Tag: goal setting

How to Set and Reach Department Goals?

A departmental goal inspires teamwork towards a shared mission and vision, clarifying its purpose and how it aligns with the company’s objectives. It promotes collaboration and supports overall organizational success. Are you confused about how to set department goals? Or is it that you have set goals but do not know how to go about reaching those goals? It is common to set a goal and forget about it until reminded during performance reviews. Working toward a deadline can make it challenging to achieve one’s full potential.

Research says 92% of people cannot achieve the goals they set. Though the setting is just the initial step, it is crucial. 

Per surveys, visualizing goals can make one more confident in achieving them. You forget them until the day of the reviews and again set the goal for the next cycle, thus getting stuck in a loop.

Goals

If goals are forgotten or not achieved, it can result in failure and stagnation in development, which can have a negative impact on the entire company. This can lead to a lack of interest in the department and a reluctance to set and achieve goals creatively. To avoid this, it’s essential to set reasonable goals that can result in better employee performance reviews and ultimately contribute to the success of the organization. This can lead to increased job satisfaction, higher employee engagement, and improved retention rates.

Also Read: 7 Reasons Why Goal Setting Is Important

How to Prepare for Department Goals?

Setting goals is not enough; one needs to track their progress in achieving them at frequent intervals. When setting reasonable goals, it’s important to consider the necessary resources to achieve them within the given deadline. Any previous failures in meeting department goals should be taken as examples, and efforts should be made to make them effective and achievable in the next attempt. Goals serve as useful tools to make informed decisions, prioritize efforts, and ultimately achieve the company’s mission.

How to Set SMART Goals?

SMART goals are ones that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Now, how to do it right with efficient use of resources and time? Let us find out.

SMART goals

  • Specific: Your goal should be clear and specific. Avoid vague goals like “improve performance” and instead aim for something like “increase sales by 10%.”
  • Measurable: Make sure your goal is measurable so you can track your progress and stay motivated. Use numbers, percentages, or other metrics to make your goal tangible.
  • Achievable: Your goal should be realistic and achievable given your resources and timeline. Set a goal that challenges you, but don’t aim for the impossible.
  • Relevant: Your goal should be relevant to your overall objectives and priorities. Don’t waste time on goals that don’t align with your bigger picture.
  • Time-bound: Set a deadline for achieving your goal. This will help keep you on track and provide a sense of urgency.
  • Break it down: Break your goal down into smaller, manageable steps. This will make it less daunting and easier to tackle.
  • Get specific: Determine the specific actions you need to take to achieve your goal. This will help you stay focused and make progress.
  • Write it down: Write your goal down and keep it somewhere visible. This will serve as a constant reminder and help you stay accountable.
  • Share it: Share your goal with someone you trust. This will provide support and accountability.
  • Celebrate: Celebrate your progress along the way and don’t forget to reward yourself when you achieve your goal. Positive reinforcement can help you stay motivated and on track.
Also Read: How to Implement SMART Employee Goal Setting in Your Company

Strategies to Define SMART Business Goals

Now that you have a clear idea of setting smart business goals, know the strategies to establish them right. Create objectives that focus on critical business areas. Analyze the opportunities well, identify the goals that can be challenging, and align with the business goals. One of the effective methods for setting department goals that are smart is:

SWOT Analysis 

SWOT Analysis

Conducting a SWOT analysis is an excellent way to analyze business performance and work on the area of improvement effectively. SWOT stands for:

  • Strength: Identify the areas where the business performs well. Identify the components and assets that are strong and can help to get an edge over the competitors. 
  • Weakness: Analyze deeply to understand what’s not working for the business. Look for the components that tend to decrease the value. 
  • Opportunity: Examine the external opportunities that can be helpful for the business. Look for business growth and the market change you want to focus on.  
  • Threat: What are the external factors that can threaten the business? Are there any troubles that can impact business operations? As consumer demand changes, a business may face new challenges and threats from competitors.  

Set and Achieve Goals per the Department

There’s nothing better than planning over-achievable goals that equal your business success. Setting objectives demands focusing on what a business needs to tackle in the current year. 

