The Best Employee Performance Management Tools (Objective 2024 Review)

Employee performance management tools have never been more important. The tools track tangible progress and help drive employee engagement and retention.
best-employee-performance-management-tools
Wendy Ng
Wendy Ng
Content and Operations Strategy Manager, FlexOS
4+ experience with Employee Experience background in Human Resources industry, Wendy is dedicating to share invaluable strategies, empowering managers to boost team productivity and engagement.
February 5, 2024
16
min read
Featured in this article
Culture Amp

Culture Amp

Best for: Conducting structured, bias-mitigated reviews and consistent feedback loops.
15Five

15Five

Best for: Modern teams that promotes transparency and alignment through frequent touch points and structured objectives for performance reviews + AI assistance.
PerformYard

PerformYard

Best for: Scalable teams that want a customizable and automated performance management solution.
Lattice

Lattice

Best for: Comprehensive performance management that links with employee engagement, growth, and compensation strategies.
Leapsome

Leapsome

Best for: Dedicated performance management with AI assistance and people analytic capabilities.
BambooHR

BambooHR

Best for: SMEs looking for a one-stop-shop for HRIS, payroll, performance management, and more.
ClearCompany

ClearCompany

Best for: Intuitive performance management tool to streamlined and enhanced workforce management.
Engagedly

Engagedly

Best for: AI-enabled performance and engagement management tool for hybrid and remote teams.
Trakstar

Trakstar

Best for: Traditional companies to modernize and optimize your performance management with competency tracking and robust analytics.
Betterworks

Betterworks

Best for: Teams that deeply embrace OKRs and goal-setting for driving productivity and managing performance.

Employee performance management has never been more important.

Knowing what someone needs to do and seeing themselves make tangible progress towards those goals is incredibly motivating.

Doing so used to take a lot of manual time and effort, but thanks to these employee performance management tools, performance management is a piece of cake.

Performance management tools are a type of employee management software that helps you set clear employee performance goals, track progress, and analyze where people are overworked and where coaching conversations may be needed.

As making progress is key to employee engagement, more platforms now offer some level of performance management functionality.

Here's my selection based on hands-on experience, expert interviews, and user feedback.

The Best Employee Performance Management Tools

Culture Amp

Culture Amp

Best for: Conducting structured, bias-mitigated reviews and consistent feedback loops.

Performance Management Tools - Culture Amp

Investing in Culture Amp for performance management means prioritizing development and high performance through structured, bias-mitigated reviews and consistent feedback loops.

Culture Amp provides tools for goal tracking, self-reflection, and various 360-degree feedback options, which sets the foundation for a culture of continuous improvement.

Key features include:

  • Goal Tracking: Tap into proven methodologies for setting and managing goals and OKRs for individuals and teams – traditional and cross-functional.
  • 1-on-1s: Set managers and employees up for meaningful, regular conversations that foster connection, ensure alignment, and drive progress.
  • Performance Reviews: Powerful calibrations are essential to effective performance reviews. Track and understand employee performance ratings with custom views for each stakeholder.
  • Continuous Feedback: Don’t wait for formal reviews to let people know how they’re doing. With Culture Amp, anyone can give and request feedback throughout the year.
  • Shoutouts (Recognition): Foster a culture of feedback while boosting employee motivation and engagement by making it easy to recognize and amplify employees within the flow of work.
  • 360-Degree Feedback: Give individuals at all levels a comprehensive understanding of their performance based on diverse perspectives.

With a customizable platform, you can align your performance management with your unique organizational values and objectives. Empower your team with the resources to reach their full potential while aligning their growth with your company's success.

Culture Amp stands out for its robust features and adaptability to real-world scenarios. Bombas Chief People Officer Myke Mansberger said:

"Culture Amp's customizability allows for a fair and relevant performance evaluation, ensuring that each individual's success is measured appropriately. With Culture Amp, you can listen to your employees, understand their unique contributions, and set tailored goals, creating a truly equitable and high-performing workplace culture, just as Bombas did."
15Five

15Five

Best for: Modern teams that promotes transparency and alignment through frequent touch points and structured objectives for performance reviews + AI assistance.

Performance Management Tools - 15Five

Best for: Modern teams that promotes transparency and alignment through frequent touch points and structured objectives for performance reviews + AI assistance

15Five is among the best performance management platforms that enhance continuous feedback, self-development, and employee engagement with AI assistance.

The platform's name, inspired by the practice of spending 15 minutes to write reports that take managers five minutes to read, underscores its commitment to efficiency and impactful communication.

Developed with a strong belief in positive psychology at work, 15Five offers a human-centric approach to managing employee performance with a suite of features, including OKR and goal setting, performance reviews, employee recognition, and personalized training opportunities.

Why do I choose 15Five over competitors?

Compared to its competitors, 15Five stands out for its holistic approach that combines the latest in positive psychology research with practical, tech-driven solutions for performance management and improvement. 

With the “Total Platform” performance package, your team members can access personalized coaching and training resources, through “micro-learning” modules, based on their strengths and weaknesses. This makes it more convenient even for the busiest team members to learn and improve themselves every day.

The new addition of Spark AI in the 15Five platform further assists you in getting real-time insights, recommendations, and coaching ideas to support your team. 

