Performance Management System Archives - Page 2 of 2 - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022

Performance Management through OKR System

The technology have integrated far deeper in our daily lives than we can perceive. The businesses are no exception at all. The modern businesses face modern problems which requires modern solutions. For any business having everything in order is critical. When all employees and resources are aligned with the high-level organizational goals and objectives, only then the highest performance can be achieved. Usually businesses have enough resources, but they are either not properly using them or simply there is too much waste in the system. It could be both non-human and human resource which is underutilized or utilized incorrectly. The biggest challenge for the HR department is to ensure all the required skillsets and talent is made available all the time to all departments within the organization. However, that is not just achallenge, in fact that is the prime goal of the HR. In order to achieve this goal, the HR will have to face many challenges and obstacles. Furthermore the HR is also responsible to keep improving the workforce by implementing strategies and plans for training, motivation, and performance management.

The HR is also responsible for hiring new staff to fill in the gaps that may arise down the road. This all can be done only if the HR will have clear visibility of the performance of the existing resource and understand the gaps between the workforce or skillset that are needed to meet the requirements.Businesses and enterprises in Dubai and all around the UAE are using a variety of performance management system to maximize the productivity and performance which ultimately translates into higher profitability and revenue. The biggest advantage of using an agile performance management system or CPM (continuous performance management) is that it provides a very effective framework for goal management. It improves visibility, accountability and help aligning teams and individuals with high-level organization goals.

The OKRs also help businesses achieve autonomy and let teams work autonomously by making them able to understand how their work is contributing to the high-level organizational goals and objectives. Most of the times businesses confuse OKRs with the Performance Management, however, the OKRs are a framework for the goal management and the performance management majorly tend to evaluate employee performance.This doesn’t mean the performance management and the OKRs are rivals or can’t work together, in fact if a business wants to enjoy the maximum of both, they should align and integrate OKRs within their performance management process.

What is the Difference between the Performance Management and OKRs?

The OKRs are Objectives and Key Results. The OKRs are set by teams and managers for the teams and it always have a clear goal and objectives which can be measured clearly by the outcome. For example. We will improve customer service by increasing customer satisfaction. The improvement in customer service is an objective and how much improvement is done, that can be measured by the customer satisfaction survey, or by NPS score or even by reduction in customer churn rate or even by all those factors altogether. To achieve the OKRs several different employees will have to work together. In our example, in order to improve customer service, many teams must have to work together to produce the desired outcome. However, the performance management is entirely a different process with a different scope. It involves, high-level planning, continuous monitoring, reviewing or evaluation and then rewards & acknowledgements for the individual employees instead of teams. Although performance management also measures the teams’ performance but the main focus is at the individual performance.

The OKRs are not the employee evaluation, in fact it is the measure of the employees’ and teams’ contribution to the high-level goals and objectives. The performance management on the other hand is the evaluation of the performance of each employees for a given period of time. Hence the OKRs and the performance reviews should be kept separate and independent. Neither should dictate the other. The performance management system focuses on the outputs and attainments while the OKRs focus on the outcomes. Most of the outcomes for a business are not an individual effort, but a collective and collaborative effort by multiple employees and teams. That is why the OKRs focus on the outcomes instead of individual outputs. The OKRs inspire innovation and are designed to encourage teams to set more bold and stretched goals. Which encourage the entire teams to perform better and motivates them. The performance management doesn’t require collaboration as it is focused on individual goals, however, the OKRs encourage collaborations and demand collective efforts to maximize the outcome that is aligned with the high-level organizational goals and objectives.

How Businesses can Improve Performance Management through OKR System?

Now that we have established a clear understanding of the performance management system and OKR system, we will discuss how both can be used in parallel to maximize the results. The OKRs are also used to aid performance management process but unlike the traditional performance management system the OKRs focus more on broader goals and results. The OKRs have two parts, the objectives and the key results. Usually there are 3 to 5 primary objectives with additional 3 to 5 supportive or relevant objectives. These goals and objectives tend to be measured with quantifiable outcomes which are usually monitored through KPIs (key performance indicators). The biggest advantage of the OKRs is that all the goals are communicated well with the teams they have their say in it, and all goals are aligned with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. The goals set under OKR framework are always achievable but challenging which is a key to maximize the outcome. The OKRs cycle is also more frequent, usually it is 2 to 4 months, unlike the performance management cycle which is usually 12 months. This also provide better visibility and much deeper understanding of the progress and the factors that are impacting the productivity.

Basically the OKRs are used to support faster growth and help businesses in more dynamic and fast changing markets. There are several multinational businesses and enterprises who have performed exceptionally with OKR system, such as:

Google
Intel Corporation
Meta (Facebook)

And many more. All those companies are well-known for their hyper-growth and global expansion. The OKR system helped them and thousands of others to effectively maximize the productivity of their teams and individual employees.

Here are some key benefits of using OKR System to boost the performance:

OKR System Align all Resources with your Vision and High-level Organizational Goals

Every organization have a long term vision, in order to achieve that visions businesses set high-level organization goals and objectives. On the bases of these high-level organizational goals and objectives, the management develop plans and strategies which help them achieve those goals and objectives. Usually these goals and objectives scaled down to lower hierarchies such as different business functions, departments, teams and even individual employees. The prime goal is to achieve the high-level organizational goals and objectives that led the business to achieve its vision down the road. The OKRs are usually set in the same fashion. Start with high-level organizational OKRs, which later divided into departments, teams and even individuals. With a traditional performance management system a time comes when achieving the goals of the individuals, teams or even departments could become very difficult while performing daily tasks or work as per the respective job role or function. However, with OKR System business can assign different goals to the teams and departments and different goals for the individual employees which ultimately aligns with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. This can significantly boost the performance and produce better outcomes.

OKR System Produce Better Outcome and Results

The OKRs can be written in many ways, however the most common method is to define objectives and key results that are the milestones and these milestones outline progress instead of activity. The employees or teams should met those milestones in order to achieve the high-level organizational goals and objectives. The OKRs are great at communicating the goals and required efforts with clear timelines which can help achieving the high-level organizational goals and objectives.

The founder of the OKR framework and former CEO of Intel Corporation, Mr. Andrew Stephen Groveonce said about the OKRs:

“Stressing output is the key to increasing productivity.”

Google is another great example of stressing on the output and stretching the goals to achieve hyper-growth using OKR System. Mr. Larry Page, the co-founder of the Google once said:

“OKRs have helped lead us to 10X growth, many times over.”

When it comes to productivity, the output is what a team or individual does and the outcome is the effect of that output on the overall progress of the business towards their high-level organizational goals and vision. The OKR system can enable super-fast growth and transformation in any business. It support agile performance management and enable businesses to resolve problems and address issues midway. Which significantly reduce the time that is usually required by a traditional performance management system. Hence businesses can rapidly grow and expand while also maximizing their efficiency and performance.

OKR System Increase Employee Engagements

Studies have shown that only 1/3^rd of the employees are truly engaged in their organizations, and improvements in employee engagement could lead to up to 10% to 30% better performance. That is why the employee engagement is very important, it also reduce employee turnover and help businesses retain valuable talent. The OKR system allow employees to actively participate in the planning process of setting up goals and objectives for both the individual employees and the teams. When employees know they are accountable and they also participate in goal setting process, they become more attached and connected to those goals and objectives. When communication is improved and the employees knows their voice will be heard, they feel more connected to the organization, this gives them a sense of purpose and make them more responsible. When the employee know what they are working for and how their efforts will add value, they become more efficient. The OKR System provides a very effective framework which enables managers to easily link the employee performance or their output with the outcomes or high-level organizational goals and objectives. Studies and surveys have revealed that 90% of the employees felt more connected to the organization after implementing OKR System.

OKR System Enables Quick Adjustments and Course Correction

Most of the times managers and employees both feel that they could have done something if they had time. This feeling is common after the traditional performance management cycle. If the performance is evaluated once in a year then only after that you will be able to understand what have gone wrong and where. Mostly smaller things, or easily avoidable problems cause huge damage to the overall performance of the organizations. The OKR system is much more agile and it can make managers more proactive, rather reactive. This is what make it superior from traditional performance management systems. The OKR cycle is usually shorter, the goals and objectives are shot-term but completely aligned with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. Shot-term goals means more frequent performance reviews, the factor that all goals are quantifiable also brings transparency to the system and prevent several other traditional performance management problems. More frequent performance reviews enables managers to quickly take actions and provide guidance to the employees and teams to prevent them from deviating from the original goals. This ensures the high-level goals and objectives remains achievable and all the problems and unexpected situations are addressed with adequate actions and plans.

OKR Systems are Transparent in Nature

Transparency, biased reviews, favoritism and lack of context are some of the most common reasons of failure of a conventional performance management system. The OKR System is far much transparent, as the goals and objectives are set by the employees and teams so they are more accountable and they feel more responsible in achieving their goals. Furthermore the OKRs of everyone are visible to everyone. This means that every team member knows everyone’s tasks and objectives. This helps specifically when it comes to collaborative tasks, the conventional performance management system lacks this ability. When an objective is not achieved the managers and the employees are in a better position to understand the effects and impact of under-performing team members. Another great advantage of the OKR system is that the employees and teams who will be performing the tasks are setting the goals and objectives. The employees who are performing the tasks are more aware of the problems and obstacles they might be facing, that is why the OKR system always yield better outcome. Unlike traditional performance management system there are only a fewer goals and objectives in the OKRs which keep employees and teams focused on the high-priority tasks which led to high performance and better results.

Creating OKRs: Best Practices

The purpose of OKR System is to provide better understanding of high-level organizational goals and to ensure the employees and teams will perform well to achieve those goals. Creating such goals and objectives that not only align with the high-level organizational goals but also individual and team development is a very tricky task. In fact inspiring someone is very difficult in itselfit and requires a lot of skills. Most of the time when businesses and organizations adopt OKR Systems the first problem they face is the lack of understanding of the OKRs. The employee could easily get overwhelmed when they have to create goals and objectives that are not only achievable and challenging at the same time but also perfectly aligned with the high-level organizational goals. Here are a few tips to create highly effective OKRs which can truly add value to the high-level organizational goals and objectives:

Simplicity: Keeping it simple is always good, employees and teams should focus on the objectives they can achieve in the given timeframe and with the current resources they have.
Prioritize Objectives: Employees usually caught up thinking they will have to contribute to every department’s objectives. This could drastically reduce the efficiency and performance. The employees and teams should only focus on what is most needed from them.
Make them Specific: It is important that you brainstorm different possibilities to achieve the objectives, develop a specific plan of action to achieve those objectives. Also write how the performance will be measured.
Create Cascaded Objectives: Cascading objectives from organizational point of view to department, then teams and then individual objectives will eliminate all ambiguities and help employees and teams to see how their objectives will contribute to the higher objectives.
Break Goals into Smaller Goals: Create highly specific smaller goals within your key results. This will clarify what exactly the employees and teams will have to do to achieve their objectives and it also keep them more focused and aligned with their and higher goals.
Make it Measurable: The worst scenario is when the employees or managers are not sure if the goal is achieved or not. That is why each key result needs a unit to measure the performance. It doesn’t matter what unit you use but the result should be quantifiable.
Set Stretched Goals: Stretched and ambitious goals are a good motivation. But make sure the goals are achievable and challenging at the same time. Too easy goals and unrealistic goals will demotivate the employees and teams.
Recognize Achievements: It is important to keep encouraging employees and teams during the time period of the key results. Even if the key results are not achieved yet, if a milestone or a smaller goal is achieved, the teams and employees should be admired and encouraged.

