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How to Get More Out of Your Performance Review Data

Andy Przystanski
Senior Content Marketing Manager
Lattice
Table of contents
February 13, 2020

People analytics doesn’t always account for the big picture. Teams have improved their reporting within areas like recruiting or engagement, but bringing those insights together isn't easy. Without an integrated HR tech stack, it can feel impossible.

Take employee performance data, for example. Which teams are hitting their targets? Do specific managers need coaching? While these questions are worth asking, they’re pieces of a larger puzzle. The big picture comes into focus when you view performance data alongside other metrics.

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the release of the Lattice API. HR teams can now bring employee performance data into the other tools they love to use — shedding light on new people and business insights. Here are some of the HR programs that stand to benefit the most. 

Recruiting and Onboarding 

Interview Scorecards + Performance Ratings

While performance data tells the story of how employees did post-hire, it can also inform your recruiting process. Applicant tracking systems like Greenhouse and Lever allow users to easily export candidate and interview scorecard information. By combining this information with performance ratings in a data visualization tool, teams gain even deeper insights. Did candidates who aced their interviews eventually become top performers? Perhaps interview criteria like “culture fit” didn’t actually correlate to how engaged or successful employees turned out to be.

Discrepancies might warrant adjustments to more than just your interview process. For example, you may need to take a closer look at your onboarding process if highly-rated candidates have low first-year performance scores. You may also want to consider whether employees feel like they have enough direction from their managers.

Learning and Development

Training Participation + Performance Ratings

A growing number of companies rely on learning management systems (LMS) to train their workforce. These tools connect employees with interactive courses, videos, and even podcasts to help them hone their skills. They also come bundled with reporting dashboards that allow you to monitor participation and course engagement.

The purpose of your learning and development program is to develop engaged, high-performing employees. Are your efforts hitting the mark? By cross-referencing LMS participation data with performance ratings, you can assess the state of your L&D program. If you have access to historical data for both performance and LMS participation, you can also track which courses and initiatives were the most effective over time. 

Remember that ratings alone don’t tell the whole story. By looking at comments within performance reviews, you’ll also be able to identify specific challenges. Maybe one department feels underprepared or your first-time managers don’t feel supported. Export your performance review comments and generate a word cloud to identify recurring challenges that could benefit from training. 

Employee Engagement

Engagement Survey Data + Performance Ratings

Most companies run employee engagement surveys at least once a year. But while HR teams might be able to glean some insight from this data, it can be hard to prioritize your next steps.

When you combine engagement data with performance ratings, you can identify sentiment among top performers and get ahead of regrettable turnover. If you have historic data on hand, you can also track how engagement and performance evolve over time. Complementing this with other data, like employee tenure, can help identify your company's other potential flight risks.  

Lattice empowers you to manage engagement and performance within the same platform. Our people analytics dashboard gives you visibility into sentiment among high performers, specific departments, demographics, and other criteria. Because both data sets live within the platform, you won’t need to reconcile them with a separate tool. 

Compensation

Salary Benchmarks + Performance Ratings

An employee’s decision to stay or leave can be influenced by several factors, including compensation. A Robert Half study found that nearly half of employees feel they’re underpaid, and 54% exchange salary information with their peers. Beyond office chatter, free salary benchmarking tools have made it easier for anyone to know what their “market rate” really is.

That dynamic has made it harder for companies to retain talent in an already competitive job market. While HR and recruiting teams have salary benchmarking tools of their own, these don’t take subjective metrics like performance into account. By importing performance ratings, job titles, and current salary into a compensation benchmarking tool, you can identify discrepancies and get ahead of potential turnover. Are any of your all-star employees grossly underpaid? It might be time to prioritize them in your next round of merit increases. 



Lattice already made it easy to bring performance and engagement data together. With the release of our API, we’re empowering you to bring other datasets into the mix. Current clients can take advantage of the Lattice API by reading our documentation.

Haven’t heard of us? Over 1,500 of the world’s most exciting workplaces use Lattice to drive performance and engagement. Schedule a demo to see our industry-leading software in action.

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