We often talk about performance goals for employees only in the context of an annual performance review, but goal setting can — and should — take different forms.
Effective employee goal setting can take several forms. We often talk about performance goals for employees only in the context of an annual performance review. We rate and categorize employees, set new goals, and then we forget about it all until next year.
This process is often unhelpful, but it’s important to establish performance goals that help further your business pursuits and advance your employees’ career goals. Remember: employees are more likely to be happy and engaged if they feel like they are progressing in their careers.
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This always made sense to me until I saw it in action. Each year I’d work with my manager on SMART performance goals: “complete project X by due date” and “learn skill Y within 6 months.” And then life would happen and when we reviewed goals months later I had failed. Project X had been cancelled and skill Y was no longer relevant to my job. I was doing something completely different. We’d establish new goals that would turn out months later to be equally dated and naive. “Ignore your goals and they’ll go away” was an unfortunately effective approach. How do managers deal with the fact that good goal setting requires more accurate prediction of the future than they can do? (Or do goals actually work outside the changeable world of IT?)
The only way a computer-generated goal is made compatible with human actual performance is to allow entry of the actual performance to be compared to the theoretically expected result. That way the computer can adjust goals more accurately to real life. IT needs real-time information.
Performance goals are so important! I think another thing that isn’t often discussed about performance goals is how it can help retain employees. Someone feels really compelled to stay and complete their objective. It’s truly a healthy thing to have goals from the employer and employee.