What is a project milestone?

A project milestone is a strategic point in a project’s timeline when a certain subtask, event, phase, or goal is completed. Whether you’re operating a short-term or long-term project, incorporating milestones is an effective way to manage how time and resources are spent. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of how project milestones differ from other key project management terms:

• Milestone vs. task: A milestone is a trackable sub-goal that’s composed of more granular tasks and sub-tasks.
• Milestone vs. deliverable: While a deliverable is a specific goal or outcome that the project team hopes to achieve, a milestone is typically the achievement of one or multiple of these deliverables.
• Milestone vs. KPI: Key performance indicators (KPIs) measure performance across multiple metrics throughout a project, whereas milestones represent achievements at specific points in the project. KPIs are often used to analyze progress toward milestones. 

Project milestones are typically set jointly by the project team’s leader and key decision-maker(s). They should be specific, measurable, and strategically timed throughout a project’s lifecycle.

Benefits of milestones in project management

While setting project milestones can feel like an arduous task, many benefits come from breaking down your projects with milestones in mind:

• Clearer project phases and improved task prioritization: Especially for long-term projects, it can be difficult to decide what’s important now and what will be important later. Setting milestones helps all team members prioritize the current tasks on their plates so they can more effectively move on when it’s time rather than multitasking.
• Built-in pauses and pivot points: Milestones give teams a chance to reflect on what is and isn’t working so far. With this pause, both the project team and the client can evaluate if changes are needed while also identifying new risks that need to be mitigated in the next project phase.
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities: Milestones and the tasks underneath them often have owners who are responsible for their success. With this organizational structure, it will be clear who is working on what and give teammates the chance to more effectively communicate and collaborate because they are familiar with each other’s workloads.
• Regular progress reports for stakeholders: Progress toward milestones can be tracked in multiple ways, including through visual reports and dashboards. These quantitative illustrations can be shown to clients and other stakeholders who want to see results regularly.
• Improved budget, resource, and timeline management: Milestones help project managers plan every detail, focus on what’s most important, and assign their resources accordingly. Depending on what milestone is next on the list, the project manager can determine how much of their budget and other resources should be used or saved for a later milestone that needs those resources more.
• Boosted project team morale: Each time an important project milestone is achieved will feel like a big win for your team. Setting up milestones is an effective way to give project teams something to look forward to and celebrate at regular intervals, rather than waiting to celebrate until the very end of a project.

How to use project milestones effectively

Project milestones are most helpful when they are set strategically and reviewed periodically. To determine project milestones that help your team more clearly visualize and reach their goals, follow these best practices and tips:

Set clear milestones from the start

Similar to SMART goals, your project milestones should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. The most important part of this equation is timeliness: When should this milestone be completed in relation to other milestones and the project at large? Additionally, what tasks, resources, and team members need to align with this milestone for it to be a success? Answering these questions from the beginning of your process will help you create milestones that successfully showcase progress toward project deliverables and goals.

Distribute strategic milestones throughout the project lifecycle

Milestones should not only fall at the beginning and end of the project but also at multiple points during the project. Any time a specific task or goal needs to be completed by a certain date or for future tasks to get underway, look for ways to frame that work as a measurable milestone. This will segment your project into more focused and thoughtful sections and give both your clients and project team members more motivators to get to the next project phase quickly.

Collaboratively set and communicate milestones with key stakeholders

Project teams and clients bring unique perspectives and expertise to each project, so it’s important for both sides to co-create project milestones. This ensures transparency and alignment and also allows both teams to push back where resourcing, budgets, or internal skills may become an issue.

Once milestones have been set, the project manager or the owners responsible for individual milestones should clearly and frequently communicate about progress toward and challenges surrounding milestones. This will help both organizations prepare for best- and worst-case scenarios where milestones may need to be altered.

Use project management tools

Many project management platforms include milestone management features, templates, reports, dashboards, and other resources that can help project teams get organized and more effectively time their milestones. Some of the best project management tools for milestone tracking include Asana, ClickUp, monday work management, Smartsheet, and Wrike.

Adjust milestones as necessary

It’s rare that the initial milestones you set will encompass every change and issue that arises during the course of the project. That’s why project managers need to be agile, vigilant watchers of project performance data, KPIs, and any changes that happen within the internal team or on the client side. Noticing these changes before they become bigger issues is an important first step in communicating the need for and setting new milestones.

Project milestone examples

While this is not an exhaustive list, the following project milestone examples are often used to track project progress:

Start or end date of a project phase

Example: The project team has completed the discovery phase or solution verification period of pre-project research and planning. They have documented their plans through a project charter and received approval from the client to move forward with the actual project. This approval, illustrated in the Asana Gantt chart below, marks the achievement of their first project milestone.

Completion of an initial product or key deliverable

Example: A digital marketing and design agency is helping a client rebrand in the new year. One of the milestones within that rebrand plan is to complete a refresh of the company’s web content, layout, and design. A project management tool like ClickUp helps users visualize the difference between this milestone and related tasks more easily with the Gantt chart layout.

Successful completion of user training

Example: A consulting firm is helping a small business set up a CRM solution that aligns with their customer data and outreach goals. Now that the software has been deployed, is integrated with their systems, and holds all of their relevant data, the project team must train the client’s marketing and sales teams on how to use the software. Achievement of the user training milestone may be determined by a skills test, a survey of trainees, or the completion of a specific training program.

FAQs

The post What Are Project Milestones & How to Use Them appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Take a look at our HR Software Guide to learn about other top HR and payroll software solutions.

What are the top Paylocity competitor?

RUN Powered by ADP: Best for small businesses

RUN Powered by ADP is a purpose-built HR and payroll solution for small businesses. It includes features for payroll, tax and compliance management, job posting, garnishments, employee handbook creation, employee training, and more.

In user reviews, customers have praised the solution’s overall ease of use, especially for automated tax filing and compliance support across all 50 U.S. states.

Learn more about RUN Powered by ADP →

Key features

User-friendly mobile app

The RUN Powered by ADP mobile app is one of ADP’s latest features and is already highly rated. Admin users can run payroll, build and review reports, add users, and access 24/7 support through the mobile app.

Tax filing and compliance support

Users benefit from automatic tax calculations and filing, as well as automatic updates when tax and compliance laws change. Other tax and compliance features include benefit and retirement deduction calculations, AI-powered error detection, W-2 and 1099 creation, and overtime alerts.

Relevant add-ons

For users who need more than what the four main RUN plans provide, a few different add-ons are available for integration. These add-ons address business needs such as business insurance, health benefits, retirement solutions, and time and scheduling.

Pricing

ADP does not transparently list pricing information for any of its RUN Powered by ADP plans. However, some online user reviews indicate that pricing starts with a base of around $59 and an added $4 per employee per month. 

Four plans are available for RUN:

• Essential Payroll
• Enhanced Payroll
• Complete Payroll & HR+
• HR Pro Payroll & HR

ADP is also offering three months of free access to users who sign up for small business payroll processing. For the most accurate, up-to-date pricing information, prospective buyers will need to speak with an ADP representative directly.

Reasons to choose RUN over Paylocity

RUN Powered by ADP is designed with a user-friendly interface and a clean admin dashboard view, making it a great fit for small businesses and organizations just getting started with this type of software. Tax and compliance features are built-in, comprehensive, and easy to use.

Additionally, RUN Powered by ADP supports automated payroll runs and provides step-by-step tips to admins as they run payroll.

Rippling: Best for global workforce management

Rippling is a leading HRIS solution for businesses with globally distributed workforces. While many of its features are designed for midmarket and enterprise businesses that have larger global and remote teams, the platform also has features that work well for smaller businesses: PEO services, for example.

Customers have the option to sign up for any combination of Rippling’s modules they need, but all users must pay for access to Rippling’s base platform, Rippling Unity.

Learn more about Rippling →

Key features

Global payroll and workforce management

Global features are available that support payroll, benefits administration, and time and labor management in over 140 countries. Highlights of Rippling’s global capabilities include automated global tax filing, tailored benefits and worker policies, global analytics dashboards, and automated notifications for local wage, overtime, and leave requirements.

PEO services

Rippling offers professional employer organization HR administration and benefits features to organizations that don’t have in-house HR support. Services in this program include payroll runs, IT management, access to better health insurance plans, EPLI coverage, and pay-as-you-go workers’ comp insurance.

Talent management

Rippling’s talent management module can be used for recruiting, onboarding, and employee learning. Features include one-click job posting, custom hiring workflows, automated onboarding, and both pre-made and custom learning courses.

