Top 10 performance management software: a comprehensive breakdown
Considering we spend a third of our waking hours at work, it’s understandable that 70% of people* tie their purpose to their jobs. This connection drives employees to excel at their roles and contribute to their company in meaningful ways.
As human resources and people ops professionals, you play an important role in understanding each team member’s purpose and empowering them to fulfill it.
Performance management software can support you in enabling employees to reach their full potential. The most popular platforms have features to conduct multi-perspective performance reviews, clarify personal development goals, align the whole team on business objectives and company mission, and offer learning and onboarding tools.
This article will discuss the top performance management software available in 2023 to help you decide which one would benefit your company most.**
*McKinsey, 2021
**The information below is based on our research in 2023. All user feedback referenced in the text has been sourced from independent software review platforms such as G2 and Capterra in May-July 2023.
Pricing starts at US$8 with a 14-day free trial available
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4.8
ClearCompany’s pricing isn’t readily available.
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Eloomi’s pricing isn’t readily available.
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Engagedly pricing starts at US$5000 per year with three different plans to choose from
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Access to all features starts at US$11.20 per employee per month
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Starts at US$1500 per employee per month
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Starts at US$9 per employee when billed monthly
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Starts at US$6.30 per employee when billed monthly
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Pricing not readily available
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Key features to look for in a performance management tool
Before we jump into the software comparison, let’s clarify the essential features you need to foster great performance and continuous improvement:
Better employee performance
Ensuring employees are heard and supported creates a sense of community and boosts performance.
Versatile goals and OKR management
Psychological studies show that setting objectives can motivate teams to improve their performance by up to 18%. Look for goal management features with customizable settings so you can adapt them to your processes rather than the other way around.
Learning and development management
Showing, not just telling, employees how to improve their performance will ensure the best results. Plus, 71% of professionals want more development opportunities from their jobs. That’s why you should look for a platform that has a built-in learning management system (LMS) to design customized training courses for your team.
Feedback and recognition tools
Ideally, feedback should be a two-way street, which means that employees feel comfortable openly sharing their opinions and voicing their concerns with management. Top performance management platforms make it easier for staff to exchange instant praise or anonymous feedback that doesn’t compromise their psychological safety.
Ease of use and customization
Intuitive software has higher adoption rates, which means more people will use it, making it more likely to have a widespread, positive impact on your business.
Analytics
Software should help you easily visualize and interpret performance review and check-in data. As a result, you’ll have data-driven insights to inform your employee feedback programs.
Show employees the only way is up
Leapsome promotes top performance with automated review cycles, data-driven feedback, and expert meeting templates.
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1. Leapsome
Leapsome’s comprehensive suite of features bridges the gap between performance, engagement, and development. You can create a thriving culture of continuous improvement and achievement while driving company-wide success.
Our Reviews module allows you to run impactful, development-focused appraisals with your team. We offer a choice between best-practice templates and highly customizable review builders, so you can set up your processes in accordance with your needs. You can use review data to track performance over time, compare teams, departments, genders, and more, and uncover gaps in skills and development.
Additionally, you can set up or use Leapsome AI to generate competency frameworks for your departments and teams. This gives employees clarity on career progression and expectations in terms of their skill development. Leapsome’s competency frameworks are highly customizable and can be used to ensure fairness in performance reviews by assessing the same roles on the same skills.
Leapsome’s highly customizable goals module aligns teams behind shared objectives while fostering a sense of purpose in employees. Whether you’re using objectives and key results (OKRs) or another goal methodology, Leapsome significantly reduces the time you have to spend on setup and tracking. You can also ensure transparency by visualizing individual and departmental objectives on a goal tree. Furthermore, syncing progress with 1:1 meetings and reviews builds goal management into your everyday processes.
With our comprehensive Learning module, you can create customized learning paths and courses for your business. This enables each employee to pursue development opportunities based on their specific aims, interests, and needs. Additionally, we partnered with Goodhabitz and now offer five of their professional development courses to get you started.
Our Instant Feedback and Meetings modules enable you to enrich your work culture and drive performance. You can help your entire team celebrate each other’s successes and hard work to spur future excellence. Our range of meeting features empowers managers to engage with their reports more effectively to reflect on their performance and pave the way for ongoing improvement.
Altogether, Leapsome has seven products:
- Reviews
- Goals
- Surveys
- Learning
- Compensation
- Instant Feedback
- Meetings
You can use each module independently, which means you can choose the combination of tools you need. However, Leapsome is a holistic solution, so our products are most effective when they’re able to connect and build processes for the entire employee lifecycle.
Are you new to performance management or process or just looking for some performance review tips to make your approach even more constructive and impactful? We’ve got a dedicated guide for that.
Main features
- Customizable performance review tools
- Competency frameworks to visualize development requirements
- Versatile goal and OKR-setting features
- Feedback and praise features
- Powerful data and analytics
- Choice of questionnaire templates and premade surveys
- Employee development roadmaps
- Meeting tools and templates
- Personalized development and learning paths
- Streamlined compensation and promotion management
- Flexible onboarding plans
- Holistic people enablement tool
- Intuitive user interface (UI)
- Supports 13 languages
- Highly scalable
- Customizable goal-setting and surveys
- Attentive customer service
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- Continuous iteration can lead to occasional bugs
- Mobile app not yet available
- Slight learning curve due to all the features
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“We wanted to reinvent the performance dialogue and work with a system supporting continuous improvements.