Never Link OKRs to Compensations

When it comes to OKRs it is a well-known fact that the 100% results are never achieved. It is majorly due to the nature of the goals that are set within the OKR System. As the goals are always stretched and made challenging so only 70% to 80% of the objectives can be achieved. That is why it is never beneficial to link the OKRs with compensations and bonuses. Linking OKRs with the compensations led the employees to only do the needful work to make their metrics and KPIs eligible for the bonuses. This could also led to malpractices in the teams and employees just to meet the minimum required KPIs for the bonuses and it could completely kill the innovation from the system. That is why the OKR System is never linked to bonuses, pay increments and compensations like that.

See More: Top 5 Performance Management Trends in 2022 – 2023

Conclusion

The OKRs and agile or continuous performance management (CPMS) are the modernized form of performance management. However, it is important to understand that the OKRs and the performance management are two separate frameworks. The performance management and OKRs can be integrated to leverage the additional benefits of the OKR system that a typical performance management system lacks. That is why the OKRs can be utilized as the gap between the typical performance management system and the modern needs of performance management. The OKRs are also not suitable as a mechanisms to design personal development programs. The OKRs are best at bringing the transparency in the performance management process which help businesses motivate their teams and workforce to perform exceptionally well. The OKRs also gives a sense of ownership, responsibility and help connecting employees with the high-level organizational goals and objectives which is a key to success.

Whether you are using a performance management system and implemented OKRs in it or whether you haven’t used them, a dedicated OKR system software could be a great help to boost your organization’s performance. At RSI Concepts we are helping our customers to bridge the gap between the strategy and execution. Our performance management system comes with in-built dedicated OKR System and it can also be acquired as a standalone software. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you improving your existing performance management methods and processes. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: How to Reduce Software Development Cost in Dubai, UAE?

June 1, 2022June 1, 2022

How to Develop Customized Enterprise Performance Management Software?

This blog will provide you basic understanding of the performance management system software and how you can develop a customized enterprise performance management software. In Dubai and all around the UAE the markets are very competitive and the customer trends are always changing. If a business wants to excel in such environment they must have to make sure that each business function is working at their maximum level and each individual employee is delivering the best of their work.The performance management is not a one time work, in fact it is a continuous process that can take years to reach to the maximum performance and efficiency. Businesses use performance management systems and software for various factors that directly or indirectly impact the overall performance of the business.

There are several benefits of the performance management software. The biggest advantage of any performance management software is that it allow the management to implement their strategy more effectively and communicate their goals with the employees. It help employees understand their job roles, business’s expectations from them, their contribution required in the high-level organizational goals and objectives and it also provide them the roadmap/plan to effectively meet the expectations and ensure maximum performance and efficiency. The performance management software can easily track the current performance and it also keeps the past evaluations which help the management to understand the employee and it also help them to assess the employee development programs and training programs and a lot many things.

Today’s world is heavily data driven, no matter which industry or business sector you belongs to, the data is crucially important. The technology have rooted deeply in our daily lives. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE where the technology and digital IT infrastructure is dominating the businesses, it is crucial to have effective and efficient digital strategy. Now a day’s even a small retail store can’t operation without a simple digital POS machine. As much as the business grows the integration with modern technology and solutions grows too. A performance management software is one of the best asset a business can utilize to achieve its long term and short term goals. There are two major types of enterprise performance management software. One is the off-the-shelf or ready-made solution which is provided by several vendors, the second type is customized enterprise performance management software which is far superior then the off-the-shelf solutions.

The customized enterprise performance management software provide more control, flexibility and it is very cost-efficient in the long term. Here in this blog we will discuss how a business without any prior experience or expertise can develop a high-quality enterprise performance management software.

Step 1: Develop Customized Enterprise Performance Management Software – Discovery Phase

For the enterprise performance management software or any other customized enterprise solution the first step is called discovery phase or requirement gathering phase. A business owner or senior manager can either take matter into their hands or they can also appoint a project in charge who should take responsibility of everything. The first step starts with the research. Not too technical, only basic research to understand the software and it is better to look up for some case studies and go through them. This will provide you a basic understanding of the enterprise performance management software and what other businesses are doing and how they are doing it. You can easily find those case studies online and also on the websites of the custom software development companies. If you are located in Dubai or anywhere in the UAE it is better to look up for the case studies from your region. Anyways, case studies no matter from where would be a great start. This will provide you excellent understanding of what you can do and what you can expect from the customized enterprise performance management software.

Step 2: Develop Customized Enterprise Performance Management Software – Set Goals and Make Plan

Whenever a business invest in any solution or software the first thing they do is to set a goal and then select the appropriate tools to achieve those goals. For customized enterprise performance management software the prime objective is to boost the performance of the entire business including all its business functions, management, and the individual employees. But the biggest challenge is that each business have certain limitations in terms of resources and capabilities. For example if you want to improve a product you have an excellent team who can design a great product but your production facility is running on old machinery which is not capable of manufacturing that product. In that case you can’t achieve your goal. So, the goals should be realistic and achievable. That was just one example, there could be hundred different scenarios where the business can face a road block.

Anyways, setting up goals like improvement in customer retention, increase in sales and improvement in resource management are the goals that any business can easily achieve. For those goals the business can set objectives such as 20% reduction in customer churn rate, 15% improvement in NPS (Net Promoter Score), 30% reduction in customer wait time, etc. For these objectives the business can make workable plans and good strategies. Such objectives are clearly quantifiable hence a plan can be built to achieve those objectives and overall organizational goals. A customized enterprise performance management software allow businesses to easily implement their strategy and execute plans effectively to insure their goals will be achieved.

Step 3: Develop Customized Enterprise Performance Management Software – Hire a Custom Software Development Company in Dubai, UAE

For the development of customized enterprise performance management software hiring a custom software development company in Dubai, UAE could be a trickier task. There are hundreds if not thousands of software development companies located in Dubai alone and there are many more all around the UAE. This makes it difficult for a business owner or the manager to select a right software development company for their customized enterprise performance management software. Here are some steps if followed as per the following order could help you identify a good service provider:

Make a list of 10 to 12 custom software development companies in Dubai or anywhere in UAE
The list can be prepared by simple Google search or you can ask your colleagues, friends and professional connection to suggest software development companies or it can also be a combination of both
Spend some time on exploring the websites of all the companies that you have in your list
Scrutinize their websites in terms of design, the information, overall look and feel, their portfolio, business partners, awards, testimonials, and media center (blog, PR, case studies, etc.)
Trust on your guts and rearrange the list by putting the best at the top, you can also discard a few at this stage if you feel they are not good enough or doesn’t have strong profile
Contact all of the short listed software development companies and ask them to sign NDA with you, then share your project plan, objectives and goals with them and ask them to submit their proposal and quotations
Analyze those proposals and discard the companies who failed to understand your requirements correctly or who are offering you a very vague, general purpose type solution
Now you would be remaining with only 4 to 5 or maybe even less companies, ask them to provide you the contacts of at least any 3 customers to whom they have provided a similar solution and take their opinion about the vendor
Now start negotiation on both technical and commercial proposals and try to reduce the project cost as much as you could while getting maximum features
Now you are in a position to easily select the best customer software development company
Sign agreements and agree on a project plan as well as payment and other terms and conditions

If you are still reading you might have noticed I haven’t mention anything about off-shore customer software development companies at all. There are hundreds of off-shore companies who are serving customers here in UAE but there are thousands who could get you to a failure. In addition to that any off-shore company is not bound by the UAE laws that protect customers in such business transactions. That is why it is better to avoid off-shore service provider and chose a customer software development company in Dubai, such as RSI Concepts or anywhere else from the UAE.

Step 4: Develop Customized Enterprise Performance Management Software – Project Execution

The customized enterprise performance management software project execution is a simple and fairly straightforward. Since the project plan is already drawn the scope of the software is already agreed in the previous stages now it is only the matter of time. However, there are some important things that you should consider when the project enters into the development phase. Here is how the customized enterprise performance management software development project is executed step by step:

Wireframe: The wireframes are layouts and diagrams that describe how the actual software will look and how each functionality will be provided. It is basically the blue print of the entire software.
UI/UX Design: The UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) is crucial for the success of any software. Be vigilant at this stage, carefully examination of the UI and all the screens will provide you the details of the UX. At this stage changes can be made easily, on later stages the changes could cost you more time and money.
App Development: The app development phase is where the developer add source code and develop algorithms. All the functionalities are developed at this stage.
Quality Testing: Some development companies do in-house testing some also invite customers to participate in this phase. Either way the final product is tested to see if all the features are working as per agreed previously or not. The software development company also do bug-fixing and quality assurance at this stage.
Security Testing: For any business the data collected by the enterprise performance management software is crucial. So a detailed security testing is required. Usually business acquire a third-party to do the security testing.
UAT: The UAT or user acceptance test is done by a selective group from the actual software users. Majorly the project teams, management and some key employees perform UAT. Once approved the project is ready for the launch.
Beta Launch: The beta launch or soft launch is a pre-launch step, in this the software is made available for a larger group of users. Who test it and usually the training also take place during this stage.

Step 5: Develop Customized Enterprise Performance Management Software – Launch

In the launch phase the customized enterprise performance management software is made available for all the users and it starts operations. After the launch another important thing is the maintenance of the customized enterprise performance management system software. Such software doesn’t usually require much maintenance. As they are usually at the cloud or online hosting, which is managed by the service provider so businesses doesn’t have to worry much about it. Even if it is hosted in in-premises data center, the management team could easily keep it operational. However, it is still very beneficial to sign an annual maintenance agreement with the development company. As it can provide additional support and few minor changes can also be accommodated under that agreement.

Conclusion

The enterprise performance management software is a very important asset for any business or organization. It provides the management with a real-time and 360 view of what is happening. The enterprise performance management software provide both macro and micro level monitoring features which are very helpful for improving efficiency and boosting employee performance. The managers can get the performance data which help them to quickly identify the hurdles and issues and provide them a chance to evaluate their actions and changes that they made to overcome those obstacles. Furthermore the enterprise performance management and appraisal software is a key component to reduce employee turnover and improve the overall workforce of the business. A capable team and efficient business processes are key to productivity, profitability and growth.

RSI Concepts is a leading custom software development company in Dubai, UAE with specialized skills and experience in customized enterprise performance management software. If you want to learn more about the subject or need our help to develop a super-efficient customized enterprise performance management software for you, please feel free to contact us via our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: How the HR should select a Performance Management System?

May 30, 2022December 9, 2022

How the HR should select a Performance Management System?

For any business the human resource is considered to be the backbone of the business. The HR is responsible for hiring skilled staff. The HR is also responsible for employee retention and employee happiness. Job satisfaction is a very positive factor and can boost one’s performance by many times. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the market is very competitive, the customers are also very savvy and there are other challenges too which makes it extremely crucial to make your employees productive and efficient. For that businesses uses multiple methods and tactics, most of the businesses use a performance management system. The main reason to use a performance management system is to measure and evaluate the employee performance and their impact on the high-level organizational objectives and goals. Basically the performance management system is used to make sure all the employees and departments are working in the right direction to achieve the high-level organizational goals and objectives.

The continuous performance monitoring and evaluation also help encouraging employees to perform well. The performance management system is also used to improve employee’s capabilities. It helps HR in many ways and it enable businesses to implement employee development programs which help them improving their employees’ professional skills and capabilities. The performance management system is also a great tool to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the employees which help businesses in effective and efficient resource planning and management. All these benefits can help businesses and organizations in achieving their goals and objectives and maximize the productivity and profitability of the business.

When it comes to implementing a performance management system there are several options available in the market. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the off-the-shelf and ready-made solutions are in abundance which also makes it difficult for the HR to decide which system they should acquire. Obviously each business have different needs and plans, so in this blog we will discuss how the HR should choose the right system for their needs.

What is a Performance Management System?

