As a business owner or manager, you must always present your staff with performance goals examples to help grow your staff, as well as justify position changes like transfers, promotions, and salary adjustments. Ideally, these goals should be tied to the overall business goals and should be achieved before the staff member can be promoted or considered for a higher-level job.
Apart from helping determine career paths for your staff, these goals also help you know what is expected in the position. Much like the key performance indicators (KPIs) we have discussed in another article, these performance goals help your staff understand the overall behavior you are looking to achieve.
Here are some examples of performance goals that should be measured:
Productivity
It is important that productivity be measured. This is a critical performance goal. Obstacles that hinder employees are usually discovered through evaluating employee performance, which can then be corrected with training and development. It becomes part of the goal-setting stage within most performance appraisals. These appraisals are tools that can be used to determine effective methods to increase productivity – including changing processes or procedures to help make the job easier.
Accountability
Another performance goal is to hold staff accountable for their job responsibilities. Accountability determines the outcome when performance goals are not met. It helps you determine if employees are performing the job they have been hired to do. The consequences of non-performance should be well thought out and should escalate as more goals are not met. Accountability allows your staff to understand the consequences of not meeting expectations. As with anything, however, the standards should be what most people can achieve for the position.
Motivation
One of the most important performance goal examples is motivation, which prepares employees for bigger or additional responsibilities either within their current roles or for promotional opportunities. Motivation focuses not just on employees’ monetary gains but also on employee recognition that is not necessarily in cash. It is best served by recognizing and appreciating talent through assigning high-level duties and tasks and giving employees the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership skills.
SMART Goals
Setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-sensitive (SMART) is crucial in creating a path to reaching employees’ performance goals. Having goals set out in this manner prevents confusion and difficulty in holding them accountable.
Creating performance goals
While there are clearly some basic goals and objectives that need to be done for each position, it is always best if a manager and employee can work together to create goals that are specific to the job and position. Collaborative goal setting helps ensure that the staff is engaged and invested in the company’s goals.
Importance of performance goals
Performance goals examples are important because they help people determine how well they are performing, which then helps them plan their next moves as far as their careers are concerned. For the employee, it can get them promoted, get a pay raise, or get assigned bigger responsibilities. For the company, it ensures that the staff is motivated and productive. In short, it’s set up for success in that the position is done right and on time so that the overall company goals are met.
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