Pricing

On Rippling’s pricing page, the company advertises that pricing starts at $8 per user per month. Customer reviews have indicated that this monthly price is accurate for certain HR Cloud modules, while others are more expensive. Regardless of what module(s) users select, they must also pay a base platform fee of approximately $35 to access Rippling Unity. 

Modules in the HR Cloud include:

• US and Global Full-Service Payroll.
• Time & Attendance.
• Benefits Administration.
• Flex Benefits: FSA, HSA & Commuter.
• ACA & COBRA Administration.
• Applicant Tracking.
• Learning Management.
• Pulse.
• HR Help Desk: HR Support.
• PEO Services.
• Global Employer of Record Services.
• Headcount Planning.
• Compensation Bands.

Prospective buyers will need to request a quote directly from the Rippling team for more specific pricing information.

Reasons to choose Rippling over Paylocity

Though Rippling may not cover quite as many countries as Paylocity does with its global workforce management features, its features are more comprehensive and better suited to global teams’ unique needs.

Rippling particularly excels with its speedy global onboarding, localized compliance policies and administration, and unified reporting capabilities. Additionally, Rippling has more accessible customer service support and remote device management capabilities than Paylocity.

BambooHR: Best for customer support and satisfaction

BambooHR is an all-in-one HR suite with features that suit both small businesses and enterprises. The platform features tools for employee experience and performance management; payroll, time, and benefits management; hiring and onboarding; and data management and reporting.

Beyond these core features, users can also take advantage of the BambooHR Integration Marketplace, which connects the software to third-party communication and recruitment tools like Slack, Indeed, Checkr, and Greenhouse.

Learn more about BambooHR →

Key features

Reporting and analytics

BambooHR’s reporting and analytics tools are easy to use and come with a number of visualization and reporting options. Most notably, BambooHR comes with 49 built-in reports that users have reviewed favorably.

Employee experience and performance management

Beyond traditional performance management features, BambooHR’s employee experience tools dive deep into overall employee satisfaction. Features include anonymous check-in surveys, eNPS scoring, and employee experience overview charts.

Onboarding and offboarding tools

BambooHR completely digitizes the onboarding and offboarding process with easy-to-use tools. Features include onboarding and new hire packet templates, built-in e-signature capabilities, compliant offboarding checklists, and turnover analytics.

Pricing

BambooHR does not transparently discuss prices on its pricing page. The BambooHR Platform is available in two different plan options:

• Essentials: Includes employee records, standard reporting, time-off management, mobile app access, employee self-service, and email support.
• Advantage: Includes everything in the Essentials plan as well as onboarding and offboarding tools, applicant tracking system access, e-signatures, employee surveys, training tracking, customizable reports, phone and chat support, and open API access.

Users also have the option to pay for BambooHR’s add-on packages for payroll, benefits administration, performance management, and time tracking. Additionally, interested users can sign up for a free trial that gives them access to many BambooHR features. For specific pricing information, prospective buyers will need to request a price quote from the BambooHR team.

Reasons to choose BambooHR over Paylocity

BambooHR is known for its strong customer support offerings and frequently receives glowing customer reviews in this area. The platform also has a stronger native applicant tracking system and more user-friendly employee experience tools than Paylocity does.

Workday HCM: Best for analytics and reporting

Workday HCM is a suite of human capital management solutions that is ideal for enterprises looking for comprehensive people management solutions. The platform includes some traditional HR software modules for human resource management and employee experience, but it goes beyond most SMB HR solutions to include case management, workforce planning, and ML-powered analytics.

Machine learning and intelligent automation are built into all corners of this solution, helping HR admins align talent with specific roles, augment analytics with contextual explanations, streamline payroll runs, and create smarter schedules for frontline employees.

Learn more about Workday HCM →

Key features

Augmented analytics

Workday People Analytics is an AI-augmented solution for understanding workforce data across diversity, retention, performance, hiring, and a variety of other organizational KPIs. The tool identifies anomalies, contextualizes data, and creates narratives to explain trends across different metrics.

Employee self-service

Workday’s native natural language processing (NLP) makes it so employees can ask questions and get helpful answers directly within and from the platform. Admins can boost employee self-service via case creation and status tracking.

Compensation management

This Workday HCM feature can be used to manage regular pay, bonuses, merit boosts, and other compensation formats in one place. Features include pay equity dashboards, compensation analysis tools, compensation program creation, and support for executive and sales incentive compensation.

Pricing

Workday does not transparently discuss Workday HCM pricing on its website. User comments on exact Workday HCM costs vary, though nearly all user reviews mention that Workday HCM is an enterprise-level solution and one of the most expensive HRIS platforms on the market. Prospective buyers will need to contact Workday directly for specific pricing information.

Reasons to choose Workday HCM over Paylocity

Workday HCM provides advanced analytics, dashboards, and visualizations that outperform Paylocity and most other HRIS solutions in this area. Machine learning and intelligent automation are also built into a number of Workday HCM features, enhancing the software’s automated workflows and the depth of its reporting. Workday HCM is highly scalable and one of the best options for enterprise-level businesses.

Paycom: Best for employee self-service

Paycom is an online payroll and HR software solution that shares many feature similarities with Paylocity. However, it really sets itself apart from other solutions in this market with employee-first features that cover everything from payroll cards to an intuitive, mobile-friendly employee self-service portal.

Paycom works for businesses of all sizes and industrial backgrounds, but it has a particularly large presence among healthcare, finance, manufacturing, professional services, retail, and hospitality organizations.

Learn more about Paycom →

Key features

Payroll self-service

Paycom offers a number of self-service and unique payroll features that are ideal for employees in all kinds of roles, including hourly workers. Users can take advantage of Beti, everyday pay, and a company-provided payroll card; each of these features either expedites or otherwise simplifies the process of getting paid.

Other employee self-service features

Employees can manage and track various aspects of their work through the employee self-service portal, accessible via desktop or mobile app. Employees can request time off, clock in and out, enroll in benefits, submit receipts for reimbursement, track mileage, complete learning courses, and review their documents through the self-service portal.

Manager on-the-Go mobile app features

With the manager-centric mobile app, managers don’t need to login in order to handle various admin tasks on their mobile devices. Managers can view and update schedules, view job applications and resumes, move candidates through hiring processes, review and approve employee PTO, and review various employee demographic data.

Pricing

Paycom does not transparently discuss its pricing plans on the Paycom website. Some user reviews have indicated that Paycom is priced with a custom base fee — dependent on how often your organization runs payroll — and then a per-employee-per-paycheck charge is added on top of that. Prospective buyers will need to contact Paycom directly for specific pricing information.

Reasons to choose Paycom over Paylocity

Paylocity includes a variety of features that focus on employee self-service and the employee user experience, including Beti for automated, DIY payroll; the Vault payroll card for quicker pay access; and the everyday pay option. Beyond its highly praised payroll and self-service features, Paycom also has a capable ATS solution and is generally considered easier to use than Paylocity.

What are the limitations of Paylocity?

Paylocity provides effective HR and payroll modules for businesses of all sizes, but its overall structure and approach to initial setup and training are not the best fit for everyone. If you’re trying to choose between Paylocity and other top HR management systems, keep these Paylocity limitations in mind during the selection process:

Choosing the right Paylocity alternative for your business

Paylocity is a well-rounded and highly-rated HR and payroll solution, but there are a number of alternatives that may be a better fit for your organization, depending on your specific requirements.

If you’re still trying to decide if Paylocity or a different HR solution is the best fit for your business, check out our HR Software Guide for additional guidance.

The post Top Paylocity Competitors & Alternatives for 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

What are the best workflow automation software solutions?

Workato: Best for enterprise security, admin, and support

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Pros

• Excellent customer support
• Enterprise-level scalability and features

Cons

• No pricing transparency and no free plan
• SDK development work may be necessary for certain customizations.

Our Rating: 3.72/5

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Workato’s ratings

• Overall: 3.72
• User scores: 4.63
• Pricing: 1.25
• Support: 4.56
• Integrations: 3.81
• Workflow building: 3.63
• Workflow maintenance: 4.13
• Security and administration: 4.06

About Workato

Workato is a leading enterprise workflow automation solution that is designed to support intelligent process automation for a variety of applications and use cases. The platform has more than 1,000 prebuilt integrations, public and private sharing options for connectors, various AI connectors and support tools, custom app connector options, and plenty of resources for on-premises workflows and apps.

Workato offers enterprise governance, security, and administrative features, which include high-quality audit logs, role-based access control, real-time monitoring, and usage analytics.

