Set the Right Goals for 2020 Company Success

Whether you are getting ready for your organization’s best fiscal year yet or trying to improve employee performance after appraisals, setting goals is incredibly helpful in communicating clear expectations to your employees. Setting goals increases positive outcomes with employees such as elevated commitment, motivation, job investment, and productivity. Within your business, some goals can even garner higher revenues for your organization. Help your employees support their long-term career plans by maximizing their accomplishments. Even better, help them support your company by tying its long-term goals to their work.

While setting goals helps employees work at an exemplary level, it can be tricky to get everyone on the same page. Follow the 4 steps below to ensure that your employees understand how to succeed in accomplishing their goals:

1. Be Specific

Specify what exactly you want employees to achieve upon completion of a goal. Being too vague can be discouraging, as the employee may not know where to start. Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the goal may seem too easy: any small success is perceived as a completed goal. Avoid miscommunication by explaining what specific tasks or behaviors are expected. Prioritize or rank goals by importance, ensuring that the most urgent ones are completed first.

2. Make Goals Attainable

Be realistic when creating goals for your employees, from difficulty level to timing. Have the goals be challenging but not impossible in order to keep people engaged, but be prepared to update the goals as the definition of “realistic” may change over time. Base the goals on available resources, employee skill, and knowledge level. Ask your employees for input, as unattainable goals show a lack of communication between management and employees as to what is possible.

3. Set Deadlines

Set firm and realistic deadlines for the goals you have created. Without them, goals become forgettable, as employees will inevitably place them on a mental back burner to deal with more “pressing” tasks. Deadlines also increase productivity: as goals are completed, more is being done to move your company and your employees forward. For long-term goals, set up multiple checkpoints to ensure that they are being satisfactorily completed, and offer feedback to maintain employee focus and motivation.

4. Delegate to Teams

Foster collaboration between employees by encouraging teamwork. Create a friendly competition between teams with applicable goals, such as sales targets. Break apart complicated goals and assign the parts to employees based on their skill and knowledge level. Make the goals complement each other so that each employee is a gear in a well-oiled machine.

As always, be sure to use software that makes it easy to set and share goals with your employees. The software you use should encourage communication and streamline the task management process, furthering not only your employees’ careers but also your company.

Contact us today to find out how we can make this your most productive year!