A company without a good performance management tool is like a phone without a dial: almost useless.

There is no way to know the efficiency of employees and strategies deployed, making it impossible for companies to improve. This is why it is absolutely necessary for you to have the right performance management tool by your side.

Here are 12 best performance management tools and software to help you make an informed purchase decision.

Let's dive in.

There are numbers that show that 89% of HR managers believe that ongoing performance management is better than standard performance management. No better way to put it. Any firm needs a competent performance management tool to monitor, assess, and improve employee performance. Effective performance management tools have several traits. Some of them to look out for are:

• User-Friendly Interface: A decent performance management tool should be user-friendly. To ensure company-wide acceptance, managers and employees should be able to utilize the application without tedious training.
• Customizability: Every company has different performance evaluation methods. A good tool offers customization to meet organizational goals, values, and performance indicators. Customizability lets the technology adapt to company demands.
• Goal Setting and Alignment: Individuals and teams should define clear, quantifiable, and achievable goals with the tool. It should also match these goals with organizational goals to ensure everyone works toward common goals.
• Regular Feedback Mechanism: 80% of employees would rather get feedback right away than have a job review once a year. The best performance management solutions allow managers and staff to provide each other with feedback. Regular, timely feedback helps employees improve, correct course, and reinforce positive behavior.
• 360-Degree Feedback: Along with supervisor input, a thorough tool includes peer, subordinate, and stakeholder feedback. This holistic picture shows an employee's performance and conduct in the company.

Top 11 Performance Management Tools and Software of 2024

Out of several performance management software in the market, we've analyzed the best of those, and made a list for you. Each of these software platforms have included the most crucial aspects for performance management.

Let's look at each of them in detail.

ThriveSparrow is an innovative performance management tool that helps managers and HR boost their people's performance and development by providing an org-wide view of 360-degree feedback reports across departments, teams, and individuals.

Through data from 360-degree performance appraisals, ThriveSparrow offers a way to analyze employee and team performance completely through bell curves, competency summaries, GAP analysis, and AI-based personalized development plans.

ThriveSparrow Best Features

• AI-Based PDPs: With this feature, ThriveSparrow helps managers save time and effort creating personal development plans for each employee, where they can focus their time and effort on other areas.

• Competency Summary: Identify your team's strengths and weakness across competencies and departments.
• Individual Performance Reports: Enable both managers and team members to view their hidden strengths and blind spots through comparisons on self-evaluation and peer-ratings.‍
• Team Analytics: Provide managers with real-time performance management data to help with decision-making and workflow optimization.
• Engagement Heatmaps: Heatmaps give a color-coded view of engagement levels across departments, managers, and reporting factors by organizing the data from the engagement surveys.

ThriveSparrow Pricing

ThriveSparrow is built on 3-core modules.

Engage: Create and schedule engagement surveys and monitor engagement levels across teams and departments. Starts at $3/month/employee.

Kudos: Foster a culture of recognition by facilitating peer-to-peer recognition. Starts at $2/month/employee.

Performance: Enable targeted feedback for enhanced individual growth and development. Starts at $5/month/employee.

G2 Rating: 4.5

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Engagedly empowers organizations to cultivate engaging work environments through its performance management features. It allows you to set goals, receive immediate feedback, and monitor the progress of your employees.

With Engagedly's performance evaluation forms and user-friendly interface, companies can seamlessly integrate performance management with their core values. Active employee engagement on the platform boosts morale and productivity, leading to heightened workplace satisfaction.

Furthermore, Engagedly's robust analytics provide businesses with the tools to evaluate and enhance employee performance effectively.

Engagedly Best Features

• AI-Powered Performance Reviews: Link goals to performance reviews and create customizable performance workflows.
• Talent Analytics: Data analysis and visualization tools help HR with data-driven decision making.
• Goals: Achieve goals faster, assign or change owners for each milestone, and share goals with respective stakeholders for feedback and input.
• CXO Insights: AI-Powered Analytics gives people leaders a holistic view of the organization, helping align HR practices with business goals.

