Performance management has long been an important function of HR. It serves several functions. The first is that it gives employees a set of standards by which they need to adhere to, to be successful in their role. Performance management helps employees know if they are meeting their goals and gives them clear indicators of what parts of their performance could use improvement and which parts are meeting or exceeding expectations. It also helps the employer give more structure to roles, which can lead to more productivity from their teams. Overall, performance management helps to give solid shape to what employee’s need to be doing at their job to stay on board, to get a raise or to receive a promotion. It also helps employers better understand what their teams or individual employees may need by way of motivation or communication to improve overall performance.
Can HR analytics improve your performance management?
So how does an organization improve its employee review and performance management process? Here’s how using HR analytics in performance management can help your business and your employees.
1. Hiring top performers from the get-go
One way that businesses can elevate the performance of employees is to hire the best, most productive employees from the start. HR analytics helps managers better evaluate resumes and other talent metrics to give more insight into which applicants are more likely to be driven, dedicated, invested, and engaged. Some indicators include being promoted within their organization, good references, high rate of project completion, and other factors that HR analytics can help HR teams pinpoint out of candidates and sort through during the hiring process.
2. Easier assessments
Performance management in the past has been primarily handled by an employee’s immediate supervisor who gives feedback during an annual review. More modern HR practices are including HR analytics and other software solutions to help bring about a more holistic view of performance management. With HR analytics in performance management, HR can see red flags or low-performance indicators and address them before they become a problem that leads to a lost employee or lost productivity and revenue at the business level. Things like increased tardiness, missed assignments, and other factors can be monitored and communicated with management and employees to help raise performance and productivity collectively.
3. Concrete measures
When HR analytics are part of an overall human capital management strategy and software solution, a lot of clarity can be gained, which is for employers as much as employees. With an HCM system, performance reviews are more accessible to employees with goals that are measurable, trackable, and less vague. Performance management tools and employee reviews are meant to give employees a clearer picture of what they are doing well, what they should continue doing, what they need to improve on, and how to make those improvements. HR analytics is able to use real data to inform employees and managers and help both make decisions and goals based on that data.
4. Better predictions
HR analytics can help employers track trends over time. If they are noticing a lot of lackluster productivity or people in certain departments quitting, they may be able to look deeper into underlying issues, such as demoralizing managers, lack of training or advancement opportunity, need for better communication, or other HR analytics in performance management
HR analytics in performance management helps businesses have a better understanding of what is needed among their staff to help boost productivity and ultimately help drive up performance enterprise-wide. HR analytics helps employers identify performance gaps and work to help address them, using the data that analytics offers. With better data comes better planning and planning can help set the foundation for the best possible performance.
