What to Look for in Your Employee Performance Software

Performance and Priorities
In the age of remote and hybrid work, employee performance software has become a necessity in assessing performance, improving workplace productivity, providing employees with opportunities for growth, and aiding in employee retention. 

Data-driven decisions are the backbone of any successful organization—and they’re critical to helping CEOs understand what their business priorities should be. According to Gartner’s CEO’s Top 10 Strategic Business Priorities 2022-2023 survey, the most pressing issue was workforce management, up from fifth place in 2020. With talent retention, hiring, and DEI issues taking precedence in 2023, investing in employee performance software can enable leaders to gain key insights on both current and future capabilities of their teams. 

However, employee performance software is not universal—knowing what to look for when selecting a solution is critical. Whether it's a consistent feedback structure, a set of actionable reports, or a goal-tracking user interface, leaders need to assess what their needs are and the gaps they’re looking to fill. 

Claira, for example, has a wide range of features that cater to a number of use cases. By centralizing accurate data in Claira, managers can do everything from cross-utilizing their employees on the fly, predictively building perfect teams to tackle projects, and engaging their employees with customized upskilling opportunities. 

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Basic Needs
The two most important factors in assessing the effectiveness of employee performance software are precision and ease of use. Precision empowers leaders to make better data-driven decisions—this can mean the difference between choosing to enhance a team’s existing or adjacent skills (upskilling) vs. hiring more talent on an ongoing basis. When it comes to precision, Claira leverages the power of competency science and machine learning (ML) instead of resumes and job descriptions to achieve extreme accuracy in data collection and use. 

Ease of use refers to when organizations not only adopt a software solution to their HR woes, but are also able to derive continuous value over time. This means including features that enable both hiring managers and employees to positively engage with the platform, ranging from usability and user interface simplicity to integrations with other HR tools. At Claira, we focused on an employee-first model, building features designed to increase employee retention via reengagement on the platform and in real life.

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Collaborative Options
Another key factor in successfully implementing platforms like Claira is ensuring that managers use the data to encourage teamwork. Well-designed performance software should align people across departments to achieve shared goals and increase organizational collaboration. They should provide a dynamic value output that focuses on employee trajectory and growth.

Real-time updates on employee performance can also help individuals understand their own strengths and weaknesses. Rather than waiting for an annual performance review—which has been criticized by HR professionals for being too focused on past mistakes and lacking the instantaneous feedback aspect– software programs such as Claira allow employees to dynamically update with customized growth opportunities that match the needs defined by the firm. 

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Benefits of Employee Performance Software
Employee performance software not only provides efficiency and productivity to an organization, it also aids in the growth of employees and improves upon talent retention. The return on investment is clear: Companies that invest in human capital management software have the potential to make better data-driven decisions.