Engagedly Limitations

• Low user-friendliness of the application.
• The search function needs improvement.

Engagedly Pricing

Engagedly comes with a base package and has three add-ons.

Performance Suite: $9/member/month

Add-ons

Rewards & Recognition: $5/member/month

Growth & Learning: $5/member/month

Mentoring Suite: $2/member/month

G2 Rating: 4.4

PerformYard simplifies complex HR tasks through its comprehensive performance management solution. It specializes in goal management, feedback loops, and customizable performance reports, streamlining the performance review process.

With seamless HR integration, PerformYard ensures data accuracy and efficiency.

The platform's real-time feedback fosters teamwork and enhances productivity, while its analytics empower businesses to make data-driven decisions and identify top talent. PerformYard's suite encompasses a complete toolkit for performance management, equipped with the following features:

PerformYard Best Features

• ‍Reviews & Check-Ins: PerformYard eliminated tedious tasks and lets you customize and track review cycles, and analyze and visualize review data.
• Goal Management: Track and align individual, team, and company-goals within the platform.
• Continuous Feedback: PerformYard enables you to document year-round feedback, whether it is recognizing achievements or detailing team performance.
• Reporting & Analytics: Automatically track performance data and analyze results across teams and roles.

PerformYard Limitations

• The platform has a basic look and feel that may not urge people to explore and use the platform more often.
• The timeline isn't flexible for smaller companies.

PerformYard Pricing

Billed annually, the platform starts at $5-10/person/month.

G2 Rating: 4.8

Insperity offers a holistic Professional Employer Organization (PEO) and talent management solution that supports applicant tracking, onboarding, training, development, and performance management to foster company growth and enhance employee engagement.

The platform includes comprehensive features for goal-setting, performance evaluations, and employee development initiatives.

It emphasizes the importance of aligning individual and corporate goals within its performance management framework. With a focus on user-friendly design and mobile accessibility, Insperity enables efficient communication between remote employees and their managers, ensuring a seamless integration of talent management processes.

Insperity Best Features

• Compensation programs motivates employees to meet their performance goals quickly.
• Performance Management Support: Customize the performance appraisal process, foster individual and team goal development, and provide coaching for supervisors.
• Liability Management Training: Trains supervisors on workplace policy issues.
• Recruiting Support Services: Makes hiring practices more proficient and cost-effective.

Insperity Limitations

• Customer service is expensive.
• Pricing of the platform is unclear due to co-mingled services.

Insperity Pricing

The pricing isn't available on their site, so you'll need to contact their Sales team and book a demo.

G2 Rating: 3.7

Workhuman Conversations blends agile performance development with structured feedback and assessments. This innovative platform fosters a culture rooted in connection, continuous feedback, and growth, prioritizing human interactions over rigid processes.

Workhuman Best Features‍

• Ongoing Feedback: Conversations enables a seamless flow of feedback, allowing anyone to request and provide insights anytime, anywhere. ‍
• Frequent Check-ins on Any Device: The platform emphasizes the importance of regular interactions between managers and their teams. ‍
• Agile Performance Management: Conversations offers the flexibility to incorporate and enhance existing performance management processes. It supports organizations in shifting from traditional performance evaluations to a more meaningful and impactful manager-employee interaction model.‍
• Integrated Recognition System: Conversations integrates with Social Recognition, enabling feedback and performance insights to translate directly into formal recognition moments.

Workhuman Limitations

• Limited reward options.
• Difficulty with navigation because of multiple features and complexity.

Workhuman Conversations Pricing

Workhuman hasn't disclosed their pricing, hence you'll need to contact the Sales team and book a demo.

G2 Rating: Unavailable currently for this product. Workhuman Social Recognition is rated 4.7.

Lattice is a comprehensive performance management and engagement platform designed to boost organizational efficiency and employee satisfaction. It empowers organizations to identify top performers, ensure operational excellence, and foster a culture of continuous feedback and recognition.

