: Modern performance management systems heavily rely on a software tools which offers great many features and customization to make the system more flexible and adoptable. Businesses can adopt to emerging needs and changes with in-built tools in a totally seamless manner.
  5. Employee Engagement: The modern performance management system offers variety of user interfaces and dashboards for various management levels and job roles. Intuitive user interfaces engage employees in their performance management activities and also streamline communication which enhance employee satisfaction.
  6. Effective and Efficient: The digital performance management systems are more effective, thanks to the digitalization and the automation it brings along. Furthermore the in-built tools, centralized management framework, real-time monitoring and data updates make performance management process much more efficient.
  7. Higher Employee Development: The digital performance management systems offer in-depth insight to employee performance and provide advanced tools for career planning, employee development programs and skill enhancement drives. All these tools help increasing employee satisfaction and also raise retention rate.

Businesses can completely transform the way they conduct their performance management by implementing a modern digital performance management system. It is not just an upgrade to modern technology but it provides a systematic framework to gradually boost the performance and productivity enabling businesses and organizations to leverage the true potential of their workforce.

See Also: Performance Management System: Best Practices

Challenges Businesses can Overcome with a Digital Performance Management System
Challenges Businesses can Overcome with a Digital Performance Management System

How Automation and AI is Redefining the Performance Management

The Human Resource is one of the essential business function. Without a high-performing HR a business can never achieve its desired goals and objectives. A digital performance management system is a tool which not only help HR team but also aid administration and provide higher management with deep insights, better understanding of internal process, workforce capabilities and various aspects of growth and scalability. The digitalization drives automation and with the advancement of the technology and AI or Artificial Intelligence businesses are boosting their operational and functional capabilities.

The integration of digital and technology-driven tools empowered by advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence businesses can greatly boost their performance and capabilities. Traditionally the performance management is limited to annual or bi-annual reviews, paper-pen based feedback forms, subjective assessments and manual work. The modern performance management software equipped with AI and advanced analytical tools are completely reshaping the performance management.

Businesses can have real-time reporting, behavioral analysis, technical analysis, and various analysis in intuitive performance monitoring dashboards and above all the data is updated in real-time. All these features help management quickly identify and rectify problems. This ensures that each and every employee is fully aligned with the high-level organization goals and objectives.

See Also: 6 Performance Management Problems and How to Solve Them?

How Automation and AI is Redefining the Performance Management?
How Automation and AI is Redefining the Performance Management?

What are they Key Advantages of a Digital Performance Management System?

As I have mentioned above the digital performance management system can help businesses overcoming several challenges of traditional/manual performance management methods, the digital performance management system offers several benefits which further improve performance and help businesses gain a huge competitive advantage by achieving highest possible operational and administrative efficiency. Here are key advantages of a digital performance management system:

  1. Align Employees with Business Goals: Aligning employees with business goals is crucial for the success. For that the most important thing is to be able to create individual goals and objectives that positively contributes to the high-level organizational goals and objectives. It is also important to communicate those goals and objectives with at most clarity to create a purpose-driven workforce who knows what they are doing, why they are doing it and what do they will achieve by success. A digital performance management system offers specialized tools to align employees with the high-level business goals along with real-time monitoring tools to keep employee aligned with the business goals through the performance cycle.
  2. Enhanced Feedback and Reviews: There are several methods businesses use to improve the quality of the feedback and reviews. These feedback are reviews are absolutely essential for making crucial decisions and defining employees’ career path. Therefore adopting to 360 degree review or 720 degree reviews could provide a much deeper insight to employees’ performance as well as the performance of the managers and even higher management. All these features help highlighting the factors that are hindering performance and also provide valuable insight to take decisive actions and strategic decisions to rectify these problems.
  3. Better Investments in Employee Development: Businesses are investing huge amount of money and efforts in employee development programs. However, without an accurate and deeper understanding of employee’s strengths and weaknesses, the employee development programs failed to deliver desired results. The digital performance management system provides full 360 degree view of employee strengths, weaknesses and also the context of their performance. All these tools help businesses to design employee development, up-skilling and reskilling programs with much higher impact which later contributes to the overall success.
  4. Higher Focus on Contextual Performance Management: Businesses are utilizing digital performance management systems to increase their focus on the contextual performance management. The major difference between the contextual performance management and traditional performance management is that rather than focusing on regular performance metrics the contextual performance management also includes the environment conditions in which employee operates, the team dynamics, employee skillset, and even the external factors such as personal and economic conditions of the employees as well. This level of information skyrocket the accuracy, fairness and transparency of the performance management system and greatly improve employee satisfaction.
  5. Reward and Recognition: Businesses are realizing the importance of reward and recognition. It is not just the monetary gain that the employee seeks the most, but only appreciation and proper acknowledgement of their achievement could greatly increase their happiness and satisfaction. The modern performance management systems offer a comprehensive framework to design a successful reward and recognition program. Instead of one-fit-all businesses are leaning towards the personalized rewards, hence the digital performance management system makes it easier to help designing a reward and recognition program which suits employee’s expectations. The modern performance management system help management greatly boost motivation and drive performance while maintaining maximum level of engagement.

A modern performance management system is capable of boosting productivity and performance while ensuring employee satisfaction and higher retention rate. The digital performance management systems also help in recruiting, onboarding and off-boarding activities keeping the overall morale high and ensuring highest level of transparency and accuracy in the performance management system.

See Also: 5 Performance Management Problems and How to Solve Them

What are they Key Advantages of a Digital Performance Management System?
What are they Key Advantages of a Digital Performance Management System?

Conclusion

Businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE are well aware of the importance of employee retention and employee satisfaction. Businesses are using various different performance management systems and methods to do the same. However, with the passage of time the traditional/manual performance management systems are losing their ability to make desired impact. Both managers and employees are losing trust over traditional performance management methods. Therefore business are turning towards the more modern and advanced digital performance management systems. The annual or bi-annual reviews are replaced by the more in-depth contextual performance management and continuous feedbacks. Businesses are increasing employee engagements in the decision making, goal setting and various strategically important processes. All this is possible due to the advanced capabilities and features of a digital performance management system. A centralized management framework with personalized dashboards and real-time data, businesses can effectively overcome all challenges of past. Furthermore the easy customization, flexible control integration with AI and advanced tools can greatly improve the control and visibility and help management make their performance management process more effective, impactful and fruitful.

In this blog we have discussed all major aspects of the modern performance management. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to build and implement a customized 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.


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
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.

See Also: The Future of Performance Appraisals: 6 Innovations and Changes [Quick Guide]

See Also: Why Organizations need Performance Appraisal System

What is Employee Appraisal System
What is Employee Appraisal System?

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.

See Also: Performance Appraisal System for the HR Department

See Also: 5 Challenges to face if Performance Appraisal is not customized as per Organization’s Policies

Employee Appraisal System: Objectives
Employee Appraisal System: Objectives

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.

See Also: Modern Methods of Performance Appraisal

See Also: Employee Performance Appraisal System for Small Businesses

Employee Appraisal System: Reliability
Employee Appraisal System: Reliability

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.

See Also: Beginners’ Guide to Appraisal System

See Also: The Impact of Performance Management on Organizational Culture

Employee Appraisal System: Standardization
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.

See Also: Employee Evaluation and KPIs for Better Employee Performance

Employee Appraisal System: Communication
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.

See Also: The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement

Employee Appraisal System: Development
Employee Appraisal System: Development

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.

See Also: Appraisal Methods in Performance Management System

Employee Appraisal System: Training
Employee Appraisal System: Training

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.

See Also: Employee Performance Management Process with PMS