Human Capital Management

Optimizing Employee Performance Goals

Exude Human Capital / August 12, 2024 August 12, 2024

Setting the right performance goals fosters success for both your team and your company. These goals provide a clear vision of where the organization is going and how every individual should work toward making it a reality.

Defining Employee Performance Goals

Performance goals help employees reach their expected success levels through planned productivity, accountability and improved job satisfaction. They keep team members motivated and, when executed correctly, improve productivity and engagement.

Three determining factors are at play when deciding on an employee’s performance goals:

1. Their current position
2. The competency, commitment and capacity (CCC) that the position requires
3. The extent to which the objectives fulfill the company’s goals and objectives

Performance goals aid employee performance management by clearly conveying what is expected of them for success. They’re more likely to accomplish these goals with a clear understanding of their duties. As a result, they will help the company achieve its goals and staff meet their career aspirations.

Outlining the Top Methods to Implement Employee Performance Goals

Performance goals align employees’ aspirations with those of the organization. Company leaders can execute a few systems to create fruitful performance goals.

Set SMART Goals for Employees

Goals are at the core of workplace success. They help teams work together more efficiently by giving every worker a sense of accountability and accomplishment. The SMART model is one of the best ways to implement them. The acronym stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Each employee’s SMART goals will be different. They can cover everything from improving communication and accepting criticism to running effective meetings and showing appreciation.

Examples of Practical SMART Goals:

Here are three examples of employee performance goals that are SMART:

1. Increase Daily Lead Generation Calls by 10% in the Next Month

This goal is:

• Specific: Every day
• Measurable: 10% boost
• Achievable: Realistic call volume and time frame
• Relevant: Contributes to improving the company’s success as well as individual and team sales goals
• Time-bound: In the next month

2. Host Two Customer Support Webinars by September 20th With 50+ Attendees and 70% Very Satisfied Rate for Both

This goal is:

• Specific: Host two customer support webinars
• Measurable: Two webinars, 50+ attendees and 70% very satisfied rate
• Achievable: Let’s assume that last year, the company hosted one customer support webinar with an attendance rate of 30+ and a satisfaction rate of 65%, making this new SMART goal achievable and realistic
• Relevant: Contributes to the company goal of improving customer support
• Time-bound: The goal needs to be achieved by September 20th

3. Complete Onboarding Training Modules Within the First Two Months of Employment

This goal is:

• Specific: Complete onboarding training modules
• Measurable: Within the first two months of employment
• Achievable: It’s realistic and expected of employees
• Relevant: Ensuring new employees know what their position entails is relevant
• Time-bound: First two months of employment

Establish Performance Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Setting goals is important, but how do you or your employees measure them? KPIs are a popular method for setting a standard of success for business objectives. They are measurable values that determine how much an individual is contributing toward the business goals.

KPIs are excellent for aligning employee performance with organizational goals. They equip every individual in a workplace to focus their objectives toward one common target. Performance metrics help staff gauge their success and work on improving their performance in the long run.

Borrowing from the SMART goal concept, KPIs can be considered SMARTER goals:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound
• Evaluate
• Reevaluate

Regularly evaluating KPIs is an excellent way to ensure employees work toward the correct objectives. It also helps to consider whether the particular performance goal is still relevant to the company’s direction and the worker’s position.

Periodically reevaluating KPIs is essential to ensure they’re set in the company’s best interest and are still SMARTER for the particular employee. For example, you could review an employee’s KPIs at the halfway mark to check for progress.

Promote Effective Goal-Setting Techniques

There are countless goal-setting techniques, but they may not all work with your company’s objectives. Promote the ones that are best for the employees you’re working with.

For example, objectives and key results (OKR) goals work best for larger groups that must work toward one final result. If the OKR is to gain 5,000 new customers by the end of the year, the sales teams will work toward it. To increase its effectiveness, leaders must help staff set smaller goals to bring them up to the OKR target.