A performance management system is mainly a software which have in-built features that allow the businesses and organizations to execute the performance management tasks and strategy. There are two major parts of performance management. First part is called performance management system which is drawing a roadmap to achieve the goals. The second part is performance appraisal system which is basically measuring the performance and progress of each individual employee, teams, departments and management with the reference to the high-level organizational goals and objectives. Although most of the time the performance management system and the appraisal management system are interchanged and referred to as the performance management system only.

The performance management system software can be hosted on cloud, online hosting or in local/in-premises data centers. The system is interlinked with the central information center as well as all necessary systems and tools via API based integration which enables it to synchronize, update and push data to and from other systems.

Here are a few important things that the HR should consider while selecting a performance management system:

Performance Management System Software Technology and Platform

For any performance management system the software technology and the platform is crucial as it will not only support businesses with customization and scalability but it also have huge impact on the cost. The performance management system must be built on a widely available technology. Hence the changes or customization should be easy. These days many performance management systems are utilizing open-source programing platforms which is very cost-efficient and easy to customize. Furthermore the performance management system should be able to provide easy and cost-efficient scalability. The performance management system’s software consists of user interfaces (UIs) and a core server application.

The server application is where all the source code and algorithms are stored and executed. Hence the software platform should be able to support multiple server technologies such as online hosting, cloud hosting, local or in-premises hosting solutions. This will enable the business to choose appropriate solution as per their convenient and doesn’t put extra strain on the expense by forcing them to opt for a particular hosting technology.

Exclusive and Intuitive User Interfaces (UIs)

For performance management system or in fact for any system it is extremely crucial that the users are able to use it without any trouble. The intuitiveness and simplicity improves user experience which improves the overall efficiency and efficacy of the system. For the performance management system as it should be utilized by different all of the employees who all have different level of IT proficiency and computer knowledge, so the user interfaces should be designed to keep the users in mind. In a standard performance management system there are several different types of user interfaces which are all designed for different user groups, for example the user interface (UI) for the employee would be very different from the user interface for the CEO or the top level executives.

That is why it is extremely important that the user interface is easy to understand and intuitive. In some cases if training is required then the training should be provided to the staff. An employee or even a manager can only get the full benefits of the performance management system if they could use it easily.

Flexible Goals and Objectives Implementation

This is the most important part of any performance management system. The performance management system must have to be very flexible and user-friendly to enable the users to easily set goals and objectives in the system. At every managerial hierarchy till the individual employees the system administration (which is top level management) should be able to transmit the goals and objectives. In-built features should allow the board of directors and senior management to communicate the high-level organizational goals and objectives with the head of departments, directors, etc. and then they should be able to communicate those goals to their respective teams. For example the director operations should be able to set goals of the managers from the department and then they can do the same for the next level of employees and then the line managers, supervisors, etc. and at last the individual employees. This should be available for all business functions.

In this way the high-level organizational goals and objectives can be effectively communicated to everyone in the chain and businesses can get better results. Furthermore a good performance management system always encourage inputs and feedbacks from the individual employees and lower level management, which help them understand the goals much better and when employee have their say in planning and strategic affairs they feel more compassionate about their work and become more loyal with their employer. This can help improving their performance too.

Strong Monitoring Tools and Dynamic Strategy Implementation Approach

Most of the time the high-level organizational goals and objectives never changed, they remain same for the entire year. However, due to unplanned and unforeseen circumstances the individual goals and plan of action can be changed to remain on course for the high-level organizational goals. This requires continuous monitoring of the performance and the progress. A good performance management system should be very flexible towards implementing strategy and plans. It should provide continuous performance data to the managers and supervisors and let them change or amend the goals at any time. This course correction help them dealing with unforeseen events, interruptions and unplanned events.

Another upside is that it also provide continuous performance data to the employees as well and provide them with a chance to improve their performance to reach their goals and objectives. Furthermore it also estimate the impact of the individual performance on the overall performance of the team, department and the organization as well. Which also help encouraging the employees to perform well and it gives them a sense of importance which is good to improve employee loyalty and employee retention.

Continuous Employee Feedback

For any performance and appraisal management system the employee feedback is absolutely essential. It provides management a chance to evaluate the employees in a more accurate and better way and it also help reducing the communication barrier which is usually present among the junior employees and the management. The performance management system should have a dedicated in-built module for the employee feedback management. Where the managers should have ability to schedule one-on-one feedback sessions for any of their subordinate and also the manager who will be conducting the feedback session. The performance management system should also include online feedback features to conduct online surveys and feedbacks.

Furthermore the peer-to-peer, top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top feedback collection mechanisms should be available. These features can become very handy for the HR department and they also help understanding the problems and issues of the employees in greater depths.

Employee Appraisal Management & Reward Modules

The employee appraisal management is a very crucial part of the performance management. The employee appraisal is basically their performance during a particular time period. The employee appraisal management modules measure the employee performance on the bases of their progress towards the objectives, goals, and their contribution in the overall organizational goals and objectives. The appraisal management is the key component that is used to align all organizational resources with the high-level organizational goals and keep everyone on track to ensure the high-level goals and objectives will be achieved. The management by objectives is a modern appraisal method that involves employees in goal setting and strategy building process. Furthermore there are other methods too such as behaviorally anchored performance scales, 360 degree feedback, straight ranking appraisal, accounting appraisals, etc. and many more.

A good performance management system should not only support all these methods but it should also be able to allow the management to customize and configure their own methods and techniques. The appraisals play a crucial role in improving the overall productivity and profitability of the business. On the bases of the performance evaluation the performance management system should also help businesses to implement an effective reward program. The reward program help businesses in improving employee’s morals, encouraging them to perform even better in future. Furthermore the performance management system can provide accurate data on technical and behavioral competencies which help businesses to setup and plan training programs and it also help them in measuring the effects of the trainings and skill enhancement programs. This help HR to improve the overall operational and professional capabilities of the entire workforce.

KPIs, OKRs, KRAs, and other Matrices

The performance management system have in-built performance measuring matrices. These matrices are used to track, monitor and measure the performance of the entire business along with all its business units, departments, teams, and employees. The KPIs are Key Performance Indicators which are used to measure the performance of the individual employees, teams, departments, and even the entire business. The KPIs are used to communicate what is needed from an employee and quantify their work to assess the performance. While the KRAs or Key Result/Responsibility Areas are matrices that are used to measure the employee performance in terms of the expectations from their job role. Majorly the KRAs are used to clearly communicate the job role of the employees and give them a perspective of what the business is expecting from them and what should be their contribution.

The OKRs means Objectives and Key Results and it is a fairly new performance management method. The OKRs are reviewed more frequently (usually at the end of each quarter) and they are transparent both horizontally and vertically. The OKRs are different from KPIs as the KPIs provide the measure of the effectiveness of the existing processes, the OKRs mainly address the change and growth and it measures how far a business have progressed in in a certain time period in pursuit of their goals and objectives. These are some matrices that any good performance management system should have. These matrices and a lot many more such matrices improve the efficacy of the performance management system.

Performance Management System with Remote Access Enabled

A good performance management system must also have capabilities to provide access to the employees remotely if needed. These days in general our dependence on the smartphones and mobile devices is increasing. In fact most of the people use their mobile devices as their primary device to access the internet and do regular tasks. Furthermore businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE usually have many branches and most of the time employees are deployed off-campus or at project sites. This means that all of the employees wouldn’t have access to the computer or they won’t be able to come to the head-office to access their performance management system dashboard. Sometimes the higher management and stockholders also want to access the system from remote locations such as if they are at home, or at a business trip or if anything urgent came up while they are not at the office, etc.

That is why having the facility to provide remote access via mobile and smartphones could be a great advantage. Businesses can also integrate special purpose interactive kiosks with the system which can provide access to the performance management system from remote locations and make it possible for all employees to access their dashboard any time and from anywhere. Such features are very helpful in improving the effectiveness of the system and help businesses improve their performance in all sectors.

Performance Management System Cost – Customized VS Off-the-shelf Solution

Obviously the cost is one of the major factor. Whenever a business planned to acquire a new system or tool the cost is always an important anchor point. The ROI is calculated on the bases of the cost and the returns a business gets from the software or system. There are two types of performance management systems on the bases of their cost and usage agreements. Some companies are providing ready-made or off-the-shelf performance management systems which can be acquired on the rental bases or at different subscription plans. In both cases the scalability is expensive and the business must have to pay for the plan or package they have opted for. Usually these plans and packages are designed for general purpose hence most of the businesses end up paying for unwanted features and tools as well.

The data is stored in the service provider’s storage and business have no control over it. Another big disadvantage of off-the-shelf solutions is that they are hard to customize and sometimes businesses have to wait for a long time to see the new features in the updates. If any customization is done, it remains limited and it is also very expensive and in some cases it is not permitted at all.On the contrary the custom-build performance management systems provide full control and freedom. The business usually acquired a software development company like RSI Concepts or they hired a team of programmers and developers. In any case the business have full ownership rights over the software and it’s all resources. This make scalability a non-issue and business can include as many employees, departments, branches and everything whenever needed without paying hefty charges or upgrading fees.

Furthermore the full ownership frees the business from dependency on a single vendor and businesses can move to a new vendor or service provider without losing anything or going through the migration problems. This make customized performance management systems more superior and cost-efficient. In the long term the cost to benefits rates are excellent and the business have more control and freedom over their performance management system.

Conclusion

The performance management system is a very critical component of any business’s management. Businesses use a digital performance management system to plan and execute strategies as per their goals and vision. However, when it comes to selecting an appropriate performance management system the HR department had to be very careful. The performance management system could have a significant and long term impact on the business’s growth and productivity. In this blog we have listed some basic features which will help the HR department to choose the best solution for their performance management needs. A performance management system help businesses to set realistic goals and help them implementing strategies to achieve those goals. It significantly improves communication.

The performance management system also help employees’ in understanding their job roles, the expectations from them and the importance of their contribution in the overall high-level organizational goals and objectives. The feedback and planning tools help businesses including the employees in planning and strategy building phases which increase their trust and improve their relationship with the business.A performance management system is absolutely necessary for any business. Each business grows, some grow faster and some at a slower pace but eventually each business grows and their internal business processes become more complex and sophisticated. A performance management system ensures the business sustain that growth and with the growth it also improves it workforce, operational capabilities while ensuring higher productivity and performance.

RSI Concepts is a leading performance management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you need our help to provide you a high-quality performance management system, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Employee KPIs and Performance Management

April 29, 2022

Why do businesses need both the performance management and performance appraisal?

For any business it is important that all its resources are performing at higher performance with maximum efficiency. Every business small or large must have limited resources, hence they have to utilize their resources in a way that they can achieve maximum productivity and profitability. The performance management is also necessary for the business as it enables them to align all human resources, assets and strategies with the organizational goal and vision. Every business function and every operational tasks is dependent on the employees, if the employees are performing well they will produce better result hence the efficiency of each and every business process is dependent on the employee’s performance. Business in Dubai and all around the UAE are rapidly adopting performance management systems and tools. There are several reasons why businesses acquire a performance management or performance appraisal systems.

For any business or organization it is crucial to monitor and rectify problems and challenges that employees are facing in order to boost their performance. This will help businesses to obtain employee trust and loyalty which in return also increase performance. Furthermore the performance and progress should be in a direction to achieve something. All businesses and organizations always set their future goals, vision and mission. The enterprise’s performance is optimized and increased to achieve those high-level goals. In this blog we will cover performance management and performance appraisal and their importance.

What is Performance Management System?

A performance management system is a tool that facilitates performance management process. The performance management process is basically a set of all the efforts and activities a business do in order to keep its employees on track and aligned with the organizational goals. The main objective of doing performance management is that the employees and all other resources remain aligned with the high-level organization goal. The performance management process encourages employees to perform well and perform in the right direction so the high-level organizational goals can be achieved. The performance management process and system also enable managers and supervisors to engage with the employees and encourage them to work better.