Achieving realistic goals

The main thing lies in picking the goals that hit realistically and help drive the business to the next level, even in economically challenging situations.  

Ensure the following to set achievable department goals:

    • The goals should align with company objectives 
    • List the goals per employee and department to set the priorities 
    • Use KPIs that can boost the accountability of the goals
  • Invite the employees to set their goals so that you can review them together during their performance reviews
  • Break big goals into smaller ones to bring consistency 
  • Set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, time-based, and set in real-time 
  • Foster a healthy dynamic in every department 
  •  Identify the workers falling short and help them achieve success in the future 

90% of studies show specific and challenging goals can trigger better performance than easy or try-your-best goals. It requires motivation and persistence to achieve positive goals compared to vague ones. 

Also Read: 7 Steps to Setting Workplace Goals and Making Them Happen

1. HR Department Goals

If you are in an HR department, you must know how hard it is to set goals that align with workforce trends, budgets, and others. Check the means available and set short-term goals to achieve. The goals of the HR department should set an example for other departments, which may find it challenging to set goals. You can also check performance reviews to set the right goals for this department. 

Some HR goals are:

  • Speeding up the hiring process using the latest tools
  • Increasing the current employee retention rate to reduce employee turnover
  • Trying to increase the number of upskilled employees by 20% in the coming months 

2. Marketing Department Goals

The marketing department’s goals are to increase company leads, boost brand awareness, and try unique and innovative things to launch a new product. Marketing has many facets, from technical to creative, in setting goals. It is often challenging to set goals for a creative department. A few samples of goals that can be set for the marketing department are:

  • The marketing department should set goals to drive website traffic by almost 50% with quality blogs
  • Redesigning landing pages can earn more click-through rates for the website 
  • There should be an increase in the sales funnel and more use of targeted email to reach the potential group of customers 

3. Sales Department Goals

Setting clear and measurable goals is essential for the success of any sales department. The goals should be tailored to the size of the department, the products or services being sold, and the most effective ways to generate leads.

For example, a sales department might set a goal to increase monthly revenue by 15% by implementing strategies such as cross-selling and customizing sales, as well as learning more about the products to better serve customers.

Another goal could be to limit the number of deals per unit over the next few months, which could help focus efforts on more profitable sales.

It’s important to consider the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members when setting goals and to ensure that everyone is motivated and working together toward a common goal. By encouraging healthy competition and collaboration, sales departments can achieve both individual and team success. 

Key Points to Note Before Setting Department Goals

Setting Achievable Goals for Work-Life Balance

work life balance

Incorporating workplace goals into daily activities can be a challenging task. It’s important to set clear and specific goals, prioritize tasks, and allocate time to turn goals into achievable actions. This can help maintain a healthy work-life balance. 

Get Clarity on the Team Structure

Team structure

Understand the capabilities and interrelationships of your team before setting work goals. Identify the support that can be provided to measure goals and process them to run projects smoothly. 

Focus on Coordination Among the Team

Team work

For every goal, there are things that are in your control; you have to plan for the rest. It is the skill and collaboration of a department that will help in achieving goals. Better coordination can prevent the team from missing deadlines. This is how you can set smart business goals.

Consider the Big Picture 

Professional development

Efficiency and productivity in the workplace are crucial for career progression and success in the long term. It’s important to focus not only on immediate tasks but also on gaining valuable experience and skills that can be applied to future opportunities.

Also Read: How to Set the Right Employee Development Goals

Continued education and training are key to expanding responsibilities and advancing in one’s career. Seeking out such opportunities can help individuals stay relevant and competitive in their field, and increase their chances of getting promoted.

Compare Goals with Your To-Do List

To-do list

Setting clear and measurable goals is essential for the growth and success of any business. However, it can be challenging to stay focused on these goals when urgent assignments and client demands arise.

For example, continuing professional education is crucial for boosting proficiency and experience, but it often falls short due to time constraints and competing priorities.

To overcome this challenge, it’s important to align annual goals with daily to-do lists. This can help ensure that daily tasks and urgent assignments are moving the team toward the larger goals and targets set for the year.

By prioritizing and balancing urgent tasks with long-term goals, businesses can achieve sustained growth and success.

