When employees are given feedback, mentored, and checked in on, they will stay at your company longer, move up the ranks faster, and add more value to your company. Use performance management software to monitor your employees’ performance and get actionable insights into how to better utilize your team.
Performance management is more than just an annual performance review. It is a continuous process of engaging employees, giving and receiving feedback, and mentoring.
Effective performance management is time-consuming, but luckily there are a number of performance management tools available to save time and help your HR teams be more effective.
Evaluating employees regularly gives insight into their strengths, allows you to discuss their weaknesses and how to improve their skills, and gives the opportunity to recognize and reward their achievements.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one performance management software
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Good for customized performance review processes
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Good for gathering performance management feedback
Why trust us?
Our team of unbiased software reviewers follows strict editorial guidelines, and our methodology is clear and open to everyone.
See our complete methodology
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Tools considered
25
Tools reviewed
10
Best tools
chosen
What to Look For in a Performance Management Tool
- User-friendly – The software must be easy to use, have a good interface, and great customer support
- Review and feedback – You need to ensure you are giving constant feedback to employees and rewarding positive performance
- Training – Building training courses for new and existing employees is a must
- Performance plans – Goal setting, mentorship, and development planning is crucial to employee development
- Reporting and analytics – A robust, customizable reporting platform is needed to sort and understand stored data
- Pricing – First and foremost, you have to get the features you need, but it must be at a reasonable price
- Third-party integrations – You need the option of integrating the performance management software with software your company already uses
The 10 Best Performance Management Tools of 2024
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Connecteam — Best all-in-one performance management software
We developed Connecteam to be the one-stop solution for managing your employees. With the ability to communicate, manage and train your employees all in one place, there’s no reason to look elsewhere.
Connecteam allows you to build highly customizable training courses in the built-in employee training app that help onboard new employees and train existing employees. At the end of every lesson, quiz employees ensure they retain the information they just learned and recognize their achievements with the timeline feature.
Your managers can see an overview of every employee using the timeline feature and can make decisions regarding compensation, promotions, and rewards. Employees can also share their coworkers’ excitement by posting GIFs, emojis, or commenting on each other’s achievements.
Follow the progression of each employee’s tasks to ensure they’re staying on track with the assignment management features and get detailed reports to better understand each employee’s strengths and weaknesses.
Connecteam also offers a free for life plan – Get Started Now!
Key Features
Assignment management
Learning management
Skills tracking
Pros
Intuitive and user-friendly
Highly customizable
Available internationally
Responsive and helpful support team
Cons
Needs internet or wifi access to work
Pricing
Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users
14-day free trial, no credit card required
Start your free trial -
PerfomYard — Good for: Performance review tracking
Available on
- Web
- Windows
- Mac
PerformYard is geared towards mid-sized organizations that currently don’t have performance management software. They will help you set up the software and transition from paper and pen or excel sheets to their performance management software.
Employee 360-reviews are important to understand employee strengths and weaknesses, talents, and where they may fall short. This helps the employees work on their needed skills and also helps the company make better decisions surrounding each employee. PerformYard prides itself on continuous feedback, annual reviews, recognition, and client feedback.
Feedback is anonymous, and anyone can give anyone else feedback, but there is no way to request feedback. This would be particularly helpful in the case of a new manager coming on board and then seeing how their peers feel about them as a manager.
Key Features
- Employee recognition
- Individual development plans
- Employee feedback
- Benchmarking
Pros
- User-friendly
- Highly customizable
Cons
- No ability to request feedback
- No employee overview capability, must search each employee separately
Pricing
Starts at $4/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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BambooHR — Good for: Small to medium-sized businesses
BambooHR was made for small to mid-sized businesses that want to collect people’s data and develop a company culture.
The performance management software can be used to track annual employee reviews, improve onboarding, and give anonymous feedback. Admins can see an overview of employee performance and progress within the company. Custom reports are available to better understand employee performance and better assist underperformers.
Reminder emails are sent to employees, admins, and HR teams to ensure that evaluations and reviews are done on time and not skipped over. The evaluations can be used by HR to determine employee compensation, promotions, and training.
Key Features
- Employee feedback
- Assessment management
- Benchmarking
- Applicant tracking
Pros
- User-friendly
- Helpful customer support
Cons
- No meeting auto-scheduling
- No employee recognition tools
Pricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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Grove HR — Good for: Mobile users
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Grove HR is a cloud-based performance management tool geared towards start-ups. Teams can customize review questions to help team members develop. Feedback is also essential for start-ups to understand where they are strong and where they need to improve and Grove HR has customizable feedback features where everyone can give feedback to anyone, no matter their position.
Employees are automatically reminded of upcoming reviews so they can prepare, and once the review is over, employees can use the dashboard to see insights into their performance review.
