It’s a brand new year, and a shiny new decade. Whether you started your business last year, or you’re planning for your second decade, it’s a great time to think about goal setting.
What about your employees? Most individuals set goals for their own careers. Learning new skills, finding a new job, or getting a promotion are common goals for employees.
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What can you do to help your employees set goals that will allow them to grow and feel accomplished in the workplace this year? Use these tips.
Redefine Your Company’s Mission
You might not think defining the company mission will have any bearing on the goals your employees set, but it could be a useful step to give people direction.
If your employees are having difficulty setting goals for what they want to achieve in the workplace this year, it may be because they’re not sure what their role is. What is the company as a whole trying to achieve? Where do they fit into that, and what can they do to help the business achieve those goals?
Redefining the mission could make the path forward crystal clear for the majority of your employees. With a better idea of where the company is going, they can set goals that align with the company’s.
Review Past Goals and Achievements
Unless this is your first year of setting goals for employees, chances are you can go into the archives, and pull up an employee’s past goals and plans. If you’ve just formalized the goal setting process, you may still have some informal records you and the employee can revisit.
Be sure to look at both achievement and goal setting itself during your review. If an employee has achieved and exceeded all their past goals, it might be time to move the bar higher and challenge them.
Map the Road to Success
Once your employees have picked goals that seem attainable for the coming year, it’s time to set up an achievement plan.
An achievement plan is like a road map to success. It’s easy to say “I want to learn a new skill this year.” The achievement plan outlines exactly what skill the employee wants to learn and how they’ll get there. It also allows for success benchmarks along the way, which makes it easier to chart progress and help the employee adjust their course if they happen to end up adrift.
Be Consistent
If you have several employees who perform the same duties, then their goals should also be similar. You may need to tailor goals for individual skills and expertise. On the whole, though, all of your employees should aim to improve productivity, or learn a new program that will enhance efficiency.
Similar goals across employees could help you see who is falling behind. It could also offer insight into who is achieving their goals, and what they’re doing to be successful. With this information in hand, you can more easily assist those employees who are at risk of falling behind.
Involve the Employee in the Process
Most importantly, consult with your employees during the goal setting process. When employees are allowed to choose their own goals, they’ll be more motivated to achieve them.
Not every employee suggestion is a good one, and you can suggest goals and revise employee suggestions too. When employees are actively consulted, though, they’ll feel more ownership of the goal, and take more satisfaction in achieving it.
