Importance of Access to HR Performance Management Tools

With access to HR performance management tools, monitoring the goings-on in the HR department itself would be easier. This helps keep things on the right track.


It is easy for a lot of companies to overlook the importance of their very own HR departments. This does not really mean that these companies overlook this department on purpose. This can just be attributed to the fact that there is that common misconception that the HR department’s sole purpose is merely recruitment and selection. However, there is just so much to this department that many people do not really see at first bat. For starters, the HR department handles the training of the supervisors and team managers that who handle the frontliners in the company. It is also the HR department that handles and develops the compensation and benefits packages that all employees enjoy. Thus, there is indeed a need to incorporate performance management in the HR department. And if there should be access to HR performance management tools, it should be on the HR balanced scorecard.

The balanced scorecard approach is actually the ideal to use when you want to determine the performance of the HR department. This is because the balanced scorecard contains quantifiable figures called KPIs or key performance indicators that measure the present performance of any department against corporate goals and objectives. It would be very difficult to measure something that is not quantifiable in nature so this is the primary purpose of KPIs, to give a quantitative representation of qualitative data.
Aside from that, the balanced scorecard and its KPIs are ideal to use when determining the appropriate solution to any existing problem within the organization. This is actually one of the very important roles that the balanced scorecard plays. Think about it: the KPIs are used to determine how the HR department is doing when it comes to the goal of, say, employee retention. If the balanced scorecard shows that the company is not doing well in terms of employee retention, then the facts and figures can then be analyzed and represented, to determine the proper course of action.

There are several KPIs or metrics that can be used to assess performance management of the HR department, aside from employee retention. One of these is job satisfaction. As expected, job satisfaction would be related to employee retention, for employees would not stay employed in whatever company or enterprise if he or she were not satisfied with the job. Turnover rate is another KPI that is related to employee retention, and is something that the HR department should focus on as well. If the turnover rate is high, this means that there are a lot of employees leaving their positions at a quite premature time, and this is a strong indication that there is something wrong in the hiring and recruitment processes that the HR department makes use of. Perhaps the department is hiring the wrong people unintentionally? Whatever the reason may be, this is still a KPI that measures HR performance management.

In itself, there should indeed be access to HR performance management tools so that it would be easier to determine if the HR department is using any practice or procedure that hinders the progress and productivity of the department itself and the organization as a whole.