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Let’s be honest, companies of every size struggle with managing people well. The groundbreaking book, “First Break All the Rules” surveyed 80,000 people to come to the same conclusion that most everyone knows already – one of the top reasons people leave a company is because of poor management.

Of course, in a capitalistic society no opportunity can be left unexploited. CNN Money just posted a very interesting article on an upcoming trend: employee management software. Now, I’m the first one to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to management software that takes every bit of data possible to give you a clear picture of business. SAP and SalesForce for example, and I love any project management software that does the same thing (Microsoft Project, Creative Manager Pro, etc.).

But what companies such as SuccessFactors are doing is creating software that provides the same services for the often murky and subjective realm of employee performance. The software is designed to let managers rate employees on a multitude of skills, attitudes, and the like, as well as to document specific instances of achievement and/or failure. The goal is twofold – first, to objectively evaluate an employee’s performance to determine what “value” they bring to the company, and second, to provide the employee with a real time picture of the company’s vision and goals for them.

It’s pretty difficult for me not to greet the arrival of this software with a bit of cynicism. If a manager isn’t effective enough to tell an employee how they are doing, it’s hard for me to believe that the arrival of new software could transform them into Super Manager. I know that the numbers are very hard to argue with, and that there are plenty of companies using the software “successfully”. However, I don’t know how I’d personally feel about working under such a system. Would I be motivated by why the company had in store for me on my 2-year plan, or would I despair when I saw that I was number #367 on a list of 1000 for a promotion?

I’m sure managers are trained on how to give the right data at the right time, and I know that proven metrics are the future of ALL business, not just advertising (who will be considerably affected by that shift over the next 10 years). But I’m not sure if I’m ready just yet to have my worth to the company generated by a composite score.

What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to get some different perspectives.

I always like to experience visual ways of displaying complex data when the visual displays simplify and inform. The “Death and Taxes 2008” poster is a great example of this. Would I ever take the time to try and sift through the 2008 federal budget? Heck no. But would I spend 20 minutes browsing through this interactive piece? Absolutely. Regardless of what your position on the issues may be, this provides an at-a-glance view of where budgetary changes could be occurring (it was easy to spot things like new submarines being favored instead of housing for the elderly, for example).

This is more breakthrough that it may appear on the surface…what if government textbooks were replaced with interactive learning modules in high schools across the country? How much could retention rates improve?

If you click on the link, you’ll be redirected to the site where you can zoom in, zoom out, etc.

I was thinking today that aside from a trackball, which is at best an awkward, ugly, and sad little invention (sorry trackball user, if you’re still out there), the mouse really hasn’t been significantly improved since its inception. However, given the power of Google and about 10 minutes of disposable time, I found a really cool site.

While he hasn’t changed the mouse at all, a German communications student by the name of Alex Frank has dared to design an interface that removes the need for a user to click. Anything. You can navigate the entire contents of the page, submit forms, and download images all without lifting a finger (to click, that is). I strongly encourage you to check it out…and to spend at least 5 minutes getting the hang of it. After I did that, I was totally hooked (with the exception being that it was impossible to select text for copy and pasting, but hey, it’s a prototype).

In fact, I’m somewhat disappointed that I have to click “publish” now.

In case you didn’t catch the link, it’s here: http://www.dontclick.it/