Key Features
- Employee feedback
- Interview management
- Employee recognition
- Applicant tracking
Pros
- Easy to use
- Helpful customer support
Cons
- Limiting reporting capabilities
- Few third-party integrations
Pricing
Starts at $3/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes
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Actus — Good for: Organizations with 100+ employees
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Actus is a UK-based performance management software company whose goal is to help build a better workplace for people by creating software that evolves with the needs of their clients. Actus offers a performance, learning, and talent package designed to help medium to large businesses manage talent, ideas, meetings, and personal development. The performance management software enables employers to define objectives, create milestones, and comment on the employee’s progression.
The downside regarding the pricing with Actus is that feedback is a separate feature from the performance management software. The feedback and survey package aims to increase employee self-awareness, retention, and skills by increasing engagement.
Key Features
- Performance management
- Learning management
- Onboarding
- Feedback and surveys
Pros
- Simple, intuitive design
- Employees can access their records
Cons
- Not as mobile or tablet friendly
- Not as customizable as other software
Pricing
Starts at $5/user/month Trial: No Free Plan: No
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ClearCompany — Good for: Candidate tracking and recruiting
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
ClearCompany aims to align managers and employees on priorities and goals. ClearCompany offers features to help with recruitment, onboarding, workforce planning, and performance management.
Their performance, engagement, and goal platform allows employers to design, automate, and manage performance reviews. The performance management tools include annual reviews, custom reports, and email reminders to ensure all reviews stay on track and make the data manageable to gain real insights.
ClearCompany’s social platform also enables employees to share and celebrate their personal achievements and recognize their peers for their accomplishments.
Key Features
- Performance tracking
- Applicant tracking
- Onboarding
- Employee engagement
Pros
- Fast customer support response time
- Multiple third-party integrations
Cons
- Only available for US clients
- Can’t search applicants by email or phone number
Pricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No
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IntelliHR — Good for: Automating HR processes
Available on
- Web
intelliHR is an Australian company focused on creating a company culture based on continuous feedback and enabling performance-based on empowering employees. The performance management software helps managers align, manage, and enable employees to succeed. This is relevant both for onboarding new employees and retaining talent. Managers receive real-time insights to help them make better business decisions.
The customizable software has the ability to integrate with many third-party applications, and their customer support helps admins with the implementation process. The software has compliance features to ensure your company follows all government regulations.
Key Features
- Data analysis
- Compliance tracking
- Benchmarking
- Employee feedback
Pros
- Knowledgeable customer support
- Comfortable user experience
Cons
- Unable to import data
- No mobile application
Pricing
Starts at $4/user/month Trial: No Free Plan: No
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Eloomi — Good for: Personalized eLearning
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
The performance management software eloomi is geared towards large businesses and includes features like learning management, personal development, and appraisals.
Learning management includes course building, onboarding, and compliance training. Managers can track employee progress and offer to coach the underperforming employees. Data is stored and can be used to extract actionable insights to make better company decisions.
Managers or HR teams can create employee development plans, give employees feedback, and set individual employee goals. Appraisals can be done on a one-on-one basis, or managers can just see employee progress overviews to understand the their strengths and weaknesses.
Key Features
- Employee feedback
- Anonymous feedback
- Learning management system
- Goal tracking
Pros
- Personalized set-up help
- Responsive customer support
Cons
- Complaints of slow processing speed
- No mobile application
Pricing
Starts at $833/month, for up to 30 users Trial: No Free Plan: No
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Leapsome — Good for: Enhancing people management processes
Available on
- Web
Leapsome performance management software has four key goals; help companies with performance, align the company, engage employees, and help employees learn. Within its performance feature, it offers reviews, a development framework, feedback and praise, and more. In order to align employees, you can use goal setting, goal trees, and goal analytics to understand if your team is reaching their goals and at what rate.
Engage employees using team meetings, surveys, and notification features. Help employees learn using Leapsome by creating onboarding courses and quizzing them on the information. All of these features help employees develop their personal and professional skills
Key Features
- Career path management
- Goal tree
- Feedback management
- Question bank
Pros
- Strong employee engagement features
- Reminder emails about reviews and meetings
Cons
- Not as customizable as other softwares
- No mobile application
Pricing
Starts at $6/user/month Trial: Yes — 14-day Free Plan: No
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Synergita — Good for: Objectives and Key Results Tools
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Synergita performance management tools focus on employee engagement, objectives, and key results (OKR). Employee engagement includes employee development, rewards and recognition, check-ins, and performance reviews. The OKR features aim to align the team, keep them agile, and promote collaboration.
Synergita also focuses on empowering employees, creating a healthy company culture, and goal management. The metrics that help the company and employees alike understand what they are doing right and where they can improve are critical, and that’s why Synergita provides insights into metrics like performance status, key talent trends, and team health.