The tool also takes a collaborative approach, offering the Collaborators feature for human user management, API client management, and workplace management. With the Workato platform, users can effectively customize automation recipes and collaborate through in-app notes and comments on recipe steps.

Multichannel customer support is also available 24/7, which comes with unique support options like Product Hour presentations on various topics.

Workato’s biggest weakness is its lack of pricing transparency. However, although Workato is not very transparent with the actual numbers for its subscription prices, the plans themselves seem to be great for growing companies and use cases. Unlimited app and data connectivity, unlimited connections and recipes, unlimited builders and administrators, and other advanced features are included in all plans. Volume discounts are also available, particularly for users who use more than 1 million tasks, which is the minimum.

Key features

Custom and community connectors

Although Workato has an extensive collection of prebuilt connectors, it gives users access to a wide range of resources and tools to help them build their own. Depending on the design they choose, users can either share these custom connectors only within their organization’s workspace, or they can publicly share it with the Workato community.

With community connectors, Workato customers can easily learn more about the custom connector and its builder, its source code, what else has been built by that builder, and version history for that connector.

Role-based access control

Role-based access controls are both easy to use and highly customizable in Workato workspaces. For smaller companies or those that want to keep things simple, sticking with Workato’s three predefined roles—admin, analyst, and operator—might work better.

However, most organizations opt to create custom roles, which can be set up with highly granular permission sets across different tools and features for recipe development, platform tools, and admin privileges. These roles can be designated based on hierarchy, department or core responsibilities, or employee type.

Permissions range from full access to editing privileges to view-only privileges to no privileges at all. As your team grows and changes, roles can be cloned, deleted, and otherwise modified.

Pricing

Workato does not disclose exact pricing details unless the user goes through the product demo and sales process, as prices are tailored to the exact needs of each customer. Business users must first select their preferred workspace and add tasks. Task count starts at 1 million, and volume discounts may be available for larger operations. Pricing may also look different for users who are interested in embedding Workato functionality directly into one of their products.

Hoping to get a little more information about how pricing works, I reached out to Workato’s support team and received the following response from an inbound SDR on their team: 

“To keep it simple, there are two components to our pricing. The first is our annual platform fee. This includes unlimited users on our platform and access to over 2,000 pre-built connectors.

The second component is consumption-based. This increases as you add additional apps/workflows.

Because the price is so tailored to how our prospects decide to use it, we encourage them to take a scoping call where we can really delve into what they’re looking to do and then provide pricing from there.”

While this response did not provide me with much more additional detail, the representative responded to my query very quickly and thoroughly, which was appreciated.

Why I chose Workato

I chose Workato because it’s a well-rounded and highly praised workflow solution that can handle enterprise-level automation needs.

The platform has received great user reviews, with some especially highlighting the quality of Workato’s customer support. Unlike most vendors in this space, Workato offers 24/7 support to all customers, with phone support and live chat as options. My own interactions with the Workato customer service team were prompt and thorough, even though I was not a subscribed user. 

During my research, I found that Workato also had the most consistent and comprehensive security and admin features for its users. Top-tier audit logs, SSO, RBAC, and other enterprise security features are available; 2FA and just in time (JIT) provisioning are key parts of all plans; and extensive data compliance certifications are touted on the Workato website as a core part of their approach and architecture.

Combining these features with unique value-adds like the AI@Work suite of solutions, unlimited connections and recipes, unlimited builders and administrators, and tools to support on-premise applications and integrations, Workato can handle different types of workflow automation projects and support the needs of users with varying skill levels.

Zapier: Best for workflow building

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Pros

• 6,000+ integrations available; more than nearly all competitors
• High levels of customizability in all tiers and at all skill levels

Cons

• Lacking usage analytics capabilities
• Limited security and admin features in lower tiers

Our Rating: 3.52/5

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Zapier’s ratings

• Overall: 3.52
• User scores: 4.61
• Pricing: 3.75
• Support: 3.44
• Integrations: 3.50
• Workflow building: 4.75
• Workflow maintenance: 2.50
• Security and administration: 2.50

About Zapier

Zapier is one of the most popular workflow automation software solutions on the market—and for good reason. With more than 6,000 prebuilt app integrations and a variety of custom actions, triggers, and fields, Zapier’s scalability for nearly any business use case feels limitless.

Beyond its integration options and capabilities, Zapier stands apart from the crowd most when it comes to workflow-building features. Its automation templates and recipes are extensive, diverse, and available in all plans. The no-code workflow builder and visual editor are easy to use, even for users who have never worked with this type of software before. And the depth of customizable features, in-app collaboration capabilities, and AI-powered automations help this tool to scale as your team’s goals evolve.

In addition to more conventional workflow automation features, users can also benefit from multi-step actions and processing, version histories, and 2FA in all plans.

Key features

AI automations

A significant chunk of Zapier’s more than 6,000 prebuilt integrations and applications are AI-based, focusing on popular tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and Synthesia, among others. This unique capability allows users to set up workflows with their most-used AI tools and other business applications, which is particularly helpful for content generation and process management tasks that can benefit from a user not toggling between two different applications constantly.

In addition to these AI app connectors, Zapier also supports AI-powered automation via AI power-ups, AI-supported coding steps, and custom actions powered by AI. All of these AI automation features are available in all plans, including the free tier.

In-app collaboration and customizations

In-app collaboration is easy in Zapier. As you can see below, basic collaboration and communication are as simple as adding a note to any step in a workflow. Depending on the plan, Zapier users can also manage teams, organize projects into folders, share Zaps, and share app connections with other users.

All of these sharing capabilities are especially useful when taking advantage of Zapier’s high levels of customization. Users can collaborate on and make adjustments to custom actions, custom fields, and custom API calls in all Zapier plans.

Pricing

• Free: $0 for 100 tasks per month and access to Zaps, Interfaces (Basic), and Tables (Basic)
• Professional: Starts at $19.99 per month, billed annually, or $29.99 billed monthly. This plan requires users to sign up for at least 750 monthly tasks and goes up to 2 million monthly tasks (which costs $3,389 per month, billed annually, or $5,099 billed monthly). Custom limits beyond 2 million are available for interested users who contact the sales team.
• Team: Starts at $69 per month, billed annually, or $103.50 billed monthly. This plan requires users to sign up for at least 2,000 monthly tasks and goes up to 2 million monthly tasks (which costs $3,999 per month, billed annually, or $5,999 billed monthly). Custom limits beyond 2 million are available for interested users who contact the sales team.
• Enterprise: Pricing information is only available upon request. This plan version includes advanced admin and security features as well as more comprehensive customer support resources.

Zapier proved to be a reasonably priced and scalable workflow automation solution, though many features that may be necessary for teams managing corporate or sensitive data are only available in the highest product tiers. Additionally, users who go over their monthly task limits will be charged 1.5x more per each additional task needed in that billing period, which can quickly become expensive. 

However, Zapier provides users with a generous free plan and is incredibly scalable, especially with the range of features already available in the lower-tier plans. Each plan tier offers reasonable upgrades with minimal upcharges from tier to tier.

Why I chose Zapier

I chose Zapier because it is a highly scalable solution that provides incredible prebuilt workflow integration options and customizability, meaning it will work for users of all skill levels and backgrounds.

Zapier far outpaces its competitors in the realm of prebuilt integrations, offering more than 6,000 options including modern AI applications like ChatGPT. Zapier keeps its catalog relevant and up-to-date, so even as business applications evolve and change over time, Zapier has the tools necessary to automate new workflows.

Although the free tier is limited to only one user, the features that the user can access are solid. I was impressed by my ability to access unlimited zaps and connections, automation templates and recipes, and AI power-ups and actions in my free account. Custom actions, triggers, fields, and API calls are also possible in all plans. However, additional points were docked for a pretty severe lack of useful analytics in the tool.

Zapier has received some of the best reviews in this sector, with reviewers frequently commenting on its ease of use and versatility. Its workflow-building tools are some of the best available, and what’s more, almost all of its workflow-building tools and capabilities are available in all plans. While some of the features can get a little overwhelming, I still had a fairly easy time setting up integrations that made sense in my free account.