All other tools we looked at lacked the holistic focus on other essential areas of people enablement. We needed something more complete”
Marie-Claire Haag-Fundinger
2. ClearCompany
ClearCompany is a talent management software that caters to specific industries, such as engineering, manufacturing, and technology. The system gives you real-time updates related to goals, progress, and coaching, so employees consistently get instant feedback on their tasks. This can be beneficial if you’re part of a remote team and often have delays in communication.
Main features
- Performance reviews
- Feedback tools
- Analytics and reporting
- Recruitment and onboarding features
- Easy to use
- Supportive customer service
- Customizable features
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- Reported issues with customer support
- Only has versions in three languages
- Some limited functionality unless you pay a premium
- Slow loading speeds
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3. eloomi
Danish software company eloomi provides a unified platform for learning and performance management. The 360+ feature allows teams to give and receive feedback on skills, which it then visualizes on graphs. Users can also request reviews from external stakeholders, such as partners, clients, and former colleagues, via email.
Main features
- Goal management
- Integrations with LMSs
- Data analytics
- Operational checklists
- Mobile app
- Attentive customer service team
- Easy to use
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- Limited review features and no link between LMS and reviews
- Higher cost than some other competitors
- Occasional bugs and glitches
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4. Engagedly
Engagedly focuses on performance, development, and engagement through its range of features. Its gamification capabilities offer a twist on performance management and allow employees to earn points for learning skills and completing tasks. Team members can then redeem those points for gift cards.
Main features
- Performance reviews
- Goal management
- LMS with gamification features
- Feedback and recognition tools
- Mobile app
- Easy to navigate
- Appealing design
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- No review automations
- Limited goal management features
- Unintuitive UI
- Using the mobile app can be challenging
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5. Factorial
Designed for small to medium-sized businesses, Factorial is a human resources information system (HRIS) that aims to reduce repetitive tasks like time tracking, leave management, and payroll. With its goal-setting feature, users can define individual and team-specific objectives. Factorial also allows teams to check whether goals are on track, progressing, or at risk but lacks progress bars and other visual monitoring tools.
Main features
- Goal-setting tools
- Recruiting and onboarding features
- Performance reviews
- Data analytics and reporting
- Mobile app
- Easy to use
- Customizable for administrators
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- Reports of sudden, disruptive changes
- Unresponsive customer support team
- Difficult to recover data
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6. Kissflow
Although Kissflow is primarily a digital workplace platform, it also has a range of employee management features, including reviews, onboarding tools, and applicant tracking. Managers can conduct 360 reviews and leave reports with actionable feedback. However, Kissflow has a very stripped-down set of features, so it may not meet larger and more complex companies’ needs.
Main features
- Performance management
- Onboarding and onboarding features
- Leave management
- Applicant tracking system
- Mobile app
- Responsive customer support
- Intuitive UI
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- No goal management features
- Limited review features
- Steep learning curve
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7. Profit.co
Profit.co is suitable for organizations that use the OKR methodology. The platform has a range of features to set objectives and track their progress. Its OKR templates, key performance indicator (KPI) library, and adjustable timeframes also enable users to customize the features to their company processes. However, enterprises that opt for other goal frameworks may find that Profit.co doesn’t suit them due to its strong focus on OKRs.
Notable features
- Performance reviews
- OKR management
- Survey tools and templates
- Task management
- Meeting tools and templates
- Feedback and recognition tools
- Mobile app
- Free plan for up to five users
- Multiple ways to view OKR progress
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- Limited scope for goal management
- Inflexible paid plans
- OKR feature has a steep learning curve
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8. SAP SuccessFactors
Available in over 30 countries and languages, SAP SuccessFactors is an international human capital management (HCM) software. It emphasizes enabling good performance by hiring employees with the right skills through its recruitment feature. The platform also has review, evaluation, and planning tools to empower teams to keep working at their best.
Main features
- Performance reviews
- Goal management
- Recruitment and onboarding tools
- Leadership development
- Versions in 39 languages
- Mobile app
- Comprehensive business tool
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- More expensive than some other competitors
- Limited customization options
- Steep learning curve due to the large range of features
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9. Workday HCM
If you’re looking for a range of solutions that can complement your approach to performance management, Workday HCM may be for you. The platform offers everything from a payroll system to sales planning and strategy tools. Workday’s main performance management features include its goal management and reviews tools, like 360 reviews and customizable templates.
Main features
- Goal management features
- Performance reviews
- Meeting tools
- Collaboration tools
- Survey tools and templates
- Supports 34 languages
- Mobile app
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- Complex to use
- Steep learning curve
- Some automations are slow
- Potentially a pricier option than most competitors
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10. Worktango
Formerly known as Kazoo, WorkTango aims to improve the employee experience with a combination of surveys, feedback, goals, and incentive features. It also has a selection of review tools like best-practice questionnaires, frameworks, and performance calibrations. You can also sync OKRs, reviews, and feedback with the meetings tool, so managers always have all the information they need about reports at their disposal during check ins.
Main features
- Goals and OKRs management
- Talent review features
- Peer recognition capabilities
- Meeting tools
- Gamification features for employee performance
- Mobile app
- Range of incentives
- Responsive customer support
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- Challenging to navigate
- Occasional glitches
- Rewards require a lot of points
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Why customers love us
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“We've been using Leapsome for over a year, and we love it”
Susie P.
HR manager
AI software (10-100 employees)
“I love how easy Leapsome is to set up and explore as a manager and user”
Sarah S.
Chief operational officer
B2B agency (10-100 emp.)
“Leapsome has provided more ways to keep our employees engaged”
Katy S.
Exec. Administrator & Comms. Manager
Research Services (500-1000 emp.)
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🤝 The best companies
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Frequently Asked Questions
Common Pricing questions
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