Why is it so important that organizations set clear, well developed goals? Many of us see goal setting as a chore we must complete at the beginning of each appraisal cycle without really understanding the impact or importance of the process. If done correctly, goals can motivate employees, help align business processes and improve the overall performance of the company.
How can goals help to align employees and business units with the overall organizational business processes? There needs to be great visibility throughout the goals of the company. If realistic goals are set and there is a vast deal of information sharing during the goal creation process, goals throughout the organization will be consistent. Visibility into the organizational goals enables employees to align their own goals with those of the organization to ensure they are helping support and contribute to the future of the company. Furthermore, this can help clarify the roles of all employees in the company so they are clear in how their performance contributes to the overall success.
Not only is determining a realistic timeframe a key factor in monitoring a goal, but also determining how it will be achieved and how it will be measured. In some cases, a particular goal may require several objectives to be adequately monitored. Goals without objectives are essentially meaningless because progress is impossible to measure. It is this level of specificity sets goals and objectives apart.
One of the methods we employ in the Brilliant HR Talent Performance solution is that of using S.M.A.R.T. goals. These are meant to guide both managers and employees through a successful goal setting process. Each letter stands for an attribute every goal should have to be a clear and reachable goal:
Specific – simple, sensible, significant
Measurable – meaningful, motivating
Achievable – agreed, attainable
Relevant – reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based
Time-bound – time-based, time limited, timely, time-sensitive
The bottom line is that goal setting is not just an annual exercise all employees need to go through so they can check off the box in their list of tasks to complete. Goals are critical to the success of a company and when the proper attention and priority are given to the creation of realistic goals, the outcome realized will definitely be well worth the effort invested up-front.
Why is it so important that organizations set clear, well developed goals? Many of us see goal setting as a chore we must complete at the beginning of each appraisal cycle without really understanding the impact or importance of the process. If done correctly, goals can motivate employees, help align business processes and improve the overall performance of the company.
How can goals help to align employees and business units with the overall organizational business processes? There needs to be great visibility throughout the goals of the company. If realistic goals are set and there is a vast deal of information sharing during the goal creation process, goals throughout the organization will be consistent. Visibility into the organizational goals enables employees to align their own goals with those of the organization to ensure they are helping support and contribute to the future of the company. Furthermore, this can help clarify the roles of all employees in the company so they are clear in how their performance contributes to the overall success.
Not only is determining a realistic time frame a key factor in monitoring a goal, but also determining how it will be achieved and how it will be measured. In some cases, a particular goal may require several objectives to be adequately monitored. Goals without objectives are essentially meaningless because progress is impossible to measure. It is this level of specificity sets goals and objectives apart.
The bottom line is that goal setting is not just an annual exercise all employees need to go through so they can check off the box in their list of tasks to complete. Goals are critical to the success of a company and when the proper attention and priority are given to the creation of realistic goals, the outcome realized will definitely be well worth the effort invested up-front.
In 2017, Baby Boomers will be between 53 and 71 years old. Their waning numbers underline the need for good succession planning, especially since this segment likely represents the majority of the senior team. Yet 68% of firms have no formal succession plan leaving organizations at risk when baby boomers retire.
While succession planning is typically thought of as more of a learning and development discussion, more and more organizations are finding the need to tap recruiters’ skills for both external recruitment and internal redeployment of roles, finding talent that is often overlooked or neglected by traditional development methods.
Retirement Trends for 2017
According to Deltek’s 2016 A&E Clarity Report:
1 in 10 workers in the A&E industry fall into the Baby Boomer or Millennial categories.
The average turnover is around 13.3%. Departing Baby Boomers are likely contributing to this number but turnover is being driven primarily by voluntary departures.
As retirement rates accelerate for Baby Boomer-era partners who have historically bore the lion’s share of the Business Development burden, the responsibility is now spreading throughout the organization.
59% of firms have the same number of open positions as last year, while 1 in 4 firms reported more open positions and only 16% reported fewer. Large firms had the most unfilled jobs with more than 30% reporting a greater number of open spots than last year. Large firms are losing employees faster than their small and mid-sized counterparts, highlighting the need for better processes to engage and recruit employees.