Lattice Best Features

• Customizable Performance Reviews: Lattice offers the flexibility to conduct performance reviews in a way that best suits your organization’s needs.
• Productive 1:1s: The platform transforms 1:1 meetings into the most productive interactions on your calendar, providing the structure and context needed for meaningful conversations between managers and their direct reports.
• Continuous Feedback: Lattice builds a culture where feedback flows freely and regularly, not just during formal review periods.
• Actionable Updates: The platform unblocks direct reports and keeps managers informed, ensuring everyone is aligned and obstacles are swiftly addressed.

Lattice Limitations

• Reporting on surveys and performance reviews can be clunky, leading to readability issues.
• Lack of organization for input collected throughout the year, hindering performance report and personal development plans.

Lattice Pricing

The performance management plan comes bundled with OKRs and goals, and starts from $11/person/month.

G2 Rating: 4.7

Leapsome offers comprehensive employee feedback and performance management. Key features include goal planning, 360-degree feedback, and staff surveys.

Emphasizing feedback loops and check-ins, it provides timely guidance and recognition. The platform's 360-degree feedback gathers input from peers, managers, and subordinates for holistic performance evaluation.

With tailored surveys measuring employee satisfaction and engagement, Leapsome enables data-driven decisions and fosters a vibrant workplace culture.

Leapsome Best Features

• Customizable Review Processes: With Leapsome, organizations can run various types of reviews, including performance reviews, agile project reviews, 360° reviews, and anonymous leadership reviews.
• Automated Review Cycles: Leapsome’s automation features allow for recurring review cycles and the use of employee data to trigger specific reviews like probation periods or annual evaluations.
• Skill Profiles: Leapsome enables the tracking of employee performance across key skills and competencies, offering insights into skill gaps and facilitating better training budget allocation, team composition, and hiring strategies.
• Contextualized and Unbiased Reviews: The platform provides tools to minimize biases by granting easy access to relevant information such as peer reviews, previous feedback, and goal performance during the review writing process.
• Comprehensive Dashboards: Keep track of each review cycle with dashboards that display key data, including pending reviews and development conversations.

Leapsome Limitations

• User experience could be better.
• Reminder options are limited. Users would like more control over the frequency of notifications.
• Duplicate data issues with HRIS integrations.

Leapsome Pricing

The pricing isn't available on their site. You'll need to book a demo to know the pricing.

G2 Rating: 4.8

ClearCompany enhances the entire employee lifecycle, from hiring to performance reviews. Align goals, evaluate success, and assess capabilities with ease.

Its goal alignment feature synchronizes work and personal objectives, aiding performance management. Performance review tools uplift morale by providing constructive feedback. Workforce analytics unveil trends for enhanced performance control and workplace culture.

ClearCompany Best Features

• Customizable Review Cycles: Adapt review workflows, questions, and formats to fit the unique roles within your company, or utilize pre-built templates for quick setup.
• Expert-Backed Performance Management: In partnership with performance management specialists, ClearCompany redefines review best practices, offering templates and automation for a variety of review and assessment format.
• Goal Planning: Align employees with company priorities through goal-planning tools that foster continuous feedback, informal coaching, and collaboration.
• Robust Analytics for Performance Insights: Analyze performance data across various dimensions with pre-built reports and interactive analytics. Tools like 9-Box Reporting and 360-Degree Reviews Cycle Progress help identify top performers and track performance trends.

ClearCompany Limitations

• Occasional issues with loading.
• Candidate management is cumbersome.

ClearCompany Pricing

ClearCompany hasn't disclosed their pricing, so you'll need to request them for a quote.

G2 Rating: 4.6

Trakstar simplifies managing employee success and maintains engagement. It monitors goals, provides real-time feedback, and assesses achievements.

With Trakstar's goal tracking, staff and managers can establish, monitor, and align performance goals. Its feedback tools facilitate real-time communication and collaboration among teams.

Leveraging performance data, Trakstar enables businesses to identify strengths, weaknesses, and training requirements, fostering a positive workplace environment.