Goal settings and OKRs

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. How do SMART goals help with professionalism?

Ans. SMART goals can be summarized as follows:

  • They help achieve professional goals
  • They are measurable, achievable, specific, time-bound, and correct 
  • They give a framework to track progress and mark the required revisions 
  • They help one stay focused to achieve business goals

Q2. What is the need for the strategy for goals?

Ans. After you set your goals, don’t try to achieve them together, as it can be overwhelming, leading to failure. Instead, analyze the objective, evaluate the sources available, and plan on how to tackle it considering the priorities.  In other words, you need to have a proper strategy in place.

Q3. Which strategy can help in achieving business goals?

Ans. SWOT analysis can clarify business goals. It helps analyze what’s working and where the business can improve more to yield better. That way, you understand which aspects of the business need attention and bring in more opportunities for the company.

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How to Build a KPI System for Performance Reviews

Measuring employee’s performance is an inevitable part of assessing business health. Since employees are a business’ most valuable asset, it is imperative to ensure that individuals and teams achieve their full potential with adequate support and development opportunities. It is the key performance indicators (KPIs) that work as useful metrics to benchmark the progress. Put in the best KPIs in the business evaluation system to check employees’ effectiveness and level of productivity.   

KPIs make everyone accountable for their performance. The KPI system helps employees measure their impact on business work, daily activities and how they affect the foundation of the role. Such a program contributes to the long-term success of the organization. KPI for performance evaluation would set the team and individual on the right track. 

What do you understand about the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and how to use it for reviews?

KPI is a way to quantify employee performance in an organization. The metrics are used to track employee productivity and to manage the team based on the requirements at work. It is critical to monitor and assess performance in a timely manner, but finding details about one’s duties proves to be a challenge. 

This demands the use of the latest methods for developing KPIs for employees. Successful leaders should plan and adopt effective evaluation techniques for suitable results. Therefore, a lot of companies deploy KPI systems for performance reviews based on valuable insights. If you measure the value of employees with profit margins, it will give inaccurate and ambiguous results on productivity and performance.

Performance evaluation includes both qualitative and quantitative elements to get an appropriate outcome and includes more than just one’s past performance. However, one can get qualified data only by using KPIs to motivate a team. Once you find a person’s potency, you can assign tasks accordingly for the most effective results. The performance review will help in better understanding what motivates an employee and identifying weak points. 

Using performance evaluation, pricing policy, project management, team management, and other elements allows identification of problems early on. However, KPIs help evaluate payroll operations when salaries of employees reflect the performance potential of an individual. 

What metrics help measure employee performance?

KPIs alone cannot be used to evaluate an individual’s performance. Performance appraisals are based on both qualitative and quantitative feedback from managers, which is more than just productivity. An employee’s worth cannot be solely determined based on KPIs, and it extends beyond that.

Employee KPIs are high-level markers that show the level of employee productivity. It allows businesses to identify their potential and assign tasks to individuals or groups. This would help one focus on operational issues, having smooth workflow and resource availability.

1. Review the participation rate 

Performance reviews are difficult to maintain regularly and take a lot of time. One of the primary benefits of deploying a people enabled platform is its flexibility and focus on user experience. Some of these are:

  • Edit reviews for sick or absent employees 
  • Users can access and complete it on their own using its web version or app 
  • It saves drafts, allowing one to pick where they left 

With better user experience, you have to encourage clients to set goals for work completion. Analyze how organizations can benefit from this performance management program.

2. Efficiency of HR process 

Switching from the traditional paper-based review method to the latest user-enabled platform saves time for HR to process and report results. Meanwhile, managers and employees can participate in the review and use the platform easily. As a result, long-term goals can be achieved and in a timely fashion. 

3. Quantity of feedback exchanged 

As managers share real-time feedback with their employees or teams, it helps clarify expectations, share advice and celebrate achievements. Not all employees manage to get feedback once a week, though real-time feedback can help them improve at a greater scale. 

It is not just a manager feedback that boosts engagement. Managers can help teams develop new habits. Management should set a feedback goal for better results. If giving continuous feedback is new to your company, set a goal to share feedback with at least one member of the team and slowly improve it. With this, track how often you give feedback and how it affects individuals and motivates the entire team.

