SaaS vendor selection & Performance review by HR tools

 Software-as-a-service (SaaS) continues its rapid growth — becoming an increasingly strategic part of firms’ application portfolio. SaaS presents a compelling new opportunity for small and medium-sized organizations. A 2008 report by AMI Partners titled "2008 U.S. Small and Medium Business Applications & Solutions Market Overview" found that 21 percent of small businesses and 31 percent of mid-sized businesses have tried SaaS products. Software configuration, upgrades, maintenance, and support are all responsibilities of the vendor; customers adopt a "pay-as-you-go" pricing structure, with monthly fees based upon actual use i.e. they're now "renting" the software rather than "buying" it. Following are the areas in which the SaaS approach is ideally suited for HR as a function:

·         Applicant tracking

·         Time and attendance management

·         Benefits management

·         Leave management,

·         Employee self-service functionality,

·         Payroll management, recruitment and performance management.

When implementing SaaS, there are a number of processes and tasks that a business must complete, in order to successfully implement SaaS.  These considerations and processes are detailed below:

·         Understand exactly why are you implementing SaaS- There are a number of reasons why businesses would want to implement SaaS. Some business might want to improve the efficiency of their HR business related process while others might have some specific pain points to address

·         Data ownership- Buyers expect that they have ownership of their data — but in some cases they have been surprised by fees associated with getting their data back at the end of their relationship with the provider. SaaS contracts should be clear about any fees associated with getting data back at the end of a relationship as well as other details such as data format

·         Support expectations- SaaS vendors are often able to provide additional services such as password resets and health checks

·         Cost increases at end of contract- Firms often spend time negotiating their initial contract and considering the total cost of ownership based on that initially agreed-on price

·         Backup and recovery guarantees-  SaaS buyers should understand how their vendors are approaching backup and data recovery as well as to write language into the contract that commits the vendor to restore data in case of disaster

·         Flexibility and quality of service- Many SaaS providers do their integration and data exchange from Web server to Web server over public Internet on a secured or unsecured port. The quality of service via public Internet is “best effort” at the network level and thus the provider cannot ensure high quality

·         Global reach- Global companies need to ensure their SaaS provider has a solution in the countries that meet the buyer’s existing and expanding geographic needs. This is especially important where users need fast response times.

Performance Review- In the whole organizational life cycle a performance review is one of the most important stages for employees. Performance Review is a powerful evaluation mechanism to measure individual employee performance accurately, clearly, and objectively for an engaged, focused, and highly productive workforce. The performance review is intended to be a fair and balanced assessment of an employee’s performance.

                     Sometimes it has a negative effective, if it is not performed well by managers and supervisors. 

“90% of performance appraisal processes are inadequate. –Salary.com survey”.

    Most Serious Performance Appraisal Problems are:

§  Actual performance is not assessed                             

§  Infrequent feedback

§  Lack of effectiveness metrics

§  Lack of accountability

§  Managers are not trained

§  A time-consuming process

There are some tools in market that helps HR in Performance reviews making it less time consuming, appropriate, effective and trustworthy. A shift to web-based, on-demand technology is making these systems affordable, regardless of the size of an organization, with quick implementation schedules and requiring minimal IT support and automatic upgrades. When selecting an automated performance management solution make sure to do your research. Some solutions offer nothing more than an electronic appraisal form while others offer complete best-of-breed goal management solutions.

                Cornerstone is one of the best software tools in the market today to support performance review process. The cornerstone tool translates workforce activity into positive business results, identify and track employee performance, recognize and reward top performers. The Cornerstone helps organization to get the greatest return on its human capital investment by offering

§  Goal Setting & Management

§  Performance Appraisals

§  Social Reviews

§  KPI Dashboards at Every Level Of the Enterprise

§  Custom Performance Reviews & 360-degree reviews.

                        Apart from Performance Management, Cornerstone also offers capabilities across other HR areas such as Skill & Competency Management, Succession Management and Compensation Management.