If you’re a new manager or maybe a manger who has been managing for a while, you realize how difficult it is to keep the day-to-day operations of a business going and the challenge of constantly striving to take the organization to the next level. Goals are part of the performance management process and are used to achieve corporate objectives. Organizational goals are a 50,000 foot look at the organization, but the day-to-day management of staff requires managers to give each employee very specific goals to accomplish to do their part in helping move the organization forward.
Employee specific goals can help do that. To give you a visual of how this works, let’s look at the following and start at the top of the organization:
Goals should start with the vision of the organization. The vision drives the strategic plan. The strategic plan lays out goals for the organization by year for a multiyear period of time. Each department of the organization should then have goals that support the organizational goals. And lastly, employee goals should support departmental goals. Okay, here’s an example.
Organizational Goal: Improve Employee Satisfaction by 5 pts
Departmental Goal (Human Resources): Improve employee satisfaction by 5 pts
Example Human Resources Employee Goals
Employee Name: Betty Smith
Employee Goal: Evaluate Employee Satisfaction, Develop and Implement Improvement Plan
| Action Steps | Responsible Person | Due Date | Measured by | Status |
| Evaluate Employee Satisfaction1. Hold employee focus group | Betty Smith | 1. By Feb 15 | Scheduled Date | Completed Feb 10 |
| 2. Identify employee issues | 2. By March 15 | Focus Group Feedback | Completed March 5 | |
| 3. Develop action plan to address issues | 3. By April 1st | Final Action Plan | In Process | |
| 4. Implement action plan | 4. By June 30th | Scheduled Completion Date | In Process | |
| 5. Survey employees to measure effectiveness of plan. | 5. By October 31st | Not Started |
Tips for employee goals:
- Goals should be written in the 4th quarter for the following year and should support the organizational goals for the next year.
- Goals should be written WITH the employee to ensure the employee buys in on the goals and they have a good understanding of expectations.
- Goals should be reviewed with managers on at least a quarterly basis to ensure that progress toward completion of goals is done.
- Goals should be included in the written performance appraisal and should carry some weight in the measurement of success of an employee (note: some goals will have greater importance than others).
- Employees should be praised and acknowledged on a job well done when goals are completed.
- Compensation systems should be structured to reward employees who complete annual goals.
Lastly, use this as a rule of thumb:
- Set expectations for employees;
- Give them the tools/resources they need to do their job;
- Reward them when they do a good job/correct them when they don’t;
- You’ll have successful, happy employees
photo by: Argone National Laboratory