15Five’s Key Features

  • Performance Reviews: Offers a toolkit for employee performance review, including 360-degree feedback and calibrations for bias-free assessments. 15five also provides prebuilt review templates and enables a quick, easy setup of less than 15 minutes.
  • OKRs & Goal Management: Provides configurable, cross-functional goal alignment to ensure organizational alignment. OKRs can be tracked across all levels and integrated with external tools like Jira and Salesforce for further alignment.
  • 1-on-1s: Helps you draft one-on-one meeting agendas that include preset performance goals and objectives to check in with your team members, update progress, and provide prompt support. 
  • AI-Assisted Reviews: 15Five’s Spark AI supports managers to draft bias-free review notes from various feedback that you made throughout the year, spot helpful insights from review results, and suggest post-review recommendations. 
  • Continuous Feedback and Recognition: Features like "High Fives" and customizable check-ins support a culture of acknowledgment and constructive feedback.
  • Engagement Surveys: Pulse surveys and helpful analytics help you understand how your team is doing without waiting for formal reviews.
  • Career Path and Plans: Gives team members the ability to plan their own career trajectory, with visibility into their professional goals to motivate and guide their performance.
  • Performance Reporting: With its customizable ‘n-box’ model, data filtering, and scoring distribution abilities, 15Five enables managers and HRs to assess company-wide performance, visualize competencies, analyze trends, and track your review completion progress effectively. 

15Five’s Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • 15Five emphasizes employee well-being and engagement alongside performance management. It is also among a few tools on the list that allow you to leverage the power of AI to enhance your performance management. 
  • It offers customization and bulk editing options besides its prebuilt templates, making managing employee data and preparing review cycles more convenient but still to your specific needs.
  • Both the desktop platform and mobile app are designed for ease of use, ensuring accessibility for everyone at any time.
  • Easily integrates with many popular HRIS systems and productivity tools (Slack, MS Teams, Jira, Salesforce) to streamline your workflows and facilitate seamless communication within teams.

Cons:

  • Some users find the frequency of notifications and communications to be overwhelming.
  • 15Five is keen on its unique approach to a performance review, which benefits teams that highly promote transparency, autonomy, and employee wellbeing. However, the fixed structure of reviews may not always fit the dynamic needs of every organization or team.
  • While 15Five is attractive to modern teams, its quote is on the higher side when compared to focused tools like PerformYard.

15Five Rating

  • G2: 4.6/5.0 from 1,758 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.7/5.0 from 881 reviews

Featured User Quote

“15Five is easy and intuitive for managers, HR leaders, and employees to pick up on and use. They offer WONDERFUL training resources and webinars that help me stay up to date on industry best practices. Their support is also top notch.” - Verified G2 user.

15Five Pricing 

15Five gives you 14-day free trials on request. There are two paid plans that include Performance Management capabilities:

  • Perform Plan starts at $10/user/month for performance reviews, OKRs & goal management, 1-on-1 & check-in tools.
  • Total Platform Plan starts at $16/user/month for more functions of Engagement, HR Outcomes Dashboard, Transform Microlearning, and more.

PerformYard

PerformYard

Best for: Scalable teams that want a customizable and automated performance management solution.

Performance Management Tools - PerformYard

PerformYard is a comprehensive, cloud-based performance management tool that helps you refine your review, feedback, and goal-setting processes. 

PerformYard distinguishes itself through a highly flexible system that enables you to customize your performance management strategy to fit unique organizational needs. 

With a user-friendly interface and a suite of integrative tools, PerformYard supports a wide array of performance management activities, from simple annual reviews to more complex, continuous feedback cycles.

Why do I choose PerformYard over competitors?

PerformYard excels in its adaptability and user-centric design. If other platforms that may offer rigid structures for performance management, PerformYard allows managers and HRs to craft a performance management strategy that aligns with your company’s specific vision and goals. 

This level of customization, combined with its comprehensive feedback mechanisms and goal management tools, makes PerformYard as a great choice for those looking for a performance management solution that can grow and evolve with your team. 

PerformYard’s Key Features

  • Performance Reviews: Customizable review templates with a variety of question types. PerformYard supports 360-degree feedback, incorporating inputs from across and outside the organization.
  • Goal Management: Dynamic goal setting with visual goal cascade features, allowing for clear documentation and communication of overarching strategies at all levels. You can break down objectives into manageable tasks, track progress, and adjust as business priorities shift using only PerformYard.
  • Continuous Feedback: Recognition and 1:1 feedback features facilitate ongoing dialogue between managers and employees.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Comprehensive reporting tools generate insights from review data, goals, and feedback, aiding in data-driven decision-making.
  • General HR Features: Includes onboarding workflows, document storage, and a company directory, among others, supporting general HR responsibilities.
  • Automation and Integration: Automated workflows and reminders to streamline processes and keep track of review cycles with less effort and time, while integrations with platforms like ADP, BambooHR, and Slack enhance workflow efficiency.

PerformYard’s Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • PerformYard's adaptability to various performance management strategies is its major strength, alongside customizable templates and workflows.
  • Although the software may take some time to set up and get used to all functionalities, its interface is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
  • PerformYard offers automation and one-click functions at many steps, making creating, launching, tracking, and analyzing performance reviews easy and less time-consuming.
  • PerformYard assigns a dedicated support specialist for each customer and offers video, email, and phone support. Many users agree they had helpful customer support experience, from the setup to ongoing use.

