Have you ever wondered how organizations and businesses actually check and assess how their employees perform?
In simple terms, “Employee Performance Tracking” can be defined as the process of regularly monitoring and evaluating how well your employees fulfill their designations and execute their tasks, as well as how they contribute to the company. The process oversees factors such as productivity, collaboration, accountability, and their overall contributions to the organization.
Instead of relying on unreliable communication or assumptions, the Performance Management System gives managers and heads a clear idea of how their employees are performing and where improvements or support may be needed.
Traditionally, companies handled performance tracking through annual reviews, paper files, and evaluations by the manager. However, these approaches were often limited and ineffective, as the feedback was infrequent, biased, and too late to make any meaningful improvements to the work.
Today, the phenomenon of Employee Performance Tracking has transformed into being more accurate and precise, largely thanks to the modern HRMS systems. Modern Performance Management Systems continuously track work activities and relay the real-time data through dashboards. This gives the managers and heads appropriate data to understand individual performance and progress and give the employees the right suggestions. Clearer information also allows the employees to be more productive and make better decisions.
In this complete guide to Employee Performance Tracking, we’ll cover the modern systems, including HRMS, and how they can assist in monitoring and improving employee performance.
Why is Performance Tracking Important?
In the modern workplace, performance tracking has become a mandate for healthier and faster growth. Here’s what makes performance tracking important:
- Setting Employee Objectives: – The data from performance tracking gives both managers and employers a clear idea of the goals to be achieved in the workplace. When these objectives are monitored regularly, it becomes easier to stay on track and make adjustments as required.
- Improving Workplace Relationships: – When each and every team member knows what they are working on, teamwork becomes smoother and more efficient. Regular communication and check-ins from higher-ups reduce misunderstandings and increase open team support.
- Workplace Transparency: – Performance tracking allows employees to know and understand what their work is evaluated on. This contributes to the trust between the employer and employees and encourages a healthier work culture.
- Uplift High Performers: – Regular performance tracking helps in identifying employees who put in relatively more effort into their work. Recognizing and appreciating them can boost the overall workplace morale.
- Leadership Development: – By tracking employees who show potential, employers can trust them with bigger responsibilities. The right use of internal resources helps in the organic growth and expansion of the company.
What are the Key Components of Effective Employee Performance Tracking
Accurate performance tracking relies on a few core components. These include:
- Goal Setting (SMART Goals, OKRs): – Frameworks like SMART Goals and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) assist in setting clear and achievable targets. These structures help employees understand the exact requirements and expectations and help them stay focused and track their progress.
- Task and Project Monitoring: – Real-time monitoring of the assigned tasks and projects empowers the team to stay on track and quickly make appropriate adjustments wherever required, without impacting the overall progress.
- Assessing Skill and Competency: – Monitoring aspects such as attendance, punctuality, and discipline in the workplace gives the employer a clearer picture of the employee’s reliability and overall professionalism. This helps in making informed evaluations that are fair and balanced.
- Real-time Feedback: – Regular feedback with real-time data allows employees to get better at their job by adjusting, learning, and staying motivated throughout the journey.
- Performance KPIs and Metrics: – Measuring employee performance using clear and crisp metrics gives accurate and objective insights, such as productivity, quality, teamwork, and results, making performance evaluations easy to understand.
Together, these components combine to create a comprehensive performance tracking system that measures accurate results and empowers employee growth.
What are the Common Challenges in Performance Tracking
While performance tracking is a core component for growth and productivity in the modern day, organizations often face several challenges in employing the Performance Management System effectively. Some of the common hurdles include:
- Lack of Clear Goals: – Without clear objectives, employees may not be aware of what they are supposed to do. This reduces accountability and makes tracking progress difficult.
- Difficulty in Tracking Progress: – When tasks, projects, or employee goals are not monitored properly, performance tracking loses its accuracy.
- Inconsistent Feedback: – Like any system, regular and instant feedback can help employees make better decisions and improve themselves. On the other hand, Infrequent feedback or reviews can hinder the professional growth of the employee.