4. Quality of feedback

A performance management tool can facilitate the feedback experience. It helps management learn how to give feedback to achieve the most effective results. Measure the effectiveness of feedback, and include surveys on how employees found it valuable and helpful. Set a goal and work to improve the quality of feedback based on the positive response. 

5. Check on employee net promoter score (NPS)

If you wish to enhance employee engagement, focus on measuring feedback and plan for quarterly surveys. Prepare a set of questions and invite both positive and negative responses. Use the survey data to make the company a better place to work and help employees perform better.

Choosing and tracking KPIs

Are you unsure whether the company has deployed the appropriate KPI? Being a team leader, it is a common instinct to find out how the team is performing. Here, a positive KPI is enough as an indicator to show that you are sailing in the right direction. To pick the right KPIs to track performance and goals, you need to make sure they are related to the performance metrics. 

  • Is the goal quantifiable?

The performance metrics should be easy to evaluate and quantify. If you tell someone, ‘to be more positive’, it can be difficult to quantify. Instead, try setting goals based on KPIs that can be easily measured and objectively. 

  • Is the goal aligned with business objectives?

One should be careful when deciding on KPIs, as they should align with business objectives. If an objective is to offer customer satisfaction, KPI should also measure how much time it takes to resolve a problem raised by a customer.

  • Can employees get a realistic impact from KPI measured?

The level of realistic impact for measuring KPIs mostly depends on the way a service is offered at the employee’s end. The solution depends on several factors, including how a problem can be resolved by a single person or whether it requires several steps.  

  • Is KPI relevant to a person’s role?

Not every employee should have the same metrics to measure the KPI, as it differs from one employee to another. When deciding on KPI for a team, it should be aligned with the role of each employee of the team.

To build an efficient KPI system, change the way of tracking elements and improve them. Try to create quarterly reports to track employees’ progress towards goals. It helps understand whether performance is declining, improved, or stabilized. Employees experiencing stagnant performance should seek new challenges and contribute effectively to business growth.

How to set organizational KPIs to assess performance?

Organizations should carefully choose KPIs to measure activity in the critical business areas. A satisfactory KPI for performance review should be built on customer surveys using the right data. The satisfaction score will help you decide how much to contribute to achieve the benchmark. No matter what the nature of KPIs are, they should be measurable, achievable, specific, relevant and time bound so that they give correct results. Measure metrics that are aligned with a business’ strategy and vision and help it reach its goals.  

Use KPIs for development and recognition 

If you want meaningful KPIs for performance reviews, keep the team motivated with the help of incentives and training. It is important to measure employee recognition and rewards based on KPIs.

For instance, if your goal is to attract new customers, KPI should be set to measure how many new customers you gain in a week. Based on this, build a performance system to reward employees effectively.

If you are using formal performance measures for managing performance, it should be accompanied by tips on effective leadership and inspiration for a team. Thus, KPIs can be used to measure any area of performance and should align with the strategic direction of the company. 

KPI and performance management 

Besides performance, managers must set objectives and targets that can be achieved by each individual and team. But how to measure performance and understand how much effort one puts into achieving goals? This is where performance management can help and understand who is working harder and who is not. Does the work to achieve the level that the organization requires maintaining? Key performance indicators help measure these by quantifying the performance level of an individual and a team. Check the goals and based the evaluation on the KPIs to get effective answers on each and work on the weak organizational areas.

What are the elements included in the KPI process?

The key elements of employee measurement for business success are:

  • Describe the intended outcome
  • Understand the alternative options to be taken
  • Select the right measure for objectives
  • Define the complex indices as required for business functions  
  • Set targets and path to achieve them smoothly 
  • Define and list the effective performance measures 

How to develop KPIs for employee performance reviews?

No matter which industry you work in, managers look for competency in the right places. This is when managers will look at whether employees can meet goals, effectively contribute their part in a team, and apply critical thinking to ensure successful business operations. Although there are many key indicators, critical business operations should be the primary focus.

Teamwork

Colleagues who are working in a team actively participate and brainstorm ideas for the group. Taking part in different team projects, sharing ideas among team members and deciding on approaches often contribute to the success of the project.    