Trakstar Best Features

• Goal Setting & Tracking: Facilitate effective talent management with SMART goal setting features, allowing for clear assessments and progress tracking.
• 360° Review Feedback: Adopt a more holistic view of employee performance with 360° feedback.
• Automated Reminders: Streamline the review process with automated emails and integration with communication tools, reducing the manual effort of chasing down reviews and approvals.
• Detailed Reporting: Gain actionable insights into performance with advanced reporting features, including employee score trends and cycle progress, to make informed improvement steps.

Trakstar Limitations

• The UX could be better and needs more rework.
• High learning curve for the product.

Trakstar Pricing

The pricing isn't available on their site, so you'll need to ask them for a quote.

G2 Rating: 4.3

Actus offers a comprehensive performance management platform for employee growth. It facilitates goal setting, feedback collection, and performance evaluation. Actus provides quick feedback and recognition through coaches and advisers.

Its performance tools enable businesses to make informed decisions and enhance relationships. With versatile features and user-friendly design, Actus empowers organizations to foster employee learning and progression.

Actus Best Features

• Objective Setting: Facilitates the establishment and monitoring of SMART objectives aligned with organizational goals, enhancing clarity and focus across all levels of the organization.
• Appraisals: Supports flexible appraisal templates and workflows to accommodate various review types, including check-ins and probationary reviews, with features to incorporate behavioral competencies and performance ratings.
• One to One Meetings: Encourages regular 1 to 1 discussions, turning the software from an appraisal tool into an indispensable management asset.
• Development, Training, and Qualifications: Advocates for a comprehensive approach to employee development, from identifying training needs in real-time to tracking progress in key competencies, supporting a workforce that is continuously learning and growing.

Actus Limitations

• Times out very quickly when not in use.
• Takes time importing and exporting data.

Actus Pricing

Starts at $3.9/user/month for 50-60 employees. To know about their pricing, visit their page where a slider calculator could give you more insight.

G2 Rating: 4.6

PeopleGoal is a versatile performance management tool fostering collaboration and goal achievement. It tracks, measures, and scores success, enabling fair assessments.

With 360-degree feedback, it gathers insights from peers, supervisors, and clients. Leveraging performance data, companies enhance employee capabilities and tailor training programs for optimal performance in a vibrant workplace environment.

PeopleGoal Best Features

• Dynamic Goal Setting: With PeopleGoal, establish, track, and manage goals with ease. Whether you're working with OKRs, SMART goals, or weekly tasks, the platform's flexibility supports a variety of goal-setting methodologies.
• Comprehensive Reviews: Adapt to any review format—peer reviews, 360-degree feedback, or check-ins—tailoring the process to fit different groups and timelines. This versatility ensures every team member receives relevant and constructive feedback.
• Recognition and Rewards: Connect performance achievements directly to recognition and rewards, fostering a culture of appreciation that boosts morale and motivates employees to excel.
• Continuous Communication: Facilitate ongoing dialogue between managers and employees about goals, achievements, and areas for development.

PeopleGoal Limitations

• Difficulty navigating through past goals.
• No option to compare reviews with self-evaluations.

PeopleGoal Pricing

PeopleGoal hasn't disclosed their pricing, so you'll need to book a demo with them.

G2 Rating: 4.7

Performance management is essential in any business to ensure that employee’s work matches the company's goals. It starts with defining SMART goals for employees: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These goals clarify expectations and how the work of employees supports the organization's mission.

Managing performance is an ongoing activity. Based on employee and manager input, organizations analyze and improve their performance management systems. This adaptability guarantees that tactics stay effective when company demands, technology, and worker dynamics change. Performance management relies on continuous improvement to create a happy workplace and boost individual and organizational performance. There, simple. 

So Which One is Your Pick?

We know the list looks a bit extensive, but its good to be thorough when it comes to choosing tools that can potentially alter the trajectory of your business. A performance management tool can make or break your business, so we hope this list helped you choose one that aligns with your company specifications and future objectives.