Performance Management Software

So how are we doing? Performance management software allows organizations to objectively answer that age old question, in a business sense. It's all about gathering and examining information to make informed decisions. As such, performance management is often part of a big-ticket enterprise software solution. A performance management software package allows the big guns to observe, appraise, and (hopefully) reward. After all, the foot troops love to be showered with incentives for their hard work ...

Governmental agencies have a unique way of describing the process. Not to mention a unique way of handing out those rewards. (Case in point: the whopping $461,745 paid by the Transportation Security Administration for their November 2003 awards banquet at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC.)

The United States Agency for International Development defines performance management as "the systematic process of monitoring the results of activities; collecting and analyzing performance information to track progress toward planning results; using performance information to inform program decision-making and resource allocation; and communicating results achieved, or not attained, to advance organizational learning."

Other Fed functions offer differing viewpoints.

The Office of Personnel Management describe the process as "work that involves assisting managers and supervisors in establishing, maintaining, and monitoring effective performance management programs to plan, monitor, develop, rate, and reward employee performance, and services that support formal and informal award programs to provide employee incentives and recognition."

The FAA is even more concise, as it states that performance management is a "system whereby expectations for performance, results, and/or outcomes associated with a particular employee, team, or organization are documented, communicated, and evaluated."

Performance management software providers include Authoria, Clarity, CorVu, Enkata, ExecuTRACK, Halogen, OutlookSoft, PeopleSoft, RTIX, SAS, SRC Software, SuccessFactors, and many others.