Top 15 Employee Performance Evaluation Software in 2022

Photo credit: Pexels

What is employee performance evaluation?

Employee performance evaluation is a review process based on how the employees at a startup are performing and demonstrating scope for improvement. Employee performance evaluations require startups to formally document employees' performance to provide constant feedback on their output. Employee performance evaluations are generally conducted once a year, although each startup can choose what time interval of conducting this review process is most helpful for them. There are several ways in which this performance evaluation is undertaken across companies. Some of the most common formats include self-assessment checklists, rating scales, and performance tasks. This evaluation can also be kept on file for the future recommendation of the employees to other organizations. It is also beneficial for the successful functioning of your startup.

How to create an employee performance evaluation

Employees are the most important asset for a startup. To keep an efficient check on your employees' performance, a performance review must be in place to enable a bias-free assessment and fair judgment. Described below are the steps to create an employee performance evaluation at a startup:

It is essential to decide on the review process first. This will involve determining who conducts reviews, to whom they are to be reported back, and the peer reviewers.
Deciding on the review criteria further speeds up the review process. Only corresponding answers have to be provided against previously determined review criteria, such as output, behavior, efficiency, team spirit, and so on. The review criteria must be holistic and answer the employer about everything that happens around a particular employee. Accountability will be ensured only when realistic review criteria are in place, and reviews are conducted accordingly.
Next is deciding on the intervals at which the performance evaluation will be conducted. For startups that have just begun, an annual review might not be a good idea since many significant changes can happen in the first year of operation. A yearly inspection might be suitable for some businesses because they are already established and go through only minor changes. Therefore, a founder should decide on what time interval is ideal for their respective organization. The review cycle must essentially be at the same time for everyone.
Employees must be given a fair amount of time to get acclimated to a startup. An employee who has just joined is not eligible for this performance review; they may be put on a probationary period and not necessarily a formal annual performance review. It is essential to determine eligibility for performance review.
Deciding on the format for the review to be conducted is equally essential. It is up to the founder to determine whether giving scores to the employees will be sufficient or whether a written evaluation should accompany a score. It may be noted that a performance review must be holistic. It must speak for the employee in terms of their output and overall efficiency, willingness to collaborate with others, etc. It may be a good idea to define each score for greater clarity and avoid unhealthy competition within the startup.
Collaboration sessions can be introduced to maximize the benefits of a performance evaluation session. A collaboration session brings together managers of the startup to discuss the evaluation to ensure it has been fair, just, and accurate.
Choosing user-friendly performance evaluation software is equally important. Saving time and achieving greater efficiency is the primary target of any startup. A performance evaluation is a tool for this objective. Hence, the performance evaluation software must be easy to use, easily configurable to ensure greater accountability and less hesitancy on the part of the employees to use it.
Finally, it is equally important to execute the performance evaluation and incorporate it into your business structure. The earlier this evaluation is internalized at your startup, the better it is. For this, employees must be informed of this process beforehand, and all details of such a review process must be given proper consideration.

What are the benefits of employee performance evaluation software?

A founder has several responsibilities, each equally necessary for the successful emergence of the startup. No one responsibility can be given greater importance over the other. An extremely important responsibility is managing employees to keep track of their performance. It is here that the performance evaluation software comes in handy as it keeps a tab on which employees need improvement, which employees have improved their performance from their start date, or what progress is required for a particular employee. Employee performance evaluation software helps achieve greater structural and functional unity in a startup. The benefits of employee performance evaluation software are as follows:

1. Efficient means to execute plans

A startup needs to plan what it aspires to achieve. The next step is to identify means of executing plans to reach these goals. Performance Evaluation Software helps businesses in setting up actual goals. Furthermore, this software can help track employees' progress towards achieving those goals. These goals can automatically be set according to the proficiency of the employees. The software ensures accountability of employees as they are fully aware of what is expected of them. Their goals become equivalent to those of the startup.

2. Uninterrupted feedback

Performance evaluation software allows constant give and take between the startup and its employees. This real-time feedback is not interrupted by geographical location. Since companies can communicate with their employees better, it results in more efficient collaboration for the best results. It is, however, essential to explain to employees how the feedback should be given before implementing the feedback mechanism in the software. The 360- degree feedback module allows gathering feedback from a broader audience. This feedback can be gathered from various tiers such as self-feedback, peers, and external stakeholders like customers and vendors. This feature ensures anonymity as well.

3. Intended for the future

Automated performance management is visionary because it allows efficient employee performance tracking with the motive of constantly inspiring them so that they can give their best to your startup. This software keeps the performance evaluation updated and is valuable in promoting an employee. Skills can be efficiently allocated to the correct department, and time management is also optimized.

