The Emerging Alliance Between Human Resources and IT

Performance management is the responsibility of your human resources or people team. This sounds like a no-brainer.

But what if I told you we disagree?

Here’s the situation: traditional performance management is broken, and most organizations know this. That’s why 81 percent of companies are updating the way they manage performance. Fixing this problem takes more than new technology; it requires a change in the way your entire company views performance.

According to Gartner, as performance management shifts from an HR-led process to a decentralized model conducted by managers, these programs are increasingly driven by technology. The emerging role of the HRIT manager is a clear sign.

Let’s dig in to what that means, and where technology fits in.

[bctt tweet=”Change isn’t a special event. Change is the new normal.” username=”reflektive”]

Why Performance Management Is Changing

Competitive pressure, social and demographic change, and technological advancement are creating a workforce in which traditional performance management practices no longer apply. Change isn’t a special event. Change is the new normal.

Organizations now have the herculean task of shifting priorities and directing employee behavior to stay aligned with these needs, and in addition, responding to employee, team, and product changes. Most of the responsibility falls on HR.

[bctt tweet=”HR leaders need a better way to make decisions around human capital needs” username=”reflektive”]

HR teams know where their performance programs need to go, but the tools they use are falling short. An agile organization needs agile tools. HR leaders need a better way to make decisions around human capital needs.

What Your Employees Need

Traditional performance reviews were built for a workplace where output was easily quantifiable and employees were evaluated on the same skills. The reality of today’s knowledge-driven workforce is much different. Employees are hungry for new challenges, invested in company culture, and more interested in career development than in collecting a paycheck.

  • Only 58 percent of employees feel that managers clearly communicate goals – Guidespark
  • 30 percent of performance reviews actually decrease employee performance – Psychology Today
  • Millennials are more likely to be engaged in their work when their manager holds regular meetings with them – Gallup
  • 40 percent of employees say they’d put more effort into their work if they were recognized more frequently – HBR
  • 95 percent of employees say culture matters more than compensation – Inc
  • 83 percent of employees are more interested in staying at a company if they’re given opportunities to take on new challenges – ReportLinker Insight

Traditional performance management is designed for a different type of employee, and driven almost entirely by formal HR events, like reviews. Goals were set annually at the top of the company. And in many cases, employees were stack-ranked against each other. This model doesn’t align with today’s workforce, and HCM solutions built for those processes fall short.

Using old performance management tools when you’re operating a modern program is akin to putting old software into a brand new computer — it just won’t work, no matter how hard you try. Investing in performance management software must be part of your change management strategy.

When technology and people strategy come together, your business can operate with the efficiency it needs to stay competitive.