New Delhi (India), May 25: Artificial intelligence (AI) has impacted almost every business, and the situation is no different for employee performance management. AI can revolutionize organizational performance management, turning it from a time-consuming task to a strategic function that fosters a high-performance culture.
Employee performance management is about balancing employees and the value they deliver to an organization. It involves a set of systems and processes designed to help employees develop professionally and build on skills that enable them to perform their roles efficiently. Effective employee performance management establishes a continuous dialogue between managers, employees, and HR. It has several components, like establishing expectations, setting individual employee goals, delivering ongoing feedback, etc., culminating with an annual performance appraisal. Career decisions for employees are generally based on this performance management process.
AI-powered employee performance management
AI-powered employee performance management is a process in which artificial intelligence is used to make better decisions for employee performance. It is essential to understand that performance measurement and management are different practices. Performance measurement assesses an employee's performance against the goals and objectives. On the other hand, performance management is a more holistic approach that encompasses a range of activities involving assessing performance based on several factors rather than just a score or rating that employees receive. Using AI in performance management goes beyond assessing employee performance, as it can also help uncover hidden strengths and identify areas where an employee may need training and support to improve.
Critical applications of AI in performance management
AI helps employers identify their best employees and understand the factors that boost their performance, which can be used to tailor performance development programs to suit employees' individual requirements. Further, AI can also provide a detailed list of employees' top skills and areas of improvement, which prove to be valuable insights for any performance management program. Other benefits offered by AI include its ability to analyze past performance data and deliver reports about crucial key performance indicators (KPIs), perform predictive analysis, and automate and optimize the entire performance management process.
Reshaping performance management
Leveraging AI technology allows employers access to data-driven insights by gathering and interpreting data at scale and identifying meaningful patterns and trends. These insights can be used for behavioral assessment and predictive analysis. Artificial intelligence in performance management makes it easy to adopt a continuous feedback approach, which can be performed unbiasedly and objectively. Training needs assessment by identifying existing skills gaps within the organization can also be done conveniently using AI. 360-degree feedback, which involves anonymous evaluation surveys to gather insights about employee performance, can also be facilitated using AI technology. These assessments provide a holistic image of an employee's performance by tapping into data collected from their peers, direct reports, managers, and sometimes their customers or clients.
Employee development
AI plays a significant role in creating personalized employee training and development plans. 360-degree feedback can help extract insights about an employee's future performance and gain clarity about their areas of improvement. AI is much more nuanced and does not just identify problem areas. It can also discern patterns in performance data to identify subtle trends that may be affecting the performance trajectory of an employee. With predictive analysis, development programs can be created to address the present competency levels of employees and help them prepare for the challenges and opportunities they may come across in the future.
Mercer | Mettl, a leader in talent assessments, offers a highly refined 360-degree feedback platforms that provides varied capabilities to help streamline and optimize your employee performance management process. 360View by Mercer | Mettl has a user-friendly interface. It can be customized entirely according to an organization's requirements and ensure high engagement and survey completion rates. There are several other features, like skills gap identification, email failure notifications, auto-save responses, fully customizable email templates, extensive reports, tailored personal and group development plan creation, performance tracking, 24X7 support, and more.
Implementing artificial intelligence in employee performance management ensures efficiency, inclusivity, fairness, and informed decision-making. It's time to move away from unconscious biases and head towards data-driven insights and decisions. The introduction of AI in processes such as performance marketing is a cultural shift towards creating more inclusive and high-performance workplaces.
