8 Best Performance Management Systems 2023
现代绩效管理系统做多record annual manager/employee reviews. They include 360-degree feedback, intermittent check-ins, goal setting and management, and more.
We’ve identified the top performance management systems that provide easy-to-use tools that help you evaluate and encourage your employees.
- AssessTEAM:Best overall performance management system
- Zoho People:Best for growing companies building their human resources (HR) program
- TriNet Zenefits:Best for established companies wanting a full HR information system (HRIS)
- Performance Pro:Best for legal compliance and pay equity tools
- PerformYard:Best for ease of use
- 在gagedly:最好的员工职业发展
- Small Improvements:Best for building your company culture
- BambooHR:Best for HR tools integration
Performance management is the process by which a supervisor monitors, evaluates, and improves the work of an employee. It includes communicating responsibilities and expectations, setting goals, and providing feedback.
Need to know more?Check out our guide:What Is Performance Management?
Best Performance Management Software Compared
Our Score (out of 5) |
Per-employee Monthly Pricing |
Annual Minimum Fee* |
Company, Team, and Individual Goals |
1:1 Feedback Tools |
Implementation Support |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.49 |
$3 to $5 |
None |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
4.49 |
$3.50 to $10 |
$210 |
✕ |
✕ |
✓ |
|
4.21 |
$20 to $27 |
$1,080 |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
4.03 |
$2 to $6 |
$1,125 |
✓ |
✓ |
✕ |
|
3.89 |
$5 to $10 |
$4,000 |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
3.84 |
$4 to $6 |
$5,000 |
✓ |
✓ |
May cost extra |
|
3.65 |
$5 to $7 |
$2,100 |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
3.61 |
$4.25** |
None |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
*Annual minimums may vary. Call for quotes.
**This pricing is for the performance management add-on; you must also sign up for a custom-quoted base plan.
Note that all providers in this list come with performance review templates and sample questions, automated reminders, and 360-degree feedback.
AssessTEAM: Best Overall Performance Management System
We find AssessTEAM is best overall because it supports any small business that wants to conduct employee reviews with a huge range of features at a competitive price. AssessTEAM offers feedback tools that start with new hires, allows employee feedback, and can let you evaluate projects as well as people. Even though it’s available in 79 countries, it still offers personal support, even having HR advisers on hand to help you with evaluation strategies.
AssessTEAM topped our evaluation with 4.49 out of 5 stars. Zoho People, which is a full HR system, ties with it, but AssessTEAM gets the top slot because it offers more performance management functionality than Zoho People. It earned perfect scores for functionality, performance, and price. Its reports are not as robust as others on the list and, while users rated it highly, there were not many reviews, bringing down its popularity score.
Zoho People: Best for Growing HR Responsibilities
Pros
- Multilanguage support
- Includes feature-rich HR software
- Inexpensive for the toolset
- Highly rated mobile app
Cons
- Need at least the Premium plan for performance management
- 支持通过电子邮件,24/5
- Steeper learning curve
Zoho People Pricing
- Premium:$3.50 per employee monthly
- 在terprise:$5 per employee monthly
- People Plus:每个员工每月10美元
Note:Minimum five users for all plans and $210 annual spend
Add-ons
- Employee profiles:Starts at 23 cents per employee monthly (pricing varies according to chosen plan)
- Zoho Recruit:$600 per recruiter, per year
- Learning management:18美元每user, per year
- Premium support:$114 per month
- Onboarding support:$3,000 to $4,000
Zoho People is on our list for the best HR software because of its versatility and excellent price. It includes a terrific set of performance management tools. It also offers more HR tools (you choose higher plans) and has multiple native integrations to make it a complete HR information management system. Thus, if you’re a small business that is growing your HR department or looking to add software to help automate HR processes, Zoho People is worth considering.
With 4.49 out of 5, Zoho ties with AssessTEAM; however, we placed it second because AssessTEAM offers just a bit more in functionality. The price is excellent, especially for the rich feature set. However, if you don’t need all the HR functions, you may find it too complex for your needs. Users say it has a higher learning curve.
Read our fullZoho People review
TriNet Zenefits: Best for SMBs That Need an HRIS
Pros
- Full suite of HR tools
- Can tie performance to compensation
- Mobile app
- Free payroll for a year (limitations apply)
Cons
- 金属氧化物半导体t expensive on our list
- Performance tools part of an overall HR package
- No 24/7 phone or chat support
TriNet Zenefits Pricing
- Growth:$20 per employee month;y
- Zen:$27 per employee monthly
- $6 per month for contingent employees
- Minimum five employees for all plans and add-ons—$1,080 per year
Add-ons
- Payroll:$6 per employee monthly (one year free)
- Advisory services:每个员工每月10美元
- Benefits admin using your own broker:$5 per employee monthly
- Recruiting:$62 per month
TriNet Zenefits is best for businesses that are ready to upgrade to an HRIS to track their employee HR data online. It offers traditional performance reviews that align the workforce through shared goals, and it adds tools to document one-on-one meetings with managers to improve employee engagement and performance.
