10 Performance Management Solutions Compared

Organizations do well when employees are engaged and know where the company is headed. That takes a deliberate effort to manage performance, both for the business as a whole and for each employee. Performance management software comes in two kinds: tools for organizational performance (running the strategic plan) and tools for employee performance (reviews and feedback).

This guide covers five products in each category, with the features to look for first. Vendor details reflect each product when we reviewed it, so confirm current status before you buy; 7Geese and Reflektive, for example, may have been acquired or rebranded since. At ClearPoint, we think one tool should handle both, and we explain why at the end.

Organizational performance management software

Organizations use this software to track the progress of their strategic plan. Leadership and strategy teams usually open it in monthly or quarterly strategy review meetings to show how each department or division contributes to overall results. Most information, apart from confidential financials, is visible across the organization, because transparency is a key part of this software.

Look for these features:

• Tracking at every level of the plan, from corporate and department down to small teams, with data that rolls up from bottom to top or drills down from top to bottom.
• Automation such as email reminders, report scheduling, data uploads and notifications.
• Flexible, customizable reports, since every audience needs a different view.
• Charts and dashboards, for numbers and for project Gantt charts alike.
• Qualitative fields beside each chart, so owners can tell the story behind the results.
• Branding options, so internal and external reports look professional.

ClearPoint Strategy

ClearPoint is SaaS software that organizations use to manage their strategic plans and the projects and KPIs behind them. Customers include for-profit corporations, local governments, healthcare organizations, utilities and nonprofits. It captures objectives, projects, measures and financial information in one place, then roll data up for an organization-wide view or drill down to a single project, program or person. ClearPoint automates data collection, report generation and the evaluation of objectives, and produces branded, presentation-quality reports.

It has limits. Data is aggregated and usually shown monthly or quarterly, and ClearPoint does not store transactional information. It can show budget results but has no line-item budgeting. It exports to PowerPoint, Excel and PDF, but not to Word or Illustrator.

AchieveIt

AchieveIt is a strategic planning tool for connecting, managing and executing plans and initiatives. It shows at a glance how the organization is progressing on its strategic initiatives. Reporting is more limited: some users build workarounds to get the views they want, especially when combining data or managing metrics across several plans. It was not designed for financial calculations inside the platform.

Planful

Planful is SaaS software for enterprise financial planning and analysis (FP&A). It collects and consolidates financial information, aligns financial data with strategic objectives and simplifies monthly financial reporting. Its Excel-based interface is familiar, permissions are simple to set up, and it offers drag-and-drop ad-hoc reports alongside recurring ones. Report formatting options are somewhat limited, and its tables and dashboard visuals are less flexible than some customers would like.

Board

Board describes itself as an all-in-one product for business intelligence, performance management and analytics. It pulls data from across the business into one place for analysis and planning, which makes it especially useful for finance departments. Its interface uses drag-and-drop to build visual analyses on custom datasets. The breadth of features makes the learning curve steep, and integrations with existing systems are limited.

Vena

Vena is a corporate performance management tool built on Excel. Users keep their existing Excel templates, models and reports but gain a central store for data from different sources. It automates parts of budgeting, planning and forecasting, makes custom data pulls for ad-hoc analysis easy, and keeps an audit trail of who changed what and when. Integrations can be hard to configure and update, and users without advanced Excel skills will struggle.

Employee performance management software

Employee performance software helps managers track and report on the work of teams and individuals. It holds the quantitative and qualitative data about each person's performance and gives managers a basis for feedback in one-on-one meetings.

Look for these features:

• Permissions that limit each manager to data on their direct reports.
• Feedback between managers, employees and peers.
• Goal tracking that scales to every employee, ideally linking individual goals to corporate goals.
• Review workflows with approvals and notifications.
• Reports and dashboards that show how a whole department is performing.

BambooHR

BambooHR is SaaS software for managing all kinds of employee information, including performance data. It is used mainly by small and medium-sized businesses that want to simplify HR. Its Peer Reviews feature collects input from the coworkers who work with an employee every day, and employees and managers can set and track several goals, with automated reminders on comments and progress. Many items, including the Performance module, are fixed and offer little customization, and performance management is not its main function.

7Geese

7Geese is goal-setting and performance software based on the OKR framework, built around continuous coaching and recognition rather than yearly evaluations. It was aimed at organizations with between 100 and 500 employees. Users can align strategic objectives with individual goals and manage OKRs, recognition, one-on-ones, 360 feedback and reviews in one platform. Individual metrics do not roll up to update the team OKRs they are aligned with.

Lattice

Lattice combines performance management, employee engagement and employee development, using whichever goal framework suits the business. It integrates with Gmail, Outlook and Slack, and supports ongoing conversation about goals and accomplishments instead of a once- or twice-a-year review. Some users find its feedback metrics too simple, though written feedback fills some of the gap, and its review questions are static and get reused often.

Reflektive

Reflektive is a performance platform where employees highlight one another's successes and get coaching. Managers can set individual goals, team goals and OKRs tied to the organization's priorities, and employees can create goals that align with company goals. Recognition is visible across the organization. Exporting data for some presentations or reports may mean copying and pasting into other programs.

15Five

15Five is a continuous feedback platform built on research in positive psychology. It structures performance management around OKRs so that each person's work lines up with company objectives. Managers can recognize good work and gauge motivation and engagement on an ongoing basis. It does not integrate with project management software or ticketing systems such as ServiceDesk, so some users report their work twice.

Can one tool manage organizational and individual performance?

Yes. Organizational and individual performance are closely intertwined, so we think the tool that manages one should manage the other. ClearPoint handles both, tracking every part of strategy execution from the organization-wide view down to individual goals and targets.

See how ClearPoint would run your plan — book a demo