When advising employees on how to set goals, walking through time management techniques is crucial. There are four principles that can help individuals make the most of their time:

1. Prioritize

Encourage employees to start the day with the most urgent tasks. Procrastinating on the more complicated things may create anxiety throughout the day and have a ripple effect on other duties.

It’s essential to complete the most challenging tasks first to ensure they receive peak focus. Prioritizing the most valuable work for meeting a SMART goal or OKR also helps workers keep their eyes on the end goal.

2. Plan

Planning is an effective way to ensure workers are making the most of their days. It keeps them on track with their goals and prevents burnout.

Work with employees to plan. Provide them with realistic expectations and workloads to help them feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

One effective way to plan with staff is by setting one-on-one meetings where you discuss their workload so far and the challenges they may face. As a leader, getting involved in planning with employees shows that the company cares about optimizing their workdays.

Of course, one-on-one meetups may not be possible for certain companies. Here are some other practical planning strategies that you can encourage employees to implement themselves:

• Make to-do lists
• Create solo meetings to tackle personal and professional plans
• Utilize time-blocking strategies
• Perform time audits
• Split tasks into bite-size pieces

3. Prepare

Preparing for the week ahead can save employees time and give them more precise goals. Encourage them to prepare using the following tips:

• Put important tasks and fun tasks into a calendar
• Plan to remove potential distractions from the work environment
• Add in buffer time
• Use efficiency tools that fit their workflow

4. Perform

Employees should commit to their plans. This principle may include performing important tasks first and avoiding overcommitting themselves. A key to performing tasks is remaining focused, so employees should also be discouraged from multitasking.

Conduct Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are at the core of most goal policies. They are instrumental in helping individuals get a clear picture of how far they’ve come and what they can do to improve future prospects. However, evidence suggests that employees need summary feedback that compares their progress to company goals.

Simply focusing on what they’ve achieved and what they didn’t do may create a demotivating environment. The solution is to provide feedback that focuses on shaping future achievements and less on displaying past performance. During the performance review, both employee goals and examples of how they can work toward improvement should be on the agenda.

It’s important to tie the feedback in with potential solutions. For instance, if an individual fails to meet their sales targets, simply pointing it out may create a demotivating meeting. Instead, put employees in control of working toward improving on these growth areas.

Enhance Employee Engagement and Motivation

Performance goals require employees to be motivated and engaged in order to be effective. The best way to get them fired up is to involve them in the process, which allows them to create achievable goals. Here are two methods you can use:

1. Self-Leadership Goals

Self-leadership goals are about accomplishing professional development goals without losing sight of the company’s objectives. Staff should implement their own self-leadership goals to improve their productivity, decision-making and time-management skills. Here are some examples of these employee performance goals:

• Utilizing a Pomodoro timer to boost efficiency
• Removing all distractions from the workplace
• Upskilling to raise chances of promotions
• Using maximum effort in most sales calls to boost company returns and own skill set

2. Collaboration Goals

Collaboration goals are an effective way to boost cooperation and proactive behaviors if you’re working with teams. These goals influence motivation, performance and productivity. Including a reward also makes them more appealing. Here are some examples:

• Making 100 weekly sales as a team
• Reaching out to 50 potential customers daily
• Producing documents with fewer than 10 errors as a group

One way to make collaborative goals work is to create healthy competition. Allowing teams to compete for a goal-related reward is an excellent motivating factor promoting group collaboration.

Align Individual Goals With Organizational Objectives

Encourage individuals to share their career aspirations with every performance review and one-on-one meeting. Align their goals with the company’s goals and provide a clear set of steps to meet their desires.

It’s important to integrate the development plans of high-performing employees into the broader planning framework to ensure alignment with the company’s needs. One effective way to do this is via the Goal Pyramid. This visual representation shows the main goal and then ripples down into actionable steps workers can take to meet the primary objective. It usually has an overarching objective and a list of medium-term and short-term goals. Here’s an example:

1. Main Objective

This is the company’s main goal. For example:

• Improve product standards to increase customer satisfaction and sales.

