October 1, 2024 — Jeff Reid, Co-Founder, COO & CPO of SkillCycle
It’s pretty standard these days to include technology as a helpful tool in improving employee performance. However, if you’re relying on tech to help drive performance impact, there are a few things to keep in mind.
In recent years, the importance of user experience in enterprise software has become clear, especially in driving performance. However, many large organizations still prioritize features and reporting over user needs.
The success of a new technology platform is often deemed a success based on time and budget metrics, but the real test is if employees will use it, says SHRM.
Your employees will probably be more enthusiastic about using tools to help them succeed. Examples of employee performance goals that technology could support include enhancing productivity, improving communication, or hitting sales targets.
Let’s dig into the role tech can play in improving employee performance and explore:
Technology designed to improve employee performance must be functional and user-friendly. McKinsey research shows that keeping people at the core of any performance management system you implement can make you four times more likely to outperform your peers.
Over the past decade, expectations have shifted significantly — employees now expect the same seamless, intuitive experiences from enterprise software they encounter in consumer apps. If the technology you’re implementing doesn’t meet these expectations, it can become a barrier, rather than a tool for enhancing performance.
To drive high performance, focus on selecting and implementing technology that captures data and actively supports and simplifies the work employees need to do. Remember, the goal is to empower your workforce, not burden them with cumbersome tools.
From the employee’s perspective, the fewer applications they need to manage, the better. Technology that integrates smoothly into their work reduces friction and enhances productivity. This simplicity in their tech stack allows them to focus on their core tasks without being bogged down by disconnected performance management tools.
For the organization, high adoption rates ensure a better return on investment in technology. When the data captured reflects real work, it provides leadership with a sharper lens into performance, helping to drive informed decisions that benefit both employees and the company.
Technology can offer impressive benefits, but the real impact comes from designing systems that align with employees’ daily work, turning technology into a productivity tool.
Here are four essential ways to successfully use tech to improve performance:
These strategies will help foster ownership, capture authentic performance data, and enable timely, data-driven decisions, helping businesses shift quickly as priorities change.
Using technology can help you move from managing employee performance to supporting a culture of continuous improvement.
By implementing adaptable systems, organizations can ensure that performance management is not just a static, one-time event but an ongoing process that evolves with the needs of the business. These systems can adjust weekly or monthly, making continuous feedback and improvement a natural part of the work life cycle.
Organizations can create a culture of continuous improvement by aligning technology with specific employee performance goals.
How does this work? Examples of employee performance goals might include improving customer response time or increasing project completion rates. Technology can track interactions, monitor milestones, and provide insights to help keep employees on the right path to meet their targets.
The data generated from these systems is invaluable. It provides a real-time, authentic reflection of what’s happening within the organization, allowing leaders to make informed decisions and implement changes where needed.
This cycle of data-driven insights and adaptability creates a continuous loop of improvement, ensuring that the organization is always moving forward and refining its processes to meet current and future challenges.
By adopting a thoughtful, iterative approach, leadership can make the connection between technology and performance improvement tangible and valuable for employees. One effective strategy is to start with pilot programs, gathering early feedback from a small group of employees.
Slower and more thoughtful mini-launches allow organizations to refine the technology based on real user experiences before a full-scale rollout, making the process smoother and more tailored to employee needs. They also demonstrate that leadership values employee input, which is important for gaining buy-in and trust.
Communicating the value of new technology is equally important. Leaders should communicate the rationale behind the adoption, emphasizing how it will support employee performance goals and positively impact their daily work.
By building organic support through early adopters who can share their positive experiences with the broader team, leadership can foster a sense of excitement and ownership among employees.
Managing employee performance is just one element in driving real improvement. These strategies help ensure that new technology solutions are seen as a valuable tool to support employees and enhance performance — rather than just another mandate from above.
Want to learn more about making HR tech work for you, not the other way around? Download our white paper: Breaking Down Barriers: Close Skill Gaps With HR Technology.
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