4. Ease in assessment

As the name suggests, employee performance evaluation software is meant to assess employees' performance and offer how improvement can be made. It also provides a tool for tracking employees' accomplishments and under-or poor performance before it negatively impacts your startup.

5. More freedom for HR managers

With employee performance evaluation software in place, HR managers have the freedom to choose when to start and end the review cycle, the intervals for the review cycle, the number of employees to participate in a review cycle, etc.

Criteria to keep in mind when looking for vendors in this space

1. User-friendliness

The employee performance evaluation software must be user-friendly. This will lead to quicker positive responses across the organization. If the software is feasible for the employees to use, it saves much of the time to train them to use it. It is also beneficial to have user-friendly software at work because it guarantees willingness on the part of the employees to improve themselves constantly. After all, they can track their progress very quickly.

2. 360-degree feedback

Ideal performance improvement evaluation software should include a module for 360-degree feedback. This feature allows the startup to get input from a varied perspective and a broader group of people associated with each employee, including external stakeholders. This feature also lets you maintain anonymity and function free of biases. It also saves the time and effort that would conduct multiple interviews with each employee's contemporaries.

3. Good customer service

Optimal performance evaluation software comes with excellent customer support. It is good to have prompt customer support in case of emergencies, so you don't end up spending more time looking for answers rather than solving the problem.

4. Instant feedback

This feature allows the startup to resolve a problem as soon as it arises. Apart from saving time, this instant feedback goes a long way in instilling healthy work habits by constantly tracking progress and suggesting ways of improvement. Instant and updated feedback does away with the need to conduct several meetings throughout the day. The software should provide real-time reports to assess employees' performance effectively.

Top 15 software services for employee performance evaluation

15 Five

Description: A performance management platform providing a complete solution towards the successful functioning of startups by combining education, software, and community.

Best for: Small and medium-sized startups, HR managers.

Pricing: 15Five offers several tiers of access based on varied prices:

Engage: $4/person/month, billed annually with benefits like core engagement survey, historical benchmarks.

Perform: $8/person/month, billed annually with benefits like 360-degree feedback, calibration.

Focus: $8/person/month, billed annually with benefits like OKR chart review, Jira, and Salesforce integration.

Total Platform: $14/person/month, billed annually with benefits like priority support, DPAs, and security questionnaires.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Yes, it is easy to adopt and enables effective engagement with the user.
360-degree feedback: 15Five provides 360-degree feedback with its Perform access priced at $8/month.
Customer service: Excellent and approachable customer support team.
Instant Feedback: Humanistic approach to evaluate performance in real-time.

Pros.

Offers software that is oriented in the direction of the latest positive psychological research
Weekly assessment
Open and flexible communication between managers and employees

Cons.

Hesitancy to provide honest feedback as other employees can see responses.
Lack of downsides.
If a question is mandatory, it will not allow the employee to skip it even if it does not apply to the assessed week.

Description: Detailed analysis through six-question polls.

Best for: Small to medium-sized startups, with up to 200 employees

Pricing: Different prices for varied teams, from 50 to 200 users

50 team: Up to 50 users at $9/month

100 Team: Up to 100 users at $189/month

200 Team: Up to 200 users at $348/month

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: User-friendly pulse surveys, detailed resource library for managers.
360-degree feedback: Not known
Customer service: Fast email and telephone support for enterprise customers during business hours
Instant Feedback: Yes

Pros:

Concise surveys comprising only six questions
The Hi5 feature improves peer relationships as employees recognize their colleagues' achievements.
The frequency of the surveys can be easily customized.

Cons:

Lack of actionable insights
Lack of other analytics

Culture AMP

Description: People & Culture platform globally functions to improve employee engagement and performance by providing continuous feedback and development tools.

Best for: Fast-growing startups as well as established companies.

Pricing: Culture AMP provides three plans. They are the Self-Starter plan (25-200 employees), Standard plan(200-1000) employees, and the Enterprise Plan (1000+ employees). The price range is not available publicly. Contact Culture AMP individually for pricing information.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Extremely user-friendly with on-demand training sessions and resource library. Easy to implement and adapt.
360-degree feedback: For individuals, managers, and teams
Customer service: Great customer service with email and chat support, phone support, help desk, and FAQs.
Instant Feedback: Instant and continuous feedback is available.

Pros:

Ease of implementation
Anonymous feedback option is available, as well as the ability to send surveys to a single individual
Real-time reports and ease of creating custom surveys

Cons:

Lack of reporting options
No analytical skill is required to access the reports, so they cannot be left unattended at any time.
Complete integration with the leading platform is not available

Energage

Description: Complete solution combining research and neuroscience principles to maximize performance efficiency, both in terms of speed and scale

Best for: Medium and large businesses.

