Performance management software vs spreadsheets or an HRIS module: a decision guide

Side by side

Spreadsheet vs HRIS module vs performance management software

See CLEAR Talent plans and what each includes

The honest answer

When a spreadsheet is enough — and when it is not

Read: how pay transparency changes the evidence behind ratings

The performance review tracker template

PERFORMANCE REVIEW TRACKER

Review cycle:
Cycle owner:
Rating scale:
Stage deadlines:
Where the review forms are kept:
Who can open this file:
Retention:

EMPLOYEE 1
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 2
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 3
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 4
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 5
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 6
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 7
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 8
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 9
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

EMPLOYEE 10
Employee:
Department:
Manager:
Self-assessment submitted:
Manager review submitted:
Proposed rating:
Calibrated rating:
Reason for any change:
Signed off:
Agreed next step:

Migration checklist: moving performance reviews out of a spreadsheet

The steps work whichever system you move to. The order matters: settle the people data and the process before anything is imported, and switch the spreadsheet off only once the first cycle has run in the new system.

1. 1

   Decide what the first cycle covers

   Pick one review cycle and the people it includes. Moving everything at once — every historic cycle, every form, every population — is the most common reason a migration stalls. A first cycle that runs well does more for adoption than a complete archive.

2. 2

   Clean the people and structure data

   Export departments, locations, roles and reporting lines from your HRIS, then reconcile them with the manager column in your tracker. Every reporting line that is wrong here becomes a review sent to the wrong person later.

3. 3

   Choose the history worth bringing across

   Current goals and the last cycle’s ratings are usually worth importing, so the first cycle starts from what was agreed rather than a blank page. Older forms are rarely worth re-keying; they remain the record for the periods they cover, kept under your retention policy.

4. 4

   Map your form to the new system

   Write down the rating scale, the competencies or questions, who reviews whom and the deadline for each stage — self-assessment, manager review, calibration and sign-off. Configure these before inviting anyone, and resist adding questions the spreadsheet never had.

5. 5

   Set access and data-protection rules

   Decide who sees what: HR administrators, managers for their own teams, employees for their own records. Then decide what happens to the old spreadsheets — who keeps the archive copy, who deletes the rest and when — so the data does not live in two places indefinitely.

6. 6

   Pilot with a few managers

   Before the cycle opens, ask two or three managers to work through a review, including on a phone if that is how they will use it. Their questions tell you what the launch email needs to say.

7. 7

   Run the cycle, then retire the spreadsheet

   Run the first cycle in the new system, check its reports against what the tracker would have shown, and then make the old file read-only. A spreadsheet that stays editable alongside the new system quietly becomes the real one again.

Performance review tracker examples: three organisations

Three filled-in trackers at three different points. The first is a team the spreadsheet still suits; the second shows the chasing problem two weeks before a deadline; the third shows what calibration does to a tracker that has no reason column. Ratings use a 1–5 scale.

These organisations, employees and ratings were written for this page to show how the tracker works. They do not describe real people, a real organisation or any CLEAR Talent customer.