Cons:

  • Many PerformYard’s users wish for more advanced reporting options. 

PerformYard Rating

  • G2: 4.7/5.0 from 813 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.8/5.0 from 88 reviews

Featured User Quote

“PerformYard is agile and flexible, meaning we can adapt each stage of the performance cycle to suit, and year on year, it can look different depending on business priorities. There are multiple segments in the platform that are all relevant to us, but we don't have to use them all at once, meaning the teams can get used to the core functionality first. You can make changes directly yourself; it's so easy to use, and you don't have to wait for anyone else to do it for you. The implementation team (Jack) has been superb throughout.” - Rachel C., G2 user.

PerformYard Pricing 

PerformYard's pricing is competitive, ranging from $5 to $10 per user per month, depending on your team size and required features. If you want to access the employee engagement survey and dashboard features, it costs an additional $1-3/user/month.

Lattice

Lattice

Best for: Comprehensive performance management that links with employee engagement, growth, and compensation strategies.

Performance Management Tools  - Lattice

Founded in 2015, Lattice has emerged as one of the best performance management tools for small- to medium-sized companies who look for a comprehensive suite of tools to enhance employee engagement, performance management, and career development.

After years of development, they are ambitious to have a built-in HRIS system to “clean up your HR stack” and become a one-stop shop for every HR and manager.

I don’t have access yet, but I believe that Lattice has great potential! 

For now, Lattice does an excellent job of helping you streamline the process of performance management and people development, which can be seamlessly integrated with popular HRIS systems.

Lattice adopts enterprise-grade encryption and complies with international standards like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. That means your company’s important data will be handled with utmost privacy and confidentiality. 

Why do I choose Lattice over competitors?

Lattice distinguishes itself by providing a dedicated solution with strong performance management features.

If you are using HRIS systems such as Gusto, ADP, Zenefits, UKG, Workday, BambooHR, or any other systems that support SFTP integrations, you can easily link them with Lattice to enhance your people management process.

With Lattice, you can conduct efficient performance reviews, link performance with compensation, and generate detailed analytics and reports to gain a deeper understanding of employee performance and engagement levels.

Lattice’s Key Features

  • Performance Reviews: You can easily set up review cycles and automate the process. You can evaluate employees holistically using various methods, such as goal tracking, 360-degree reviews, and collecting and sharing feedback through regular updates and one-on-one meetings.
  • Growth Planning: Allows managers to create growth opportunities and career paths for their direct reports, or let team members do it themselves. You can add expectations or competencies required for the next level and make them visible to everyone or only the concerned person. This will help motivate people to strive for higher performance.
  • Goal Setting and OKRs: Support transparent goal setting and progress tracking for better alignment and productivity among individuals and teams. Lattice provides an easy-to-read dashboard that gives managers a bird's eye view of key indicators showing objective progress and results.
  • Compensation Management: Integrates performance results, benchmarks, and pay guidelines into the compensation process to align managers and HRs for fair and transparent performance-driven rewards and raises.
  • [New 2024] Lattice AI: Save time and write better employee performance reviews with personalized suggestions based on goals, feedback, growth areas and more.
  • Employee Engagement: Enable you to run automated pulse surveys to understand real-time employee sentiments with AI-powered insights. 
  • Analytics and Reporting: Gain an overview of people programs’ adoption, employee performance, engagement, and career growth through advanced analytics in centralized dashboards to prompt action planning.

Lattice’s Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Comprehensive and rigorous feature set to evaluate employee performance for multiple purposes (like talent development, promotions, etc.) 
  • Intuitive and user-friendly interface with dedicated customer support
  • Wide compatibility with other HR and productivity tools (Slack, G Suite, Jira, Salesforce) to enhance functionality and usability.

Cons: 

  • Although it’s flexible in choosing only the features your team needs and based on your team size, the full employee management capabilities that the software offers come at a high cost, especially for small businesses and startups. 
  • Limited customization options for workflows, element arrangements in review forms, and reporting dashboards.

Lattice Rating

  • G2: 4.7/5.0 from 2,815 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.5/5.0 from 122 reviews

Featured User Quote

“Lattice is the management software that brings something different to the table. It does not "fight" with its competitors but rather complements them. The human-focused aspect of it makes Lattice a great management tool to use along with the others, and it works really well.” - Andrei, Capterra user.

Lattice Pricing

Lattice offers per-module pricing plans. You can start with Performance Management + ORKs & Goals at $11/person/month. Add-on modules include:

  • Engagement: +$4/person/month
  • Grow: +$4/person/month
  • Compensation: +$6/person/month

In total, it costs $25/person/month to unlock all features.

Leapsome

Leapsome

Best for: Dedicated performance management with AI assistance and people analytic capabilities.

Performance Management Tools  - Leapsome

Leapsome is an all-in-one performance management and employee engagement platform that stands out in the market with its comprehensive suite designed to enhance management processes and drive company-wide success. 

With high-profile clients like Spotify, Northvolt, and Babbel, Leapsome is recognized for facilitating a culture of continuous improvement and achievement.