Pricing: Offers no free trial or version. The pricing details are not known publicly. Contact Energage.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Very easy to use with the ability to customize questions based on your needs.
360-degree feedback: Not known. Contact Energage.
Customer service: Excellent and prompt customer service
Instant Feedback: Not known. Contact Energage.

Pros:

Ease of gathering information anonymously from employees
Seamless, intuitive setup
Transparency at various levels

Cons:

Complicated update process for certain features.
Cost of receiving survey results is a bit higher.

Glint

Description: "People-driven" platform that helps global organizations maximize employee engagement and improvement.

Best for: Mid-sized businesses and multinational corporations

Pricing: No free version or free trial. The pricing details are not known publicly. Contact Glint individually for pricing information.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Very easy to implement and use
360-degree feedback: Yes
Customer service: Excellent customer service with support and ongoing consultation.
Instant Feedback: Ability to provide timely feedback that can be used to make profitable decisions.

Pros.

Allows administrative control over what managers can see.
Automated protection for confidential information
Enables the founder to give anonymous constructive feedback to the work environment.

Cons.

Considered to be more expensive compared to other solutions.
Anonymous responses can be sent to managers only after 8 responses.

Impraise

Description: Performance appraisal software that can be used in the office, or remote, offering options for self-evaluation and automatically generated reports.

Best for: HR teams desiring to promote strong feedback culture.

Pricing: No free version or trial. The pricing starts at $6/user as a one-time payment, modeled on an annual subscription on a per-user/per-month basis.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Easy to use, simple onboarding process.
360-degree feedback: Yes, with the option to customize the review style.
Customer service: Good customer service through email, help desk, FAQs, phone, and 24/7 live rep.
Instant Feedback: Yes

Pros:

Its simple onboarding process stands out for many users who also enjoyed the success of implementation.
Sound library with supporting data that accommodates both FAQs and administrators
Allowance for anonymous feedback and customizable templates

Cons:

Lacks the ability to adjust review questions in order
Not suitable for complex performance evaluations, difficulty in maintaining an overview of tasks, and final review per person.

Lattice

Description: Performance appraisal solution combined with management tools driven to build high-performing teams.

Best for: Startups desiring a modern performance management solution.

Pricing: Offers 4 plans at varied prices:

Performance: $9/person/month, billed annually

Performance and engagement: $12/person/month, billed annually.

Enterprise: Can be customized according to the startup's culture, priced accordingly.

Grow: $3/person/month, billed annually.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Yes, with everything in one convenient portal
360- Degree Feedback: Yes
Customer service: Good customer service with email and chat support
Instant Feedback: Yes, real-time feedback, so there is no need to wait for the annual performance evaluation.

Pros:

Availability of KPI Monitoring
Ease of tracking monthly and yearly goals
Engagement surveys, 360-feedback, employee recognition, goals/OKRs are all available in one easy-to-use portal.

Cons.

The interface is not always intuitive.
Absence of to-do lists
Better functionality is lacking around dual management

Officevibe

Description: Single-team development platform working on solid trust and collaboration, providing teams a safe space to share thoughts.

Best for: Fast-growing businesses that need cultural maintenance and startups that comprise a varied workforce.

Pricing: Free trial available for a team of 10 users. The three other plans available are:

Essential: $5/user/month

Pro: $7/user/month

Business: Price details are not available publicly, but the plan is open for over 500 users.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Not very user-friendly.
360-degree feedback: No
Customer service: Good customer service
Instant Feedback: Not known, though there is provision for a social feedback portal.

Pros:

Automated surveys are sent on a scheduled basis.
Diversity of topics covered by the surveys
Provision for open-ended questions and suggestions in cases where there is a concern

Cons:

Labor-intensive to set up.
Absence of advanced features like 360-degree feedback and OKR tracking.

Qualtrics

Description: A performance management platform that provides a variety of distribution means to obtain survey results and feedback.

Best for: Well-established businesses.

Pricing: Not available publicly. Contact.Qualtrics.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Easy to use and easily accessible
360-degree feedback: Yes
Customer service: Not very prompt customer support
Instant Feedback: Yes

Pros:

Easy-to-gather data because of user-friendly UX.
Question types can be customized.
Intuitive building surveys

Cons:

Not very streamlined conditional logic
Customer support is available only over email, without prompt replies. The absence of phone support is problematic.
Decoding its complexity is time-consuming.

