2013 HRMS Trends So Far: Social Performance Management

HR is all about people so it should be pretty social, right? Well, certainly in the past the stereotype would have the HR department just doing a lot of woolly talking and failing to do any ‘real’ work! But we’re talking about the use of social media in the workplace and specifically, using it in social performance management processes.

Social media in HR particularly lends itself to increasing connection and collaboration across the workforce, breaking down departmental and functional barriers via new HRMS self-service functionality. At the beginning of the year, despite research showing that HR leaders feel they are lagging in the use of social media, the pundits were not only predicting advances in its use in HR technology but specifically in relation to performance management.

What’s Happening in 2013?

Put simply, a range of software options exist that can take performance management out of the old, rigid annual ‘appraise & assess’ cycle. For instance, building on the proven effectiveness of 360-degree feedback, employees are able to endorse and rate the work of their colleagues with those ratings feeding into your HRMS software and being instantly accessible by the rated individual and their manager. Usually, this functionality forms part of the broader workforce and/or talent management packages and is shared with the integrated HRMS.

As the year progresses, real-time performance feedback will become more common; the process of performance management will become less rigid and also less the exclusive preserve of HR, and – so long as the employee demand for such technology is met – workforce engagement levels will receive a boost.

How Is Social Performance Management an Improvement?

The benefits of more flexible and continuous social performance management is a greater degree of engagement in the process by the individual; it also makes performance management what it should be: a regular and continuous feature of working life rather than a once-a-year chore. Additionally, the input and feedback from colleagues shift the process away from its traditionally hierarchical nature and make it more inclusive and pertinent.

Of course, performance management as we know it is unlikely to disappear overnight but the demand for social technology in the workplace coupled with the opportunities it affords will be instrumental in its transformation towards social performance management.

To Sum Up

There’s little doubt that the ingress of internal social media into the workplace is in full swing and performance management is just the latest people process to be subjected to its influence. Just as the hiring process has been (and continues to be) transformed by social tech, we may look back and find that 2013 was the year that performance management was turned on its head.