Leapsome offers highly customizable 360-degree reviews, OKRs & goals, employee engagement surveys, and meeting management capabilities. 

Its intuitive design and powerful analytics make it an excellent choice for anyone looking for a robust performance management solution to empower your workforce and foster a thriving work culture.

Why do I choose Leapsome over competitors?

Leapsome stands out for its comprehensive approach to people enablement. It combines performance reviews, goal management, surveys, learning, and more in one platform. This means you can manage all aspects of your team's development in one place.

It's worth noting that Leapsome is often compared to Lattice due to similar feature sets like personalized development paths, flexible performance reviews, competency frameworks, compensation links, and a diverse range of engagement tools.

However, if you prefer a higher level of customizability, AI assistance, and more options to connect with HR systems for well-rounded people analytics (rather than a straightforward deployment for ongoing performance management), Leapsome might be the better choice.

Leapsome’s Key Features

  • Customizable Performance Reviews: With options for anonymity, expert templates, and skill frameworks.
  • Goals and OKRs Module: Flexible metric tracking, visualization of goal progress, and dependencies.
  • Employee Engagement Surveys: Customizable questions, automated analytics, and segmentation capabilities.
  • Learning Module: Personalized development paths and integration with professional development courses.
  • Instant Feedback and Praise: Send valuable feedback after 1:1s and reviews or public recognitions to colleagues in your communication channels (Slack and MS Teams).
  • Data and Analytic Dashboard: Pull various resources into a comprehensive dashboard that enables you to track performance trends, identify skills gaps and areas of interest, analyze engagement levels, and monitor goal progress. 
  • Benchmarking: Compares your company’s metrics against industry benchmarks or historical data to gauge performance and identify areas of competitive advantage or need for improvements. 
  • AI Assistance: Leapsome AI saves you lots of time writing concise and constructive reviews, summarizing results, and generating competency frameworks. 

Leapsome’s Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • The software supports 13 languages and offers modular pricing plans, making it flexible to start with the most needed features and scale up based on your requirements.
  • Intuitive interface and easy-to-navigate UX design
  • Autosave functionalities for setups, review notes, meeting notes, etc., to ensure your work is safe even when you suddenly lose an internet connection.
  • Helpful customer support with a single point of contact for every user and a live chatbot that can direct you to training and tutorial materials needed
  • Broad integrations with HRIS, communication tools, and productivity apps.

Cons:

  • Some users reported a slight learning curve due to the breadth of features.
  • No mobile app

Leapsome Rating

  • G2: 4.8/5.0 from 1,519 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.7/5.0 from 59 reviews

Featured User Quote

“With its intuitive interface, comprehensive features, and unparalleled support, Leapsome simplifies every aspect of HR, from goal setting to feedback loops, and offers invaluable data-driven insights. Its seamless integration capabilities and dedication to continuous innovation ensure that we stay ahead of the curve, while its positive impact on our company culture makes it an indispensable tool for empowering growth and collaboration within our team.” - Verified G2 user. 

Leapsome Pricing 

Leapsome adopts a modular pricing scheme starting at $8/user/month, billed annually. You can customize subscriptions based on the only features you need with available modules, including Reviews, Goals, Surveys, Learning, and Compensation. Competency Framework, Instant Feedback, and Meetings modules are included in all plans. They also offer a free 14-day trial.

BambooHR

BambooHR

Best for: SMEs looking for a one-stop-shop for HRIS, payroll, performance management, and more.

Performance Management Tools - BambooHR

BambooHR is a top-rated HR software tailored for small and mid-size businesses. The software can handle various HR-related tasks, from hiring and onboarding to payroll, benefits, and offboarding. 

If you are currently using BambooHR or considering an all-in-one solution that meets all the basic needs of people management, consider exploring BambooHR with its add-ons for performance management, employee rewards, and engagement.

The software is easy to use and provides well-structured processes and templates. With BambooHR, you can set and track performance goals, conduct 360-degree feedback, facilitate different types of performance assessments, and analyze performance and engagement at an individual, team, or company level. 

Why I picked BambooHR?

I picked BambooHR because it's easy to use and has everything small teams might need, like keeping employee records, managing performance and engagement, tracking time off and benefits, and paying salaries. 

While other tools, like Lattice and Leapsome, have more performance management and feedback features or can be customized to specific needs, like PerformYard, many small teams just need a simple and affordable solution that helps them operate smoothly and effectively. 

BambooHR offers enough features for performance reviews and analytics so that small teams can implement and maintain effective HR and performance management practices.

BambooHR’s Key Features

  • Goal setting and tracking: You can set goals, link them with other individual or team goals, and track their progress for better alignment and accountability.
  • 360-Degree Feedback: Collect feedback from multiple sources, including peers, subordinates, supervisors, and external stakeholders. It also enables recurring review cycles and anonymous feedback.
  • Performance Assessments: Provides customizable templates and tools for conducting thorough performance reviews, including both quantitative assessments and qualitative feedback. 
  • Performance Analytics: Deliver insights into performance trends at individual and team levels, so you can easily identify high performers and pinpoint areas for additional support and development opportunities.
  • Employee Satisfaction (eNPS): Tools to measure and improve employee morale, reduce turnover, and enhance company reputation.
  • Employee Community: Provides a centralized communication hub for company news, project updates, recognitions, and celebrations. 

