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Goal Setting with Employees — What Should Employees Work On?

Happy colleagues working together while pointing to the stick notes

Goal Setting with Employees — What Should Employees Work On?

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business and Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.

Strongly Suggested Pre-Reading

How to Ensure Strong Employee Performance Management

Sections of This Topic Include

Also consider

Experts assert that goals assigned to employees should be directly aligned with the goals from the strategic and business plans of the organization, so the reader might benefit from scanning some of the contents in those topics. Many organizations further refine those goals by doing various task and job analysis to identify what competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) are needed by the employee to achieve the goals. The results of those activities often are itemized in job descriptions.

How to Set Relevant and Realistic Goals With Your Employees

Supervisors — Regardless of Level — Often Lack Understanding of Performance

Performance is when an employee is achieving a goal in a highly effective and efficient manner and when that goal is closely aligned with achieving the overall goals of the organization. A common problem for new supervisors is having no clear, strong sense of whether their employees are high performing or not.

Employees can be very busy in their roles, but that does not mean they are high-performing if their roles are not directly contributing toward achieving the overall goals of the organization. The first step toward solving this problem is to establish clear performance goals. Some people have a strong negative reaction toward setting goals because they fear goals as “the law” that must be maintained and never broken. Some people fear they will never achieve the goals. Others have disdain for goals because goals seem to take the “heart” out of their work.

Advantages of Using Performance Goals in the Workplace

Despite the negative views that one can have about goals, they hold certain strong advantages in the workplace. They:

  1. Provide clear direction to supervisors and employees.
  2. Form a common frame of reference around which they can effectively communicate.
  3. Clearly indicate success, and can cultivate a strong sense of fulfillment for those working toward achieving the goals.
  4. Help clarify the specific expectations of the supervisor and employee.

Employee Performance Gaps, Growth Gaps, Opportunity Gaps and Training Gaps

Goals can be useful for specifying expectations and for setting measurements of progress in working to fill four types of gaps:

Performance gaps

These gaps are identified during the employee performance management process. Ideally, performance gaps are addressed by performance improvement plans. Performance improvement plans are sometimes a last-ditch effort at helping a person to improve his/her performance. Ideally, the performance problem is addressed through ongoing feedback and adjustments during regular one-on-one meetings. In these plans, goals are established to improve performance, and may include, for example, increased effort on the part of the employee, support from his/her supervisor, and certain training and resources to assist the person in his/her development. Dedicated employees can greatly appreciate having specific performance goals for them to achieve in order to keep their jobs, verify their competence to their supervisor and accomplish overall professional development.

Growth gaps

These gaps are identified during career planning. Employees perceive certain areas of knowledge and skills that they would like to accomplish in order to qualify for certain future roles and positions. Employees often appreciate having clear-cut goals that mark what they need to do to advance in their careers.

Opportunity gaps

These gaps are identified when a sudden opportunity arises for the employee. If the person is highly interested in taking advantage of the opportunity, then he or she will appreciate knowing exactly what goals must be achieved to take advantages of the opportunity. Growth gaps and opportunity gaps are very similar.

Training gaps

These gaps are identified when hiring a new employee, during performance management planning or career planning. Gaps are usually in terms of areas of knowledge, skills or abilities (competencies). Training plans can be designed with clear-cut training goals to give direction to the employee or trainer.
Whatever the type of goal, it is critical that the employee have strong ownership and commitment to achieving the goal.

Performance Goals Should Be SMARTER

You can help ensure that goals are agreeable to supervisor and employee by ensuring that they are highly involved in identifying the goals. When setting goals with others, strive to describe them to be “SMARTER.” This acronym stands for goals that are:

  • Specific — For example, a goal to generate three types of financial statements, including cash flow, budget-versus-actual and income statement.
  • Measurable — For example, to be able to assess if the three types of statements were generated or not.
  • Achievable — For example, the goal would be irrelevant if the person had no access to the financial information from which to generate the statements.
  • Relevant — For example, the goal would not be useful if the organization has no plans to ever make decisions based on the financial statements.
  • Timely — The statements should be generated by a certain deadline, for example, in time for the Board to review and approve the statements.
  • Extending capabilities — Ideally, the goal involves the person’s learning more than they already knew about generating statements.
  • Rewarding — Ideally, the activities of generating the financial statements would be fulfilling for the person to accomplish. If goals seem insurmountable to the employee, then break goals down into smaller goals, or sub-goals or objectives until they are SMARTER.

