HOMEWhat Kind of Training Is Needed To Make Performance Management and Appraisal Software Work?
Training is absolutely essential to successful implementation of performance management and performance appraisal software. It's so essential that when you are budgeting to purchase a software suite or system, you should include the costs of training into your estimates.
You probably realize that training has to cover the actual nuts and bolts use of the software -- how it works, and how to operate it, and that managers need to get comfortable with the basic software tools. That's the more obvious kinds of training.
However, training must be much broader in scope. If you train people to use the tool, but don't train them in the basic concepts and philosophy of performance management and appraisal, and why it's used (and how the results are used), all you will get is managers going through the motions, just like they do with paper based appraisal forms.
If you only supply training on the nuts and bolts of the tool, and not on the concepts or the business results the tool should create, you are simply going to waste your investment, and that investment can be sizeable, not just in terms of buying a performance appraisal software solution, but also in implementation costs, training costs, and so on.
Further, employees should be oriented to the system also. Performance management and appraisal works best when managers and employees work together. For that to happen employees need to understand the concepts, and the new system, and to become less fearful of how the system might be used.