Reflektive

Description: Real-time feedback platform tracking employees' daily workflows

Best for: HR managers seeking goal alignment and employee engagement

Pricing: No free version or trial. The pricing starts at a flat rate of $7500/month

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: User-friendly with effective means to recognize accomplishments.
360-degree feedback: Yes.
Customer service: Good customer service in person, as well as live online, and webinars
Instant Feedback: Yes

Pros:

Ease of use and provision of customization
Fairly lightweight site
Largely intuitive and self-explanatory UI/UX

Cons:

Does not allow comparing quarter-to-quarter performance without opening multiple reference tabs.
Complicated process for building a review, with no clear designation of questions
No mass edit option

Reward Gateway

Description: Platform maximizes business profits and reflects business goals through employee engagement through communication, surveys, and analytics.

Best for: Well-established businesses

Pricing: No free version or trial. The pricing details are not available publicly. Contact Reward Gateway.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Ease of use for employees as well as administrators.
360-degree feedback: No.
Customer service: Good customer service with a proactive approach
Instant Feedback: Not known. Contact Reward Gateway.

Pros:

Smart Insights give access to how employees are spending through the portal.
Works well with the mobile version as well.
Ease of use makes value extraction possible.

Cons:

Absence of an app to load money on cards must be done by logging in to the site.
Some products are difficult to use.
Analytics is not available at your fingertips as reports need to be sent by the account manager.

Round Pegg

Description: A software solution that provides data-driven cultural insights to help your startup reach its true potential by tabbing on job fit, expectations, trust, etc.

Best for: Startups, SMEs, enterprises, agencies

Pricing: Pricing is as per requirements but is not known publicly. Contact Round Pegg. It offers a free trial.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: No
360- Degree feedback: No
Customer service: Mobile support available
Instant Feedback: No

Pros: Improves the workplace by helping startups identify and manage employees through their individual values.

Cons: The employee engagement experts at ITQlick reviewed RoundPegg pricing and gave the software a total cost of ownership (TCO) rating of 5 out of 10.

Polly (earlier Subcurrent)

Description: An engagement app helping startups make smarter choices through data-driven instant feedback.

Best for: Teams of all sizes, HR, People Ops leaders, internal comms, people, and project managers.

Pricing: Offers a free trial and a free version. The prices start at $3/user/year. For more details, contact Polly.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Yes, with an automated tool to have the entire team on the same page
360-degree feedback: No
Customer service: Good customer service through audio, images, and video.
Instant Feedback: Yes

Pros:

It allows negative feedback management.
A good option for small teams.
Slack integration

Cons:

Difficulty in editing after sending a poll.

TINYpulse

Description: A software solution designed to provide data-driven decisions to accelerate employee retention through transparency and better communication via an annual survey.

Best for: Mid-sized companies with 200-5000 employees.

Pricing: No free trial or version. The pricing is usage-based, and details can be availed by contacting TINYpulse.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Not very user-friendly and not very clear onboarding process
360-degree feedback: No
Customer service: Excellent customer service for anyone new to employee surveys.
Instant Feedback: No

Pros:

A great forum to achieve employee engagement holistically
Provision for sending anonymous surveys
Provision for making suggestions to the HR team

Cons:

Reminder emails that may not be in use cannot be turned off.
There is no provision to ensure that all employees respond through TINYpulse.

Weekdone

Description: This solution provides OKR coaching to instill the best OKR values through weekly check-ins and reports.

Best for: Small to medium-sized startups

Pricing: The prices vary according to the number of users, starting from $108/month for up to 10 users to $648/ month for up to 90 users. For more than 90 users, contact Weekdone.

Evaluation of key criteria:

User-friendliness: Yes
360-degree feedback: No
Customer service: Good customer service with sufficient time given for a demo to understand and implement the software.
Instant Feedback: Not known.

Pros:

Allows tracking of OKR progress with weekly progress reports and live dashboards.
Transparency in taking OKRs forward
Customization is available.

Cons:

Does not work effectively for complicated project teams.
Even though the free usage provides a complete features package, it is limited to only 3 users. Startups could do well with the accommodation of at least 5 users.

Learn more with us

Access our Knowledge Base for Startups.

We can help!

At AbstractOps, we help early-stage founders streamline and automate regulatory and legal ops, HR, and finance so you can focus on what matters most — your business.

We can help you decide which employee performance evaluation software to use at your startup. Learn more.

Like our content?

Subscribe to our blog to stay updated on new posts. Our blog covers advice, inspiration, and practical guides for early-stage founders to navigate their startup journeys.

Note: Our content is for general information purposes only. AbstractOps does not provide legal, accounting, or certified expert advice. Consult a lawyer, CPA, or other professional for such services.