/? 210510" Setting Employee Goals

This time of year usually brings out those resolutions...both personal resolutions and company goals. Regardless of what the goal is, here are some tips to help with your goal setting:Setting Employee Goals

Before you define goal...be sure it meets the SMART criteria:

-Specific:A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the six "W" questions:

• Who: Who is involved?
• What: What do I want to accomplish?
• Where: Identify a location.
• When: Establish a time frame.
• Which: Identify requirements and constraints.
• Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

-Measurable:Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. Ask questions such as......How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished? /? 210510" Setting Employee Goals

-Attainable:Is the goal able to be reached? It should be a stretch to reach the goal, but not so much so that it's out of reach.

-Realistic:What it takes to do to achieve the goal should be within the availability of resources, knowledge and time

-Timely:The goals should have a clearly defined time-frame including a target completion date.

Using the SMART criteria above, the Company should determine 3-5 goals that are tied to success measures of the company. Oftentimes they are financial, business development, process development or customer satisfaction measures.

Once the Company Goals are determined, they should be communicated throughout the Company and translated to departmental goals. Those departmental goals then become the framework that shape each employee's individual goals. Hence the goals are cascaded as Company Goals down to Departmental Goals down to Individual Goals. These individual goals can play an important role in performance management, career development and employee rewards. /? 210510" Setting Employee Goals