Performance Review Automation: Even Innovative Higher Ed Institutions Need the Basics

— by taylor (2 min read)

Today’s universities lead innovative research programs — developing robots, curing diseases, and finding alternate fuel sources. In contrast to these cutting-edge endeavors is the fact that the university probably runs on antiquated internal management systems.

The danger in an antiquated system, for any business process, is that information accuracy becomes compromised. The system might not have been configured for the higher education environment. Updates might never have been installed. And user adoption could be low, raising the administrative responsibility of system owners and primary users.

Updating system automation doesn’t have to be a massive overhaul. In particular, performance management systems might be one of the easiest to move from manual, paper-based processes to an online system.

Higher education institutions achieve three things with automation:

  • Increased user adoption: SaaS systems make it easy for individuals to manage their own information, rate their own performance, maintain their goals, and even provide feedback to other employees.
  • Reduced costs: While the upfront cost of a system upgrade or installation might hurt the budget, over the long run, universities can save money on administration and paper management. Additionally, everyone saves time because it’s clear who’s filled out their reviews and who’s behind. System notifications are a faster way to communicate than chasing down every staff and faculty member’s review.
  • Flexibility: Performance management has to be meaningful for employees in order to really have an impact. Customizing the competencies is another easy way to make sure that, say, an aerodynamics professor and the undergraduate admissions director are getting the same performance management.

Look into systems such as Reviewsnap when it’s time to upgrade your performance management solution. Find a provider that understands the challenges of a higher education institution and can help get the most value from the solution.