Additional Perspectives on Setting Goals With Employees

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Goal Setting With Employees

In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Goal Setting With Employees. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.

For the Category of Supervision:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

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How to Effectively Fire an Employee

Fired Employee Packing his Things at Office

How to Effectively Fire an Employee

© Copyright Carter
McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business and
Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.

Strongly Suggested Pre-Reading

How to Ensure
Strong Employee Performance Management

Sections of This Topic Include

Basic Guidelines to Fire an Employee

Additional Perspectives on Firing Employees

Also consider
Employee
Performance Management
Related Library Topics

Basic Guidelines to Fire an Employee

1. You should consider firing the employee only if you’ve done the following.
You have
a) given the employee clear indication of what you originally expected from
him or her (via a written job description previously provided to the him or
her);
b) have clearly written personnel policies which specify conditions and directions
about firing employees and the employee initialized a copy of the policy handbook
to verify that he or she had read the policies;
c) warned the employee in successive and dated memos which clearly described
degrading performance over a specified time despite your specific and recorded
offers of assistance and any training (the number of memos depends on the nature
of the problem, but should be no more than three or four); and
d) you clearly observe the employee still having the performance problem. (Note
that if the employee is being fired within a probationary period specified in
your personnel policies, you may not have to meet all of the above conditions.)

2. Take a day or so to consider what you are about to do.
For example, consult with members of your board.

3. If you still decide to fire the employee, do so promptly.
Do this, both for your credibility with other staff members and so as not begin
procrastinating about this rather painful, upcoming event.

4. Write a letter of termination to the employee.
As with the previous letters of warning, be clear about the observed behaviors,
when you saw them, earlier warnings and their consequences, what you did in
response, and the consequence that must now be enacted according to your policies.

5. Tell the computer system administrator to change the employee’s password.
. Assert that this action should be done promptly and in complete confidence.

6. Meet with the employee. Provide them the letter. Explain how the termination
will occur.
Include explanation of when, what they must do, what you request from them and
when. Ask for any keys. Give them a half hour or so to remove personal items
(you may choose to monitor them during this removal, depending on the nature
of the grounds for dismissal). Consider changing the door locks to the facilities.
Change the passwords on phone systems, if applicable.

7. As with other meetings, make notes of what was said and exchanged.
Keep them in your records.

Additional Perspectives on Firing Employees

Basics
of Firing an Employee
Guidelines
for hiring and firing
Firing with Dignity

Is It My Job to Fire Employees?
When You Fire an Employee
Should You Fire Yourself?
Firing
Employees
Firing the “So-So” Workers
Firing the Executive Director

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Firing an Employee

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs
that have posts related to Firing an Employee. Scan down the blog’s page to
see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the
sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in
the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s
Career Management Blog
Library’s
Human Resources Blog
Library’s
Leadership Blog
Library’s
Supervision Blog

For the Category of Supervision:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books


Posted on

How to Cultivate Strong Employee Engagement

Employees engaging together while working

How to Cultivate Strong Employee Engagement

Sections of This Topic Include

What is Employee Engagement?
Why is Employee Engagement So Important?
How Can I Cultivate Stronger Employee Engagement?

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Employee Performance Management

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs
that have posts related to Employee Performance Management. Scan down the blog’s
page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts”
in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a
post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s
Career Management Blog
Library’s
Human Resources Blog
Library’s
Leadership Blog
Library’s
Supervision Blog

What is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement has become one of the most important concepts in leadership
and management. It is often at the top of the list of the most important topics
in this decade. It is based on the premise that the more engaged an employee
is, the higher the employee is performing. Let us look at two different views
on the topic:

Employee Engagement is a fundamental concept in the effort to understand
and describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of the relationship
between an organization and its employees. An “engaged employee” is
defined as one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work and
so takes positive action to further the organization’s reputation and interests.
An engaged employee has a positive attitude towards the organization and its
values. An organization with “high” employee engagement might therefore
be expected to outperform those with “low” employee engagement “.
— Wikipedia

Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions
for all members of an organisation to give of their best each day, committed
to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational
success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being. — Engage for
Success

Also consider:

What Is Employee Engagement?