2. Actions Required

These are the things the company must do to meet the objective. For example:

• Release new products with improved functionality
• Boost customer awareness
• Increase sales

3. Work Required

This step in the goal pyramid shows every employee how they play a part in helping the company meet its objective by detailing the role each team plays. For example:

• Customer service workers will effectively categorize common customer complaints
• Engineers will create improvements that address complaints
• The sales team will pitch products and highlight the new and improved features
• The marketing team will expand product reach and communicate better features

Leverage Employee Feedback

When implementing employee performance review goals, it’s vital to consider the importance of feedback. Showing empathy to employees can improve retention and raise morale. Here are the top three benefits of using workers’ evaluations for setting goals:

1. Improves organizational growth: Employee feedback shows growth areas for the company and builds a transparent and positive environment.
2. Increases employee retention rate: Listening to employees can help resolve problems and show that they’re appreciated, improving loyalty and retention.
3. Drives continuous improvement: Addressing the company’s shortcomings from those who have a hands-on effect on the company’s success is an excellent way to ensure your organization is constantly improving.

There are many ways to collect employee feedback. One way is after a performance review. Three other common methods are:

• Surveys: They provide a quick and effective way to gain staff opinions on specific procedures or events.
• One-on-one interviews: They build trust, promote meaningful discourse and deliver richer qualitative findings.
• Anonymous feedback platforms: They create a culture of transparency and allow employees to share their opinions without fear of criticism.

When employees provide solutions and ideas on improving various factors, it’s important to show that the company listens and appreciates that input. Here are some ideas for recognizing and rewarding feedback:

• Public recognition: Showcase their ideas at a meeting or in the company newsletter.
• Incentives: Provide rewards like special recognition awards or personalized thank you notes for helpful suggestions.
• Team celebrations: Honor contributions by hosting team celebrations and encouraging other team members to provide valuable feedback.

Highlighting the Major Goal Areas

Goals can differ based on individual aspirations and company objectives. Here are three target areas that you can use as a framework around which to build goals:

1. Self-Management Goals

These goals encourage employees to take control of their performance. They promote personal accountability and help staff work on personal challenge areas like stress management. Here are some examples:

• Incorporating stress management techniques into the daily work routine to lower stress-related sick days in the next year
• Developing a task prioritization system to ensure the deadlines are met on all high-priority files
• Reducing burnout by engaging in fun and meaningful moments for at least 30 minutes daily

2. Problem-Solving Goals

Problem-solving goals are pivotal for enhancing productivity. They motivate employees to use critical thinking to overcome obstacles and increase their ability to tackle more complex tasks. Examples of problem-solving goals include the following:

• Reducing time spent resolving customer complaints by 5 minutes each call
• Completing a course in a challenging subject and applying that information to work difficulties
• Communicating more effectively with colleagues to build better connections

3. Creativity Goals

Creativity is essential in almost every job. Work engagement and feedback boost grit and creativity and help employees discover innovative ways to tackle obstacles. Create an environment that promotes out-of-the-box thinking and rewards innovation — it could give your organization a competitive advantage. Here are three examples of creativity goals:

• Dedicating scheduled time to brainstorming or ideation
• Attending at least one work-related workshop a month to increase engagement
• Generating at least two new ideas on improving workflow every month

Conquer Your Company Goals With Exude Human Capital

When done right, employee performance goals spark inspiration throughout your company and light it up with passion and success. At Exude, we specialize in creating and reviewing strategies that help your organization thrive. Our human resources consulting solutions are customized for your unique needs.

Feel free to check out our blog for more insightful resources on maximizing efficiency. Feel free to contact us for a complimentary 30-minute consultation, and let us create a holistic solution that elevates your company.