Communication 

An employee should know appropriate, accurate and professional communication in business and one should communicate, keeping in mind:

  • Have the habit of concise and clear verbal communication 
  • One should be responsive to managers and colleagues
  • Do timely follow-up via mail or for customer enquiry 
  • Try to articulate concepts and feedback accurately    

Customer Service 

No matter what your role is, you directly or indirectly help customers and, in any critical situation, employers will reach out to you for answers. Here, one should ensure they can handle the problem and not delay it, give timely responses to the customer, and offer adequate solutions to customers as required.

Track performance metrics, set goals, reduce turnover, and try to improve performance. By establishing these, it helps the team clearly understand where they stand and what it will take to reach the goals. Having clearly defined business goals will help set KPIs for thorough employee performance reviews.    

Want to know how Engagedly can help you manage your employees better? Request a live demo from our experts!

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10 Reasons to Use Goal Setting Software

Setting goals is a crucial task any organization should take with great importance. It gives the management and employees a sense of purpose and direction. Imagine running a race without knowing where the finish line is. How meaningless it would seem to most people – putting in the effort of working every day without an end goal. And because we would like to avoid such a situation, we have to set goals. Goal setting has its many pecks, and that’s where goal setting software comes into play. Goal-setting software helps you plan, manage, and track your goal, ensuring you are working with a sense of direction.

The goal setting software can assist any business with a goal-setting strategy, and in this article, we will discuss ten reasons you should use a goal-setting application.

Provides Clarity and Transparency

Goal setting provides clarity to management and employees of an organization. And using goal-setting software helps you to achieve this. A study by Inc. showed that 70% of companies ranked “communicating business goals” as an effective way to have high-performing staff members. 

Another study by Gallup shows that employees whose managers engage them in the goal-setting process perform 3.6 times better than their counterparts in the dark. Meaning employees show better engagement when they understand why they should achieve their goals.

Transparency means that everyone within the organization knows the goals, why the company sets those goals and their part in achieving them. Transparency allows for inclusion, which helps with the business direction. Clarity and transparency are at your fingertips if you use the target-setting software. Employees can access the breakdown of the company objectives into goals and where they come in.

Helps Employees See the Bigger Picture

The first reason ties into this point. Staff members who see themselves as part of the bigger picture are likely to work harder towards achieving their goals. They do this because they see how their contribution affects the overall organizational goals.

According to an article in Harvard Business Review, employees should see how their goals fit into the larger organizational goals to get the best from them. Their Interaction with the goal-setting software can aid this process.

The best goal setting software in the market has the features to help achieve this. 

Also Read: 5 Most Common OKR Myths Busted

Helps to Automate and Track Progress

In recent years, automation has become something of a buzzword. It’s a term often thrown about, and the surrounding hype is something to be envied. The truth is, there is a good reason for this hype.

Various studies like this have shown us proof of the buzz – a primary reason being an increase in productivity and reduced costs.

Automating activities like tracking, managing, and scoring makes it easier to attend to other essential activities. Artificial intelligence will carry out the repetitive process for you. Doing this makes it easier to carry out goal-setting strategies.

The goals can be customized for each employee and easily tracked from the platform by the manager in charge. The automation allows for tracking and feedback to be seamless. 

Keeps Employees Accountable

Staying accountable is one of the hardest and overlooked activities in a company. It’s easier to give end-of-year feedback to an employee than to monitor and track the employee’s progress. According to The American Society of Training and Development, you are 65% more likely to achieve your goal if you have someone tracking your progress.

A goal-setting software presents you with the platform to achieve this goal. 

Being accountable can bring out the best in an employee, and the best goal setting software in the market can help you achieve such.

It Becomes Easier to Manage a Team

Managing a team of people can be a tough task, and it isn’t unusual for team leaders to lose sight of the progress reports of team members because of other pressing matters. One of the many factors that ensures a company achieves its organizational goals is teamwork. When you and your team have a common goal in mind, it helps unify team members to meet the set targets.

A unit or department sets a target and then breaks them down into individual targets for each person. Each member then tracks their goals as individuals and as a collective. Since each member has access to the team’s overall goal with goal-setting software, they can keep each other in check.

