By: Ken Austin
If you are a boss or a manager and you have ambitious and great plans to accelerate the overall development and progress of your company or team, the first thing you would logically do is to make sure your employees are on the same sentiment as you are.
The company would not move forward and achieve goals and targets if the team players, the workers or employees that make up the group are not participating or cooperating whole-heartedly.
That is why it is imperative that companies every now and them set employee goal setting activities to help employees better understand the dynamics of the team and motivate them to cooperate in the collective idea and goal of achieving progress and development for the company.
The SMART Goals
Thus, before embarking the employees in ambitious and major goals, it is likely and recommended that bosses and managers subject the staff to a session wherein they would be oriented about goal setting.
Experts in the human resources industry know the idea of SMART goal setting. The concept is not to be strictly followed, but adhering to them would help one individual achieve target goals and aims.
The SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
One tool that is widely used by profound and organized corporations and companies around the world is the employee goal setting document forms that are distributed to be filled out by employees.
Sometimes, it would not be practical and effective if the management set the goals for the employees. As a standard and effective practice, employers usually orient staff about the needs and target of the company, and allow the employees to set their own goals to help achieve these targets or aims.
Specific
Employee goals need to be specific so the employees would know the definite and specific activities that need to be accomplished.
For example, if a manager tells an employee “improve client satisfaction,” the employee would still feel a little confused because the order is still broad and too general.
To be specific, the order could still be made specific by telling the employee to be “smiling to all clients when dealing with them.”
Measurable
Being measurable, employee goals should be comparable to other goals. By that, measurability is ensured and set making it easier to gauge the effectiveness of certain goals and measures in achieving them.
Achievable
Of course, when setting employee goals, you should make sure that the goals set are achievable. Otherwise, the planning stage would only made futile and ineffective. Time would only be wasted on thinking and devising ways to achieve company goals that would, in the first place, be impossible to achieve.
Realistic
Employee goals should also be made realistic by infusing concept of practicality, achievability and possibility. Just like how employee goals are made achievable, they should also be made realistic so the attainable ends would be realized by the completion or realization of the employee goal.
Timely
The employee goals should also be set with definite and objective deadlines or time frames. Be reminded that sometimes, deadlines are necessary because they encourage activity and productivity.
Overall, employee goals are necessary because they make up for the overall collective goal that would help the company advance further or accelerate growth.
