How does an Employee Engagement & Performance Management System helps in HR Management?

With the advancement of tools and technologies at our bay, we have entered the era of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Everything is now done online, and it certainly helps in many aspects. What is your view on performance management and employee engagement when it is done through a platform that is purely based on the latest advancements?

Dear Chitranshnaman,

There appears to be a mismatch between the heading and the main body of your post. The heading reads "How Does An Employee Engagement & Performance Management System Help In HR Management?" This is a fundamental question. Sufficient web resources or books are available in the market. You may refer to these to educate yourself.

However, the main body of the post talks about the impact of advancement in technology on various facets of HR, especially on Performance Management (PM) and Employee Engagement (EE). Well, gentleman, any technology is only a facilitator or enabler for speedy decision-making. It saves time. But then as far as the PM is concerned, what you measure is more important than the method of measurement. What if the company does not measure a few important measures that are essential for the business? The same case is about EE also. After measuring the EE score, the company should go further and use HR Analytics. But what if EE is not measured?

As far as this forum is concerned, there are many posts on EE, but all are related to engagement activities in the office but not a single one on EE measurement.

Therefore, the challenge is not technology per se but the challenge is awareness of HR professionals on these core subjects. The second challenge is that if HR is knowledgeable on the subjects then their top leadership may not be. They have a poor understanding of HR as a science. Unless they understand nothing is going to change.

Today, in many companies, modern HRIS or HRMS systems are used. These are not stand-alone computer-based but IT-based. Notwithstanding this, companies ask for a 90-day notice period before resignation but take 45-60 days for Full and Final (FnF) settlement? As long as company administration does not eradicate these anomalous practices, advancement in technology like artificial intelligence or machine learning could turn into an artifice.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar
+91-9900155394

One of the most important aspects of an organization’s performance management system is having a purpose. This is the reason why companies have to set the system up in specific ways, or else employees in the organization won’t see it as an essential component of their day-to-day responsibilities.

When their superiors are not continuously setting and communicating performance goals, employees will feel useless, unmotivated, and unproductive. It is for this reason that companies need to dedicate a great deal of resources to performance management systems objectives.

Performance management is a company’s tool for managing performance, which will lead to the achievement of the organization’s strategic goals. The main purpose of a performance management system is to help an organization encourage, motivate and reward its employees in such a manner that they will work at peak efficiency and produce the best results. In order to achieve this objective, organizations have devised performance appraisal systems.

Today, it has become necessary to use technology in having a vibrant Performance Management System. The days of paper-based performance appraisal are over. This is particularly so in medium-sized and large organizations. Like other areas of HR, in PMS too, the latest technological processes are finding a place and making the processes faster and more meaningful.

As regards the use of AI & ML, there are a lot of applications of them in PMS. AI, in particular, can be very useful in setting targets, evolving automatic result recording, and providing a timely feedback system. Machine learning could be useful in analyzing performance results, finding out patterns, and pointing out the areas needing improvement.

However, one thing not to be missed is the performance of human beings that is to be managed. So, the focus has to be on human beings, and technology is no substitute for it.

Dear Colleague,

Your Question: With the advancement of tools & technologies at our bay, we have come in the era of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. Now, everything is done online & surely it helps in many aspects.

Reply: Yes, in today's world, everything is automated, online, digital, and technology-based. We are living in an era where our lives are integrated with a lot of technology usages which have become a part of life and are inevitable. We experience AI, Robotics, ML, 3D Printing, and so on, and everything is rapidly moving ahead whether we like it or not. It is absolutely the order of the day, and the future is much more digitally oriented.

Your Question: What is your view on performance management & employee engagement when it's done through a platform which is purely based on the latest advancements?

Reply: What I understand from your question is slightly different. What I presume is that when every work is automated, what is the role of Performance Management and Employee Engagement? How is it relevant in this digital scenario when everything is done by technology more and less by humans?

In this situation, it is a big question before us when most of the jobs are done by machines and technology, what role Performance Management is going to have. My way of looking at this is very positive. The more technology is used, the more automation happens; the skill level of humans engaged will also increase. What was done by an ITI holder in the past may now require an Electronics Engineer or Instrumentation Engineer to do. Here, the more complexities in the technology require higher-order technical skills, where a more robust system of Performance Management is very well required. It will not diminish but rather strengthen, unless the last human is employed to operate. The KPIs and KRAs will be of a higher order and more technical, where the impact of operation and profit depends on the human element controlling or monitoring the technology. Hence, the Performance Management system has to be revamped in a higher order using technology; the measures, tools, KPIs will need to be much more technically designed and adopted as the Performance Management System will continue along with technology advancement.

In the case of Employee Engagement, where more and more technology and advancements happen in your operations in day-to-day working, then more exciting employee engagement interventions with much deeper design and innovation may be required. What we do with the current Employee Engagement initiatives may not work in a situation where technology dominates humans. More robust engagement plans are to be designed to cope with the changes that happen around the roles and jobs and candidates' profiles and to innovate and trigger much suitable and advanced engagement plans for the talents by unlearning what is being done now.

In my view, whatever advancements in technology happen, the PMS and EE systems will continue with deeper designs and much closer and closer.

For example, when manual laboratory tastings were used in factories, we had PMS and EE for the so-called Lab Technicians. And when we went for robotics in labs with the insertion of robots, we also had PMS and EE for those Robot Engineers with completely new ways of looking at PMS and EE.

This is how I look forward.