UiPath: Best for robotic process automation

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Pros

• Process and task mining for enterprise users
• Comprehensive automation tracking and management features, primarily through Orchestrator

Cons

• Limited number of prebuilt integrations and apps
• No 2FA or MFA access management capabilities

Our Rating: 3.47/5

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UiPath’s ratings

• Overall: 3.47
• User scores: 4.38
• Pricing: 3.56
• Support: 3.81
• Integrations: 3.44
• Workflow building: 3.38
• Workflow maintenance: 3.50
• Security and administration: 2.81

About UiPath

UiPath is a robotic process automation and workflow automation tool that takes a unique, more hands-off approach to workflow automation. With the help of both attended and unattended robots, users can set up workflow automations for a variety of business cases. Tools like the built-in Orchestrator, Data Service, Test Manager, AI Center, and Insights all help users to deploy, monitor, manage, and update robotic workflows over time.

For teams that want to combine RPA with human-powered workflow automation, UiPath offers features to support this as well. For example, the platform has an Action Center, which is specifically designed to facilitate handoffs between robots and humans.

UiPath can work for either small, low-budget teams or high-powered enterprises, depending on which plan you select. For enterprises, on-premises solutions, process and task mining, multitenancy, and more advanced robots are all available to optimize UiPath’s capabilities.

Key features

Orchestrator for automation management

Orchestrator is UiPath’s primary automation management tool that can be used to manage the actions and work history of both attended and unattended robots. Even at an enterprise level, users can automate and monitor robotic automations, manage queues and assets, reference storage buckets and performance analytics, and take other steps to provision and deploy RPA. Regardless of which plan you select, Orchestrator is the ideal UiPath space for managing webhooks, custom connectors, parallel processes, and version history.

Robotic process automation

Depending on the plan you’re in, you can access attended robots, unattended robots, automation cloud robots, and test robots for more specific and complex automation projects.

Attended or supervised robots are available in all plans, including the free one. Unattended robots are available in all paid plans, allowing users to establish unattended robots that can automate workflows without much human intervention. Test robots are available in UiPath’s top two tiers.

These robots are great for enterprises that want a full lifecycle management process that can be monitored and tested before deploying into production.

Pricing

• Free: $0 for unlimited individual automation runs and limited access to other UiPath features
• Pro: Starts at $420 per month
• Enterprise: Pricing information available upon request

Additionally, there is the Pro Trial signup option, which includes more features than the Pro plan but fewer than the Enterprise plan.

Why I chose UiPath

I chose UiPath because it provides all of the conventional workflow automation features you’d expect from this type of tool but with helpful additions in the form of RPA. It also provides process and task mining capabilities in higher-tier plans, which enables a greater-than-normal ability to get down into the details of your tasks and optimize them. 

Even with my free plan, I was able to take advantage of the Orchestrator tool and can say that it is a powerful assistant to its users, helping them to comprehensively visualize performance and manage both human-run and robot-run automations. The analytics in this section of the tool are impressive, getting down into usage details and into more specific information about assets, storage, and other factors that could impact workflow automation performance and longevity. 

The only area that was somewhat lacking was the free plan, as it did not include any real access to customer support resources. I found myself circling through the platform, trying to find any way to get in touch with the support team for simple questions, but this proved ineffective.

While this certainly docked UiPath’s overall score, the free plan still has many redeeming and useful qualities. Webhooks and custom connectors are available in all plans, the capable Integration Service is fully available to all users, and comprehensive security and admin features like RBAC and audit logs are part of every plan.

In my personal opinion, this tool is a little overwhelming for inexperienced or less-technical users, but for the right team and skill sets, UiPath is one of the best options for the utmost scalability.

Make: Best for workflow maintenance

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Pros

• Comprehensive tools for monitoring and managing workflow automation performance
• Unlimited users in free plan with generous automation quantities at each plan level

Cons

• Limited customer support resources outside of enterprise tier plans
• Customizations are limited in lower-tier plans

Our Rating: 3.40/5

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Make’s ratings

• Overall: 3.40
• User scores: 4.73
• Pricing: 3.94
• Support: 2.00
• Integrations: 2.81
• Workflow building: 3.19
• Workflow maintenance: 4.88
• Security and administration: 2.50

About Make

Make, formerly known as Integromat, is a workflow automation and workflow management solution that helps users design custom workflows for a variety of apps and business projects. Make is best known for its user-friendly, no-code interface as well as its array of workflow maintenance solutions. 

Users are particularly impressed with Make’s real-time error monitoring and alerts, parallel scenario execution, and version history features, which are each available in all plan tiers, including the free plan. Users also appreciate Make’s approach to usage analytics, with a My Organization dashboard that includes multiple tabs to look at different kinds of metrics.

Make is an all-around solution for workflow lifecycle management and automation, and it works well for users who want a collaborative platform for unlimited users. The company also frequently updates the tool and sources feedback from its users to improve its offerings.

Key features

Usage analytics

For a platform that is otherwise fairly simple compared to competitors, Make provides users with one of the most detailed and useful organizational dashboards for usage analytics. In the My Organization section of the Make platform, users can toggle between tabs for organization, teams, users, subscription, payments, installed apps, variables, and scenario properties data. The organization section is particularly straightforward and useful, giving users clear information about their current subscription tier, active scenarios, percentage of operations used, and percentage of data transfers used, among others.

Webhooks

Webhooks are available and easy to set up regardless of which Make subscription plan you select. The interface for webhooks integrations is highly visual, not only showing the connections that are in place via a diagram but also providing information about operations history, any incomplete executions from past operations, and which operations are currently running. All users have the option to execute simultaneous operations and processes through webhooks.

Pricing

• Free: $0 for unlimited users to use up to 1,000 operations per month
• Core: Starts at $9 per month, billed annually, for 10,000 ops per month, or $10.59 billed monthly for the same number of ops. This plan’s pricing raises in intervals based on how many monthly operations you require. It can go up to 2 million ops per month, which would cost $988.28 if billed annually or $1,162.68 if billed monthly. A higher number of monthly operations may be available upon request.
• Pro: Starts at $16 per month, billed annually, for 10,000 ops per month, or $18.24 billed monthly for the same number of ops. This plan’s pricing raises in intervals based on how many monthly operations you require. It can go up to 2 million ops per month, which would cost $1,377.67 if billed annually or $1,620.79 if billed monthly. A higher number of monthly operations may be available upon request.
• Teams: Starts at $29 per month, billed annually, for 10,000 ops per month, or $34.12 billed monthly for the same number of ops. This plan’s pricing raises in intervals based on how many monthly operations you require. It can go up to 8 million ops per month, which would cost $8,231.05 if billed annually or $9,683.59 if billed monthly. A higher number of monthly operations may be available upon request.
• Enterprise: Pricing information available upon request for 24/7 customer support. This plan includes more advanced security and admin features and other unique enterprise-level features.

Why I chose Make

I chose Make because it is one of the best workflow automation deals on the market, especially for free plan users.

The free plan supports unlimited users and 1,000 automation operations per month. This makes the tool a great choice for a larger team that wants to experiment with their options, or even for a startup that has just begun setting up enterprise workflows.

With access to 1,739 prebuilt integrations, universally available webhooks, and great conditional branching and logic, this tool works well for teams that need to build complex integration and workflow structures for their business.

Make’s workflow maintenance features are truly some of the best today, with users frequently praising the quality of its error monitoring and alerts features as well as its AI assistant (currently in Beta) and its usage analytics. I was particularly impressed with the My Organization dashboard; even in my free-tier subscription, I was able to easily review a variety of data points like system-wide usage and performance, installed apps, variables, and scenario properties.

From where I sit, Make seems to be progressing and advancing its tool quickly and in a direction that will be favorable for businesses that care about digital transformation. With its AI assistant already working well in Beta, its recent replacement of the legacy Integromat, and the company’s commitment to crowdsourcing feedback from users, I expect this platform will continue to improve and rise through the ranks.

Pipefy: Best for visual workflow editing

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Pros

• Special plan and discount system for small businesses
• Highly visual, project-management-style workflow management interface

Cons

• Several workflow building and customization features are actually offered through Workato, not Pipefy directly
• Incredibly limited free plan features

Our Rating: 3.03/5

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Pipefy’s ratings

• Overall: 3.03
• User scores: 4.38
• Pricing: 3.63
• Support: 3.44
• Integrations: 1.75
• Workflow building: 4.19
• Workflow maintenance: 2.75
• Security and administration: 2.75

About Pipefy

Pipefy is a workflow and business process automation solution that focuses on form just as much as function. The platform is designed with a Kanban interface—very similar to Trello—so each card and subfield can be quickly visualized and customized to meet project demands. The platform is filled with prebuilt templates and forms, divided by industry and use case, allowing users of all backgrounds to quickly build workflows even with no experience.

This platform is designed for businesses of all sizes, but it’s important to note that the free plan is incredibly limited. While working with my own free account, I ran out of space almost immediately and before I had actually built a true workflow. Keep this in mind if you’re operating on a strict budget, though most user reviews indicate that lower-tier paid plans are reasonably priced.