A reliable goal-setting software ensures individuals can view the departmental goals. They also help individuals see how they contribute to the overall departmental goal. When departmental goals are readily accessible by team members, it helps them stay focused.

Also Read: 6 Traits of High-Performing Teams

Provide a Platform for Feedback

Getting feedback from your manager is an important task. Unfortunately, this task only occurs once in a blue moon and often performance reviews take place at the end of the year. A study by Officevibe revealed 4 out of 10 workers feel disengaged when they get no feedback. They are also two times likely to feel detached from the organization.

It gets more interesting as the study also shows only 58% of managers believe they give adequate feedback to their employees. This information provides us with some fascinating but understandable statistics. Another interesting finding in this study was 65% of participants said they wanted more feedback. 

Among employees that receive feedback weekly, 43% of them engage well with the business objectives. On the other hand, only 18% of people stay engaged without weekly feedback. 

Feedback also presents a way to improve and see things from other people’s perspectives. Peer-to-peer feedback can also help to de-escalate tensions between members of an organization. To gain an efficient feedback framework – it’s best to use an application that can provide a brilliant platform. The best goal setting software on the market has a feedback column where team members and other added members can give constructive feedback.

Goal Setting Recognition Tools Can Help Improve Employee Morale

In any modern office, recognizing the efforts of employees of any organization is necessary. A study by Gallup shows that the number one reason employees leave their jobs is because the company does not recognize their efforts. 

 Another study by SHRM also shows employee recognition helps to reduce frustration in the workplace by 28.6%. Both studies highlight how effective recognizing employees’ achievements are – especially in recent times where workers need more than good pay to stay in a job. The pandemic has seen employees reflect on their career goals and have seen many people opt to resign. 

 Recognizing and rewarding the efforts of employees is more significant than ever. And using the goal-setting software is a brilliant way to monitor and reward meeting goals and objectives – boosting the employees’ morale.

 Recognition can be as simple as using the software to publish the goals met to fellow peers. A goal-setting software can aid you by helping build a culture of rewarding and recognizing the best talents in your company. 

Improves Communication within the Organisation

A survey of 400 companies by Inc. found companies lose up to 37 billion per year because of poor communication. We cannot overemphasize the importance of good communication, as it is crucial to achieving the goals of an organization.

Efficient communication helps the management convey the organization’s vision to the staff members. It allows for feedback from employees and helps improve productivity. The advantages of having efficient communication are many, but some key ones include:

  • Improves the workplace atmosphere.
  • Reduces the amount of misinformation and confusion.
  • Helps to increase the commitment of the employees.

Acknowledging how vital good communication is, is not enough to align employees with the organizational goals. That is why gaining and using goal-setting software is an admirable first step you can take. The importance of the goal-setting application is in the number of communicating features it possesses. The best products in the markets have features to promote communication between employees and management. 

Also Read: Be A Better Manager And Avoid These 5 Mistakes

It Promotes Collaboration

The importance of goal setting means collaboration between departments is a powerful aspect for achieving organizational goals. No department is an island because it takes the effort of all to achieve the different targets the business has set out to do. For the departments to work well together, there are tools the company will need to function effectively, and one of them is a goal-setting tool.

One thing this tool brings to the forefront is its visibility. All employees can track the set goals and their progression, allowing for ease in cross-team collaboration. Working cross-team to solve a common company problem is a task that is doable with such software.

Another use for goal setting is it aids when working remotely or at home. It’s easy to keep up with your department worksheet and other departments if both departments are on a project. The best goal-setting apps in the market have features that help monitor the progress of other team members.

Flexible Goal Formatting for Different Departments

Different departments need different metrics in order to give a fair assessment. Good target-setting software is flexible enough to accommodate different goal formats. Some examples of goals and their tracking formats include:

  • “Hit $15m in the first quarter.” – We can track the goal in dollars.
  • “Increase sales of product X by 5%.”- the goal’s format is in percentage.
  • “Visit the company’s 10 new sites for inspection.” – This goal is measured in numbers.
  • “Send out a performance survey on Friday.” – This is a simple binary type goal. It requires a “done” or “not done” kind of goal format.