BambooHR’s Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • An all-in-one HR solution with performance management capabilities for goal tracking, assessments, and 360-degree feedback.
  • Clean user interface for easy navigation and task management.
  • Robust integrations and even open API to connect your people data from everywhere.

Cons:

  • While it offers broad functionalities, it could benefit users even more if those features are better intertwined. For example, there is a “Total Reward” feature where you can make compensation attractive and visible to team members, but it doesn’t connect with performance results. The same thing goes for recognition features. Your feedback and shoutouts to colleagues or direct reports won’t be recorded in performance review sources. 
  • No continuous feedback loop and career planning.
  • Reporting dashboard is quite standard compared to other software.
  • Many BambooHR users say it could be laggy when handling extensive data loads. 

BambooHR Rating

  • G2: 4.4/5.0 from 1,975 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.6/5.0 from 2,737 reviews

Featured User Quote

“I love how easy Bamboo HR is to use. As a small organization that does not have dedicated HR, it makes it easy for everyone from the administrators to managers to the employees to use. Set up for PTO use, Performance Management and Training is quick and intuitive, but they also provide great training all the time or on demand so you can become proficient. I also LOVE their employee satisfaction and employee wellness surveys. So thoughtful and impactful for the times and trying to figure out what employees want in this new work world.” - Lara W., verified G2 user. 

BambooHR Pricing 

BambooHR offers 7-day free trials and 15% off discounts for registered non-profit organizations. 

The performance management package features the Pro Plan. It operates on a per-employee-per-month basis for teams with more than 20 people, while offering a flat monthly rate for smaller teams. 

You need to contact BambooHR for a custom quote based on your team size and requirements.

ClearCompany

ClearCompany

Best for: Intuitive performance management tool to streamlined and enhanced workforce management.

Performance Management Tools - ClearCompany

If you’re HRs and managers looking for a solution to streamline your workforce management processes from recruiting, training and performance management, to workforce analytics, ClearCompany is worth considering.

ClearCompany is a leading talent management platform that provides a holistic approach to managing the employee lifecycle. The software offers a range of customizable and automated tools to foster a culture of continuous improvement and actionable feedback.

Why do I choose ClearCompany over competitors?

The platform is renowned for its emphasis on performance management, enabling organizations to develop and grow their teams through consistent reviews, effective goal-planning, and robust analytics. 

ClearCompany's performance management tools is distinguished by its goal and role-based reviews, which leverage historical performance data to ensure constructive and unbiased evaluations. 

As a leading workforce management system, ClearCompany HRs and managers to develop and grow their teams through consistent reviews, effective goal-planning, and robust analytics. 

Despite its expansive offerings, ClearCompany remains user-friendly, supporting multiple languages and mobile devices. 

Its dashboard provides straightforward access to performance data, enabling easy tracking of review cycles, goal alignment, and performance trends across the company.

ClearCompany’s Key Features

  • Customizable Review Cycles: You can tailor review cycles to as much as you want, including workflows, questions, formats, scales, participant communications. ClearCompany supports 360-degree feedback, continuous and real-time feedback tools with automated reminders and alerts.
  • Goal and Role-based Reviews: Reviews can be aligned to specific goals and job roles to evaluate and provide meaningful feedback tailored to individuals' strengths, development needs and contributions.
  • Competency Management: Facilitates the definition, assessment, and management of job-specific competencies across the company.
  • Performance Analytics and Reporting: Access to performance data for individual employees, departments, or roles, aiding in identifying top performers and adjusting expectations.
  • Employee Engagement Tools: Features to improve collaboration, facilitate feedback, and celebrate achievements.
  • Succession Planning: Integrates performance data to identify and prepare potential future leaders within the company.
  • Comprehensive Talent Management: From applicant tracking and onboarding to employee recognition and learning management, covering the entire employee lifecycle.
  • Employee Self-Service Portal: Provides team members with access to their performance reviews, goals, and feedback, promoting self-driven development.

ClearCompany’s Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Comprehensive suite covering the entire employee lifecycle, enhancing seamless talent management.
  • Customizable review cycles and performance analytics offer tailored approaches to employee evaluation.
  • User-friendly interface and support for multiple languages
  • Mobile apps available
  • Rich integrations with other HR software for assessment tests, competency, L&D management, payroll etc.

Cons:

  • Some advanced features may have a steeper learning curve, which can be challenging for new users.
  • Lack of a free trial option, requiring potential users to sign up for a demo or consultation for a firsthand look.

ClearCompany Rating

  • G2: 4.6/5.0 from 325 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.4/5.0 from 315 reviews

Featured User Quote

“What I like best about ClearCompany is their user-friendly and comprehensive HR software. It simplifies and streamlines various aspects of talent acquisition, onboarding, and performance management, making it easy for organizations to manage their human resources effectively. The reporting and analytics features also stand out, allowing us to make data-driven decisions that contribute to our company's success. Additionally, ClearCompany's customer support is top-notch, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience for our team.” - Roxanne F., verified G2 user.

ClearCompany Pricing 

ClearCompany does not disclose pricing. You need to contact them to get a custom quote. 