Standout features in Pipefy include a customer success manager for all paid plan subscribers, guest and external user access, unlimited users in all paid plans, an AI copilot, and a shared workspace on all tiers. For the shared workspace, there does not seem to be a way to share notes with other users, which may inhibit in-app collaboration. However, RBAC and pipe settings make it so you can granularly adjust each card in each pipe. The email settings may also make it so you can send notes and notifications to users, though external to the platform.

Key features

Kanban view

Similar to many of the most popular project management software solutions and platforms, Pipefy improves its user interface with visual project views like the Kanban view. This view helps users to easily get an overarching view of how their workflows are progressing, where any bottlenecks may be developing, and where additional details about deadlines or stakeholders may need to be added.

Pipefy’s Kanban view is incredibly customizable, with options to set up custom fields and task information. Users can also easily drag and drop project components and edit from the Kanban view with no coding or developer actions required.

Project templates

Pipefy’s template gallery includes a mixture of project templates for easier workflow and form setup. The primary categories for templates cover business operations, finance, human resources, IT, and procurement. Within those categories, users can find highly detailed templates that focus on common use cases like sales pipelines, accounts payable, recruitment and hiring, customer support and help desk workflows, and more. These templates not only give users a basic skeleton to work with but also include tasks, subtasks, and other granular details that can help teams build out comprehensive, detailed processes with little to no experience with workflow management.

Pricing

• Starter: $0 for up to 10 users to access up to five processes and other limited features
• Business: Pricing information only available upon request. This plan includes unlimited users, unlimited processes, and other more advanced features.
• Enterprise: Pricing information only available upon request. This plan includes integrations, multiple automations, and more advanced security and admin capabilities.
• Unlimited: Pricing information only available upon request. This plan includes unlimited automations, unlimited data storage, and other enterprise-level features.
• Special Plan for Small Businesses: Qualified businesses with 11 to 200 employees can access all product features at a 90% discount, presumably discounted from the typical cost of the Unlimited plan.

Why I chose Pipefy

I chose Pipefy for this list because it is an incredibly approachable workflow automation solution.

Its Kanban interface is key here, making it so users don’t have to know how to code or connect their workflows to make them work. If you have a basic grasp of how you want your processes to run or even if you’ve used a PM platform like Trello, Pipefy will help you build the “pipes,” custom cards, and subfields necessary to create an effective workflow automation setup.

I also selected this tool because, unlike many other workflow automation platforms that focus solely on enterprise needs and budgets, Pipefy does a great job of creating unique value-adds for smaller businesses and teams. I was especially drawn in by the tool’s special plan for small businesses, which gives eligible companies up to a 90% discount on enterprise-level features.

I also appreciate the company’s weekly office hours approach that makes customer service more accessible to all and their commitment to providing all paid plan users with a dedicated customer success manager.

Finally, I selected Pipefy over many other leaders in this field because of its strategy for guest and external access. It is one of the few platforms that effectively support administrators with an easy way to add both company guests and external guests, who can have forms shared with them regardless of the plan you select.

How to choose the best workflow automation software for your business

While we recommend all the workflow software solutions above, the best one for your business depends on your unique situation. When deciding on what tool to use, it is important that you know what you need. Whether you’re looking to develop hands-off automations through RPA or simple workflows to improve your marketing and CRM setup, different tools are available to address these use cases and more.

Based on our evaluations, these are the best tools to choose for the following situations:

If you don’t see the right workflow automation software for your business in our picks above, check out more options in our business process management and project management software guides.

The post Best Workflow Automation Software 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

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Ready to find the perfect LMS? Explore popular solutions and expert recommendations in our LMS Software Guide.

10 must-have LMS features for your training program

1. Course creation and content management
2. Mobile learning
3. Built-in reporting and dashboards
4. Custom assessments
5. Native integrations
6. Blended learning
7. Asynchronous learning
8. Social learning
9. Certification and accreditation management
10. Gamification

1. Course creation and content management

It seems like course management features would be included in all LMS platform options, but the most basic functions of a learning management system do not include course creation. Some tools require you to bring your own content from a third-party platform, which means you’ll need to build training materials in a separate system and import them into the LMS program.

An LMS that includes native course-building features will help streamline your processes and simplify your tech stack.

Suggested platforms: Canvas, Bridge, 360Learning

2. Mobile learning

When your LMS offers a mobile-responsive design or a native mobile app, an employee can participate in training from any location. It also gives employees the flexibility to access training materials from the devices that work best for their unique accessibility needs and learning styles.

Mobile learning is especially helpful for distributed teams and certification programs that engage in training across multiple locations. For example, a retail business can use a mobile LMS app to conduct hands-on product training in all of its stores at once.

Suggested platforms: Cornerstone LMS, Litmos LMS

3. Built-in reporting and dashboards

One of the greatest advantages of working with an LMS is administrators and team managers can access a single platform to track participation, completion, and general performance across employee training content. A customizable dashboard with detailed visualizations and charts is an essential feature for reporting and analytics, while other features — like individual progress tracking and check-in data — are also nice to have.

Suggested platforms: 360Learning, Adobe Learning Manager, Absorb LMS

4. Custom assessments

Whether your training program is optional or required, exams and assessments are the most effective methods for testing learner engagement and knowledge retention. The best learning management systems give administrators the option to assign pre-built assessments or create their own evaluations.

Suggested platforms: Cypher Learning, 360Learning

5. Native integrations

Depending on your organization’s needs and the goals of your training program, the right LMS integrations will help with tracking and managing the learning experience.

Some platforms integrate with communication and collaboration tools, like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack, to create blended and interactive learning experiences. Others integrate with department-specific platforms like Salesforce or to support on-the-job training.

Suggested platforms: Docebo, Canvas, Litmos

6. Blended learning

Blended training courses are delivered both online and in person, allowing employees to choose the format that works best for their location, schedule, and learning style.

A blended program might adapt the same training materials for each setting or use one approach to supplement the other. For example, an online lesson might leverage a tutorial video to provide the same instruction as a live demonstration, or employees might participate in online role-play simulations to practice skills they learned in person.

Suggested platforms: TalentLMS, Moodle, Adobe Learning Manager, iSpring

7. Asynchronous learning

One of the best features for improving engagement and knowledge retention is asynchronous learning — the ability for learners to complete coursework at their own pace. This means they don’t have to attend a lecture or work with an instructor at a set time.

An effective LMS organizes training videos, online readings, and discussion forums to maximize the impact of your training materials.

Suggested platforms: LearnUpon, Grovo

8. Social learning

Learning is a fundamentally social experience, so your LMS should include features that help team members learn from one another through proven social learning methodologies. This not only enhances the learning process but also reduces the strain placed on your trainers.

By adding messaging boards and social learning features, your students can ask and answer questions in a forum setting and interact with their colleagues. The best way to show you understand a topic is by teaching it, so let your students teach each other.

Suggested platforms: TalentLMS, LearnUpon

Watch TalentLMS’ discussion forums in action:

9. Certification and accreditation management

Certification and accreditation management are important LMS functions for nearly every kind of user. It’s nice to train your employees, but you’ll have no baseline for measuring performance and improvement if you aren’t tracking skills development and certifications — or at the very least, course completion.

These LMS features can increase government compliance by consolidating your learners’ completed and pending certifications in a single exportable spreadsheet. Tracking skills and certifications also gives you the power to report on learner progress, showing the immediate return on your efforts.

Suggested platforms: Cypher Learning, Arcoro

10. Gamification

LMS gamification features like leaderboards, badges, and levels can turn learning into a more enticing experience. According to 2023 research from Zippia, gamification improves employee productivity by 90% and makes companies seven times more profitable than those that don’t use it.

While game elements may not make the subject matter itself more interesting, they help improve knowledge retention, completion rates, and overall engagement when implemented well.

Suggested platforms: Thought Industries, Docebo

Also read: 8 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement with Your LMS

Nice-to-have LMS features to consider

In addition to the LMS features covered above, consider finding a solution that offers the following:

• Automated workflows.
• Notifications and reminders.
• Surveys.
• Multi-tenancy through multiple learning portals.
• Automated user and assignment management with dynamic rules.
• Smart scheduling.
• User roles and permissions.
• Personalized learning paths with designated learning path groups.
• Data migration.
• Multilingual feature with translations.
• Single sign-on (SSO) and other cybersecurity controls.
• Course categorization and tagging.
• Offline learning trackers.
• Centralized document storage.
• Customer success and education.
• Adherence to SCORM and industry-specific compliance requirements.