Why is Employee Engagement So Important?

Copyright, Marcia
Zidle business and leadership coach.

Do you manage by walking around? What do you see? People excited about their job or people just going through the motions?

When employees care about their work and their company — when they are engaged
— they use discretionary effort. This means the engaged computer programmer
works overtime when needed, without being asked. This means the engaged retail
clerk picks up the trash on the store floor, even if the boss isn’t watching.
This means the nurse comes into your room to see how you’re doing in addition
to just giving you your meds. So how do you, as a manager or supervisor
turn “it’s
just a job” employees into engaged,
energized employees?

Here are seven actions, that do not cost much if anything, yet have great impact.
Which ones will work with your workforce?

1. Spend time out in the field.
Ask your employees how you can help make their jobs easier. Work alongside them
and even let them teach you what they do. Southwest Airlines has a mandate that
every manager must spend 1/3 of his or her time in direct contact with employees
and customers to create a stronger feeling of teamwork.

2. Celebrate everything you can.
For example, meeting of short term goals, the end of the budget process, winning
grants or new customers, extraordinary work, safety successes.

3. Hold informal “grapevine sessions” to control the flow
of the rumor mill.
Managers must be prepared to listen and to be completely truthful and open.
Even when they can’t share specific information, they can honestly explain why
and when it will be available.

4. Let people know what they do is important.
Help your workers focus not on only a job description but also on how they fit
into the big picture. That new sense of purpose will boost their self-esteem
and motivation.

5. Don’t let respect slip under the radar screen.
If you treat your employees with respect you will earn their respect. For example,
if you pay attention to and take care of your front-line people, they will in
turn pay attention to and take care of the customer. Start with daily greetings.
Remember their birthdays or other important dates. Take an interest in their
interests. Say thank you for a job well done.

6. Take them serious.
There’s incredible brainpower all around you, so why not put it to work? You
hired your employees because you thought they could make a valuable contribution.
Ask for their suggestions to problems. Include them in decisions that affect
their work. Give them enough authority that goes with their responsibility.

7. Work for your people.
Listen and act quickly on their questions. Clear the way so they can do their
jobs well. Once people see their leader as acting for them, or on their behalf,
they develop a personal loyalty that energizes their performance.

Management Success Tip:

So why is employee engagement so important? Here’s one way to answer that question:
An employee that not only sees the glass half full but wants to contribute to
the filling of the glass. That’s important because engaged employees lead to higher
service, quality and productivity; which leads to higher customer satisfaction;
which leads to increased sales (repeat business and referrals) which leads to
better business outcomes. Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

How Can I Cultivate Stronger Employee Involvement?

Here are a variety of views on the topic — most of them believing that the
more engaged an employee is, the more satisfied and higher performing the employee
is. Some articles go beyond this premise, to remind us that the ultimate aim
of an engaged employee is not always around performance. It is to help all employees
to find keep meaning and fulfillment in their life and work.


10
Things to Do to Have Engaged, Energized Employees
Engaging
Your Employee for Better B
Three
Strategies to Connect and Engage Employees
The
2018 Clear & Complete Guide to Employee Engagement
What
is Employee Engagement – Engage for SuccessEngage for Success
How
To Establish A Culture Of Employee Engagement

Employee
engagement – Wikipedia
What
Engages Employees the Most OR, the Ten Cs of Employee Engagement?
11
fatal ways to kill employee engagement | Insurance Business
Employee
Engagement | Gallup
The
New Rules of Employee Engagement | Inc.com
What
Great Managers Do to Engage Employees
5
Companies Getting Employee Engagement Right
7
Tips to Increase Employee Engagement Without Spending a Dime
The
Best Employee Engagement Strategy Is From The Bottom Up
Key
Employee Engagement Strategies for 2018
Developing
an Employee Engagement Strategy.pdf
The
6 most effective employee engagement strategies

