Human Resources Software

Prepare Job Descriptions and Track Performance Reviews with HR Software

Posted by Brandy on April 9, 2013

Preparing job descriptions for your employees can be a long and tedious job. Employee performance reviews tend to be feared. However, if you have HR software, preparing job descriptions and writing performance reviews can become much easier. 

Job descriptions and performance reviews go hand-in-hand. The best way to evaluate employees is by going through the work responsibilities outlined in their job description. The job description lays out expectations for employees and can keep them focused throughout the year.

Preparing performance reviews can be stressful because it can be easy to cross over the line by either glossing over it so quickly and vaguely that it doesn’t provide useful feedback an employee can use to improve, or by being so overly critical of an employee’s performance that it can be completely demoralizing to the point where they feel hopeless and don’t even want to try to do a better job. Having consistent forms and processes that are used throughout the company can help to regulate reviews and make them more useful.

Staff Files Pro can help you prepare both job descriptions and performance reviews. It is easier to have one software system that can do both, plus store employees’ personnel records all in one place. Human resource information systems (HRIS) are a great place to create and store all your human resources documentation, including company policies, employee handbooks, HR forms, guidelines, and checklists, in addition to job descriptions. Even though job descriptions are unique to each position or employee, it’s good to have a consistent template to use for each job description company wide. For example, each job description could include a section for their title, department, basic scope of responsibilities, principal responsibilities, education and training requirements, decision making and financial authority, supervisory responsibilities, organizational structure (who the employee reports to), working conditions, which include physical work environment and effort, as well as travel expectations.

The same principal is true for performance reviews. Even though each individual employee will be reviewed by the performance of their specific work responsibilities, the performance review form that is used for all employees should have a similar set of performance categories and the same scoring system.

It is easy to type a performance review right in HR software. You can type the performance review date into the date field. There will be a description for each performance review, so you can differentiate between a 90-day probation performance review of a new employees and a regular annual review of an employee who has been with the company for years. Each category will have a place to type in comments and a score. At the end of the review will be a place to add overall evaluation comments, which are a great place to write about goals and plans for the future. The category scores feed into calculations for the total score and average score of the entire performance review.

Preparing job descriptions and performance reviews can be a dreadful task, but it is helpful to have HR software to keep these items consistent across the company and organized together in one place.