Key Features
- Project tracking
- Employee development
- Goals management
- Rewards and recognition
Pros
- Highly customizable
- Easy for employees to use
Cons
- Not intuitive for the admin
- Limited reporting features
Pricing
Starts at $2/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
Compare the Best Performance Management Tools
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Start for free
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| Reviews |
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| Pricing |
Starts at just $29/month for the first 30 users
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Starts at $4/user/month
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Contact vendor for price
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Starts at $3/user/month
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Starts at $5/user/month
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Contact vendor for price
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Starts at $4/user/month
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Starts at $833/month, for up to 30 users
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Starts at $6/user/month
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Starts at $2/user/month
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yes
14-day
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yes
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yes
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yes
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no
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no
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14-day
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yes
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yes
Free Up to 10 users
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no
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no
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| Use cases |
Best all-in-one performance management software
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Good for: Performance review tracking
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Good for: Small to medium-sized businesses
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Good for: Mobile users
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Good for: Organizations with 100+ employees
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Good for: Candidate tracking and recruiting
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Good for: Automating HR processes
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Good for: Personalized eLearning
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Good for: Enhancing people management processes
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Good for: Objectives and Key Results Tools
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| Available on |
Web, Windows, Mac
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Web, iOS, Android
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Web, iOS, Android
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Web, iOS, Android
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Web
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Web, iOS, Android
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Web
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Web, iOS, Android
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What are performance management tools?
Performance management tools are digital tools designed to help employers evaluate employees in a consistent and measurable way. Each employee has a profile that includes their goals and objectives, and then their progress is tracked towards achieving those goals.
Performance reviews are important, but performance management tools track performance throughout the year. The constant tracking helps HR teams to see any problems before formal performance reviews, ensures all teams and departments are on the same page and ensures that data is stored to gain real-time insights.
How do performance management tools work?
Performance management tools track employee performance throughout the year. Performance management software keeps track of each employee’s individual data. The performance management tools used are;
- 360-degree feedback anonymously from all those working around the employee to get a true understanding of the employee’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Personal development plans to identify personal goals, how to achieve those goals, and the strengths and weaknesses of the employee.
- Key performance indicators, quantifiable measure of performance like targets and goals
- Employee recognition to encourage employees on their successes.
- Performance appraisals are regular reviews of an employee’s job performance and contribution to the company.
These tools work to increase productivity, employee engagement, and employee satisfaction.
What are the benefits of using performance management tools?
HR performance management tools make engaging, encouraging, and retaining employees less challenging. Performance management software has numerous benefits, from tracking employee performance to improving employee collaboration, career development, and higher productivity.
Using performance management software lightens the load for HR teams and takes away the tedious task of manually following up with each employee. Performance management software automates tasks such as employee evaluations so they are done more consistently, and the data is more accurate.
Collaboration between departments also becomes more manageable by using communication features and file sharing to evaluate an employee from all angles. All employees are held to the same standard, promoting transparency and fairness. Easily understand every employee’s strengths and weaknesses to better manage employee goals and make better decisions for the company using reports generated by the performance management software.
How much do performance management tools cost?
Like all things in life, it depends. Performance management tools are priced either per user or at a flat rate. Performance management tools can range from about $2 per user to $15 per user. If your company has 50 employees, it will cost you between $100 to $750 per month.
For Connecteam, we decided to charge a flat rate to remain as affordable as possible for larger teams. Connecteam’s all-in-one performance management software costs $29 per month for up to 30 employees. It includes all of the tools needed to successfully run your business and track employee performance.
Be aware of hidden costs. Many performance management applications have hidden implementation and training costs as well as customer support fees. Connecteam doesn’t have any hidden fees. You will get a dedicated account manager to help you implement the software and 24/7 support to help you with any issues. There’s no better investment in your company than Connecteams performance management software.
FAQs
What are the 5 best tools for performance management?
- Performance Appraisals
- 360-Degree Feedback
- Key Performance Indicators
- Personal Development Plans
- Reward and Recognition Programs
What is performance management and its 4 steps?
Performance management is an ongoing process of goal setting and tracking between an employer and employee. The four steps are planning the goals, monitoring the progression of achieving the goals, reviewing what goals were achieved and how they were accomplished, and ultimately rewarding the employee for a job well done.
What are the different types of performance management systems?
Organizational performance management systems:
- The balanced scorecard (BSC) looks at company objectives strategically broken down into financial, customer, internal processes, and people perspectives.
- Management by objectives (MBO) helps create company objectives used as guides for creating employee objectives which differs from BSC because the objectives aren’t necessarily linked to one another.
Personnel performance management systems:
- Objectives and key results (OKR) set, track and measure progress towards a goal regularly.
- HR review-driven systems focus on individuals developing specific skills, company culture, and growth within the organization, which can be combined with OKR.
The Bottom Line On Performance Management Tool
Performance management software is essential for developing talent, company growth, and understanding your company on a more intimate level. Your company will be able to effectively manage employee work, create a positive company culture, and help your top performers grow into leadership roles.
Easy to use performance management software is useful for analyzing key data and a great way to hire and motivate employees.