You can choose the Total Platform Access for an entire workforce planning system including ATS, onboarding, employee engagement, performance management, and workforce planning and people analytics. Or require only performance management features the Module Access.

Engagedly

Engagedly

Best for: AI-enabled performance and engagement management tool for hybrid and remote teams.

Performance Management Tools - Engagedly

Engagedly is a comprehensive talent management platform designed to elevate employee engagement, performance, and collaboration across teams. 

Established in 2015 with a mission to create a more engaged workforce, Engagedly has grown to serve businesses across the globe within and outside of the U.S. 

The platform has a focus on continuous feedback, goal alignment, and a culture of recognition. This is underpinned by Engagedly’s E3 People Success Model, which concentrates on executing performance, enabling development, and engaging people.

Engagedly's robust feature set, including 360-degree feedback, performance reviews, goal tracking, and learning and development plans, supports each of these pillars, making it a comprehensive tool for enhancing employee performance and satisfaction.

Why do I choose Engagedly over competitors?

Engagedly provides a seamless integration of engagement, performance, and learning within a single platform. 

This unified approach ensures that every team member is fairly evaluated, given helpful feedback, and presented with opportunities for growth and recognition for a more positive and productive work environment.

Engagedly also incorporates contextual AI to help you deliver precise and objective performance feedback, write HR-related content, and summary reports and insights. 

This, along with its integration capabilities with major HR software systems, positions Engagedly as a versatile tool for improving organizational efficiency and employee engagement.

Engagedly’s Key Features

  • Continuous Feedback and Check-ins: Enables ongoing dialogue for between employees and managers.
  • Goal Setting and Tracking: You can easily set and track goals, updates or adjusts to better align individual goals with team’s and organizational objectives. 
  • Performance Reviews and Evaluations: Offers customizable templates and flexible rating scales that adapt to various evaluation methodologies. Engagedly also support 360-degree feedback with highly customizable and automated workflows, reminders, anonymous feedback options.
  • Marissa AI: Engagedly's AI helps you step up the performance management game by smartly automating feedback, digging into performance trends to spot opportunities, and tailoring learning suggestions. This is all to make the whole process smoother, less time-consuming, and more insightful for everyone involved.
  • Employee Recognition and Rewards: Offers customizable rewards and recognition programs, which can be more tailored and meaningful compared to generic reward systems.
  • Learning and Development Plans: Engagedly integrates personal development into the performance management process, offering targeted learning opportunities based on individual feedback and performance evaluations.
  • Employee Surveys and Team Pulse: Utilizes science-based surveys to gauge engagement and satisfaction, providing deep AI-enabled insights with demographic level reporting and engagement indices. 
  • Gamification: Engages employees with points, badges, and leaderboards for completing activities aligned with company values, adding a layer of fun and competition to improve productivity.

Engagedly’s Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Engagedly offers a wide range of tools to support all aspects of performance management and employee engagement
  • Out of all the options in the featured list, Engagedly has the most useful AI capabilities.
  • Engagely’s users appreciate the intuitive interface and short implementation process.
  • Helpful and quick customer support 
  • Mobile apps available

Cons:

  • New users may find the platform somewhat complicated to navigate.

Engagedly Rating

  • G2: 4.4/5.0 from 528 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.7/5.0 from 76 reviews

Featured User Quote

“Engagedly is giving us more power and centralized platform that make it easy to conduct perfromance evaluation process. We have ditch the manual evaluation process and using the AI to collect, capture and reviewing employees performance automatically. All this process is easy to implement with the help of various software integartion that we install.” - Sebastian Q., verified G2 user

Engagely Pricing 

Engagedly offers a base Performance package starting at $9/user/month, with the option to add on additional features, including Rewards and Recognition (+$5/user/month), and Growth and Learning (+$5/user/month).

Trakstar

Trakstar

Best for: Traditional companies to modernize and optimize your performance management with competency tracking and robust analytics.

Performance Review Software - Trakstar

Trakstar is a cloud-based performance management software that offers a straightforward toolset for real-time tracking, feedback, and employee performance analysis.

With its simple, user-friendly interface and customizable options, Trakstar is positioned as a solution for companies of all sizes seeking to optimize their HR processes and align employee performance with organizational goals.

Trakstar's features are designed to provide unbiased, data-driven insights into employee performance, promoting transparency and fairness in employee evaluations. 

Trakstar also helps you identify and develop future leaders through tools including succession planning and competency tracking (with unique suggestions of 100 preset competencies and detailed descriptions!)

Why I picked Trakstar?

Trakstar stands out from other performance management tools through its blend of user-friendliness, comprehensive feature set, and emphasis on continuous feedback and development. 

Trakstar provides a well-rounded suite of tools designed to support the administrative and developmental aspects of HR processes. 

With its helpful features, Trakstar potentially enables HRs and managers to reduce bias, automate processes, and enhance employee engagement levels.

