Setting Effective Employee Goals

Supervisors need to set goals for their employees because workers who know what they should be getting done are more likely to be productive. Employee goals should be the right blend of ambitious and realistic and encourage engagement. These are some tips for effective employee goal-setting in the workplace.

Make sure that all the employees know how their roles benefit the company.

When employees understand how their jobs help the company’s success, they will put in more effort and be more attentive. Employees who feel like they are stuck doing busywork will have less motivation because they will feel unimportant. For this reason, it is crucial to explain to every employee why what he or she does significantly contributes to the company’s success.

Encourage employees to create goals for themselves.

Allowing employees to think of their own goals will make workers feel more important than giving them a list of objectives that they may not understand. When a superior invites employees to challenge themselves to be more productive, this can increase their motivation and keep them on their toes.

Use the SMART acronym.

When it comes to setting employee goals, SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based. A supervisor should see that the goals they create for employees have all of these qualities.

Be reasonable with expectations.

Setting unrealistic goals for employees will only make them feel stressed and will most likely cause them to crash under pressure or end up lowering their motivation in the long-run. The supervisor needs to consider each employee’s strengths and weaknesses when setting goals. This way, the supervisor will know that the employee will be capable of successfully achieving them.

Do not encourage competition among employees.

While some employees enjoy the challenge of competing with each other for different responsibilities, workplace rivalries typically end up causing conflicts that lower efficiency. For this reason, it is best to give employees in similar positions similar goals so that no employees feel like their supervisor is either favoring them or does not like them. Employees are typically more productive when they get along well with each other.

Following these suggestions can help any supervisor increase motivation and productivity through successful employee goals in the workplace.

Originally published on Thomas Looby’s website.