Trends in Performance Management System: A Study of Indian Service Provider Companies

The purpose of the present article is to understand current trends in performance management. For this purpose, perceptions of professionals providing knowledge services are analyzed. In the present article, feedbacks are collected from middle-level executives and HR professionals on dimensions, namely, performance planning, goal setting process, review process, reward discussion, etc. In the present work, qualitative method is applied with multiple case studies. The idea behind is to understand the current aspects, challenges, and the strategies applied by the organizations. Data were collected from nine companies from different sectors such as information technology and information technology enabled services (IT/ITES), consulting, and financial service providers. The results revealed that companies are open in goal setting process and give employees a lot of flexibility as what should be their goals and objectives. They believe in continuous improvement in all the processes, whether it is goal setting or continuous feedback system. Goals may change or can be different for onsite and offsite professionals as per the requirements of the clients. Many firms had removed bell curve from their system. Professional perceived the performance management systems need to be internally aligned, but at the same time pointed towards a need for improvement on the way feedback are communicated. The recent trend is seen in terms of usage of cutting-edge technology even in human resource functions, which gives them better results. Companies believe in recognizing the potential and performance of employees. Promotions are no more based on only past performance.