Free Employee Performance Management Software
Employee performance management software is a digital solution implemented to help individual employees reach their full potential through recognition, coaching, goals setting and continuous performance reviews.
Employee performance management software goes by many other names such as performance management software, performance review software, employee evaluations software as well as performance appraisal software. While this category of software has many different names, the solutions are all designed to do one thing—use automation to facilitate the cumbersome and time-consuming performance review process. This includes simplifying the continuous employee performance reviews, setting individual goals and objectives and creating specific development plans for every employee to help them become more effective workers and valuable assets to the organization they work for.
Free employee performance software is just like any other commercial performance management system, except it is available to users free of charge. Obviously, like any other free software product, free performance management tools often come with a few limitations, whether it’s the overall quality of the software solution, the amount of features offered or the level of security that is available. Free solutions are very useful to any startup or small business that has limited resources, specifically in the financial aspect. However, opting for free performance evaluation apps doesn’t mean you’ll end up with a poor software product. You just have to figure out what you need and know what to look for.
At its core, employee performance software is a solution that is used to help HR teams and managers keep track of individual employee performance based on 360-degree feedback, continuous/ongoing performance tracking, peer reviews, employee engagement as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) and objectives and key results (OKRs). This applies to any performance management solution, regardless of whether it’s free or a paid software product.
Free employee performance software is a common choice for many startups and small businesses with limited financial resources. It is a good jumping-off point into the world of modern performance reviews and HR software applications. Performance management systems are typically integrated or are available natively in a complete human resources software suite. This software category, though, is often tailored for mid-market businesses and large enterprises. Standalone employee evaluation software, while they can be integrated with other HR systems, serves a very specific HR process and that is to evaluate employee performance on a frequent and ongoing basis.
Performance management software allows HR teams and managers to create consistent and precise job profiles and expectations. The solution can help in determining the right goals and objectives that specifically align with organizational goals and company missions. Team leaders, managers, supervisors and HR professionals can use the software to easily track, analyze and assess the performance and job effectiveness of individual employees. At their core, performance management tools are designed to improve the performance of any business, regardless of size or scale, by promoting and nurturing employee productivity and efficiency.
Now, 360-degree feedback software is a subcategory of performance management systems, although it is often included as one of the core features of most performance evaluation tools and HR management suites. A 360-degree feedback software is used by HR professionals and managers to facilitate the manager-employee and employee-to-employee feedback process. This software solution is designed to help HR teams, project leaders and managers with collecting comprehensive performance data regarding individual team members and employees. The employee performance data, which can be captured in real time, can also be utilized for employee assessment and training purposes.
Unlike any standard performance management system, 360-degree feedback software enables users to gather employee performance reviews not just from superiors, but from subordinates, colleagues, peers and even clients. If you can find a standalone 360-degree feedback solution, you may discover that this type of software is very affordable considering that it only serves a single function. You may also find a free version or a free trial of this software, which is good if you want to take it for a spin prior to investing money on it.
Employee recognition software is another subcategory of employee performance software that focuses on digitizing and gamifying the employee recognition process. Just like 360-degree feedback, employee recognition is also commonly featured in larger more comprehensive performance management systems and HR software suites. This solution can be useful for startups and small businesses if they want to focus on rewarding and acknowledging the good performances that are being exhibited by individual employees. Employee recognition encourages behaviors from employees that can enhance company culture, improve employee morale and engagement, as well as boost employee productivity and efficiency.
In addition to a few standalone products that are also often featured in free employee performance software solutions, there are other core features and capabilities that are equally useful to startups and small businesses that are looking to improve the productivity and efficiency of their workforce. Among them are social collaboration tools. If you have a free performance management system that offers social collaboration as a core feature, you will have the opportunity to build and strengthen relationships among your employees by giving them a simplified way to share feedback, constructive criticism and make simple conversations.
With social collaboration tools, employees can easily share their experiences on specific tasks with colleagues and team members as well as guide their subordinates and junior co-workers to accomplish tasks and get better results.
One of the most basic functions of performance management software is continuous feedback and coaching. Even free employee performance software offers this functionality to its users, although it might have a few limitations. This is because the culture of constant improvement and growth has become an important factor in business development. The best way to achieve this is by ensuring consistent and continual improvement of employee performance and productivity, and the best way to do that is through continuous feedback and coaching.
Regular and continuous employee evaluations for ad hoc measures are performed in order to realign an individual’s performance. The more relevant reskill or upskill training measure is then distributed to the organization’s learning system. The resulting data can then be leveraged by managers, HR professionals and trainers to provide interpersonal coaching for the specific employee who needs it. small businesses and startups can use this functionality to train their existing employees, build their skill sets and facilitate their personal and professional development.
There are many benefits to using free employee performance software, especially for startups and small businesses that have a relatively small workforce and can’t afford to hire more talent. If you’re a startup, there’s only so much you can do when it comes to hiring top talent. However, there is a lot that you can do to take care of your existing talent. Among them is to improve their productivity and efficiency by tracking their performance and giving them the opportunity to develop the skills they need to deliver better results and perform their best.
Even free performance management solutions offer some level of continuous feedback. This provides startups with a huge advantage when it comes to keeping track of employee performance on a more consistent and continuous level. Continuous feedback means you get constant feedback, dialogues and employee performance information on a real-time basis. This approach can help improve team collaboration, job satisfaction and morale.
Employee motivation is a crucial component to the success of any business. In order for your employees to perform well, be more productive and effective at their job positions, they need to have the right motivation to improve both personally and professionally. Using free employee performance software and implementing it the right way can help motivate employees. Your managers and team leaders can track employee performance and provide regular feedback and guidance with the help of a well-implemented employee evaluation program.
Good performance management solutions can also provide comprehensive employee analytics. Even free performance management platforms offer some level of analytics and reporting capabilities that deliver revealing information about your workforce, such as performance trends. HR teams, managers and project leaders can access multiple reports to provide them with meaningful data regarding the performance of individual employees and team members. They can use these detailed reports to create different talent management strategies and development plans for each individual in their team.
Finally, there’s also the goal setting and management aspect. Most performance management systems have a goal setting or goal management function that helps managers to configure and set goals for each individual employee. The feature is designed so goals/objectives are easy to set and configure, making sure they are reachable and are based on the individual’s needs for improvement.
If you’re a startup or a small business owner with a relatively small workforce, you can find value in free employee performance software solutions. Whether it’s a free version of a premium software product or a limited free trial, you can take advantage of the offer to get familiar with the software and determine how it can help improve your employee evaluation process.
Free-to-use performance management systems are equipped with a number of features and tools that you can use to improve the performance, productivity and efficiency of your employees, albeit at a smaller scale. This type of software solution will can you with only what you need, nothing more and nothing less. This is the perfect starting point for you to dip your toes into a more modern employee evaluation process.