LMS FAQs

Ready to find the perfect LMS for your business? Get started by watching our video overview of the top platforms:

The post LMS Features You Need for a Great E-Learning Program in 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

What is upskilling in the workplace?

Upskilling in the workplace is a focused effort, usually from HR or organizational leadership, to give employees the resources they need to enhance and build on their existing skills. Upskilling programs typically offer on-the-job training and career path resources that help employees clearly visualize career growth opportunities and take the necessary steps toward achieving new career milestones that interest them. 

Examples of upskilling include:

How to successfully implement an upskilling program

Setting up an upskilling program for your organization requires thoughtful design, buy-in from leaders and managers, and a continued willingness to adjust to employee needs and interests. For the best chances of success, follow these steps when starting your upskilling program:

1. Seek out employee input on knowledge gaps and areas of interest

Your organization’s leadership likely has an idea of where knowledge and skills gaps exist in the organization, so it’s a good idea to get their input and support when performing a skills gap analysis.

However, you should also place a premium on your employees’ opinions when it comes to designing an upskilling program. Individual employees have first-hand knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses, and if they’re invested in their role and committed to career growth, they probably already have ideas for training resources that will help them fill their knowledge gaps. Leverage survey tools to collect employee feedback on knowledge gaps and areas of interest.

Similarly, establishing a strong line of communication between employees and their managers and mentors helps boost employees’ confidence when it comes to their career goals. It also gives managers and mentors more visibility into relevant knowledge and skills gaps that need to be addressed.

2. Develop clear training and career paths

Transparency is key when it comes to encouraging employees to engage with upskilling programs. That’s why it’s important to clearly communicate which training courses are required and which ones are encouraged for career growth in various departments and roles. 

Career paths and roadmaps are great tools for illustrating what competencies, certifications, and other milestones must be achieved to grow into either a specialist or a leadership role within a department. These illustrations can be part of a competency framework, sit inside a learning management solution, or act as standalone resources.

Regardless of how you set up your training and career paths, be sure to share this information with employees and keep these resources updated as your internal role requirements change or evolve.

3. Invest in relevant training programs and software

Organizations that want to automate or otherwise streamline upskilling program implementation should invest in third-party learning resources. Learning management software is typically the most helpful upskilling program resource, as it helps you track employee participation, automate course assignments, and even build your own training programs.

Udacity, TalentLMS, and BetterUp are all great examples of software that can take the guesswork out of upskilling program management, helping leaders create and manage training programs that are both interesting and relevant.

For the best possible results, you should mix in a variety of training and learning resources that fit different learning styles and interests. Consider building a digital and a physical library with materials on various topics, subscribing to online certification courses and programs, providing vouchers for local trade and software schools, extending employee coaching opportunities, and taking other steps that show you’re willing to get creative and mold your program to your employee’s interests and your company’s growth goals.

More on a similar topic: 8 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement With Your LMS

4. Assess employee engagement on a regular basis

Especially if you’re using learning management software or another tool with administrative reporting and dashboarding capabilities, your HR or learning and development team will want to measure the success of upskilling programs. The data these tools provide is useful on its own, but it’s much more helpful if your HR team determines employee engagement goals and other KPIs in advance.

If you’re not sure what to measure when assessing employee engagement with upskilling programs, consider looking at the following data points and setting goals and KPIs around them:

5. Reward employee participation with career growth opportunities

Employees should see themselves and their peers succeed as a result of completing upskilling program initiatives. If your leaders commit to an upskilling program, it’s important that this program’s results and employee participation factor into promotions, raises, and other opportunities to grow within the company. Making upskilling part of your competency frameworks and role-banding efforts will motivate employees to build on their skills and make the most of the learning resources you provide.

But rewards don’t have to always be promotions and raises; game-based learning can make upskilling programs both fun and rewarding, giving users the opportunity to earn relevant badges or perhaps points or tokens that help them reach a larger personal or professional goal.

Bottom line: Support employee development with an upskilling program

Businesses are sometimes hesitant to get started with upskilling programs because of the initial cost and setup effort required. However, what business leaders often don’t realize is that many free and near-free resources are available to help manage upskilling programs. 

Additionally, upskilling programs quickly prove their worth, giving employees the skills and confidence they need to do better work and grow into more experienced roles through quiet hiring. When relevant and interesting upskilling resources are made available to employees, they’re more likely to avoid burnout and stay with the company as it invests in their personal and professional growth.

Upskilling programs support both employee retention and internal hiring efforts, making these programs valuable to everyone from the CEO to the newest hire.

The post Upskilling Your Workforce in 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Top 7 management training programs

All of the management training programs in this list have clear incentives, such as certifications, degrees, or badges that support career growth opportunities.

1. Coaching Skills for Managers

Coaching Skills for Managers is an online specialization program from Coursera and UC Davis that focuses on helping managers improve their skills in employee coaching and related skills like communication and active listening. The course teaches coaching best practices and concrete conversational skills for managers, and it includes an entire section on setting clear expectations and managing performance in a culture of accountability.

After users complete all four courses, they will earn a career certificate from UC Davis that can be shared on LinkedIn, resumes, and other professional documents. Alternatively, managers have the option to complete just one course if they’re only interested in that topic.

2. Organizational Leadership in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Organizational Leadership in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is a Coursera specialization program from Rice University that focuses on specifics like DEI strategic planning and DEI program assessment. The course collection also trains managers and other business leaders on how to foster a more inclusive workplace environment and how to plan and execute DEI interventions. Managers who complete this set of courses will earn a career certificate from Rice University.

3. AI for Business Leaders

AI for Business Leaders is a set of two courses from Udacity that gives concrete examples and training to business leaders who want to embed machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) into their business workflows, tools, and practices.

The program includes a blend of online learning and real-world project opportunities to train users in basic AI/ML knowledge, AI ethics and bias detection, and other skills that are necessary for developing internal AI initiatives and policies. This is considered a nano-degree program and culminates in a completion certificate.

4. New Manager: The Basics and More of Being a Great Leader

New Manager: The Basics and More of Being a Great Leader is a management training course from Udemy delivered via blended materials that include on-demand videos, articles, and downloadable learning resources.

The program focuses on how employees can shift from specialist to manager effectively, how to give and receive feedback effectively, how to manage conflict and group dynamics, how to set up employees for success in their performance, and more. Upon course completion, students receive a certificate of completion.

5. Project Management Professional Certification Training

Master of Project Academy’s PMP Certification Online Training Bundle prepares project managers with the material and knowledge they need to pass the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam.

The program includes self-paced certification training, lectures, PMP practice questions, cheat sheets, and nine sample exams to help students prepare for the test. There are also 20 real-world situational project cases, which help to give project managers the scenario-based skills they need to handle different types of projects and project issues. 

6. Interpersonal Skills for Elite Leaders & Project Managers

Interpersonal Skills for Elite Leaders & Project Managers is a management training program from TechRepublic Academy that gives users lifetime access to courses on verbal and nonverbal communication best practices and increasing profesisonal influence. Students receive a certificate after completing these courses.

7. Effective Delegation for New Managers

Effective Delegation for New Managers is a Udemy management training course that specializes in teaching new leaders how to better manage their own schedules through effective task delegation. The goal of a course like this is to help new managers move from successful individual contributors into the role of a manager who knows what work to complete and what work to pass off to members of their team.

Some of the specific skills that this program focuses on include manager-to-employee communication, how to avoid common delegation errors, and how to develop your direct reports for succession planning. This course includes a certificate of completion.

Tips and best practices for implementing management training programs

Invest in LMS software to build your own training program

If you desire a more customized training program or have an in-house learning and development team that wants to craft a unique training plan, many learning management system (LMS) solutions give users the ability to build their own training programs and courses.

Some of the benefits of building your own training program with LMS software include the option for more flexible training formats, easier in-house assessments of training performance, and the ability to monitor training progress at an individual and organizational level.

If you’re not sure where to start in your search for LMS software, 360Learning, TalentLMS, and Docebo are all LMS solutions that enable users to create their own courses and training paths.

Explore more LMS options →

Management training FAQs

The post 7 Best Management Training Programs for 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Performance management software can simplify the review process. Browse top solutions in our Performance Management Software Guide to get started.

What is a performance review?

A performance review is a formal feedback process in which a manager monitors performance over a designated review cycle, assesses performance against preset goals and standards, and then discusses performance and future goals with a direct report. The reviews may occur monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually, but, regardless of their frequency, they should include formal documentation and individualized employee feedback.

