If Tech is in, can Human Resources (HR) be far away? No way. Check out how HR can leverage technology to make Performance Review (PR) more meaningful.
Background
Business and the corporate landscape is ever changing. Information Technology (IT) has transformed and still doing so the way a company works in every aspect. IT came into India through the Tata’s and Burroughs partnership as early as 1967. India’s first Software Export Processing Zone came up in Mumbai in 1973. So the IT industry in India is not a ‘child’ but quite a ‘grown-up adult’ who has been creating jobs and providing IT solutions for the domestic as well as global markets.
Current Scenario
The Indian IT industry today is worth over Rupees 16,000 crores out of which software exports account for over Rupees 12,000 crores. India is one of the biggest global IT players and has become a huge job provider and a much sought after sector for job aspirants.
HR & IT
In continuation of India’s IT story, as it was bound to happen, as IT touched various aspects of an organisation, HR also came to be affected and impacted by it. With each passing day, more and more companies are moving their HR activities and management on to an IT platform. This has resulted in positive changes, improvements, efficiency, accuracy, transparency, etc.
Meaningful Performance Management / Review (PM / PR) through IT
Common Platform
An IT-based HRPM system serves as an interface between an employee and his / her manager. As a part of PR, an employee and his / her manager need to connect and regularly interact in person. The agreed actions and goals are then logged in by the employee, and thus it becomes official. One of the most significant benefits of an HRPM system is clarity. One of the most critical aspects of motivating a good performer to stay with your company is clarity of role and responsibilities. If an employee is clearly told of his / her job expectations, it has a huge positive impact on the employee as what they need to do is clear to them.
Paperless, Stating the Obvious
Though it is an old saying that digitalization reduces paper or makes it paperless, it has to be mentioned. The reason is that an IT-based HRPM not only can make the entire HR paperless, this means doing away with the printing, storage, and maintenance of loads and loads of papers and files. This also means doing away with taking out or retrieving a few papers or files for purposes like a reference or providing a copy to someone. If we take into account all the paper form related activities, going digital removes a big chunk of administrative workload. That is why the obvious is to be stated.
New Employees
The moment an employee joins a company, he/she is brought into the company’s online HRPM system and process. New employees are on PR from day one as the first part of the employment is probation. The new employees’ orientation will be the first data to be captured by the PM system. Since employees can also access the HRPM, they also get to know their role, responsibilities, performance criteria, performance rating and timelines in a documented form. At this stage, all employees and their managers/supervisors are on the same page.
Employee Daily Logs
Employees will be allotted daily, weekly or monthly tasks and duties as per their role. New and existing employees can record their daily work reports into an HRPM system. This serves as a company record and can be viewed by the respective managers/supervisors for monitoring. One of the most important responsibilities of a manager is to manage his / her team members in terms of guiding, leading and developing. Therefore, a daily report is an important data, mechanism, and tool for performance review and people management.
Daily Feature
Most of the PR’s are carried out annually. Very few companies have a quarterly or half-yearly PR’s. This leads to employees’ lack of direction, making mistakes and not performing up to the required levels or standards. An IT-based HRMS makes it possible to monitor and review an employee’s performance on a daily basis. This enables managers to track and guide their team members effectively and bring out good levels of productivity from them. Performance management is a daily necessity and not something that is done a few times in a year.
Feedback
An online HRPM facilitates feedback gathering about an employee from many sources. Apart from one’s manager/supervisor, feedback about an employee can be gathered from managers from other departments, peers and juniors from the same and other departments also. This is called a 360 degrees feedback. This feedback provides a perfect mix of information to employees and their managers, and it enables them to make adjustments and changes to improve performance.
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