What is Performance Appraisal System?

The performance appraisal system or process is a very simple process it measures the performance of the employee. Where performance management system provides a roadmap to achieve the organizational goals the performance appraisal system is used to measure the progress of each individual employees. The performance appraisal system is only used to measure the performance of the employees as per their progress towards the set goals and objectives. The performance appraisal keep records of the performances of the individual employees which can be used by the HR department as well. Basically the performance appraisal system tells business about how productive an employee is. This way businesses can easily identify the highly performing employees and reward them and businesses can also easily identify the employees who have become liability.

Difference between Performance Management and Performance Appraisal

The performance management and the performance appraisal both are used for employee performance however there are basic difference between the two methodologies. Here is a list of some fundamental differences between performance management and performance appraisal systems:

Performance management help and encourage employees to improve their performance, while the performance appraisal only evaluate the performance
Performance management evaluate an employee on the bases of past, present and future, however, the performance appraisal just measures the performance in the immediate past
Performance management increase employee engagement and evaluate the relationship between employee and the employer, however, performance appraisal is individualistic
Performance management continuously monitor employees, evolve strategies and focusing on employee development, whereas, the performance appraisal focuses only on the results
Performance management includes one-on-one sessions and discussions, hence it is very dynamic. The performance appraisal have a top-down approach and is very linear
Performance management always encourage employee development and help facing challenges in present and future however the performance appraisal focuses only past performance
Performance management offer real-time reviews and continuous feedback however, performance appraisal only offers feedback once or twice in a performance period (usually 1 year)
Performance management is better future equipped and easy-to-scale however, the performance appraisal is usually focused on the past performance of the employees

It is clear now that the performance management system and performance appraisal systems are designed and used for completely different purposes although both are covering employee performance management.

Why a Business Should Use Both Performance Management and Performance Appraisal?

The performance management is a continuous process which keeps monitoring the employees and their progress in real-time. This provides the management an added advantage of allowing them to quickly set course or make adjustments if any employee deviates from their set path. This advantage is not available in the appraisal method. However, the performance appraisal process can accurately measure the actual contribution or value of the efforts of the employees towards the high-level organizational goal and objective. That is why it is important to use both systems in parallel. Businesses use performance appraisal system to generate performance data for HR. The performance appraisal will provide accurate employee performance to the HR on the bases of this performance the HR can plan bonuses, awards, promotions, demotions, transfers, training program and much more.

The performance management system on the other hand provides a comprehensive strategic and tactical data which not only measure the employee performance but also help businesses and organizations to set goals, build strategies to achieve those goals, make plans, and assign individual and team goals as per the requirements. The performance management system also helps businesses in communicating those goals and objectives with the employees and also guide them how they could and should perform in order to achieve their individual and high-level goals and objectives. The performance management system can also generate data which can help businesses in understanding their resources, technical skills, and capabilities of each individual employee. This will help businesses in future and it will enable them to make more realistic and practically sound decisions.

A good quality performance management system help businesses and organizations to achieve their long term strategic and financial goals. When the performance management system and the appraisal systems both are used combined the effectiveness and results will be improved significantly. Here are some benefits of using employee performance management system and appraisal system:

Improve Communication between Employee and Management
Convey Goals and Objectives more Effectively
Communicate the Performance Requirements/Needs and Expectation more Effectively
Enable Employees to Evaluate themselves and Provide Feedback about their Individual Goals and Plan of Action to achieve those Goals
Aligning Employees and Resources with the High-Level Organizational Goals and Objectives
Improve Communication all across the Organization and Improve Relationship between Employees and their Managers
Real-time and Continuous Feedback Makes it Easier for Employees to Communicate with the Management
Help Management to Monitor the Performance of the Entire Business or Organization
Enable Management to Swiftly Take Actions to Rectify Problems and Help Employee Facing their Challenges
Increase Employee Engagement, Gain Employee Trust, and Increase Employee Retention

These are some of the most obvious benefits of combining the performance management system and appraisal system.

The performance management and performance appraisal systems when used together can fix drawbacks and gaps of each other. For example:

The performance management system can increase the communication and fill the communication gap which usually occurs in performance appraisal management
The performance appraisal doesn’t clearly communicates the high-level organization whereas the performance management system clearly communicates individual and high-level organizational goals as well as it also include employees in planning and strategy building processes which increase employee engagement
The performance appraisal process worries employees, as the appraisal is done only once or twice the year, and that is the reason most of the employees doesn’t show trust on the appraisal process. However, the performance management process includes regular and continuous employee reviews. Which not only gain employee’s trust and reduce their anxiety but it also help improving the communication between the employee and the manager.
The performance appraisal methods emphasize on increasing the performance and doesn’t clearly communicate how the employee should improve their performance or what is expected from them in the future. On top of that most of the time the communication is very low. The performance management process clearly communicates the goals and objectives, both individual and high-level goals and objectives are defined. The employees are provided with the guidance on how to achieve their objectives and how to improve the performance.
The performance management is continuous and it can collect all the details about the employees and their performance. This data can be made available for the management at any time. However, in performance appraisal methods the evaluation is done once or twice in a year.
The performance appraisal method lacks the employee personal development strategy. However, the performance management focuses a lot on employee’s personal development program to ensure the business always have the required workforce. The personal development program can increase employee engagement and it also help increasing loyalty. However, if the employees feel there is no scope for their personal development then they will leave.
The performance appraisal methods doesn’t help much in increasing employee engagements, gaining employee trust and improving employee retention. However, the performance management methods boost employee engagement and help building a sense of belonging and connection with the business. This also make employees happy and satisfied and it also increase employee retention.

The performance management and performance appraisal both are tools to boost business’s performance. If the employees and other resources start working at their true potential the productivity and profitability increases. That is why both system are important and when used combined can have additional benefits as well.

Conclusion

For any business in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE achieving the high-level organizational goals is a key to success. Businesses use various methods and tools to improve the employee performance. The employee performance is crucial if a business wants to achieve their high-level goals and objectives. The employee performance can be improved by communicating them the goals clearly, assigning them the objectives & tasks, and monitoring them to understand if they are going in the right direction. The performance management and appraisal ensures that the goals and objectives are established and communicated clearly and there is a monitoring mechanism in place which can immediately highlight if an employee is deviating from their set path and allow the managers to take timely actions to reset course.

The performance management also help businesses in evaluating employees and understanding their true potential, skills and capabilities. This help HR in several functions and also provide intelligence data for employee personal development and reward schemes. In short the performance management and performance appraisals are absolutely necessary for a business and its long term growth. RSI Concepts is a leading name in developing and designing performance management systems and tools, if you need any help in your business’s performance management or if you want to learn more about the topic, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Digital Branch Transformation Trends for Banks in 2022

April 28, 2021

Impacts of Queue Management System on Employee’s KPIs

Employees KPIs (key performance indicators) are used to assess and evaluate the performance of an employee. Some of the KPIs are set only for individual employees to assess their performance so that the organization can take accurate decisions about the employee such as salary and packages, transfer, training programs, bonuses, increments, promotions and termination. A queue management system is a great aid to the customer service and support agents. It helps to streamline the customer flow and reduce the workload of the staff. This results in overall improved efficiency and productivity of the entire branch. These days queue management systems are most widely used in Dubai, UAE. No matter how big or small your facility is if you are welcoming customers and visitors then you should have a digital queuing solution to manage the customer flow. The queue management system also reduces the wait time and improve service delivery time and quality which is great in improving customer experience and customer journey. A good customer journey improves customer satisfaction which helps business in customer retention and building up their brand image.

If we talk about the Performance Management System or even the Employee Performance Management and customer service KPIs a queue management system have a very positive impact on employee’s performance and KPIs. As the queue management system automates the various process and significantly reduce the workload of the server or agent, the efficiency and productivity automatically get increased for each individual employee. The main reason why business stress so much about employee performance is because it can directly impact the customer experience and customer journey and the brand reputation is a direct consequence of how a brand treats its customers. This is why having a great customer journey and experience can portray a positive image of the brand and vice versa. Here are some important KPIs that could directly get impacted by the queue management system:

Average Customer Served

This is the very basic KPI for any customer service or support agent. This indicator measures the quantity of the customers served by any agent on daily basis. This is very important for a business to assess the productivity of their employees and the entire brand or department. Without a queue management system, this factor remains low, as the agent and server are also focusing on managing the queues along with the other staff. Once a queue management system is in place, it automatically manages the customer flow and customer routes, the queuing system significantly reduces the wait time of the customers and visitors, which means that more customer is available for each employee/agent. The queue management system also reduces the workload of the employees which makes it easier for each employee to be able to serve more customers. The queue management system can significantly improve this KPI for any employee.

Customer Experience Indicators

Customer experience indicators are not a single KPI but it is a group of a lot many KPIs which monitor and measure a lot of inputs. Without a queue management system, the customers might not be much happy, as they would have to wait in long unorganized queues to reach the counter, once they reach there they are already emotionally stressed out, they could easily get annoyed with the employees which result in poor customer experience and it also reflects in employees KPIs. With a queue management system in place, the customer journey is mostly controlled and managed from it. This not only reduces the wait time but the queue management systems are also capable of improving customer’s waiting experience by providing real-time queuing updates, announcements, and in some cases multimedia content too. These all things keep the customers engaged and relaxed, when a customer arrives at the counter, they are in a calm state of mind which help the employees to serve them better hence the customers get a good experience and the employees KPIs also reflect that.

Average Service Delivery Time

This indicator is used to determine the average serving time of an employee. As the customer experience is very important and any delay in service delivery could impact that, which indirectly impact the overall performance of the employee as well. With the help of a queue management system, the employees’ tasks and workload can be reduced. Which let them finish the process more quickly. Above all the integration and automation provided by a queue management system also plays a vital role in quicker service delivery time. Which is a direct performance indicator for employees. The queue management system provides an agent portal or dashboard which provide comprehensive controls and links it with the other systems and tools. This further reduces the service delivery time. For example whenever a customer is arriving the employee needs to fill in some data from the customer, which can be fetched automatically from the customer database by enabling data synchronizations, and other methods, the same works for the internal ERP or Customer Support Software. The queue management system can authenticate the customer using any unique identifier at the time of sign-up for example Emirates ID and fetch the data from the customer database and push it to the ERP or Customer Support Dashboard so when a customer reach the counter the data is already filled. Such features and a lot many other features can significantly reduce the service delivery time. Which also reflects in the employee’s performance indicators.

See More: How Queue Management System Helps to Provide Better Customer Service

Average After-Service Work Time

Most of the time when the customer got served the agent has to do some work such as filling in forms, or submitting data or updating anything in the systems. Sometimes it could take up to 5 minutes which cause a delay of 5 minutes in the next customer call. This time is known as ‘average after-service work time’. Without a queue management system, these times are added up in the waiting time of the next customer which not only reduces the number of ‘average customers served’ by an employee in a day but also impacts the customer experience. If we calculate the total after-service work as an average of 3 minutes for a customer and the entire service delivery time as 10 minutes then at the end of the day the average after-service work time is one-third of the total active service delivery time. Which is huge. A queue management system with its capabilities of automation and data synchronization can reduce this time to a few seconds or it can completely eliminate this factor. This not only improves the customer experience but also increases the average number of served customers by a single employee. This also helps during the employee performance assessment and it can boost the employee performance.

See More: How Performance Management System helps in Customer Journey improvement?

Customer Happiness Response

That is another great indicator to assess the employee’s performance. The customer happiness response and customer surveys are always a good source of vital business intelligence data. Customer feedback help organizations to understand their needs, demands and expectations from the brand. Basically, a customer happiness meter or customer rating scale is a great indicator to assess employee’s behaviour towards the customers and visitors. Mostly queue management systems have a built-in customer happiness scale or customer feedback module. The interface is very simple, it is 3 or 5 smileys or a rating scale from zero up to ten. In order to encourage more customers to submit their feedback, the happiness meters are built for the simplest interaction.