Trakstar’s Key Features

  • Configurable Workflows: Allows customization of performance appraisals, workflows, and review forms to meet specific organizational needs. Trakstar supports 360-degree feedback with customizable templates and automated reminders. 
  • Goal Management: Enables setting, tracking, and updating of performance goals in alignment with organizational objectives, fostering clarity and focus among teams.
  • Performance Evaluation: Supports various evaluation tools, including self-evaluations and 360-degree feedback, with an emphasis on unbiased and objective scoring.
  • Competency Tracking: Monitors and evaluates role-specific competencies, promoting targeted feedback and development efforts.
  • Succession Planning: Aids in identifying potential future leaders and planning for organizational growth and development.
  • Employee Engagement: Includes features for regular check-ins, feedback, and recognition, aiming to boost morale, satisfaction, and productivity.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Provides dashboards for immediate insight into performance metrics, trends, and employee progress, facilitating informed managerial decisions.
  • Learning and Development: Supports creating and tracking personalized development plans. You can provide learning materials linked with performance outcomes with integrated tools for employee skill enhancement and role preparation in Trakstar.

Trakstar Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Trakstar's automated reminders and goal tracking reduce manual work and ensure timely evaluations.
  • Designed to be intuitive, ensuring ease of use and minimal training for new users.
  • Can connect with popular HRIS systems, including BambooHR, APD, UKG, or any software that supports SFTP integrations.

Cons:

  • It takes a little learning curve to utilize all features fully
  • Does not have mobile app

Trakstar Rating

  • G2: 4.4/5.0 from 528 reviews
  • Capterra: 4.7/5.0 from 76 reviews

Featured User Quote

“I like that Trakstar offers so many different features. It's not my first rodeo with Trakstar because I have used it with other companies I have been to before, and let me tell you, it never disappoints. It's very easy to navigate and implement. We recently started using the 360 reviews, and the best part is their customer support. They are very quick to respond whenever there are any glitches or if I have any questions. We use it regularly for our annual performance reviews. Another feature we use is Sales Performance. It offers a variety of metrics, and it's easy for us to evaluate performance. Overall, we are happy with it and will continue using it.” - Kiran C., verified G2 user.

Trakstar Pricing 

Trakstar's pricing is not publicly listed and is available upon request based on your team size and requirements.

Betterworks

Betterworks

Best for: Teams that deeply embrace OKRs and goal-setting for driving productivity and managing performance.

Performance Management Tools - Betterworks

Betterworks is designed as an enterprise-ready SaaS platform that supports companies in achieving optimal performance outcomes. 

It focuses on enhancing manager effectiveness, employee engagement, and overall productivity, leading to improved retention rates and business results. 

Betterworks stands out for incorporating the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology, central to its goal-setting and tracking functionalities. 

Betterworks supports performance reviews, calibrations, manager-employee conversations, feedback exchange, and recognition.

By leveraging generative AI and data analytics, Betterworks provides a comprehensive solution that caters to the diverse needs of modern workplaces, from small teams to large enterprises. 

Their notable clients include high-profile organizations like Hulu, Kroger, and FedEx.

Why I picked Betterworks?

Betterworks is a straightforward solution for teams that place a high value on OKRs and goal setting to measure productivity. 

It offers a range of capabilities that are purpose-built around goals, which enable next-level alignment, focus, conversations, and analytics for goal-oriented teams. 

Betterworks helps you and your team members align organizational goals with individual goals and provides transparent tracking and insights to concentrate on setting ambitious goals and monitoring measurable progress. 

It seamlessly connects performance management activities like real-time check-ins, 1:1s, calibrations, and reporting with your preset individual and team goals. 

Moreover, Betterworks AI is handy in helping you write feedback, bias-control reviews, and goal details in less time-consuming and more effective ways.

Betterworks’ Key Features

  • Goal-Setting and Alignment: Empowers organizations to define and disseminate company-wide objectives, breaking them down into actionable OKRs.
  • AI-Enhanced Feedback and Recognition: Uses generative AI to facilitate clear goal-setting, personalized feedback, and unbiased performance reviews.
  • Manager Effectiveness Tools: Conversation templates and check-in tools help managers regularly engage with employees on goal progress and development.
  • Strategic Insights and Analytics: Offers robust analytics and reporting tools to provide comprehensive and granular views of employee performance.
  • Employee Engagement: Integrates performance management processes into daily work tools, enhancing the employee experience and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Betterworks’ Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Advanced AI and data analytics for smarter decision-making.
  • Comprehensive feature set addressing various aspects of performance management with clear goal visualization.
  • Intuitive interface 
  • Rich integrations with HRIS (Workday, SAP, ADP, Oracle, UKG, BambooHR, Zenefits, and SGTP integrations), productivity (Salesforce, Jira, Asana, GitHub, Azure, Google Sheets, and Excels), collaboration (Slack, MS Teams, Google Calendar, Outlook), and L&D tools (Udemy and Linkedin Learning).

Cons:

  • Limited functionality on the mobile app
  • A slight learning curve for newcomers
  • Higher price point

Betterworks Rating

  • G2: 4.3/5.0 from 195 reviews
  • Gartner: 4.5/5.0 from 12 reviews

Featured User Quote

"Excellent organizational OKRs tool to visualize and align objectives/goals at every level and among each individual. The "Conversations" function allows the team members and the leaders to communicate meaningfully. This is the tool I use every day to remind myself what I am contributing to the vision of my organization."  - Verified Garner user.

Betterworks Pricing 

Betterworks offers tiered pricing plans for mid-market companies and large enterprises. You need to contact Betterworks for a detailed quote.