What is an employee review template? 

An employee review template is a structured document or framework that managers and HR professionals can use to structure employee performance reviews. These templates can either be used as is or as a baseline for creating your own employee performance review template.

What are the benefits of a performance review?

Performance reviews help employees and their managers get on the same page about their performance, what’s going well, and where the employee is struggling. Managers have formal opportunities to coach and share constructive feedback with their employees, employees have a platform to voice concerns and questions, and both parties have space to discuss future growth, training, and professional development opportunities.

More on this topic: Why Is Performance Management So Important?

Performance review best practices

If your organization is just getting started with performance reviews, here are a few quick tips and best practices to consider:

What to include in a performance review template

Performance review templates serve an important purpose: adding structure and standardized processes to reviews for all employees, ensuring everyone gets a fair chance to discuss their performance and opportunities for growth within the organization.

For teams that want to create performance review templates from scratch, regardless of industry or department, it’s important to include basic employee information, a clear scoring system, a self-evaluation, core competencies, quantitative KPIs or OKRs, qualitative feedback, future goals, and a signature section.

Employee information

Your performance review form should include space for the employee’s name, department, role, review period, and any other information that’s relevant for archival purposes.

Clear scoring system

Each evaluation category in your review template should require reviewers to give a quantifiable performance rating — one to five, for example. This makes it easier to standardize and compare performance across individuals, teams, and departments who are doing different kinds of work.

Self-evaluation

Employees should be given space to assess their own job performance during the past review cycle, highlighting any big wins, questions, concerns, and goals they have for the future. This is one of the most important parts of your performance review because it gives employees a chance to steer their own careers and communicate candidly with their managers.

Core competencies 

Core competencies will typically be role- or department-specific, covering all of the bases for what an employee must be able to do in order to succeed in their role. It’s important to customize this section; managers, individual producers, and interns will all have different core competencies that make sense for their positions, for example.

Quantitative KPIs or OKRs

Include KPIs and/or objectives and key results (OKRs) to judge how this individual, their team, and their department performed against specific goals during the review cycle. This is a necessary review component for judging employee productivity against the organization’s most important goals.

Qualitative feedback

Employees should be evaluated on qualities that are harder to quantify, such as communication skills, leadership skills, organizational skills, and how they measure up against specific company values. Though this part of the review template can be expressed through numeric scores, it’s important to leave room for comments and written feedback to contextualize the ratings.

Future goals

This area of the template should cover goals the manager has set for the employee as well as any goals the employee wants to accomplish before the next review cycle; these goals can focus on training and development and/or areas for improvement and development.

Signature and date

At the bottom of the template, designate space for a signature and date to make it easier to confirm the process has been followed and the review completed. Ideally, both the reviewer and the reviewee should sign off on the document.

Space for notes and unstructured feedback

Leave additional space for reviewers to leave comments for the reviewee if desired.

Space for updated financial and role information

Consider having a specific template area to denote any changes in role or compensation, including promotions, raises, and bonuses for that review cycle.

Continue reading about the importance of performance-based bonuses: How Performance Bonuses Help Avoid Bias and Increase Productivity.

Performance review templates and tools

If you’d prefer to get started with a performance review template from a trusted source, a number of HR leaders, software vendors, and job boards have designed review templates and resources that anyone can access.

Performance review template examples

Performance management software examples

Want to browse other performance management tools? Explore our Performance Management Software Guide to find expert recommendations and a full catalog of top solutions.

The post Top Employee Performance Review Templates for HR Managers appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

8 core responsibilities of a project manager

Project managers must balance a number of different responsibilities to complete a project successfully. These core responsibilities illustrate some of their most important skills, priorities, and areas of focus:

1. Define project parameters and big-picture goals

In the earliest stages of project planning, project managers must meet with internal and/or external project stakeholders to understand their big picture goals and expectations.

Because this pre-planning or “discovery phase” may be too early for stakeholders to know what they need and what they can afford, it is the project manager’s job to help them understand what’s possible and prioritize the most important project deliverables if budget runs low. If necessary, the project manager may also need to bring in subject matter experts to explain how the project team will handle specific requests or tasks.

2. Assemble and lead a project team

Whether or not they have direct people management responsibilities, project managers are responsible for assembling and leading a team of professionals who have the necessary skills and availability. These may be software developers, data analysts, digital marketers and designers, finance specialists, or business associates, depending on the type of project work. 

Project managers may also indirectly manage and coordinate more experienced specialists, including client success managers, technical or finance leads, product managers, QA testers, and risk managers.

3. Identify and schedule project tasks and resources

Once a basic project outline and team members are in place, project managers need to determine what will be required to complete the project. This involves setting more specific project milestones that fold into the project’s bigger goals.

More specifically, project managers need to allocate resources and create detailed timelines for each project task and subtask; this step is particularly crucial to staying on budget and deadline.

4. (Re)set deadlines

In theory, setting deadlines for a project should be fairly easy, but it’s often necessary for project managers to pivot around unexpected obstacles. To keep an eye out for potential scope creep or bottlenecks that will impact project timelines, project managers must regularly check in with both project team members and clients to gauge task progress, overall satisfaction, and any new project variables or goals that may arise.

5. Maintain internal team communications and schedules

Project managers typically oversee multiple project team members who are individually responsible for different tasks, deliverables, and deadlines. It is important for the project manager to set reasonable deadlines across all of these roles and proactively communicate wins, challenges, and other helpful project updates.

In addition to one-on-one messaging, project managers must facilitate teamwide communication and collaboration to ensure everyone understands how they contribute to bigger project goals. Effective internal communications help strengthen team morale and interpersonal relationships, leading to smoother projects overall.

6. Maintain stakeholder communications

One of the most important responsibilities of a project manager is stakeholder relationship management. Whether the project is internal-only or a collaboration with external clients, all projects have stakeholders with unique expectations, goals, and priorities.

Project managers need to stay in constant communication with these individuals about the project’s progress. Regular status updates establish strong stakeholder relationships with mutual trust and bidirectional communication — stakeholders often have important updates that will help move the project forward.

Get started: How to Create a Project Status Report [Template & Examples]

7. Anticipate and mitigate project risks

Whether it’s scope creep, resource constraints, other limitations, project managers must proactively prepare for as many risks as possible and take action to address problems as soon as they surface. Known risks should be acknowledged at the start of a project, and as new risks come to light, the project manager needs to communicate both the problem and viable solutions to all stakeholders in a timely fashion.

8. Monitor and report on project progress and performance

Progress tracking at macro and micro levels is an important part of a project manager’s job. The project plan should identify which metrics the project manager will use to track progress and how often stakeholders will receive status updates. Depending on the project’s requirements, project managers may need to report progress on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

Project manager requirements and qualifications

While there are no legal requirements to become a professional project manager, several organizations share similar requirements and prerequisites:

Key skills for a project manager

Industries like software development, healthcare, and construction often require specialized project management skills and expertise, but all project managers must have the same fundamental skills regardless of their industry:

Important tools and software for a project manager

Some of the most important tools project managers need to be effective include project management and project portfolio management (PPM) software, time tracking software, version control and developer tools, and collaboration and communication tools.

Project and portfolio management software

Project management and PPM software can be used to organize, automate, and analyze individual components of a project or multiple projects. Many project management solutions include time tracking, communication, billing and invoicing, and other helpful features for all aspects of the project lifecycle.

Examples:

Time tracking software

Time tracking software helps project team members track time spent on projects or project tasks, which can be helpful for more accurate billing and scope management. Time tracking is often built into project management software.

Examples:

Version control and app development software

For more technical projects and initiatives, it may be necessary to invest in version control or app development software. This can help your team better visualize progress, collaboratively work on tasks, and easily handle rollbacks when needed.

Examples:

Collaboration and communication software

Collaboration and communication software enable project teams to align with each other on projects and individual tasks. These tools may support messaging, comment threads, and/or video calling. Many of these features are also baked into project management software, as you’ll see in the examples listed below.

Examples:

FAQs

The post Project Manager Job Description & Responsibilities appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Learn about other ways to quantify your HR goals: Top 26 Metrics to Track

Top 11 DEI metrics and how to measure them

There are many DEI metrics, but it’s critical to consider which DEI metrics will offer the most insight for your organization.

For example, a large company might be interested in collecting detailed demographic data to understand which employee resource groups would be most popular. A startup company, on the other hand, might be more concerned with learning which job boards recruit the widest variety of candidates.