70% of firms rank talent acquisition as one of their top three most expensive HR processes, with succession planning at the sixth most expensive.
Just 19% of companies surveyed said they have a repository that helps them source and acquire talent for projects.
68% of firms have no formal succession plan or the plan applies only to a select few people leaving organizations at risk when baby boomers retire or a key member of the firm leaves unexpectedly.
Prevent lack of leadership or critical talent
Identify talent gaps
Identify individuals with potential
Speed up development
Minimize leader turnover
Discourage talent hoarding
Goals of Succession Plans
Shortcomings of Traditional Succession Planning
Succession plans fail when you don’t have the right mindset, processes, and support to make them succeed. There are some things you should definitely think about to reduce the chances that your plans will not work out.
Don’t use the “set it and forget it” mentality. Let’s face it – things change and you need to make sure that you are able to account for those changes. People leave; availability changes; the company changes direction. You need to be thinking about these things when making plans and evaluate the plans regularly (at least once or twice a year) to make sure that you still have the best people identified as successors.
Have a backup plan. Again, things change and you don’t want to be caught in a lurch if there are unforeseen changes. It is a good idea to have other potential successors identified provide for flexibility in succession planning.
Develop your potential successors. Once you’ve identified potential successors, make sure you groom them so that they are ready if they need to step up. Under-developed leaders weaken the entire organization, erode workforce confidence, and impact job satisfaction. Make sure you have the resources in place to get your successors ready for the next step.
Include managers in the process. This will not only broaden your search, but it fosters engagement. Both managers and team members feel they have a voice and are represented in the company’s planning.
Consider your entire workforce. If you only consider HiPos, you may miss hidden talent. Don’t overlook talent that is new to the company. And make sure to consider all important criteria, not just past jobs held and skills/competencies.
Listen to what your employees say they want. This encourages engagement, positively impacts retention rates, improves job satisfaction, contributes to overall business success and demonstrates support for employees’ goals and aspirations.
Don’t keep your employees in the dark. Tell employees they are on a succession plan. This is a huge opportunity to impact retention in your highest performers, and this engagement can impact the bottom line. Also, keeping employees aware can motivate self-development.
Tapping Recruiter Skills for Finding Talent
Recruiters can be a great resource for identifying potential successors within your organization. They are already strong at sourcing for openings, and those same skills can come in handy for succession planning. Recruiters have multiple sources at their disposal, can ensure the job is the right fit, and can include external candidates.
Your recruiting team can also be a valuable resource in building career paths for employees, evaluating the quality of new hire, looking at HiPo employees to build interview questions, and sharing information with managers.
Another good reason for including recruiters is that sometimes (unfortunately) managers might not be the most reliable source for identifying potential successors. This happens when managers fail to develop their talent, either for their current role or future possibilities. Also, some managers will hold back employees who are ready for more because of the impact that would have on their team’s performance. Study after study identifies bad managers and lack of challenge/opportunity as the number one and number two reason people leave a job. This could lead to your best talent being deprived of growth opportunities and walking out the door.
From finding the best talent and the right fit for your company to looking internally at the possible employees who are best suited to take on a higher role. Understanding your company’s values and culture and having the right systems in place will help make the transition to the next role easier.
Employee engagement and retention are two of the hottest topics in HR right now. It is currently estimated that 70% of employees are not engaged, and we have to stop and ask ourselves why.
Traditionally, employee engagement programs have been developed by HR departments to survey employees, and create strategic employee engagement programs to reduce attrition. This a great first step; however a recent Gallup study shows that the top reason an employee leaves a company is due to their relationship with their manager. This highlights the fact that employee engagement starts with the manager, and companies need to provide additional strategies to their managers to assist them in engaging their team.
One of the most overlooked opportunities to increase engagement is to create a development plan for employees during their performance review. We all know the traditional performance review process. Employees will have a meeting with their manager to discuss the results of their previous year’s performance, and learn their new goals for the next review. A lot of time will be spent with managers detailing expectations; however how much time does the manager spend listening to the employee and understanding their personal goals and desired career path?
