by Technology is a great enabler. Over the past year, we’ve witnessed the power of tech first hand, as businesses around the world shifted their platforms to not only survive but thrive online. And perhaps the real hero of this tremendous transition is the common man. The everyday worker. The nine-to-five employee, who stepped up and enthusiastically embraced the new online workflow.
Technology could simplify the evaluation process. With technology, evaluation process could be done in simple system that will reduce time for the managers and related parties to deal with administrative aspects. As the time is reduced, there would be more time that could be used by the managers and staffs to create strategy to increase performance in the upcoming year.
Technology is also useful in the creation of analysis and reports. It will help to calculate evaluation scores and show it in the reports. In addition, the system may generate comprehensive reports that would be very useful to demonstrate the strength and weakness of organization to the executives.
A structured performance evaluation process with possibility for the employee to take part in evaluation process by creating employee-level goals that aligned with general business goals will increase the sense of alignment of employees with organization’s mission. Technology with performance management system could make the documentation of these goals fast and easy to evaluate.
Collecting and broadcasting information is now very easy with the use of technology. Managers could easily gather information from variety of sources, including individual job, surveys, and supervisory information. Information is also easily spread to related parties so everybody could get sufficient information. It will increase employee’s satisfaction and reduce the potency of misunderstanding because they get actual information from trustable source.
Online networks and mobile technology are essential instrumental to connect and communicate with others. It will useful for both reviewers and the employees. Reviewers could easily make frequent feedback to employees so the employees will know whether they meet expectation of their job performance or not. Employee could have constant access to participate in their reviews to the system.
Evaluation & Rewards: The goals achievement should be linked with monetary and non-monetary rewards to motivate and inspire the employee to perform optimally. Such rewards should be paid or distributed as per the timelines communicated to the employees. Employees should be confident of the seriousness of the organization in the entire process.
Data collection: Looking at each aspect individually, when we talk about data collection, it is not as simple as it seems on the surface. Without tech, data collection is bound to be paperwork heavy, strung-out, and somewhat repetitive. With tech, it promises to be faster, and more importantly, safer. Since appraisal deals with sensitive information regarding the employee, having data security systems in place, along with a secure and efficient data collection framework is essential.
Handling exigency: 2020 taught various life lessons to the entire human race. At times, the achievement of the goals might not be possible due to unavoidable factors. In such a situation, it should be discussed then and there instead of waiting for the year to end. Accordingly, if required, new goals should be set. Handling performance appraisal thru technology enables all to realign the revised goals in a short span of time, which is a challenge in paper-driven systems.
Transparent performance monitoring: The outcome of one-on-one meetings should be recorded in the performance monitoring system, to be reviewed in subsequent meetings. Visibility of such notes will create enhanced trust of the employee in the system and organisation. Successes & Victories should be given ample space in such recordings. As we know successful people live their past successes, while failed people remind of their past failures.
Human touch: While technology will play its role, however the role of human touch will always be important. Periodic performance review meetings should be organised to review the performance of an employee and provide the required support. The frequency and timing of the review meetings should be pre-decided so that the employee is aware of it and can come up with his concerns/queries. Future decisions should be taken after duly considering the performance and carefully deliberating upon the employee’s potential. Goals which have a target date of less than a year should be reviewed and rated in such meetings. One should be loyal to set goals, as they are the future.
Timely goal setting: Looking at the current business scenario timely goal setting is important. Goals should be set after discussion. Technology enables the attention of employees towards the progress of various goals to be achieved. As it is a well-known fact that where attention goes, energy flows and results show.
