Employee Performance Made (Much) Easier

A couple of months ago, I talked about how important managing employee performance was to the overall success of the business. If anything has changed in those last two months, it is that employee performance is a bigger deal than ever. If you own or operate a business during these challenging times, you absolutely must get this right.

So right after my post about putting performance management first, I wanted to get with the post sponsor (Halogen Software) and see what their product could do in comparison to some of the other products out in the market. Having seen some of the other products and knowing some of the conventional ways this is tracked at smaller organizations (pen and paper tracking? Please!), I feel comfortable acknowledging that this is the most comprehensive, off-the-shelf solution available.

eAppraisal And Your New Performance Dashboard

Halogen eAppraisal is the core of the company’s entire performance management suite. As I walked through the software, it occurred to me that after you got the system initially setup, the training couldn’t be that difficult. As I was following along, the entire interface was precise and easy to navigate. This is a big plus for supervisors that will interact with the system on a less frequent basis than your HR team will.

Regardless of your position as an evaluating manager or a HR pro, you’ll be presented with a dashboard that will keep you on track. At the very top of the page, you will see your pending tasks. It should be noted that many of these tasks can be automated simply so that HR and managers don’t have to remember that Bob in accounting needs to be reviewed again.

How eAppraisal Helps to Accomplish Effective Performance Management

I listed five reasons why it was important to put employee performance management first. How does eAppraisal help you accomplish this?

1. It helps facilitate regularly scheduled communication – eAppraisal acknowledges that we are in fact human. We forget things, important things that need to happen. That’s why that in addition to a dashboard, the software sends out automated e-mails that remind you when a task needs to be completed. Also within easy access is a performance journal that you can use to keep track of an employee’s performance.
2. It sets the bar high (for both employees and managers) – You can customize your employee evaluation forms in whatever way you like. Halogen showed me how this was done in the demo and it is super easy. The program emphasizes goal setting and tracking.
3. It helps standardize the process – As anyone who deals with employee performance appraisals knows, it is difficult to standardize review procedures and measurements across a diverse organization. I am not saying eAppraisal will magically solve that for you but it is a key in that puzzle.
4. It helps get a full performance picture – It not only helps you consolidate all of an employee’s reviews but it also helps higher level managers to understand where their organization is performance wise. eAppraisal includes easy-to-use reports that can quickly bring a manager up to speed on the performance status of their organization.
5. It works – eAppraisal is extremely easy to use on a day-to-day basis. This is incredibly important for your supervisors since that can often determine the success or failure of a performance management system. It is customizable, has easy-to-use reminders to document and present performance and helps HR and the management team get a grasp on how your performance management function is working.

What More Could You Ask For?

eAppraisal also works in conjunction with a variety of HRIS systems as well as their own platform of add-ons to the performance suite. This includes a compensation, succession, training and 360 degree feedback modules that all work in conjunction with one another. They also have software that is specifically designed for healthcare, financial and professional services fields.

Having evaluated all of these factors, I recommend that you give eAppraisal a try to see how you like it. You can sign up for a demo or for a free trial of the product. Compare it to your current solution and I’m confident that Halogen’s software offering can help you take it to the next level.

This post is being sponsored by Halogen Software who specializes in Talent Management. Halogen offers a complete suite of web-based HR software that lets you automate, simplify and integrate employee performance evaluations, 360 performance reviews, compensation management, succession planning and learning management.