Managers need to balance corporate goals with an employee’s personal development goals to ensure the company’s success. Once the manager fully understands the employee’s career goals, they need to work together to create a development plan that will not only assist the company in reaching their growth goals, but also includes training and development for the employee to reach their personal goals. By tracking development plan progress during the performance review process, there will be a scheduled time during every review cycle to ensure that managers are actively engaging their employees as engaged employees will be key to a company’s continued growth.
Performance reviews, if done correctly, can lead towards a high-performance culture. By giving employees a common purpose, clear expectations, capability, and commitment and building this culture across the organization, employees have a clear insight into where the company is headed, their role in making this happen, what it will take to happen, and what’s in it for them if it does.
An employee’s direct manager has the most insight into and employee’s day to day performance and are most involved in performance reviews, making them a key player when it comes to driving employee engagement. Some ways they can use the performance review to help foster a more engaged workforce include a focus on performance views and showing employees show they contribute to the overall success of the company.
LinkedIn shares that managers who received feedback on their strengths showed 8.9% greater profitability. Regular feedback to these managers, specifically focusing on their strengths, contribute to this increase – and to a lower turnover rate (14.9% lower). From this study and many others like it, a great point is raised that your performance review should not only point out and lead to discussions about where an employee is struggling, but should also highlight and work on developing an employee’s strengths.
Just be careful – if your performance review process is viewed as your employees as unfair or lacking value, the results can be negative. Holding off on providing employees with feedback until the review cycle and not giving them meaningful feedback in a timely manner is one example, while another is giving seemingly arbitrary ratings that aren’t in line with the feedback you’ve been giving your employees throughout the year. Make sure that your managers are trained in how to get the most of the performance review instead of forcing them to comply to a bell curve. We’ve compiled a list of reasons why employees might not see value in the performance review and what you can do to combat these ideas and increase engagement. We also can offer alternatives to some practices that contribute to these negative perceptions.
While performance reviews are often looking at measuring how an employee has done in the past, remember that they can also be a good tool to motivate employees towards continuing to do well or to improve in the future. Take the opportunity to provide meaningful (and timely) feedback to your employees and combine these with training opportunities when needed to help make sure your employees are seeing the value and to keep them engaged.
One piece to creating a successful employee engagement is having events in your company. Events, big or small create a sense of bonding between coworkers. They help establish relationships, which can lead to a sense of belonging to the company. Each company has their own way of bringing unity within the company. Below is a list of different types of events that your company is already doing or could maybe start to liven things up.
“A little Party never hurt nobody”
Different types of events:
Holiday parties- Oh the holidays! How they bring about such a wonderful, happy time. That happy time can create quite a positive mood with office employees especially when it comes to holiday parties. Having a holiday party is good about bringing unity and a good time outside the office. But make sure to keep a limit and don’t have the event get to out of control.
Fitness Classes- Fitness classes that the company provides, such as yoga or boot camps show another side of your coworkers. It’s a place where everyone can let off some steam before going back to work. And is a great added benefit or incentive if the company is willing to provide this outlet for their employees.
Happy Hour- an easy after work get together where everyone can go and enjoy a quick drink or some appetizers before heading home. It’s a nice way to end a work day. Some companies let employees leave a little earlier to attend, or some have the means to be able to have the happy hour in the office break room or a conference room, so employees don’t have to go far and can just head home.
Team building – Team building shows coworkers in a different light. Depending what the activities are for the day, usually they are exercises that show we need to rely on each other to get the job done. For example: Some companies have team building exercises at Escape rooms because everyone in their room is working together to get out before the time is out. Other teams do outdoor activities or go bowling to just create a relaxed environment outside of the office that also creates time for conversation besides work. Having an activity to bond about or talk about makes it easier to engage in those types on conversations as well.
Some other honorable mentions are attending Conferences with your team members and Employee Appreciation Day. The goal and benefit of all these activities is to create bonding experiences with coworkers outside of work in a more relaxed setting so that they feel a part of a community. What are other events that your company could put on to build your employees up?