In addition, there are several ways to measure various DEI metrics. Some are purely quantitative or qualitative, but a mix of both methods is often necessary to paint an accurate picture.

The variety of measurement methods is nearly as important as the things being measured, but this can become overwhelming very quickly. Most workforce analytics platforms — especially ones that integrate with other HR tools — make it easier to interpret these intricate data sets in a centralized dashboard.

1. Workforce demographics

Workforce demographics capture employee characteristics like age, gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability status, religious background, and education. HR teams and business leaders can use those data points to draw big-picture statistics about the makeup of their workforce across different demographic categories.

Demographic surveys are an effective way to measure the current makeup of your workforce, as long as you include a wide variety of identities. Ensuring anonymity in these surveys is also essential; employees are more likely to self-identify if they know they are doing so in confidence.

2. Leadership demographics

As a subset of workplace demographics, leadership demographics measure the percentage of different identity groups among managers, senior leaders, and executive teams. If diversity dissipates as you move up the org chart, there are likely systemic or cultural barriers that are limiting diverse employees’ advancement opportunities.

For example, the 2023 Women in the Workplace report found that only 54 Black women are promoted to entry manager roles for every 100 men — a disparity that severely diminishes the opportunities Black women have to move further and further up the ladder.

Research also shows the tangible benefits of diversity among leaders: McKinsey’s 2020 report on the business impact of diversity found that companies in the top quartile of gender-diverse leadership teams were 25% more likely than the bottom quartile to have above-average profitability; for the top quartile of ethnic diversity, that number is 36%.

When measuring your organization’s overall advancement and promotion rate, a DEI lens may reveal performance review biases or inconsistencies that create problematic patterns. In many cases, detailed career paths and transparent job expectations are starting points for increasing demographic diversity up the ladder.

3. Recruitment and hiring

Building a diverse workforce begins with the hiring process. If your organization’s pool of applicants lacks diversity or if job offers typically go to candidates from similar backgrounds, it’s time to start paying attention to recruiting metrics. Layering demographic data with recruiting metrics like interview-to-hire ratio and offer acceptance rate can help your organization uncover challenges and concerns that might be getting in the way of DEI progress.

Demographic surveys attached to job applications can be used to gauge the diversity of your applicant pool, but they must be used cautiously. Communicate your intent clearly and assure the applicant that the survey is anonymous and has no bearing on the hiring process.

Read more: Strategies for Cultivating a Diverse Talent Pool

4. Retention and turnover

Hiring people from a wide variety of backgrounds is important, but it’s just as important to make sure they stick around and feel supported during their tenure. Creating an environment of safety and cultural competence makes a big difference in retention rates for marginalized identities; in 2021, nearly half of Black and Hispanic workers reported leaving a job due to witnessing or experiencing workplace discrimination.

Exit interviews are a way to identify general problems that lead to employee attrition, but breaking down turnover rates by demographic will help your organization spot patterns and determine whether any particular identity group is being underserved. Once you understand the problem, you can direct attention toward better supporting that community.

5. DEI events and groups

DEI events and groups take a number of forms. Dedicated employee resource groups for specific demographics can help build and advocate for those communities, and company-wide events and educational workshops aid in building allyship through the organization. Some specific examples of DEI events and groups include:

• Volunteer opportunities for Indigenous Peoples Day or Juneteenth.
• A Pride Month celebration led by LGTBQIA+ employees.
• An ERG where Hispanic and Latino employees discuss their experience in the workplace.
• A company-wide workshop on improving accessibility for disabled employees and customers.

Qualitative and quantitative feedback is necessary to measure the success of these events. Your organization should track metrics like attendance and participation, but you should also measure engagement through subjective feedback from participants. Asking them to identify the strengths and weaknesses of DEI programming will help you make future improvements.

Looking for programming ideas? Read: What Is DEI Training & How To Implement It

6. Pay equity

Pay rates should be analyzed at the role and department levels, but it’s also essential to consider different demographics, years of experience, and tenure in the role or with the company.

Compensation equity is a good metric to analyze alongside recruitment, retention, and development rates. Looking at these metrics together can help you identify groups of people who are not getting the same growth opportunities as others.
For example, NPR’s research found that even when controlling for as many variables as possible, women still earned 8% less on average compared to men working the same job. There are several potential reasons for this, including the fact that women tend to be judged more harshly for asking for more money, but NPR still refers to it as the “unexplained pay gap.”

7. Resource allocation

Organizations with a sincere commitment to DEI must provide adequate financial and personnel resources to support their DEI goals. The DEI committee, HR department, leadership team, and finance department should work together to create a reasonable budget for DEI events, training, and other programming. Other resources, like office space and employees’ time during business hours, should be allocated for DEI initiatives when necessary.

8. Employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction should be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. For example, an employee taking a Net Promoter Score (eNPS) survey gives a quantitative rating of their satisfaction with the company and explains why they gave that score. The numeric data can be aggregated to determine an overall employee satisfaction score, while the individual responses can be grouped based on themes, employee tenure, demographic information, and other factors.

Ranked method metrics, where employees rate different statements such as “I feel supported by my manager” or “I have clear opportunities to grow with this company” on a scale of one to five can also be helpful. HR and business leaders can examine overall scores to determine which areas need the most improvement.

9. Accessibility

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates physical accessibility standards for various areas of your workplace, including parking spaces, stairways, fire alarms, and restrooms. Additionally, the EEOC enforces protections against discrimination, harassment, privacy violations, and other injustices employees with disabilities may face in the workplace. These regulations are a good starting place, but there are ways to push those standards further to create a truly inclusive workplace.

Consider hiring an external consultant to check the accessibility of your office building. An accessibility specialist can provide recommendations to improve the floor plan, interior design choices, and environmental conditions that may inadvertently create extra challenges for employees with disabilities. For those working from home, closed captioning on video meetings can help those with auditory or cognitive impairments; Zoom has this as a built-in option.

For web properties, include regular audits as part of your key performance indicators (KPIs) to help ensure your content is accessible to all users. Tools like WAVE, Monsido, and accessiBe can help determine if font size, website colors, video, audio, and other website features are easy to use.

10. External demographics

Analyzing external graphics helps determine if you’re actually reaching the right audiences in the right way. Examples of external demographics you can measure include:

• Customer demographics and brand sentiment.
• Supplier demographics.
• Demographics of regions where the business operates compared to the demographics of the business itself.

Sorting customer reports by demographic can shed light on whether and how certain groups of people feel served by your organization, giving you an opportunity to adjust your strategies to better serve your DEI and market goals.

11. DEI initiative success

Once your organization has identified problems in its DEI strategies and set goals to improve them, DEI metrics will track the success of those initiatives. 

For example, if you notice that men comprise the majority of your talent pool, update your job descriptions to eliminate gendered language and monitor your applicant demographic data to determine whether the change made an impact. In most cases, closing large DEI gaps requires multiple strategic efforts over time.

Measuring DEI initiative success will probably involve a combination of other metrics; if you’re tracking these metrics effectively, then you can determine an initiative’s success by identifying the desired changes in demographics, satisfaction, promotion rates, or whatever area you’re targeting, and tracking the changes from the program’s implementation. Qualitative feedback through surveys can also help gauge whether employees notice and appreciate the change.

DEI metric FAQs

What are DEI metrics?

DEI metrics are tools that measure an organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. These metrics can assess current strengths and weaknesses, but they’re most useful for benchmarking progress made in key DEI categories over time.

Certain metrics, such as workforce demographics and pay rates, should be included in every organization’s toolkit, regardless of industry or business size. DEI metrics can collect either quantitative or qualitative data about employees, applicants, and even third parties like clients and partners.

Why do DEI metrics matter?

DEI metrics are not just important for managing compliance with non-discrimination regulations; they’re also great pulse checks for organizational health.

In Culture Amp’s 2022 Workplace DEI Report, 71% of respondents expressed that their organizations are doing more programming for DEI than what’s required for compliance, and 74% believe that their senior leaders are doing enough to support them in their DEI efforts.

However, despite the enthusiasm for and general growth of DEI programs, inconsistencies in how they are measured are making these programs less effective. According to the same Culture Amp study, only 27% of those surveyed believe their organization knows how to measure the efficacy of its DEI programming.

Using your DEI metrics

For any DEI strategy to be effective, you need efficient and effective ways to identify DEI issues within the organization. DEI metrics provide a strong foundation for identifying those problems, as well as for tracking growth as you implement DEI initiatives.

Once you’ve perfected those measurements, the real work to move the needle begins.

The post Top 11 DEI Metrics to Track in Your DEI Program appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.