Thanks for nothing, Boss.

Of the many things described by the term "Performance Management," one flavor is all about the "human" or "human resources" aspects of getting better results. There are lots of "Human Capital Management" (HCM) vendors, lots of hype, some good blogs, and just maybe some real results. 

Many of these vendors describe their personal goal management modules as "performance management." They may even let you link a goal or two to a list of corporate strategy statements, but be wary of people who have this approach in mind when they discuss performance management.

The HCM approach differs greatly from the "strategy execution" approach to performance that we espouse, which entails a much more rigorous approach to aligning people to corporate strategy.

Yes, I know things like talent management and compensation management (especially) can be really tricky, but from what I'm seeing, most of the action in this Human Capital space is around automating reviews and managing employees' personal goals. And they tend to be fairly simple applications in this regard.

In addition to this skepticism I have about the degree of linkage and strategic alignment most HCM vendors can provide, what I find myself scratching my head about the most is the functionality many of them tout to expedite and automate the employee review process.