Performance management has become a topic of much conversation in the Federal Government under the current administration. In the early months of the Trump administration, OMB-17-22 provided new guidelines designed to streamline these operations and improve overall efficiency in agencies. While agencies are still working to map out what these changes will look like and implementation is likely months or even years away, most agree that some level of change is needed.
For this reason, agencies are increasingly investigating new solutions for performance management that can simultaneously meet HR-LOB requirements, be flexible enough to match the changes being pushed through the administration and fit the specific needs of the agency that will use the software. Here are five of the factors that should be top of mind during that search.
- Baseline Requirements – The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) offers 72 specific minimum requirements issues by its Human Resources Line of Business (HR-LOB) that federally-focused performance management software should meet. These include core requirements around approval and signature management, performance plan creation and modification, regulation and agency policy controls, and appraisal period management. Make sure the tools you evaluate meet these minimum requirements to start.
- Agency Requirements – Your agency likely has specific requirements for any software you implement as well – unique workflows, internal processes and integrations with your existing software solutions just to start. Not all off-the-shelf solutions can meet these requirements without some level of customization. Look for a configurable solution with federal agency use in mind.
- FedRAMP Compliance – Look for a vendor that is already FedRAMP authorized to provide performance management software to the Federal Government. This universal government screening process ensures better PII protections, reduced hosting costs by using cloud service providers, greater real-time visibility into threats, and a faster on-boarding process when you select a software solution.
- Federally-Focused – Not all vendors have the extensive experience in government needed to provide federally-focused software solutions that fit the specific needs of individual agencies. This includes things like browser agnostic interfaces for cloud service offerings, Section 508 compliance to match accessibility requirements, the ability to connect with and sync data from financial centers to keep data up to date, and the general flexibility to meet the configuration requirements of a federal agency.
- Pricing – While the pricing requirements of one agency will be different from another, it is an important factor that should not be overlooked. With pricing for performance management software starting at $8 per employee and going up to $34 per employee, there is a wide range from which HR decision makers must choose.
Regardless of your agency’s performance management needs, investigate carefully what is going to work best for you as you start your search. The result will be a better, more comprehensive solution configured to match your agency’s needs. Learn more about how EconSys FedHR Navigator’s Performance Management module has been developed to match the unique requirements of federal agencies, with a highly configurable solution that can be deployed alongside existing systems to streamline HR processes.