All a customer has to do is touch on the small tablet, or kiosk screen to rate their experience. The queue management system can automatically fetch all the required customer data and information. As when a customer is at the counter only then they will be able to access this touch screen so the whoever customer was being served at the time of feedback submission can be easily identified. This is a great way to assess employee’s behaviour with the customers using a queue management system. If an employee is very good with the customers they will be compelled to leave a positive response and if an employee is not so good or failed to satisfy the customers most of such customer will leave negative feedback on the happiness meter.

See More: Employee Performance Management is a small part of Performance Management System

Employee’s Average Active Time

Employee’s average active time is a very important indicator for an organization. The organization can assess the output and productivity of an employee on the basis of this indicator. A queue management system can feed very accurate data for such KPIs. The queue management system can log the time interval between one customer served and the second customer call. Which will be the inactive time of the employee. Like I mentioned earlier this time could be consumed by the after-service work activities but those activities are already defined and the time required for such activities can easily be measured. Therefore any time more than that of which is consumed for after-service work will be considered and recorded as an inactive time of the employee. This time is very important as it will later contribute in the overall assessments of the employee to determine how productive they are, and how much they are costing to organizations and how much they are returning or generating for the organization. Not only that this data can also be fetched into other indicators. For example, if your organization have a capacity of deal 10 customers simultaneously or has 10 counters, in the waiting area there are 40 customers and for each service delivery the maximum time is 15 minutes, ideally all the customers should be served by one hour, but if one or two of the counters are inactive for 15 minutes each then all 40 customers will take more time than the expectations. This not only impacts the customer experience but it also impacts the overall performance of the organization or this particular branch. Hence the KPIs should be set to identify which employees are causing this and only they should be held responsible for that and not the entire branch.

See More : Importance of KPIs to Improve Employee Performance in Dubai

Conclusion

A queue management system is a very powerful corporate tool, it helps businesses and organizations to improve their customer’s experience and brand reputation. The employee’s KPIs are used to assess and review the performance of the employees as well as their contribution in achieving the overall organizational goals and objectives. A queue management system can provide crucial data and inputs for various KPIs which can help to assess the performance of the employee. Having an efficient queue management system can significantly improve employee efficiency and customer experience. The data and monitoring from the queue management system is very accurate and detailed. Those inputs can be utilized in almost all sort of employee KPIs. The queue management system enables the organizations to monitor and measure various indicators such as the number of served customers by an employee, average service delivery time of an agent, customer happiness and satisfaction indicators, average of active and inactive time of the employee and the customer feedback scale or happiness meter. Sometimes more descriptive surveys can be used too to collect feedback from the customers.

The queue management system also improves employee performance by reducing their workload, automation of various processes, efficient customer flow management and reduced wait time. This enables the employees to serve more customers in less time, which hugely impact the employee’s performance. If you are looking for a comprehensive solution to improve your customer journey as well as boosting and monitoring employee performance? Feel free to reach us through our Contact Us page. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system and employee performance management solutions provider in Dubai, UAE.

Check out this: How a KPI Software can help provide better Customer Journey?

April 28, 2021April 28, 2021

Appraisal Methods in Performance Management System

Employee Performance Management is a set of processes and activities which helps organizations to develop their employees and improve their productivity and efficiency. However, the performance appraisal, in fact, is the actual periodical review of the performance of an employee. The appraisal system reviews and assesses employee’s actual performance, skills, work quantity & quality, achievements and contribution to the organization within a specific period of time. The performance appraisal system measures the performance of an employee on the basis of predefined scales or objectives and their contribution to the organizational objectives and goals. The appraisal system plays a very critical role in aligning all of the organizational resources to the organizational objectives. The periodical appraisal review determines

Employee skill level
Work quality in contrast with the quantity
Strengths and weaknesses
Growth or lack

This provides a very clear insight into an employee’s capabilities and an organization can easily decide the contribution the employee makes towards the organization. Periodical appraisal promotes quality of work and exposes maximum potential from a resource.

There are different methods and techniques of performance appraisals. Here are the most commonly used appraisal methods:

Appraisal Method 1: Management by Objectives

Get the employee involved in the goal-setting process with the line manager.

This is the most advanced method of Performance Appraisal. My organization has adopted this method in 2021 to align the goals of the organization. The Performance Management System developed by RSI Concepts has provided this method and encourages organizations to utilize it more than other methods.

Studies have shown when an employee gets involved in the goal-setting process, they are more likely to achieve those goals. The manager and employee both plan the objectives for a certain period of time and then those objectives are monitored and measured to assess employee performance. The management by objectives is a full-on process rather than a one-time evaluation. It could be set for a particular time interval such as a month, quarter, yearly or bi-yearly. Once the goals are set, a strategy has been formed and the plan has been executed. The manager and the subordinates both sit after a certain time interval to discuss the progress and to estimate the future expectations. This also provides them a chance to improve the ongoing progress by tweaking their existing strategy and plan.

The management by objectives involves both the subordinate and the line manager so it provides a greater self-awareness, which encourages the employees to perform better. It is considered to be the most cost-effective employee appraisal method. The subjective bias can also be eliminated and the method is very effective in measuring the performance of the senior management, mid-level managers, frontline managers, supervisors and employees.

Appraisal Method 2: 360 Degree Feedback

Get feedback not only from the line manager but all the peers involved in the process.

The 360 Degree Feedback is another latest method in Performance Appraisal and adopted by many organizations or by some departments within the organization. It provides a detailed assessment of the employee. Usually, the feedback can be collected from many individuals, including senior colleagues, subordinates, supervisors, customers and managers known as peers. The catch here is all of these personals who are giving their feedback must have been working with or around the employee but in the business process – who is being assessed. The 360 Degree Feedback is mostly to assess the overall contribution of the employee towards their job role, tasks, objectives, expectations and organizational goals and objectives.

The 360 Degree feedback process could take up to two weeks to get complete, it starts with selecting the participants also referred to as raters. The selection of participants or raters is important and it could be up to 25 persons, it entirely depends on the employee’s work and responsibilities. The Performance Management System developed by RSI Concepts has the configuration level settings to change the number of peers or raters. Once the raters are being shortlisted then a questionnaire should be prepared by keeping in mind to generate enough data to help to build comprehensive reports. Some businesses and organizations also use online mediums to conduct surveys for 360 Degree Feedback. Once getting all of the expected feedback, a report has been produced. After that report, the line managers can hold a session to discuss the report and performance to find out methods and ways to improve performance further as and how assessed and required.

Appraisal Method 3: Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale

Get line manager response in a YES and NO fashion. Quick and Precise!

The behaviorally anchored rating scale is designed to include behaviour related ratings in the appraisal process. Usually, particular behaviours are denoted with a numeric value and then the value is being used for the rating process. The behaviorally anchored rating scale or BARS is widely used to incorporate quantitative and qualitative ratings in the appraisal process. It is very important that all the behaviours that need to be assessed are carefully listed and then graded to ensure highly accurate appraisal results. Usually, a number of outcomes are listed then the possibilities of incident and behaviour has been analyzed which can produce those outcomes. Then we can create scales, grades or indicators on the basis of this analysis. This is how behaviorally anchored rating scales are defined and measured. The BARS results are very accurate and reliable, the data can be used for the appraisal process as well as for estimating employee efficiency and productivity for the future under particular circumstances.

In the Employee Performance System developed by RSI Concepts, the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales are influenced by the standards provided by the Government of UAE, Dubai and Sharjah. A set of Behavioral Competencies are defined and divided into the main categories and while each category further has 3 to 4 subcategories where each employee can be assessed on a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is the best. The ratings are then incorporated into Performance Appraisal periodically.

The behaviorally anchored rating scale is very easy to understand and accurate to help organizations and businesses to understand the behaviour of their employees which could help the management to take accurate decisions to ensure maximum utilization of the skills, experience and capabilities of a particular employee. The BARS completely eliminate the irrelevant variables from the equation and only provide measurable, accurate results based upon clearly observable behaviours. This is what makes them very important and useful for performance management systems and the employee appraisal process. However, if you want to incorporate BARS into your appraisal rating program then you should have to do intensive research to ensure you will get accurate and actionable data. The behaviorally anchored rating scales are expensive, require more resources and efforts, but provide excellent data.

See More: How a KPI Software can help provide better Customer Journey?

Appraisal Method 4: Straight Ranking Appraisals

Get employees ranking compared with each other.

Straight Ranking Appraisals are very straightforward and simple. In this method, the line manager assigns a rating or number to all the employees working on a particular task under the same conditions. Most of the time the reviewer defines the ranking or scale on the basis of the top performers or on the basis of their personal experience or by the knowhow of the job. There are a few more variations that were being introduced later and are also followed by many organizations and businesses. The straight ranking is among the oldest and simplest appraisal methods still being used. Usually, all the employees are compared with one another and a ranking system is being established based on the ratings of most productive to least productive or most efficient to least efficient and so on.

Furthermore, the straight ranking appraisal has been transformed into more appraisal methods such as paired comparison appraisal, in that method the employees are divided into groups and then their performance is compared to each other. Another popular method is the standard rating scale method in this method the personality traits of an employee has been rated against a scale ranging from poor to excellent or as such.

See More: How Performance Management System helps in Customer Journey improvement?

Appraisal Method 5: Human Resource Accounting Appraisal

Get the money earned vs money yielded.

The human resource accounting appraisal measures the performance of the employees on the basis of the monetary benefits they have yielded for the organization against the expenses they had cost to the organization. The cost is measured accurately by calculating the cost of retaining a customer, their salary, benefits, hiring cost, any other cost and then the monetary value of the benefits or work is calculated as per the predefined criteria and measurements to measure the monetary benefits an employee brought in for the business over a predefined span of time. The human resource cost accounting appraisal method includes the overall departmental cost, production unit cost, office cost, employee cost, interpersonal relationship cost, and many more. Basically, it is a purely cost and benefits based analysis, so sometimes, some employee’s trait or expertise could be missed out or not included in the appraisal process. But this can overcome by using other appraisal techniques in parallel.

The biggest advantage of using this appraisal method is that it provides a very accurate picture of what an employee is costing a business and in return what they are bringing back to the organization or business. It also clearly identifies and project the financial impact of the employee performance over the organization. It is an excellent method to understand the monetary and non-monetary benefits an employee is providing to the business.

See More: Employee Performance Management is a small part of Performance Management System

Appraisal Method 6: Assessment Center Appraisal Method

Get employees to see how others observe them.

The assessment centre appraisal method is most widely used by business to evaluate and assess the technical expertise, skills and performance of an employee for either recruiting purposes or for promotion, transfer, etc or for identifying the training needs for the employee. Assessment centres are specifically designed to assess and review certain tasks and certain job roles. Usually, the assessment centres are outsourced but even if a business has an in-house assessment centre they will have to prepare it with required planning to ensure an accurate outcome. All the employees are being given the tasks they will have to perform for a particular job, then a team of assessors will monitor the actual performance of the employee and on the basis of that performance, it is easier for the business and organizations to make hiring decisions, or decision about an existing employee such as their promotion, salary increment, job role and position, and training needs.

Assessment centres are one of the most widely used appraisal methods with excellent help for the HR department and remarkably accurate assessment results. The assessment centres can be very helpful in performance appraisal reviews and employee assessment. The assessment centres are designed for testing the physical skills and expertise of an employee. For the employees who have failed the assessment, the business and organizations are continuously offering development program to regain their motivation and to encourage them to improve their skills, that kind of setup is called development centres, there is a combination of both the development centres and the assessment centers can be used to ensure the improved human resource in future. Although this method is time-consuming and cost-intensive but provides greater results for industries such as Manufacturing, Educational institutes and Service based departments.