The best application out there has the flexibility to format and track different goals as the need presents itself. 

In conclusion, goal-setting software will be a big plus for your business. It can help you take your business to a whole new level where direction, accountability, and clarity become the norm.

Goal settings and OKRs

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Tips To Setting Effective Employee Goals And Objectives

Employee goals and objectives are not just mere numbers for an employee. They are something to work towards, a milestone representing growth and accomplishments that motivate us. Of course, when we achieve these goals, it also benefits the organization.

Essentially, workplace goals provide employees with a purpose and job satisfaction, and for an organization, they also grant results and success. Therefore, workplace goals are integral to an organization. For a manager, here are a few useful tips for you to follow, to set goals for your employees.

Personal Improvement Should Also Be A Focus

One of the main motives behind creating goals for your employees as a manager should be personal improvement. Employee goals which help them improve and gain new skills become a good goal by default. Personal improvement is a part and parcel of an employee’s development. Employees cannot remain static.

Also Read: 7 Video Conferencing Etiquettes To Follow

Goals Should Be Attained Through Teamwork

One key to setting good employee goals is that they should be slightly unreachable. However, managers should not go to the extreme and set completely unreachable goals. If your goals are causing your employees to pull countless all-nighters or are stressing them out, they are completely missing the point. You don’t want your goals to burn out employees. You should aim for motivation.

Employee goals should ensure that employees do not work as individual contributors, but work with others to ensure the completion of goals. Goals that employees can easily meet are not challenging them enough or even engaging them. Contrarily, a goal that forces an employee to step out of their comfort zone is a goal that is challenging. And even better if the goal in question forces employees to engage with other employees.

Measure the Impact Of Goals

If we only counted goals in terms of numerical progress, then by that logic, it would be very easy to declare a goal as a failure or success. For setting employee goals, one thing you should keep in mind is measurability. It’s good if you can measure a goal in terms of numbers and even better if you can measure the impact of the goal. The impact of a goal is always a better indicator of success than the numerical status.

For example, an employee is given a goal where he needs to convince 50 other employees in the office to use a new software. In terms of numbers, if 50 employees have downloaded that software and used it even once, then the goal is successful. However, if those 50 employees stopped using the software after a period, then has the employee really succeeded at the goal?

Align Them to Organization Goals

We cannot tie all goals to team goals and the organization, that is true. However, when setting a goal for an employee, it is important to remember that as much as possible, a goal should contribute to the overall team and organization goals. If employee goals are not directly contributing to the team’s or the organization’s success, it should at least account for their personal development. If the goal is not even helping the employee improve professionally, then the goal shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Also Read: What To Look For In A 360 Feedback Software?

Keep Employee Goals Flexible

Ideally, you should be able to modify employee goals in the long run. Because, in the process of achieving a goal, the employee and manager might suddenly find that the objective of the goal needs to change. Or that they might need to add other objectives to the goal.

Make Employees Set Their Goals Themselves

Harvard Business Review, in their report, found that 14% of people who set their goals are 10 times more successful than their counterparts.

Last but not the least, this is one of the most important factors to consider when creating a goal. Does your goal match with what the employee has in mind? If it does, great, you can go ahead and set that goal. If it does not, you’ve got to find a way to meet in the middle with the employee. A goal that is set for an employee without an employee’s input is one that is doomed. If employees are not invested in a goal or even motivated by it, then they will not be able to pursue it.

Measure Their Overall Impact

This is one other thing you need to take into consideration. How does the goal you set for your employee affect you? Does it tie into any personal goals you have? And if it does, how do you measure the goal? How much is the employee contributing towards the goal? These are a few of the questions you should ask when creating goals for employees.

Goal Setting Module

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Product Management OKRs : Examples

For holistically product-based companies, product managers and their product management team is the backbone of the organization. From Google to Microsoft to Amazon, every successful organization has talented product managers to provide the perfect solutions to their customer’s problems. They work with cross-functional teams and help everyone to be on the same page with what customers want. They are a part of a myriad of activities which include:

  • Understanding customer requirements and translating them for the development team 
  • Build and design product roadmaps 
  • Enhance existing feature of the product
  • Research on competitors

While it is not as easy as marketing or the sales team to set OKRs for those in product management, having OKRs help them stay focused and measure their success. In this article, we will share some sample OKRs for your product management team that will help you get started. But before we take a look at the OKRs let us take a look at its history and what are okrs.

