Performance management goes much further and deeper than an annual appraisal determining whether or not an employee will receive a bonus. According to Michael Armstrong’s Handbook of Performance Management. “Performance management is the continuous process of improving performance by setting individual and team goals which are aligned to the strategic goals of the organisation, planning performance to achieve the goals, reviewing and assessing progress, and developing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of people.”
In today’s fast paced world, achieving this may seem a lofty goal. Thankfully advanced technology and powerful systems can help teams find success in every facet of every organisation. While performance management is a crucial success factor for virtually any business, it often stagnates as a result of time delays, inadequate information, and a lack of timeous access to – and insight into – valuable data.
“When performance data is only reviewed in time for an appraisal, both the employee and the business are losing out on the power of real-time data access. Performance management entails a series of business processes through which an organisation links strategy with operations. This strategy must evolve and adapt as the business grows. This makes performance management a key driver for strategic planning in today’s uncertain business environment,” believes Paul Bouchier, Sales Director at iOCO, within iOCO Software Distribution, an Infor Gold Partner.
Modern and dynamic Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) systems drive effective performance management while delivering valuable insight into how a company is performing against objectives. With this information at hand, actionable insights are produced, empowering teams to take the necessary steps to generate the desired business results.
Bouchier considers some traditional performance management practices that hinder real-time access to information; preventing businesses from making fast, sound operational decisions based on real data. The first hindrance is performing budgeting and planning in error-prone spreadsheet silos. “This process consumes a significant amount of time, money, and resources on highly manual processes that leave a lot of room for human error. Today, modern EPM software helps to reduce these errors and enable enterprise-wide collaboration with an integrated, closed-loop approach.”
The second hindrance, according to Bouchier, is a wholly on-premise approach. “This single faceted application robs the business of the opportunities that a cloud or hybrid solution would offer. Innovation without disruption, world-class security, and true reliability without the need to divert IT resources away from supporting a business’s strategic aims or burdening an organisation with costly and never-ending upgrade cycles are just some of the advantages of a cloud approach.”
Every business operates with a view to improving performance. In a digital world, the realisation comes that yesterday’s strategies and practices won’t always provide a clear path to solving today’s disruptive and complex challenges. “Modern businesses need modern EPM solutions that drive informed decisions with better insight,” concludes Bouchier. “When management is empowered to gain unprecedented insight into the business with an integrated suite of applications for planning, consolidation, and analysis, combined with compliance tools and all connected to underlying systems, performance will be revolutionised with real time data access, and speed to action.”