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Conclusion

The Performance Management System is used to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization to maximize efficiency and profits. Performance Appraisal is one of the factors which is designed to improve the work environment and employees and their capabilities and work efficiency within Performance Management. The different methods of performance appraisals are designed to help different requirements and challenges organizations face during periodical appraisals. The appraisals methods covered in this blog are prominently used in Sharjah, Dubai and UAE. These methods are widely used because they can provide highly accurate data which can help organizations and businesses to understand the true potential of an employee to contribute to the organizational goals and objectives. When an employee is placed on a job role where they can perform well, it improves their morale and it increases the employee retention rate. When an employee is working efficiently the operational cost get reduced. Not only that the appraisal systems are also used to identify the training needs for the employees as well.

RSI Concepts has a leading Employee Performance Management System in Dubai and UAE with effective and widely used appraisal methods. Please get in touch with our business consultants through our Contact Us page or leave a comment below and we will get back to you at the earliest to learn more about your requirements. Our Performance Management consultants can help you propose a solution according to the industry requirements to streamline the challenges.

Check out this : Importance of KPIs to Improve Employee Performance in Dubai

April 26, 2021

Importance of KPIs to Improve Employee Performance in Dubai, UAE

Organizations use KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for Employee Performance Management and to achieve the goals and objectives of an Enterprise. Employee performance is very important to ensure that the entire organizational structure is on the way to progress. Employees form teams, teams form departments, and the departments form an entire organization. This is why it is important that the basic element of your structure, which are your employee, work efficiently.

The government of UAE, Dubai, and Sharjah has set of guidelines to set up KPIs also known as SMART targets, reviewed annually to measure the performance of the employees working in the Government Departments. In the standard put in place by the UAE Government, the KPIs stand with 60% weightage in the Performance Management System. The rest of the 40% weightage is assigned to Behavioral Competencies of the employees, also reviewed annually. The Best Performance Management System developed by RSI Concepts in Dubai, UAE has configuration level settings to follow the standard set by the Government of UAE or other emirates such as Dubai, Sharjah, or Abu Dhabi.

KPIs are very important to boost employee performance by providing them with detailed insight into their progress and achievements, which boosts employee morale. Apart from that, KPIs are capable of measuring the performance of the employees and their contribution to the organization’s goals and objectives. The contribution to the goals and objectives by the individual employees can be monitored to learn the most valuable resources of the Enterprise.

The KPIs not only help the employee to monitor and track their performance but also helps the business to choose the right people and then put them in the right places to maximize the output by ensuring maximum employee engagement and employee retention. This is how the overall performance of an enterprise is improved and this is how the performance of an individual employee is improved. The KPIs play a vital role in employee performance and business performance. Only when targeted people are placed for the jobs they are experts in achieving the maximum outcome. The employee engagement indicators and employee retention are equally important, if not less.

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Choose the best Seat/Position for your Employee

Setting up KPIs could be a very tricky task for the HR department or the manager. Many factors and variables come in place to set a particular KPI. As the name says “KeyPerformance Indicators”, it represents a particular and very specific measurement of a particular business outcome. There are thousands of KPIs which can be used, but it is crucial to have the appropriate KPIs which could help to improve employee’s performance. The KPIs also have to be defined as per the business goals and objectives, as the ultimate aim is to achieve the business objective. Hence a defined outcome has to be set for a definitive period of time so that you can measure the employee performance for a particular time period. The business objective should have to be defined first then the measurement of the progress and how to measure it and how does this progress matters for the overall organizational goals and objectives.

Once the KPI is set, measure the performance of the employee for a defined period of time. Assess it, if you think the employee is doing well, then keep the employee in the same position. If you find out the employee can perform better in another position, you can discuss it with the line manager and then move them to a different seat or position. In order to maximize employee performance, it is extremely important that the employee is working at the right seat and at the right time.

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Measure the Skills and Expertise of the Employees

This may sound a little bit vague but these indicators do exist. There are certain indicators that indirectly measure the skills and level of expertise of an employee. For example, employee’s response to a challenging situation, average time consumed for challenging tasks, etc. The expertise and skills can also be assessed by measuring the average time consumed to perform a routine task? What are the feedbacks from their supervisor or manager and co-workers and what is his behavior with the other teammates, etc? Such indicators will help the management to understand how well an employee is working in a particular position and how happy he or she is from that work. Employee satisfaction is also very important to ensure good quality work. Without the employee’s happiness and sufficient skills and expertise to perform a certain job role, they won’t be able to perform well. This is why these indicators are very important to put the employees at the right work, which will automatically boost their performance.

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Monitor the Employee’s Behavioral KPIs

Behavioral KPIs are a very important factor in enhancing employee performance. Some of the indicators are directly linked with the employee performance and some of these indicators are linked to the performance of the other. The employee behavioral analysis will let the management understand how well an employee can perform in a particular team. If an employee has been added to a team, where he or she is not properly welcome or acknowledged or where they might not want to work, this will definitely decrease their performance and their cooperation with the team. Eventually, this scenario will impact the performance of the entire team. It is crucial that an employee remains in good terms with their teammates, co-workers, seniors, subordinates and everyone they are interacting with to perform a particular task to achieve the business objectives. Such indicators will help the management to rectify that kind of scenario which will result in improvements in employee performance.

See More: 5 Tricks to Quickly Serve Customers Using Queuing System

Rewards and Acknowledgements on the Bases of KPIs

It is very important to keep the morale of the employees high all the time to perform them at their maximum potential. Rewards and acknowledgments are the best remedies to boost morale. It is also very important that the employees are only encouraged for the tasks and activities that completely align with the organizational goals and objectives. The rewards and acknowledgments always have a huge impact on the employee’s performance. Lack of acknowledgment is among the top reasons why an employee leaves a company. The lack of acknowledgment also reduces employee performance and personal development. The appreciation for good performance, quality work, and early task completion, better outcome in challenging situations, good performance at difficult tasks, and such indicators help the management to recognize and reward an employee for their performance. An employee performance management system can provide you with all the KPIs that are required to assess and reward employees.

See More: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

Use KPIs for Employee’s Personal Development and Training

Personal Development and Training are the most effective ways to increase employee performance. For that, there are certain indicators that need to be monitored and measured in order to assess the need for a training program. The Employee Performance Management System can easily provide KPIs to measure the level of skills and expertise of an employee. Additionally, the KPIs can be set to measure various other indicators which suggest a particular training program. For example, you have installed a new boiler unit at one of the factories, when an employee works on the new unit, it took them more time to perform the same task which earlier they were performing in less time. This is just a very small example to identify that the employee needs the training to learn how to operate the new boiler efficiently. This is how simple to very complex KPIs can be set to identify a need for a training program. A proper training program can significantly improve employee performance.

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Employee Rankings with KPIs

The employee ranking could include a lot many indicators, from their behavior and technical achievements to their attendance and punctuality as well. Most of the organizations have different sort of reward programs, for those programs they measure and monitor the employee and rank them on the basis of their overall performance. Employee rankings and then recognition and acknowledgment are extremely important in boosting employee morale. Moreover, to such employees who are neither rewarded nor nominated in the reward program, they can also view their performance and all the details of where they are doing well and what sectors they are not performing well at. This will also boost their morale and they will work harder to get recognition and/or reward.

See More: Employee Performance Management is a small part of Performance Management System

Employee’s Personal KPIs

Personal KPIs are set to understand the individual contribution of the employee in achieving the organizational goals and objectives. These KPIs also provide the data to the employee themselves to let them understand and assess their contributions. These KPIs are extremely important in improving employee performance, self-assessment is a powerful factor and the employee can gradually improve by understanding, identifying, and correcting their weaknesses. The employees can set their own personal goals and as time passes these goals will also grow, these things can significantly improve the employee performance. Personal progress and personal goals would help employees to gain interest and motivate them to do better with their next task. These KPIs are very important in unlocking the maximum potential of an employee.

See More: How Performance Management System helps in Customer Journey improvement?

Conclusion

The KPIs are extremely important to improve employee performance. The KPIs and performance management system are used to assess and evaluate the progress of the entire business or enterprise. The employee performance management system is very important to boost employee performance. The KPIs indicate different matrices which help the management to determine the best suitable position for the employee, if an employee is placed in the right role and right position their performance will automatically improve. The KPIs can also identify the area of improvements, training, and personal development which could help to improve the productivity of the employee. Employee performance, achievement, recognition, and reward are extremely important for employee satisfaction, and employee retention. The KPIs and Employee Performance Management System ensure that the employees are working at their full potential and in the right direction towards business goals and objectives. RSI Concepts is a leading Employee Performance Management System provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more or have any inquiry feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page.

Check out this: How a KPI Software can help provide better Customer Journey?

April 15, 2021April 18, 2021

Employee Performance Management is a small part of Performance Management System

Employee performance management is basically a small part of a performance management system. Most often business does not differentiate between both. In reality, employee performance management is just a module of a very large scale performance management system that measures the KPIs of the entire organization or enterprise. The performance management system not only includes an employee performance management module but it includes a lot many other modules that when put together forms an enterprise performance management system. For example, the performance management system includes the performance of the supply chain, production units, marketing, sales, customer support, customer retention, leads and conversions, revenue and finance, operations, IT and infrastructure, transport and everything else which is a part of the enterprise. However, the employee performance management module only measure and monitor the performance of the employees.

Here are the details of the two tools:

1. Employee Performance Management

The main objectives of employee performance management are to understand the efficiency of the employees, which could be further narrow down to their job roles, projects, behaviour, and much more. There are different KPIs (key performance indicators) that are used to monitor and measure the performance of an employee, team/group, and department. These KPIs will help the business in taking employees related decisions such as promotion, compensations, bonuses, personal development, career development, transfers, and termination. The best approach is to set clear and discrete expectations and goals and then measure the performance and achievements against those expectations. Employee performance management is a part of the enterprise performance management system which is connected with a lot many other enterprise systems and organizational tools to collect data and feedback, then all the inputs are carefully analyzed through a very powerful software engine and at the end, the reports are being generated which are very clear and realistic measurements of the performance of an employee. On the basis of these reports and data, the management can easily take vital decision to improve their overall efficiency and output. The only right person for the right job will be able to produce desired results.

An effective employee performance management includes the followings:

Goals and Expectations

The performance should be measured by the achievements and accomplishments of the employees and the achievements are weighed against the goals. The goals are set as per the expectations, and the expectations are based on the employee role, experience and skills or education. This is how KPI management works. You analyze and weigh the employee then set up expectations and KPIs to measure their performance. The goals and expectations related to KPIs are in fact a set of multiple KPIs:

Project Goals

These goals and related KPIs are based on the employee performance in different projects which are being measured and monitored for a year. There could be multiple projects in a single year or a single project could also last for multiple years.

Job Role/Description

These goals are based on the job description or title of the employee. Obviously, the goals and KPIs of a crane operator will be different from a construction supervisor. So each job role and title have their own objectives, contributions and expectations depending solely on their job role/description.

Response to Challenges

This often knows as stretched goals too. These are the goals and expectations set for unusual or challenging conditions and scenarios. The measurements are taken of how well or bad the employee respond or act in challenging conditions on the basis of the outcome of their actions.

Behavioural Expectations

These are the expectations of the enterprise from an employee towards the people, assets and resources around them or under their command. For example, how an employee behaves to their colleagues, subordinates, team lead, manager, supervisor, etc. The behavioural goals also include KPIs that provide data about “how” a goal can be achieved through a particular employee.