Also Read: The Essential Guide To OKRs: Your Ultimate Tool To Setting Winning Goals

OKRs :  A Brief History

“OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth, many times over.” – Larry Page, Co-founder of Google.

The concept of OKRs was first introduced by the former Intel CEO, Andy Grove, in the 1970s. But it was relatively unknown until it was introduced in Google in 1999 by John Doerr. Doerr was introduced to OKRs while working at Intel. To Google, it is a part of their culture, and they consider it a management methodology that helps them focus on the same issues throughout the organization. Organizations such as Amazon, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Netflix, Microsoft, Disney, Zynga, etc., credit OKRs for their success.

What Are OKRs?

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) comprise of: 

  • An Objective: It is a clearly defined goal to be achieved
  • 3-5 Key Results: Measurable steps to track the progress of the objectives

Each set of Objectives and their Key Results should answer two primary questions: ‘What is that we are planning to achieve?’ and ‘How to achieve it?’. 

Almost every organization globally uses the OKR methodology to set their goals because of its multitudinal benefits. Here are some of them: 

  • Short term and agile
  • Easy to align
  • Improves Transparency and Accountability
  • Time-Saving
  • Tracks progress and help prioritize tasks
  • Improves Team Collaboration

goal setting guide

How To Write Good Objectives?

  • Plain Language – Use a language that everyone understands, avoid using specific jargon and acronyms. The intention here is not to make things sound fancy. The right intention here is to convey the goals with clarity
  • Start With A Verb – Begin with a verb to describe the action and the desired direction. It helps in understanding a clear target to achieve and gives direction to the employee
  • Challenge the Status Quo – Objectives should be  set in such a way that it challenges your current way of working otherwise it would be ineffective to move your business forward
  • What’s Holding You Back? – Understand what problems are holding you back from moving forward and executing your strategy
  • Clarifying Questions – Use the Questioning method to move from abstracts to specifics of your OKRs. This will reduce confusion and help everyone understand the true objectives
  • Use Simple Rules – Use simple rules while drafting your OKRs. Have your own set of key criteria for objectives which are straightforward and simple to follow
  • Limited and Time Bound – Set no more than three objectives per quarter so that they remain impactful. Having too many objectives takes away focus from the priorities.
Also Read: Employee Engagement: Why Is It Important For Organizations?

How To Write Good Key Results?

  • Keep Them Simple And Clear – Make them simple and easy, so that they can be easily communicated understood by others
  • Assign Owner – Assign an owner who takes the responsibility of creating and achieving the key results and is responsible for updates on the progress
  • Use Positive Language – Use positive language while creating your key results as it will enhance motivation and increase commitment
  • Limit the Key Results – Set a minimum of three and maximum of five key results for every objective. Setting few will not be challenging, and setting too many will be difficult to achieve
Also Read: 360 Degree Feedback : 7 Tips To Get Started

With an insight into what is OKRs and how to write them, now let us take a look at some of the sample OKRs.

Objective 1: Research and Understand what users want

Key Results:

– Interview five Tier 1, ten Tier 2, and fifteen Tier 3 clients

– Sales Team or the Product Team interviews recent churned out customers

– Analyze Client Exit Surveys of past quarters

Objective 2: Deliver Version 2 of the project by the end of ______ (Time Frame)

Key Results: 

– Wireframe review and sign off on UI prototype

– Review and sign off on Mobile Responsive screens

– Ready for hand-off within the timeframe

Objective  3: Enhance features and improve usability

Key Results: 

– Identify and handover bugs to the development team

– Research on competitor’s products

– Connect with high level executive (clients and non-client)

Objective 4: Employee engagement and development of team members

Key Results:

– Each team members attends one training session each month

– Team members set their OKRs for each quarter

– Peer feedback is conducted half-yearly

– Two best performers from each quarter is rewarded

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