TriNet Zenefits earned 4.21 out of 5 on the rubric. It earned perfect scores for ease of use, reporting, and performance tools. Its pricing brought the overall score down. It also had the lowest user rating of all the software we reviewed: 3.95 out of 5 averaged over multiple review sites.
Read our fullTriNet Zenefits review
Performance Pro: Best for Legal Compliance
Pros
- Automates the evaluation process
- Can tie evaluations to compensation
- Writing assistant checks for trigger words
- Easy to use
Cons
- Need to call for exact pricing and minimum
- No employee engagement tools
- No mobile app
Performance Pro Pricing
- $2 to $6 per employee monthly
- Minimum $1,125 per year
- No free trial
Additional plans let you add Compease and The Learning Center:
- Add one:$3 to $7 per employee monthly
- Add both:Call for quote
Performance Pro is the most traditional performance management system on our list. However, it stands out from the rest in that it includes legal checks that help your managers avoid language in their evaluations that might get them or your company in trouble. It costs extra, but only Performance Pro has this tool. In addition, it has a strong toolset for evaluations and goal setting at a reasonable price.
Performance Pro earned a solid 4.03 out of 5 on our rubric. The lack of a mobile app took down its score, as did the fact that its reports are filterable but not customizable. It also doesn’t have as robust a help system as others on the list. However, it offers a good range of features, with a high score in functionality and a perfect score for user reviews and popularity.
PerformYard: Best for Ease of Use
Pros
- Intuitive dashboard
- Customizable reports
- Peer praise
- High scores from real-world users
Cons
- Need to call for a quote
- No onboarding/new hire tools
- No mobile app
PerformYard Pricing
- $5 to $10 per employee monthly
- Need to call for an exact quote
- Minimum $4,000 per year
- No free trial
PerformYard is not the highest-ranked performance management software on our list, but it is the highest rated by real-world users (for its intuitiveness and overall ease of use, among other qualities). Its pricing is competitive, and it offers the most important tools needed to run regular evaluations, plus peer praise and informal check-ins. It offers features for ranking employees to find high performers and potential leaders as well.
PerformYard earned 3.89 out of 5 on our rubric. Its more expensive pricing took the score down as did the lack of a mobile app and new-hire evaluation tools. Even so, it earned perfect scores under popularity, reporting, and ease of use.
在gagedly: Best for Employee Development
Pros
- Social learning tools
- 9-box leadership evaluation
- Learning management tools available
- Other HR tools available as add-ons
Cons
- Must call for quote
- 没有应用程序编程接口(API)
- Could use a better knowledge base
在gagedly Pricing
- No free plan
- Call for quote (sources suggest $4 to $6 per employee monthly)
- Minimum:Starting annual agreement is $5,000
Like traditional performance management software, Engagedly lets you create goals and schedule performance reviews. But it goes beyond that with employee engagement, collaboration, and communication. It provides peer-to-peer (P2P) feedback, a cool interface, and a mobile app to provide real-time feedback to employees in addition to standard reviews. With tools to identify future leaders and opportunities for advancement, it’s a great system for HR managers interested in helping their employees develop professionally.
在gagedly earned a 3.84 out of 5 in our evaluation. The difficulty in finding pricing took its score down—most on our list at least give some pricing information on their sites—and the documentation and difficulty finding support also brought its score down. However, it earned full marks for performance tools and functionality.
Small Improvements: Best for Improving Company Culture
Pros
- Employees choose peers to review them
- Chat feature for public or private kudos
- Add-on employee happiness/company wellness tools
- 16-plus countries (mainly the US, the UK, and Australia)
Cons
- No mobile app
- No onboarding evaluations
- 在gagement costs extra
Small Improvements Pricing
- 14-day free trial
- Starter Pack:$5 per employee monthly
- Feedback and Performance Suite:$7 per employee monthly
- $2,100 minimum
- 在gagement and retention add-on:$2 per employee monthly
Small Improvements has a strong emphasis on company culture, with tools that not only help you evaluate company health but also promote employee interaction and support. In addition to standard evaluations, it includes features to let employees give each other kudos, help each other in goal achievement, and more.
Small Improvements earned 3.65 out of 5 on our list. It lost points for its higher price, lack of a mobile app, and not having as many features as others on our list. Nonetheless, it earned one of the highest scores for functionality and has respectable user reviews.