Monitoring and Performance KPIs Measurement

Once the goals are set, then there is a need to establish a system of KPIs that can measure the performance of the employee toward the set goals and the expectations from them. The performance management includes a complete review of employee performance in all relevant topics. Along with various KPIs, a continuous feedback process is established and the monitoring process is also continuous or for a particular employee review cycle. In most cases the monitoring and the KPIs measurement is continuous. The management notes down those indicators and held regular dialogues between the employee and their manager to keep improving the outcome for the rest of the review cycle. The dialogue should be two-way communication in which the employee should also be allowed to express their concerns, needs and opinions. Then the organizations can take accurate steps to boost the employee’s performance.

No matter what format or type of the review methodology has been used, the reviewer must have a very clear understanding of each stage of the review and the parameters they are evaluating an employee against. There are so many different approaches and methodologies that are very commonly used in Dubai, UAE and each one of them have some advantages and some drawbacks too. Hence, the performance should be measured on various scales to get a definitive answer.

Multi-source Feedback or 360 Feedback

This is the most popular review method. Not only in Dubai, UAE but all over the world enterprises and organizations are using this method to measure employee performance. It includes feedback from the supervisor, manager, co-workers, subordinates and people around the employees. The objective of this feedback to understand the employee behaviour towards work and its impact on his performance and others’ performance or work too.

Management by Objectives

Management by Objective or also known as the MBO KPI is the process of evaluating the performance of an employee towards the individual goals and their contribution to the team, departmental and overall organizational goals. Usually, the MBO is for managers, team leads, supervisors, project coordinators and people with non-routine jobs.

Ranking Scale

The ranking scale is basically a process of distributing or putting employees in a discrete set or sub-set on the basis of their performance. Although ranking a group of employees or teams is very easy but the results are not so accurate. However, ranking individual employees in a certain group could be difficult as there would be a lot of different levels and the differentiation between those levels would be narrow to get meaningful results.

Competency Scale

The competency scale measures the performance of the employee for different routine tasks based on their job role/description. As the goals and expectations are set for each job role, so the KPIs can be set easily and accurate data can be collected by measuring the employee performance in their routine tasks and job responsibilities.

Employee Capacity/Productivity

Employee Capacity or Productivity is not a very linear KPI, the result of this scale are usually used to distribute the workload in different employees, teams and/or larger groups. This KPI help understanding which employee is working on their maximum output level and which employee can handle some more work.

Employee Billable Percentage

The employee billable percentage KPI is also known as utilization rate, this process measures the billable and non-billable work hours required or been taken for a particular task. This could be a great help in determining the internal cost of a particular project and also the performance of the employees/teams.

Graphic Rating Scale

This scale is basically a set of various KPIs such as attendance, quality of work, the number of tasks against a given period of time, dependability and also behavioural KPIs. These KPIs are easy to set and the data collected is highly accurate.

Revenue and Profit per Employee

These are very basic and very important KPIs to measure the overall employees’ performance. For the employees the measurement is simple, total revenue or profit divided by the number of employees. It is critical to understand what your employees are bringing in. Both KPIsindicate to the organizations and enterprises that what their workforce is costing them and how much revenue and profit they are generating.

These are some of the very basic KPIs used to measure employee performance. There are literally thousands of KPIs which are available and can be used. Only after a careful examination and understanding of both the ‘Goals’ and ‘KPIs’ businesses should choose the KPIs that completely align with their objectives. There are a lot many other factors that can cause errors or inaccurate assessment such as insufficient data collection, favouritism, lack of differentiation or intertwined KPIs, and many more. So, it is always wise to seek the help of professional Employee Performance Management Solution providers, such as RSI Concepts.

2. Performance Management System

The Performance Management System also referred to as Corporate or Enterprise Performance Management System is a system that measures and manages the performance of the entire business or enterprise. It includes the performance management of all departments, employees, key players, and key factors that contributes to the overall performance of a business. All the data has been collected from various KPIs, processes, matrices, methodologies and tools is gathered and analyzed in a Performance Management System. The goals, objectives and expectations are being set for not only individuals but for teams, departments, production units, sales and marketing campaigns and much more. The operational cost and performance, the effectiveness of the entire infrastructure of the enterprise such as the technology, human resource, supply chain, resources, revenues, cost, profits and everything in between is closely monitored and measured under the umbrella of the performance management system. The Performance Management System in itself is a very huge system and cover a lot of topics that is why we will only list some important KPIs that are used to determine the performance of an entire business, corporation or enterprise:

Financial KPIs: Financial KPIs include revenue, cost, profit, internal costs, raw material costs, cost of the product or services sold, sales, sales for a particular product/service category, cost of resources and raw materials, operational cost, per employee cost and return and so on.
Employee KPIs: Employee KPIs include all the above-mentioned indicators which help business understand the cost, profit, gains and performance of the individual employees as well as of team and departments.
Marketing KPIs: Marketing KPIs include marketing campaigns, cost, return, leads, quality of leads, sales as the result of a particular marketing campaign and all details to assess and review the performance of the marketing department.
HR KPIs: HR KPIs include the performance of the HR department, staff and services, employee turnover rate, employee satisfaction, and recruitment performance. These KPI also include the indicators of expenses and returns and overall performance of the HR department.
Customer KPIs: Customer KPIs include a number of happy and unhappy customers, returning customers, customer churn rate, new customers, customer lifetime, customer acquisition cost, and customer support and so on.

These are just a few major KPIs used to assess the performance of an entire enterprise or corporation via a Performance Management System. There are a lot more KPIs that are used to further narrow down various variables to closely monitor and measure the performance of various factors which when concluded represent the overall performance of an entire enterprise.

See More: How a KPI Software can help provide better Customer Journey?

Conclusion

Businesses most often confuse Employee Performance Management with the Performance Management System. Employee performance management is just a small module of a performance management system. The Performance Management System measures various indicators which starts from the lowest level which is individual employee’s performance and ends at the overall performance assessment of the entire business or enterprise. Business and enterprises invest heavily in order to ensure their growth. These investments include all sort of technological solutions, infrastructure, human resource, employee development and training, customer retention programs, marketing and a lot more. It is very important to closely monitor each and everything to understand whether your efforts are in the right direction or not. Another important thing is to ensure your employees and customers are happy and your employees and other elements are working on their maximum potential to ensure the low operational cost of the business and maximum profit.

RSI Concepts is a well-reputed brand in providing performance management systems, KPI and OKR management solutions. If you need to know more, or if you are interested in a quote, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page.

Check this out: How Performance Management System helps in Customer Journey improvement?

April 13, 2021

How Performance Management System helps in Customer Journey improvement?

Customer Journey is a key player in any business’s success or failure. If your customers are not happy, customer retention will be harder, you will keep losing customers, no matter how hard you are working at your marketing activities. And if you are unable to sustain your existing customers your growth will be compromised. Your marketing expense will increase and your brand identity and reputation would decline which could have a devastating impact in the long term. The performance management system is a very powerful tool for businesses to ensure success and steady growth. Obviously, the performance of an organization can easily be measured by its growth and customer satisfaction. But it is not as simple either. In reality, a business’s performance is the performance of all their departments, finance and revenue, operational cost, production cost, support and other costs, profits, sales and customer satisfaction. Even if all is flawless but the customer journey is not so good and the customers are not happy, this could potentially negate all your efforts in all other manners.

The customer journey is the steps and activities that a business requires them to do from the first introduction till the sale and even after-sale services and support are also included. This is what a customer journey is. Whether you are in the production business, services business or any industry you should have customers and if you have customers there would be a purchase cycle too. The customer journey is the entire customer interaction with a brand from day one till today that includes the purchase and after-sales support, and everything else. Customer satisfaction is the key to a good brand reputation and improved conversion rates, and that all completely depends on the customer journey.

When talking about the customer journey it doesn’t only means the performance of the employees who are dealing with the customers, but it also includes all the IT and infrastructure that provides a full environment where your customers interact with your brand. Every business does its best to improve its service delivery methods, customer experience and customer journey. The businesses deploy new systems, train their staff, do marketing and install so many technologies just to improve customer experience and customer journey. But how would you know if all your efforts are paying off or not? The performance management system will tell you what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong, where you can improve things and what things are helping out in improving the customer journey.

How performance management system helps in customer journey improvements:

Measure Service Delivery Time

Service Delivery time is very important in customer experience and customer journey. The entire service delivery time from entering the branch till getting the service is the service delivery time. It can be reduced by many methods and technological solutions. For example, a digital queue management system can significantly improve (reduce) the service delivery time. Not only that the business can also measure how much on average a customer has to wait to get a service done. Then they can take steps to improve that and even steps can be taken to make the environment of the waiting area better for the customer which will improve their experience and satisfaction level. The average time taken by a server to deliver a particular service can also be measured with a performance management system which helps businesses understanding a lot of details.

See More: Benefits of Queue Management using Mobile Apps

Measure Average Customer Wait Time

The customer wait time is a very critical factor in the customer journey. The wait time starts from the time a customer dispenses a ticket for the queue or sign-up for the queue till they reached the counter/server. It is important to track this parameter. No one likes waiting, a long wait time could annoy your customers and visitors. It is very critical to take steps to reduce the wait time. Only the average wait time is not enough to completely understand and identify the areas of improvements. It is important to understand the average wait time on different days of the week or month or different hours of a day. As some hours are the busiest hours, some days are busier than the others and so on and so forth. If you are offering multiple services, then measure the wait time for each service, try to get as much detailed data as possible. This will make it easier to understand the process which will help you to improve the customer journey.

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Measure Customer Effort Score

Customer effort score is to understand the difficulties a customer face at multiple touchpoints during the entire customer journey. It is very hard to define a generic definition for these touchpoints as they are completely different for each case. Even businesses offering similar products and services could also have a completely different customer journey. A unique experience is what increases customer retention and customer satisfaction. Anyway, the customer effort score can be calculated by the time it requires to perform a certain task, how often customers are asking for help, and how often customers are complaining about anything will identify those touchpoints which require changes to improve the customer journey.

For example, for a customer service centre, a customer is coming to the branch, then they generate a queue ticket from the kiosk, and then wait in the waiting area and at the end they get the service done. The business could measure the average time taken by a customer to operate the kiosk to generate the ticket. How often customers are missing their turns due to poor audio-visual announcements. Sometimes the screens and speakers installed in certain areas and in other areas either the screens are not much visible or the sound couldn’t reach during the busy hours or so. Even if you are offering an online interaction, you can measure the time spent on different steps and especially those steps from where most of the customers are leaving your website needs special attention. These things will help to identify and measure the customer efforts score. The data can be used to improve those steps and touchpoints to improve the customer journey.

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Measure Walkaways and Customer Churn

It is very important to measure the walkaways and customer churn rate. The walkaways are the customer who happened to visit the branch get the ticket and signed up for the queue but left without getting the service. The customer churn rate is also a similar kind of KPI, the difference is that it measures the number of customers who left the brand or cancel their orders or subscriptions or purchases and it is measured for a given value of time. It is easy to set up those KPIs in a performance management system and businesses can get an excellent understanding of the reasons that are causing them to lose business. Additional data can also be gathered by requesting customers for their feedback or by inquiring them why they are leaving. This further help businesses to improve their customer journey to reduce the walkaways and customer churn rates.

See More: How Queue Management System can benefit in shipping industry?

Measure Employee Performance

Employee performance is very crucial to improve the customer journey. Proper monitoring, KPIs and OKRs could help to boost employee performance and let businesses understand the needs of training programs and other improvements. Which could further increase employee performance. For example, if an employee is taking too much time comparing to other employees to serve customers, then there must be something wrong. Either he/she is not trained well, or they are not motivated enough. The Performance Management System could help businesses to identify such employees and then the management can take adequate actions to resolve the problem. Most of the time it is either poor training or higher workloads which cause an employee to lag in performance. All issues are rectifiable, but the first step is to identify the issue. Boost in employees’ performance could hugely impact the customer journey.

