9 performance appraisal tools for managers in 2024

Personio helps businesses build effective performance management processes with powerful tools that automate employee appraisal cycles and keep both managers and employees on track. 

Automated reminders and scheduling help you stay on top of review cycles while freeing up HR managers’ time to focus on strategic tasks. And tools for continuous feedback – where individuals can easily request and provide quick feedback – help you create a culture of transparency and consistent growth. 

The platform helps managers set objective expectations with accessible data, plus track metric-driven goals. What’s more, you can link bonus payments to goals, helping you manage employee compensation more accurately and fairly. 

• Feedback loops: Create a culture of feedback between employees and managers and the entire team with the continuous feedback feature.

• Customised feedback templates: Adjust templates to suit the needs of any organisation, team or role type.

• Data-driven insights: Hone in on employee performance with powerful analytics.

• Connect reviews and development: Guide staff to success with tailored appraisal programmes informed by review cycle data.

• Large integration marketplace: Power up with over 200 different integrations – from Atlassian to Zapier – to create a best-in-class review process.

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BambooHR comes with out-of-the-box features and tools to help you run evaluations. For example, the tool provides templated reviews that aim to eliminate bias and ensure evaluations are as action-orientated as possible.

The software is an option for businesses needing an uncomplicated performance management solution. But note that some G2 users feel it lacks customisation options, so you might not be able to personalise the tool to more specific, complex needs.

• Schedule review cycles: Set up review cycles ahead of time so teams keep up with feedback and development conversations.

• Focused conversations: Predetermined question prompts guide managers and help eliminate potential bias.

• Goal tracking: Get a bird’s-eye view of how employees are progressing with their goals.

Factorial offers features like competency tracking and tools for automated evaluations. This helps managers stay on track and provide more granular performance feedback.

The tool offers numerous options for providing feedback, like 360-degree reviews for more balanced evaluations. Plus, Factorial lets you choose between using pre-built performance review questions and writing your own. Despite this, some users feel the platform needs more extensive features.

• Automation for review cycles: Automation cuts down the time it takes to manually create and manage review cycles.

• Competency tracking: Set key competencies and score employee performance in each.

• Create action plans: You can create next steps and training plans when detecting employee areas of growth during performance appraisals.

Primalogik is a specialised tool to help track and manage employee performance. The platform helps you uncover problem areas, gain a 360-degree perspective on performance and provide ongoing opportunities for instant feedback and support between managers and teams.

You can also get honest opinions from your employees on how they feel about the organisation with anonymous surveys. 

• Score history: Compare KPIs between performance cycles for a clearer view of employee progress.

• Bias checker: Vet manager ratings to screen for potential bias.

• Manager journal: Track important events and make private notes on employee performance.

Lattice helps you highlight and praise your top talent through regular performance reviews and a system for public recognition – either directly in Lattice or via third-party tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. 

The software has options for annual, quarterly and project-based reviews, as well as peer feedback. You can track feedback history directly in the context panel within the performance review tool so you can see where employees have improved and where they’ve stagnated. 

Lattice gives you access to historical performance data as well, and you have the option to link performance to OKRs. Just note that some G2 users feel the reporting features could be improved.

• Multiple review types: Choose from an array of review types including annual performance appraisals, quarterly development cycles and project-based reviews.

• 1:1 meeting scheduler: Centralise performance and 1:1 check-ins with a single tool.

• Praise: The tool comes with a system to recognise and celebrate employee wins.

Leapsome comes with a toolkit for performance, learning and development. The platform helps you carry performance insights into learning paths for individual employee development. 

You can establish competency frameworks to standardise reviews across your organisation, and Leapsome’s Skills Profile feature lets you define team-specific skills and track performance against them. 

Just note that G2 users feel customisation options within the tool are limited, for example with reminders, review templates, goal setting and colour themes. 

• Competency frameworks: Set an agenda for employee growth with competency frameworks.

• Best practice templates: You can choose from best practice templates to run employee appraisals.

• Leapsome Learning: Connect reviews with development plans to grow internal talent.

PerformYard is a tool that focuses entirely on employee performance. It supports a range of performance appraisal types, ranging from individual reviews to new hire reviews and project-specific assessments.

The tool’s dashboard centralises in-depth performance data and gives you an overview of current and past employee performance. You can compare team members and zoom in on how teams are performing on specific competencies. 

It’s a highly specialised tool, making it a contender for businesses that need granular detail in their reviews. 

• Goal management: Set and manage individual and team goals.

• Continuous feedback: The platform comes with tools for timely private feedback, as well as public praise.

• Reporting analytics: Cross-reference data however you need to.

Through a combination of digitisation, automation and best practice templates that make review cycles easier to implement, StaffCircle helps to standardise performance appraisals. 

The platform is fully accessible by mobile, making it easy to run appraisals and access performance review information wherever you are. And StaffCircle features self-serve performance tools that help employees understand their objectives and align personal goals with broader organisational initiatives. 

Just note that some G2 users complain the platform lacks personalisation options, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for a highly customisable tool. 

• Best practice performance templates: Pre-built, optimised performance templates help speed up the process of setting up employee appraisals.

• Mobile accessible platform: A fully mobile platform makes performance management accessible for hybrid and remote teams.

• Real-time performance insights: Up-to-date reports support data-driven decision-making.

HelloTeam’s performance functionality is customisable and designed to suit unique businesses and roles. To keep learning and development front of mind, the platform supports goal tracking and progress sharing, plus configurable review cycles and scheduled 1:1s. 

You can also use templates with a predefined set of criteria, questions and ratings to minimise the time it takes to plan and run reviews. 

• 1:1 management features: Stay on track with 1:1 scheduling and tools to document discussions.

• Scheduling integrations: Never miss a review thanks to Microsoft and Google calendar integrations.

• Multiple review types: Schedule a variety of review types, ranging from 360-degree to annual and anniversary reviews.

You need to be confident whatever performance appraisal tool you choose will add value to your processes, not complicate your operations. 

Aside from saving your team critical time, performance appraisal tools should set managers up for a streamlined and supported review cycle. 

Here are top features any performance management tool should have:

1. Customisable and smart goal-setting: Actionable feedback goes hand in hand with effective performance reviews. The best performance tools have mechanisms to connect feedback with goal setting, with an added bonus for SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goal-setting tools.

2. 360-degree feedback: With feedback from managers, peers and more junior staff, employees receive well-rounded feedback to help them grow. 

3. Employee self-service and collaboration: Performance reviews should be a collaborative process between managers and individual staff members. Look for features that support employee participation in the appraisal process, such as employee self-service and employee-directed goal setting.

4. Continuous performance tracking: Performance appraisals shouldn’t be a once-a-year event. Tools for continuous feedback help individuals address issues as they come up and ensure their development remains a top priority outside of annual reviews.

Performance appraisal tools are an integral part of building a talented and high-performance team. With the right platform, you can save precious time without compromising on providing quality, insightful performance reviews for your staff.

Personio is an all-in-one HR solution with powerful performance management features to help you streamline HR tasks while enabling effective feedback and employee development.

If you’re ready to upgrade your performance appraisal process, speak with one of our HR experts today. 

Improve your performance appraisal process with Personio

Gather feedback, automate review cycles and track important metrics in one centralised platform.

See Personio in action