Effective performance management involves a lot of moving parts. Employee objectives need to be stored, tracked, and aligned with organizational goals. Performance conversations need to be frequent, two-sided events that don’t fall by the wayside of your managers’ busy working lives. Performance reviews require in-depth data to give managers a clear picture of progress.

A good performance management system will allow you to fulfill all of these requirements and more—but how do you select the right one? And, once you’ve invested in your system of choice, how do you implement it properly?