Spiralinks, a vendor of secure web-based enterprise systems, is offering innovative technology for today's human resources world with the release of FocalReview version 8.5 software for managing compensation planning and employee performance management processes.

Julie Ritter Southern, the head of Spiralinks, is excited about how this type of resource helps a busy human resources department.

“We think of it as a best in class suite for performance management and compensation planning,” Southern told HR Daily Wire on May 17. 

The software, she said, helps with formal or informal reporting, including employee reviews. Southern said the products are also versatile – offering multilingual and multicurrency features, and are highly configurable.

“We fit well with both large companies and smaller companies,” Southern said.

Specifically, she said, global companies can see a lot of value. In general, she said, the database approach helps provide effective return on investment – companies spend less on the labor costs of wrangling large spreadsheets full of detailed information.

Southern also spoke about a "total rewards" philosophy of management and concepts that are popular in Europe and large companies in America.

“Companies that utilize the concept of total rewards – that invest in employees – like employees to know about it,” she said, mentioning the value of things like benefits and perks above salary pay. “They want employees to see the investment they're making in them … our suite helps to consolidate and analyze the data.”

Another reason global companies need this type of software the most, Southern said, is that they tend to fluctuate between centralized and decentralized systems. For compensation and performance review purposes, knowing about employee progress is important.

“Sometimes you need to have on file how a person is progressing,” she said.

Southern explained that the Spiralinks software does not force companies to use any specific sort of compensation or performance review policy. Instead, it brings visual information where it's needed most. Describing an anecdote of a compensation analyst looking at hundreds of employees, she explained how graphics show particular reported results and help management make decisions.

“The key is as long as you track that data, you can do all kinds of reporting,” she said.