Employee Goal SettingHow many times have you heard it? "To be successful you must set goals." Well it’s true. At some point we have all set goals and worked to meet those goals. Often times however, we set goals only to lose interest in them shortly down the road. One of the most consistent findings among researchers on being an effective supervisor has much to do with employee goal setting. If you, as a supervisor devote attention to employee goal setting you may find that there is higher productivity among your team members. Setting goals is simple and effective in the workplace. Here are some common guidelines to follow when goal setting for your employees. When employee goal setting be specific about the goal you are trying to obtain. When goals are to broad or general time may not be utilized fully for working towards the goal at hand. Having a specific goal leads to greater commitment and follow through. After setting employee goals have a mechanism in place to measure the progress. You can measure the goal by looking at various aspects such as; cost, quality, quantity, or timeliness. Providing feedback is important to keeping individuals motivated and knowing how they are progressing towards the goal. When setting up goals get feedback from your team members. If goals are set jointly you will tend to have a greater buy in and your employees will be more committed to meeting the goals. This guideline is probably one of the most important of the guidelines for employee goal setting. Be Realistic! If the goal is not realistic then it will most likely fail and your employees will begin to wander away from meeting this goal. Set a deadline to have the goal met. Setting a deadline helps add a sense of urgency to the situation and improves the follow through on accomplishing the goal. Upon saying this let me add that you should also allow a window of completion. For example, say you set the deadline to by 3 days from today’s date. When that day comes you may want to allow yourself room for early completion or even a few additional hours to tie up some loose ends. Evaluate on day 3 and see where you are at. You may still get it done that day but it may not be until after lunch. Finally, when employee goal setting be sure to set goals and methods of achieving those goals that is repeatable. You don’t want to have to re-create the wheel each time you set goals for your employees. Resources for Managing People and the Workplace
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