Does your company perform like a well-rehearsed symphony, or is everyone doing their own thing? That can be the difference between an organization where every individual and department has an alignment of goals and one that doesn't focus on strategic goal synchronization.
Aligning employee goals with company objectives can lead to a more cohesive workforce that gets things done. You can see the increased employee engagement and productivity that results. Here's how to get started down the path of goal alignment.
Companies that have successfully aligned employee goals with company objectives have increased workplace performance by up to 22 percent. Employee decision-making becomes better when their goals align with the company's overall strategy. When teams share common goals, they collaborate more effectively. When everyone in an organization has a shared sense of purpose, it boosts morale and employee satisfaction.
Setting strategic objectives for an organization should be done using a cascading goals framework that starts at the top and trickles down through the company. Start with leadership meetings to define your company's goals, objectives, and vision. Be crystal clear about what those objectives are.
Enlist senior and middle management leaders next. Once you've explained the goals to them, solicit feedback and questions. Make sure the goals are easy to understand and communicate. Refine your goals to communicate them better if needed.
The leadership's role is then to communicate the goals to team leaders and individual employees to get everyone on the same page. The goals should be structured so that every level of the organization understands its role. Use objectives and key results (OKRs) to achieve goal alignment at every level.
Communication, accountability, and clear expectations are the keys to success when it comes to organizational goal setting. Leaders should make company goals a regular part of the conversation with team leaders. When goals become a common topic for discussion with the team leaders, they will keep it top-of-mind with their team members as well. This helps to keep everyone accountable, so there are no surprises such as unmet goals disrupting workflow.
For team leaders, regular feedback and progress reviews will help to keep employee goals aligned with company objectives. Formal employee reviews will become less intimidating for your workers after the discussion of goals has become a regular topic of conversation in their day-to-day interactions with managers.
Payday offers a performance management system that can help streamline this process for your organization. Employee reviews can be a cumbersome process that requires a lot of paperwork. Our system allows you to create, process, and review your performance reviews on a digital platform that tracks employee progress over time. It's a transparent digital system that can be integrated into your daily business operations for continuous employee performance alignment.
Our processes can help improve accountability with employees while improving retention. We also offer training management, which allows employees to advance to the next level in their careers through new training and certification.
Adobe, Google, Intel, Netflix, and Spotify are five well-known companies that have successfully implemented cascading goals tied to objectives and key results (OKRs). Goals are first set at the top leadership level and then broken down into cascading goals at the team and individual levels. Data analytics and key performance indicators (KPIs), with the use of digital tools, allow them to track and monitor goal achievement at every level.
Poor communication between departments can be one of the biggest challenges to employee performance alignment. A clear vision and strategy can help to overcome this. If an organization's goals are not crystal clear and easy to understand, you can end up with a lack of communication and siloed decision-making between departments.
Resistance to change can be a challenge in any organization. As you begin to reorganize in favor of goal alignment, you may meet some resistance. Involving stakeholders at every level in the goal-setting process is a way to overcome this.
Inadequate performance metrics can be another roadblock to success. You need the right system to measure performance metrics in the first place. The ability to review those metrics regularly and make adjustments is extremely important.
Aligning employee goals with company objectives is not an overnight process. It requires effort on the front end by your leadership to define company goals, and then break those goals down to the departmental and employee level. Tracking objectives and key results must then be combined with regular performance rules to keep your organization on track.
Discover how Payday can help align your team’s goals with your business objectives. Schedule a demo today!