How to Set SMART Goals for Employee Performance?

What are SMART Goals?

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. 

Why are these goals necessary?

When the companies have meaningful and realizable Performance goals for their employees, there is fantastic progress and development. There must be a collaborative goal setting so that the employees take up the right path and achieve individual benchmarks and collective goals. 

SMART Goals enhance employee engagement and lead to team alignment and staff retention. There is help in achieving their full potential also. Employees learn more about their role within the company and how effectively they can further a cause and make a valuable contribution to the team.

We bring examples of realistic personal and performance workplace goals that meet the SMART goal criteria. 

Personal Goals

The personal goals refer to improving job performance, strengthening bonds with coworkers, increasing knowledge, certifications, and credentials, and building a robust work ethic.

Performance Goals

• The performance goals refer to aligning the personal goals to organizational objectives, 
• Seeking review and feedback over the progress achieved, 
• Getting abreast with the latest trends and innovations, 
• Asking for input on the processes to give a better customer service, 
• Increasing team coordination and collaboration. 
• The team must complete the specific and relevant training to give a solid performance. 
• Gaining industry knowledge, attending networking events, conferences, and workshops. Building product understanding.

Expectations from the employees to achieve SMART goals 

• Being cooperative and assertive in doing the tasks,
• Respecting the differences in approach because no two individuals are created equal. 
• Performance success and goal realization depend on goal structuring. 
• Helping the team reach new heights and increase overall productivity levels. 
• Implementing SMART goals through developing a consistent system to measure progress.

Why are these goals combined?

The Specific criteria signify that the employees need to know what they are working towards as it becomes easier to achieve. A Measurable goal helps in keeping them motivated, they can make progress and move towards achieving their goals. In being attainable, the goals are realistic. The Relevant aspect will fuel the professional aspirations and help to find a way to align their motivation with the team goals. Finally, Time-based goals fix a limit, and dividing action into small parts depends on this criterion. 

The focus of SMART goals 

• The focus of all these development goals is on growth, learning something new, and contributing to the business objectives. 
• Talking to every Team member in a one-on-one meeting. 
• The employees must know ahead that they must come up with new and bright ideas, initiatives for progress, and matters that align with the company values and goals. 
• Meetings are at the core of enhancing team functionality. 
• Professional development happens when there is a focus on increasing retention and boosting performance. 

The reason behind SMART goal setting is to seize what matters and allocate the right time and resources to the prioritized tasks. It helps in both small and big projects and defines success. 

Steps to Achieve SMART Goals 

1) The first step is to align the entire team

Aligning a team is possible with training, meetings, and observing and monitoring if the team is on track. The team must be on the same page in adhering to the process and answering the expectations to attain a higher level of productivity.

2) Increasing the daily performance

This is followed by having an eye on increasing the daily performance for the month, by a given and measurable percentage. This is quite achievable and will add to the richness of the experience. It is highly relevant in the sense that it will make a big contribution to the success of the individual and the team. One month makes it Time-based.

3) Having a responsible strategy 

The next step is to make an employee in charge of producing an impacting strategy for a specific area of expertise for the next quarter. It may require a lot of brainstorming and delivering one document containing the strategy. It is also a matter of trust and represents taking the lead on specific initiatives. Moreover, other employees can focus on their area of expertise and deliver fantastic results. The process also involves scheduling meetings and discussing what is doable in the time frame.

4) Exemplary management

Management must implement changes by setting an example and being transparent about its own SMART goals. This will make the task easier and worthy of emulation by others.

5) Creating a shared schedule

Everyone on the team must be in sync and adopt a collaborative schedule that is accessible. There must be regular updates to see the progress and achievements besides continuous reviews, feedback, and goal readjustments.

6) Defining the metrics

Yardsticks of measuring productivity must be clear and transparent and focus on tracking employee performance and task completion rates. All team members must work according to the set and collective standards.

7) Adjustments based on feedback

Employees’ opinions matter a lot while implementing the SMART goal system. The ideas, questions, and surveys hold sway in the feedback and make a difference in productivity. Finally, by growing a professional network employees become better.

Relevant Data On Tasks And Performance

In “Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive“, authors Robert Cialdini, Noah Goldstein, and Steve Martin explain how making an active commitment directly affects action. This is true when we set the SMART Goals. By setting targets, we provoke behavior, as proved by science. When there are objectives, you set up to reach and achieve them and have a clear idea of the future progress. It also becomes easier to act towards it.

Conclusion

Considering the above factors, we can say that SMART Goals are a boon for all the companies and must be a priority to achieve sizable and wonderful results in the long run.