How To Track Employee Performance: Importance and Free Template

Employee performance tracking is crucial to meet the organization’s strategic goals without any difficulties. In addition, keeping a tab of employee performance is a strategic approach towards their growth and development to elevate their skills and capabilities.

Your primary target must focus on implementing a robust system that will benefit both the employee and the organization. This process involves external factors like job satisfaction levels, assigning the right role, improving morale, boosting motivation, and the list goes on. HR managers and leaders need to understand the process, assess it, and introduce it into the work culture. This will help create a sustainable performance management system that uplifts and supports the workforce’s abilities to the fullest.

This article will highlight the different ways of measuring employee performance and how it positively impacts its bottom line.

How To Track Employee Performance?

1. Realistic Goal Setting

Employees perform better when they understand what is expected of them and what roles they need to fulfill. But the big question is, do they really know their responsibilities and what is the requirement? If that poses a roadblock in an employee’s efficiency, it might be time that you rethink your goal-setting process.

The best solution will be to set realistic goals and objectives that your employees can achieve in the long term. Make sure that they are not overwhelmed with the tasks they have in hand. Instead of unrealistic goal setting, try to opt for OKRs and implement KPIs to keep track of each employee’s accomplishment. It will help you sort each individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Thus, assisting you in devising training programs to cement their skills to achieve organizational success.

2. Assess their Development

Before you finalize any product, what is the first thing you do? You will be running various tests and assess the outcome to check whether you have the desired results or not. Similarly, evaluating your employees’ development will provide them with an opportunity to understand the areas where improvement is needed.

Furthermore, ask your employees how they will align their goals and objectives to achieve success for the organization. Doing so will help you garner a holistic idea about the situation if your employees truly understand their roles and targets.

Finally, have a data-driven approach and monitor employees’ overall improvement. It provides you with a perfect opportunity to evaluate any shortcomings and effectively bridge the skill gaps with proper developmental plans. Thus, helping you in maximizing employee performance.

3. Focus on Relearning

Learning a new skill is an essential part of life and necessary to evolve in this ever-growing world. However, without the enthusiasm and the willingness to learn, it becomes quite challenging to adapt to the changes swiftly. Therefore, it can pose a significant drawback and limit the learning curve both personally and professionally.

The same can be said for the workplaces as well. For an employee to accommodate any change in the workplace, the focus must be inclined to learn new things and relearn what they already know.

It is always a good practice to brush up on the acquired skills and knowledge for a neverending learning experience. With the corporate world getting digitally advanced, the tactics and organizational workflow changes drastically. This prompts the employees to become technologically proficient.

The scope to encourage a habit of continuous learning is crucial to understand the transition. This will open up endless possibilities to adapt and improve for the betterment in the long run.

4. Create A Robust Feedback Channel

Employee feedbacks form an integral part of any organization that focuses on improving employee performance and development. It should be constructive, on time, descriptive with all the details, and honest.

Your employees should have a clear understanding of the message you want to convey so there is less confusion. Also, keep them in the loop about the 360-degree feedback system and how it will positively impact their productivity levels.

A robust feedback system will allow you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of an employee. As a result, it will help them improve and improve what they do for the company.

5. Encourage Smart Work

Every organization consists of hard-working and dedicated employees. However, with the modernization of the corporate world, hard work is never enough to meet expectations.

Instead, employees should focus more on keeping a perfect balance between hard work and smart work. With the ideal blend of both, employees will excel in their roles and responsibilities.

Ask your employees to follow the SMART goal plan. It will help them become more efficient with their ideas and think out of the box. This helps them to enhance creativity and innovation in the workplace. In addition, a manager can use an employee performance tracking system to keep an eye on the growth of each employee.

It actually provides you with accurate performance metrics that will help in adapting to the ever-growing changes. This can be pivotal in enhancing employee performance and accomplish greater organizational success.

6. Conduct Surveys

One of the essential aspects of an employee performance tracking system is that it helps you understand what the employees think about their job and how well they perform. But to that, you need to first ask the right questions surrounding their responsibilities and their performance levels with the help of pulse surveys.

Pulse surveys give you real-time data and metrics crucial to determining an employee’s satisfaction levels and their impact on their growth. Once you have a brief idea about the roadblocks, try to solve the issues that will elevate the performance levels and create a productive and engaged workforce.

And to conduct surveys that matter, you can head over to our Pulse Survey tool that can help you have a better insight into how satisfied the employees are with their job and the changes needed to make the workplace better. Understanding your employees’ thought process is crucial towards better employee engagement and productivity levels that can elevate the organization’s bottom line.

Recommended Resource: Performance Management: How To Do It Right?

Importance of Monitoring Employee Performance

1. Elevating Employee Performance and Efficiency

Every employee needs regular feedback and support to improve their performance. Thus, both employees and managers should take the responsibility to monitor an employee's performance regularly.