- Biased Opinions: – Evaluations conducted by managers or department heads can often be influenced by personal opinions and favoritism. This can create a sense of distrust among other employees and affect the entire work progress and organizational hierarchy.
- Outdated Tools: – Using old tools for performance tracking can create more issues due to inaccuracy and slow results. This, in turn, can discourage leadership and employees from using the tools.
- Poor Communication: – If the heads do not communicate about the expectations, objectives, and feedback with the employees properly and regularly, they may feel disconnected from the organizational ecosystem
- Resistance to Change: – Employees who prefer the old system and conventional performance tracking systems may hesitate and resist the new systems. This makes adoption slower and resource-intensive.
Being aware of these challenges can help organizations make smarter decisions to enforce the performance management systems in a healthy manner.
How does an HRMS Help in Performance Tracking?
HRMS is the common abbreviation for Human Resource Management System, a digital platform that helps in managing employee information and HR processes under a single umbrella. Modern HRMS systems come with provisions that assist in accurately tracking employee performance. Here’s how HRMS supports both employees and managers in performance tracking:
- Lack of Clear Goals: – Without clear objectives, employees may not be aware of what they are supposed to do. This reduces accountability and makes tracking progress difficult.
- Centralized Database: – An HRMS system stores all performance data in one place. This includes employee tasks, goals, attendance, feedback, reviews, and more. This allows managers to make swift evaluations without needing to go through different systems.
- Real-Time Employee Progress: – With smart HRMS systems, managers or department heads can monitor projects, tasks, and employee progress instantly. This gives managers the power to give timely suggestions to assist the employees in attaining their objectives better.
- Setting Goals Swiftly: – The integrated frameworks, such as SMART goals and OKRs, allow employees and managers to assign, track, and monitor objectives clearly with complete transparency.
- Frequent Feedback: – The real-time feedback system in HRMS allows employees to adjust their performance appropriately and stay motivated towards completing their set goals.
- Track Key Performance Metrics: – Modern HRMS systems will automatically record all the important metrics and KPIs without any errors. This can help managers evaluate employee performance and productivity accurately.
- Reduce Bias: – By obtaining accurate data stored in the HRMS system, employees can trust the managers to make objective decisions without involving personal biases or favoritism.
- Eliminate Manual Reporting: – As the HRMS custom dashboards and reports offer detailed information, managers do not need to manually obtain data. This speeds up performance evaluation while maintaining transparency.
- Self-reviews by Employees: – The provision to see their own performance and productivity rates allows employees to oversee their work styles and recognize the areas that require improvement.
- Connect Performance with Training: – The smart HRMS system can help in highlighting gaps in skills and assist you in finding the right training programs. This can significantly help you in your professional journey.
Employing an HRMS allows organizations to step back and focus on core operations, while the system simplifies employee tracking and admin review processes
What are The Best Practices for Successful Performance Tracking
Following the best practices below can help both employers and employees make the most out of accurate performance tracking. These best practices include:
- Define Roles and Goals Early: – Clearly defining designations, responsibilities, and targets from the very beginning allows employees to truly understand what they need to do and work accordingly.
- Regular Performance Review: – Weekly performance reviews allow managers to monitor progress and address challenges promptly, helping employees stay focused.
- Transparent Communication: – Transparent communication between employees and heads builds trust and contributes to the overall strength of the organization.
- Actionable Feedback: – The right feedback will help employees learn and grow, rather than feel judged or blamed. It focuses on what can be done better and not on pointing out mistakes.
- Assist with Performance Gaps: – Recognizing skill gaps and providing the employees with training opportunities can help them be the best at their designations.
Accurate Performance Tracking with iHIT's HRMS
Building a healthy and supportive work environment starts with using a trusted Performance Management System. When employers have clear and real-time insights about the work operations and employees, it becomes easier for them to appreciate and guide those who need help effortlessly.
With Ihits HRMS, one of the best HRMS in India , you get a reliable way to track organizational progress and keep your team motivated.
Upgrade your workplace with Ihits HRMS today. Contact us to learn more about our HRMS solutions.