Besides, the “Betterworks Go” plan starts at $7/user/month, offering a self-service goal alignment and performance management platform for teams of 5 to 1,000 people.

The Bottom Line

The evolution of employee performance management shows a real shift from old-school annual reviews to continuous feedback, goal alignment, and enhanced engagement, facilitated by innovative software solutions.

Platforms like 15Five, Lattice, Engagedly, and our partner Culture Amp each offer unique features to simplify performance tracking, foster communication, and align individual objectives with organizational goals.

These solutions, chosen based on my hands-on experience, expert interviews, and user feedback, provide a well-rounded approach and cater to various needs—from enhancing team transparency and enabling real-time feedback to promoting skill development and celebrating achievements.

The emphasis is on creating an engaging work environment where employees feel valued, motivated, and connected, regardless of their physical workplace.

This transformation in performance management, powered by recent AI innovations, makes it more accessible and effective, ensuring that businesses can maintain a competitive edge by retaining and nurturing top talent.

More comparison guides for HRs and managers to choose your best tech stack in 2024:

Frequently Asked Questions

What are performance management tools?

Performance management tools are solutions designed to streamline and automate the process of monitoring, analyzing, and improving employees' work performance. 

At their core, these tools for performance management facilitate a structured approach to setting goals, conducting evaluations, providing feedback, and recognizing achievements

An employee performance management tool can take the form of HRIS software, LMS, or workforce planning systems with built-in performance management functions, as measuring productivity and managing performance are crucial parts of these processes. 

But they can also be a standalone performance management platform that integrates with your existing HR and management tech stacks.

Just remember that modern performance managing goes far beyond traditional annual assessments, which can't capture the entire picture of an employee's capabilities and potential, lack flexibility, and may create undue pressure!

The best performance management software, like those featured in this detailed guide, will enable continuous and real-time feedback, better align goals at all levels, support bias-mitigated and fair reviews from multiple perspectives, foster professional development and career growth, and even bring AI assistance to the game.

Are you looking for performance management tools or performance review software?

Performance management is a continuous cycle encompassing goal setting, feedback, coaching, development planning, and evaluation. 

It's an ongoing process that requires consistent communication and collaboration between managers and employees throughout the year. 

On the other hand, performance review software primarily focuses on facilitating the periodic evaluation aspect of performance management, typically the annual or semi-annual review process.

If you're looking for a solution that supports the entire employee journey, not just the periodic reviews, then performance management tools are the way to go.  

These comprehensive tools help streamline the entire performance cycle with:

  • Goal setting and alignment features - to align individual goals with organizational objectives and cascade them across teams and departments.
  • Continuous feedback features - to enable real-time feedback exchange between managers, peers, and direct reports, fostering an environment of ongoing communication and development.
  • Coaching and development planning features - to identify skill gaps, create personalized development plans, and track progress towards professional growth.
  • Performance tracking features - to monitor performance against set goals and objectives, with the ability to course-correct as needed.
  • Centralized collaboration features - act as a hub for managers, teams, and HRs to collaborate, share updates, and ensure everyone is working towards the same objectives.

and other innovative capabilities that differentiate leading performance management tools in the market.

However, there are also chances that you may only need support for the formal performance review process. In that case, what you look for is more of performance review software that can meets your requirements and budget.

These specialized tools for performance appraisal provide dedicated features for custom performance review forms and templates, rating scales, multi-rater feedback (360-degree reviews), and workflows for completing and approving reviews.

For more details, check out my breakdown and review of the best performance review software in 2024.

How to choose the right performance management tool for your team?

Choosing the right performance management tool is crucial to driving employee engagement, productivity, and overall success. 

The first step always is to identify your needs

  • Do you need a dedicated performance management solution or an all-in-one HR suite? 
  • Do you prioritize continuous feedback, goal tracking, or traditional performance reviews? 
  • Do you require advanced features like AI assistance, people analytics, or compensation management? 

Answering these questions will help narrow down your options. No software can give you everything (or at least for now!), but considering your top priorities can lead you to the most suitable options that fit your company's nature and are worth the budget spending.

If you're looking for a good performance management tool with robust features, you can start immediately with Culture Amp, Lattice, and Leapsome. They all offer compelling goal tracking, continuous feedback, performance reviews, and employee engagement surveys. 

Otherwise, all of the software featured on this list provides pricing plans per user, and they offer free demos or trials! Take a chance and get essential information in this guide to double-check how the solution fits into your workflows and serves your purposes. 

Some performance management tools offer more flexibility of choice, like choosing your preferred modules in Lattice, custom branding and features in PerformYard, or self-service with a more affordable price with Betterworks.

Additionally, after taking a deep look at these solutions, I realized that a dream performance management tool could be one that fits your philosophy. Some software has a very strong and unique approach to performance management. 

For example, 15Five's approach incorporates positive psychology principles, they nudge you to provide more frequent checkups with your teams, and let them improve themselves with micro-learnings.

Lastly, if you want to leverage AI capabilities in your performance management processes, check out 15Five, Leapsome, Engagedly, and Betterworks! Their AI assistance can help you further streamline processes, reduce bias, and gain valuable data-driven insights to support informed decision-making. But of course, they come with a higher cost.