This proactive approach helps employees identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to enhance their skills and productivity. By continuously refining their abilities, employees can work more efficiently, streamline processes and deliver higher-quality outputs.

2. Identifies Employee Strengths and Weaknesses

Through comprehensive performance monitoring, managers can gain insights into each employee's unique strengths and areas for development. This understanding enables managers to assign tasks and responsibilities that align with the employee's strengths.

Simultaneously, they can create targeted development plans to address skill gaps or weaknesses. Leveraging strengths and addressing weaknesses optimizes individual and team performance.

3. Matching Individual Skills with the Right Roles

Monitoring employee performance goes beyond just evaluating their current responsibilities. It involves assessing each individual's capabilities, aptitudes, and potential.

With this knowledge, managers can make informed decisions about the roles and responsibilities that best suit each employee's skillset. Proper role allocation ensures a better fit between the employee's talents and their job duties, leading to higher job satisfaction and productivity.

4. Boosting Workplace Productivity

When employees receive regular performance feedback and are placed in roles that align with their abilities, it naturally increases workplace productivity.

Performance tracking allows employees to understand areas for improvement. Once they are well-equipped to handle their tasks, they can deliver output in higher quality and quantity. This collective increase in individual productivity contributes to overall organizational success.

5. Elevating Employee Morale

Recognition and appreciation of hard work are key outcomes of effective performance monitoring. By acknowledging achievements and providing constructive feedback, organizations can significantly boost employee morale. This positive reinforcement fosters a sense of loyalty, motivation, and dedication, ultimately leading to better performance and reduced turnover.

6. Fostering Accountability within the Workplace

Regular performance evaluations cultivate a culture of accountability among employees. When individuals understand how their work directly impacts the organization's success, they are more likely to take ownership of their responsibilities. This sense of accountability drives employees to consistently meet and exceed expectations.

7. Stimulating Innovation and Creativity

Monitoring performance isn't just about meeting targets; it's also about encouraging employees to think outside the box. By recognizing and rewarding innovative ideas and creative solutions, organizations can foster an environment where employees feel valued for their contributions. This not only leads to innovative problem-solving but also keeps the organization competitive in a rapidly evolving market.

Recommended Resource: 8 Employee Strength That A Manager Needs To Know

Free Employee Performance Tracking Template Excel

Performance tracking templates play a crucial role in the systematic evaluation and management of employee performance within an organization. They serve as valuable tools for both managers and employees by providing a structured approach to performance assessment.

So, without further ado, we present 2 free excel sheet templates to track employee performance. You can download the sheet and use it right away.

1. Annual Performance Evaluation Template

2. Self-Evaluation Template

Employee Performance Tracking Software/Tools That You Need to Consider

Numerous performance management tools will help you to track an employee’s performance in an organization. The availability and accessibility of these tools have made a positive impact in the corporate world. They have helped organizations to bring the best in their employees.

Here is a list of the most influential tools that you can use to bring maximum efficiency:

1. Performly

Performly transforms traditional performance management into a more dynamic process. It focuses on turning tedious administrative tasks into an engaging experience for employees. The platform emphasizes continuous feedback, goal setting, and performance tracking, enabling organizations to foster a culture of transparency and accountability.

2. 15Five

15Five is a comprehensive performance management tool designed to enhance communication between employees and managers. It's based on the principle that spending 15 minutes a week writing a report and 5 minutes reading it can significantly improve the alignment and performance of a team. The software facilitates regular check-ins, objective tracking, and feedback exchange, supporting a continuous performance management cycle.

3. Synergita

Synergita is an award-winning performance management and engagement software that automates the performance review process while promoting a continuous feedback culture. It offers features like performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, and analytics dashboards to track progress and identify development areas.

4. Leapsome

Leapsome is an all-in-one platform for performance management, employee engagement, and personalized learning. It allows companies to implement continuous performance management cycles, including goal setting, feedback, and reviews.

5. Reflektive

Reflektive is a modern performance management and analytics platform focusing on real-time feedback and goal management to drive employee growth and organizational success. Its suite includes performance reviews, goal setting, check-ins, and analytics, all designed to improve productivity and employee engagement.

6. Performyard

Performyard is a flexible performance management software that simplifies the process of reviews, goal tracking, and feedback within organizations. It's designed to support various performance management strategies, from annual reviews to continuous feedback models.

The right choice of tools will solely depend on the organizational needs and requirements, and workforce size. Do thorough research before choosing the best tool and enhance employee performance within the organization.

End Note!

If you have more suggestions on tracking employee performance, do drop us an email. We'd love to include your suggestions on this list.

This article was co-authored by Nilotpal M Saharia and Mrinmoy Rabha, who work as digital marketers at Vantage Circle. For any queries reach out to editor@vantagecircle.com.