BambooHR: Best for HR Tools Integration
Pros
- Can be customized
- User-friendly
- Centralized employee database
- More than 50 integration options with open APIs
Cons
- Pricing not available on website
- Access to its TRAXPayroll integration requires an additional fee
- Performance management is a paid add-on
BambooHR Pricing
- Seven-day free trial
- Essentials:Custom
- 优势:Custom
- Based on a quote we received, it charges $8.75 per employee monthly for businesses with 20 employees. As the number of employees increase, charge reduces
- Add-ons:
- Time tracking, $3 per employee
- Performance management, $4.25 per employee
- Payroll
- Implementation time:Around four to six weeks, depending on the number of employees
BambooHR capitalizes on its user-friendly platform by providing a straightforward yet engaging performance management tool. It lets you create and track employee work goals using automated notifications, reminders, and built-in reporting tools. You can create 30-, 60-, or 90-day assessments depending on your needs.
It’s best for organizations already using other HR solutions as BambooHR can integrate easily with the many popular payroll, ATS, time tracking, and learning management tools—and more. AssessTEAM can connect to 200+ apps, but it has limited support for HR apps and can only connect to payroll tools.
If you’re considering BambooHR, note that its performance management tool is a paid add-on, meaning you need to subscribe to either its Essentials or Advantage Plan first. If you only need a performance management tool, then it’s not for you.
BambooHR earned an overall score of 3.61 out of 5 in our evaluation. Considering that performance management is just an optional paid add-on, it performed well. Its score took a dip in pricing because it’s not available on the website and you have to talk to a sales representative to get a custom quote. It also scored low on reporting because of the inability to create custom reports. However, it performed well on other criteria because of its carefully planned performance management tools.
Read our fullBambooHR review
How We Chose the Best Performance Management Systems
For this guide, we considered over a dozen different systems, most of which were not part of a full HR system. They had tomanage employeegoals, conduct performance reviews, keep track of manager and peer feedback, and provide actionable reports.
AssessTEAM topped the list with a score of 4.49 out of 5. It not only handles goals for companies, teams, and individuals but also projects. It serves 79 countries and integrates with hundreds of HR software tools. It even offers HR advisers with its higher plans.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
25% of Overall Score
Many performance management systems require quotes or annual minimums. We considered those aspects as well as the per-employee price. AssessTEAM and Zoho People got perfect scores.
20% of Overall Score
We looked at the breadth of tools, from onboarding to annual reviews, goal setting to peer feedback, and whether there was a mobile app. Again AssessTEAM and Zoho People got top marks, along with Engagedly and TriNet Zenefits.
20% of Overall Score
This reflects tools that make the software easier to use: templates, automations, reminders, and the like. We also gave points for what the app could do on mobile and any unique tools, such as leadership ranking. Full points went to AssessTEAM and Engagedly.
10% of Overall Score
This looks at real-world user feedback found on third-party review sites like Capterra and G2. We considered not only the overall score but also how many people gave reviews. Perform Yard and Performance Pro both have perfect scores here.
10% of Overall Score
All the software offered some basic reports, so we gave extra points to those that had build-your-own tools or a wider offering of report types. PerformYard, Zoho People, and TriNet Zenefits had top scores.
15%of Overall Score
We considered interface, customer support, online guides, and learning curve when compiling this score. TriNet Zenefits and PerformYard earned perfect marks.
Performance Management Systems Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Performance management software helps monitor employee performance in a consistent and measurable way. It’s designed to be collaborative—with employees and managers working together in setting expectations, identifying goals, and defining performance measurement. It also allows users to share performance reviews and provide feedback.
Performance management systems come with several benefits as it helps organizations do the following:
- Goal management and planning.You can ensure that employee performance aligns with the organization’s objectives and assign tasks that are meaningful to help improve employee engagement.
- Track continuous performance.You monitor each employee’s goals and how they’re achieving these consistently and provide feedback and guidance to improve performance. With a good system in place, you can also see good results as they happen.
- Assess and recognize performance.You can check performance accurately and consistently, recognize strong performers, and derive useful insights to quantify the efforts that your employees are contributing to the business.
Any organization that has employees, big or small, regardless of industry, should use performance management software.
The short answer is yes. Aside from improving workplace productivity, supporting better employee engagement, and reducing turnover, a performance management system can also give valuable insights that will help support human resource management decisions.
Bottom Line
Gone are the days of the annual performance report. Performance management has grown to include goal setting, frequent feedback, and peer evaluation. The best performance management software works with these changes, providing you with options for developing programs that help you to mold the employees into the best they can be.
For a standalone performance management system, we rated AssessTEAM as the top software. It has the goal-setting and evaluation features not only to start your teams out right but also to evaluate teams and projects. Prices start at $3 per person monthly. Sign up for the free plan and try it out.