See More: Queue System working in Government Departments

Monitor Support Request

Customers always require support, whether it is pre-sale or post-sale support. Business should have to provide excellent support to the customers. As all of your products are services have definitive support types and possible enquiries, it is easier to enlist them all and ask your support team to mark each support ticket with those categories. Then carefully monitor the time your support team is taking to provide against each support ticket. Measure the average value, measure employee performance and overall departmental performance. This way you could easily identify which types or categories of supports are harming your customer relations and what can be done to improve them. It is better to ask your customers for their feedback and analyze those feedbacks too. This way business can further improve their customer experience and customer journey with the help of a performance management system. This also helps to improve the products and services.

See More: How Queue Management System Helps to Provide Better Customer Service

Measure Complaint Resolution Time and Quality

Complaints are a very crucial part of a customer journey. If complaints remain unsolved it could literally ruin your relationship with your customers. It is very critical to measure the complaint resolution time. Categorize different complaints and measure the resolution time against each category. It is extremely important that your customers are satisfied at the end of each complaint resolution. These KPIs also help you understand the employee performance and then you can take steps to improve employee performance by more training and motivation or new recruitments. One thing is important to understand that each customer wants a personalized experience from their brand. Only good training programs can make your team able to resolve the complaints effectively. Whether they are technical complaints or general complaints, each complaint means a business could potentially lose a customer. It is very important to measure the performance of your service and support teams with a professional performance management system and then take steps to further improve the customer journey and customer experience.

See More: 10 Reasons to Choose RSI Queue Management System over Other Similar Products

Measure the Performance of Digital Interactions

Digital is now an integral part of our society especially the metropolitans like Dubai and other emirates of UAE are very advance societies. The expectations of the customers are high the competition is tough hence the businesses have to be very vigilant to sustain customers and build a positive reputation. Which is only possible with a great customer journey. These days a customer journey not only starts from entering into the branch or outlet, but the online interaction is also very important. People love to talk on social media platforms, brands often use them to communicate with their customers and larger audiences. Especially measure how much time it usually takes your team to respond to customer’s email or social media queries and everything else.

It is important to build a good brand presence and positive brand image in the digital world. Businesses are spending very huge chunks of their hard earnings on digital channels. Whether it is social media, online marketing or online customer portals. All could be very helpful in customer retention and generating new leads. It is important to measure the effectiveness of your digital efforts with the specialized KPIs and OKRs. A performance management system helps to measure the performance of your website or the performance of your social media team or digital marketing efforts or anything that is enabling interaction with your customers in the digital world. Take discrete steps to improve your digital communication with your customers and the digital platforms which allow interaction with your customers. This will enable you to understand and improve the digital customer journey.

See More: What are the Benefits of Improving Customer Journey?

Conclusion

A Performance Management System can help businesses a lot in streamlining their processes, resources and business practices. The business can easily identify the areas of improvement and then effectively focus their efforts and resources in those directions to improve the customer journey and customer experience to improve brand reputation, customer retention and customer satisfaction which in long term ensures steady growth and increased sales and revenue. The performance management system is not only capable of measuring the performance of different processes and operational activities but it can effectively measure the performance of the entire enterprise including internal departments, teams, and individual employees. The performance management system can easily measure and monitor the customer journey and various steps and processes along with employees and staff and all other factors that are responsible for forming the entire customer journey and customer experience. This is very helpful in understanding and identifying the areas of improvements. Business can easily take steps and build up their strategies to improve the customer journey on the basis of the data collected and generated by the performance management system.

RSI Concepts is providing a complete customized solution for Performance Management Systems, KPI Systems and OKR Systems. Our tailor-made solutions are most efficient and more cost-effective. The personalized software interfaces make it a lot easier to operate and extract actionable reports. Feel free to reach us out via our Contact Us page if you have an enquiry or want to know more.

Check this out: How a KPI Software can help provide better Customer Journey?

April 1, 2021

How a KPI Software can help provide better Customer Journey?

The customer journey and customer experience play a critical role in any business’s customer retention capabilities, brand reputation, and growth. How a KPI software can help provide a better customer journey? Well, a customer journey is not very simple and easy to measure a thing, in fact, it is a very complex phenomenon. The easiest way is to identify different phases of the customer journey and then for each phase measure the KPIs or key performance indicators. This way you can easily identify your strong and weak points and then take decisions to further rectify your weaknesses. Once everything is in place, you can easily monitor and tweak your entire customer journey with a more effective strategy and far efficient approach. The KPI software is built specifically for analysis and data collection. The key here is that not all KPI software is capable enough to present all the data in actionable reports. With our KPI Software tool, you can easily gather vital business intelligence to streamline and improve your processes involving customer journey with more ease and precision.

Here is how a KPI software can help provide a better customer journey:

Measure Customer Lifetime Score to Improve Customer Retention

Customer Lifetime Score helps you understand the lifecycle of a customer. It is not easy to retain an existing customer along with struggling to get more. This KPI could be in a broader perspective a result of multiple other KPIs. The data can be sourced from different information centres and then analyzed and compiled to measure the customer lifetime score or value. This will provide you a better understanding of your customer retention and returning customers. The data can be utilized and compared with the existing customers and further analysis can be done to understand why customers are not returning back or how the customer lifetime score/value can be improved to improve customer retention.

Measure Direct Traffic and Improve Marketing Strategies

Measuring direct traffic is very important. It will show you how effective your marketing strategies are. In order to increase your sales and leads, a business should always have to pursue their customers either by advertisements, digital marketing, social media, email marketing or any other method of marketing. These are very precise and measurable actions hence they should have a measurable reaction. In our case, the reaction will be the traffic coming to your website. These KPIs should help organizations in improving their marketing strategies which will increase the number of leads and conversions.

For example, your customers are coming to your branches and offices or locations. You should be able to measure their quantity and then the conversion rate as well. This will help you understand the branch’s performance which could be further improved by other relevant KPIs.

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Measure On-Site Time and Improve Customer Experience

In the case of website and digital marketing, we need a customer to spend more time on the site which is the website. In the case of branch visits or office visits, we want our customers to spend less time on the branch to get a service done. In both scenarios, you will understand how you can improve your customer’s journey to an extent where you can also get optimum numbers of leads and sales. For example, if people are spending a good amount of time on your website that is good it means your website is engaging and people are reading it. Which shows a good customer journey and higher rates of conversion.

If visitors are spending more time at your branch or office that means the server staff is taking more time, or the queues are not managed properly which is worsening the customer experience and customer journey. And it is very bad, immediate actions should be taken to rectify this issue.

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Measure Customer Effort Score and Improve Customer Journey

Customer effort score is very valuable data. It has to be monitored and measured. The KPI Software enables you to measure the inputs from the different sources and accumulate them into a unified report or analysis which can help the management to take actions in the right direction to improve the customer journey. For example, you should know how much average time is consumed by your call centre to solve an issue over the phone, or to provide support? How much time is required for the prospect to enquire through a phone and get the required information? Similarly for the website, no one wants to read ten or twenty pages to get the required information, if the required information is not available in a few clicks the visitor will simply close your webpage.

This data can be collected and analyzed effectively to reach a conclusion to take steps to improve the customer journey. The best method is to utilize KPI software. Not only call or website, but visits at the branch and all other touchpoints should be scanned to gather as much data as possible. These KPIs will help you evaluate your existing strategies and also point you to the directions for improvements in the customer journey.

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Measure Customer Feedback and Satisfaction

Measuring direct customer feedback and taking their suggestions or feedback is a great way to measure customer satisfaction which is directly impacted by the customer journey. If the customer journey is better the customer satisfaction will be higher. A happiness meter can be placed in all strategic points to collect as much feedback as possible. The happiness meter or score scales can be published on the website, shared by the emails, SMS and social media as well to encourage more customers to share their opinions. This is a very direct measurement of customer satisfaction and all the data compiled from such feedbacks and surveys could be very helpful in taking steps and making up new strategies to improve the customer journey and customer experience.

It is important that you measure customer satisfaction score on various different touchpoints, this will help you further identify the problem in a particular area or a particular phase of the customer journey. This will also save a lot of additional efforts that are required to analyze the data and/or additional steps to precisely identify the problem.

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Measure Customer Churn Rate and Improve Customer Journey

The customer churn rate is the customers who have cancelled their subscriptions, or services or products or returned the products or even the customers who made only one-time-purchase and never returned back. This is very important as customer retention and repeats business is very vital to ensure growth but if you are having the same number of active customer on a certain interval such as today and six months back then there is something wrong. It could be either your service delivery mechanisms, your product/service quality, your support or a lot many other factors. But is important to measure the customer churn and then compare different values at different time intervals and co-relate them with your corresponding efforts which were going on during those particular intervals.

This data and these types of analysis will not only help you improve the customer journey but will also help you improving and evaluating your marketing efforts. Like I said every action that you take in order to engage prospects and customers should have a reaction and the reaction will determine the effectiveness of your actions which in fact is your strategy and policy.

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Measure Staff Performance and Improve Work Force

In order to improve the customer journey, a business must have an efficient workforce. The employee’s performance should be measured and improved in order to improve their work efficiency. This will overall improve the organization’s operational capabilities both in terms of finance and technical domains. Different types of KPIs should be set for different departments and their interaction with the customers and visitors. For example, if an average service delivery time for a particular service is five minutes once a customer or prospect is at the counter, and one or two employees are continuously showing more time is being consumed by them, then you should immediately check why this is happening, sometime it could be just a technical glitch or sometimes maybe it is lag of training. But since the KPIs are indicating that the employees are taking more time than anticipated for a particular service then there must be something wrong that has to be identified and rectified.

Business can arrange specialized training opportunities for their employees, they can improve internal IT infrastructure or anything which can normalize the things. This is very important as due to some rectifiable issue your customers are having a bad experience and your employees are unable to work on their full potential. Both are bad for the overall customer journey and customer experience.

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Measure Net Promoter Score and Improve Customer Journey

The net promoter score is the mathematical probability of how likely a customer is willing to suggest your brand or products or services to others. It covers a quite broader spectrum. The customer endorsements can be measured through social media and their feedbacks. The business could directly ask them this question and learn about their responses and the reasons for their responses. For example, if a customer is more likely to suggest your particular product or service then you can understand why that is and vice versa.

This KPI will provide you with a greater understanding of your overall relationship with your customer and what you should expect in the future. If you are losing customers or if you are not having repeated business then the chances are very slim that any one-timer (the customer who make a purchase only once) will be going to recommend you as a brand of choice to anyone else.

The Net Promoter Score is a very serious indicator and it could impact the overall business in a very huge way. The net promoter score can only be improved by improving the customer journey and once you know and understand why your net promoter score is declining only than you can identify the causes and then take serious actions to rectify those causes.

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Conclusion

KPI Software is a very critical tool for a business’s success. If you want to improve customer retention, ensure consistent growth and increase in sales and revenue then you must have to ensure you are providing the ultimate customer journey and customer experience. KPI Software is the ultimate tools to help organizations in achieving their goals. The KPIs will provide you a deeper understanding of your operations, business processes, customer journey and customer experiences and employee performance. The data could be sourced from multiple internal and external sources and the KPIs can be set for different touchpoints and phases of your customer journey. The KPI Software will ensure that your customers are satisfied and happy, all the organizational assets are working at their best efficiency levels and the effectiveness of your business and marketing strategies.

You must be thinking by now that setting up those KPIs or doing all those analysis and data comparisons would be a very difficult and costly task! You don’t have to worry, at RSI Concepts we provide full consultations, coaching and initial setup for your KPIs along with our KPI Software tool which is equipped with advanced tools and setup wizards to make the process very easy and user friendly. Give us a call or contact us through our Contact Us page and one of our consultants will assist you with all your queries and enquiries.

Check out this: What are the Benefits of Improving Customer Journey?