For the Category of Supervision:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books


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Customer Service Management: Guidelines and Resources

A smiling customer care representative

Customer Service Management: Guidelines and Resources

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Although Customer Service Management there is a conventional difference between the terms “customer” and “client,” this topic refers to “customers” as meaning both. Also, although a product is a tangible offering and a service is an intangible offering, this topic often refers to “products” as meaning both. The activities of customer service apply to any type and size of the organization, so the term “organization” refers to that wide variety. Before reading this topic, you might read about the Relationship Between Managing Supply Chain, Operations, Quality, Customer Relationships and Customer Service.

Sections of This Topic Include

Understanding Customers and Service

Preparing for Providing Great Customer Service

Satisfying Your Customers

Retaining Your Customers

General Resources

UNDERSTAND CUSTOMERS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

Why is Great Customer Service More Important Than Ever?

In the past, an organization was expected to provide a product or service to the customer, and then that transaction was done — the activity was done to the customer. The customer was more or less at the mercy of the organization.

Today, that is changing dramatically. Customers have a much wider range of organizations, products and services to choose from, and they can access them instantly. Customers can also access numerous sources of useful opinions or reviews about the product or service even before they buy them.

Thus, it is more important than ever that organizations remain very good at attracting, satisfying and retaining customers. Customer service has moved beyond being merely transactional to being highly relational.

What is a Customer? Consumer? Client?

Before we continue, we should get clear on what we are talking about. Different terms mean different things to different people. Here is a broad and useful definition of customer:

  • “In sales, commerce and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea – obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for money or some other valuable consideration.” Wikipedia

A customer becomes a consumer once the recipient begins to use the product or service. A client is a recipient who buys services from an organization, particularly a professional service. For example, nonprofit organizations typically use the term “client” to refer to anyone who benefits from their products and services.

Types of Customers

The topic of customers and customer service can seem so broad that it is difficult to get a good grasp on understanding them and how to best serve them. It helps a great deal to understand that there are different types of customers. You should recognize them, prioritize them and use that ranking in your product development, sales, marketing and customer service.

Organizations can have internal and external customers. An example of a internal customer is a department in an organization that receives services from another department. For example, the Human Resource Department might get its budget managed — that is, serviced — by the Finance Department. An example of an external customer is a person who buys shoes from a shoe store.

Types of Customer Needs

Your organization, regardless of its type or size, cannot survive unless it is meeting the needs of its customers. There is a saying in marketing that customers come to a product or service based on what they want, but they stay based on what they need.

However, there is a vast array of different types of needs that different types of customers have. Also, customers’ needs can change rapidly as they grapple to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

Similar to knowing the types of customers above, it helps to understand the different overall types of needs that they have. What different types (segments) of customers do you have based on their different needs? What types of needs are each of your products and services meeting for each segment? What types do you want to serve instead or in addition to?

What Customers Value

There is a difference between knowing the typical needs of customers compared to actually meeting their needs. To begin meeting those needs, it is important to consider what different types of customers typically value in meeting their own needs. To some customers, value is the lowest price. To others, value represents prestige.

To others, it represents long-lasting quality. What do your customers value the most from the products and services? How does that value differentiate you from your competitors? Write your unique value proposition.

What is Customer Service?

In the past, customer service usually meant being understanding and courteous to your customers while they were buying your product. However, today’s customers are much more demanding and competition is much stronger. Consequently, it is much more useful to consider customer service to be the type of support that you offer before, during and after your customers buy from you. Many companies today are highly competitive primarily because of the very high quality of their customer service.

PREPARE FOR PROVIDING STRONG CUSTOMER SERVICE

The implementation of the guidelines in each this section should be managed by an Implementation Team comprised of at least one member from general management, and management in the functions of sales, marketing and customer service.

Create a Customer Service Management Plan

Be Systematic in Your Planning

Strong customer service is so vital to the surviving — and thriving — of your organization that it should not be done in a reactive and sporadic approach. Instead, it needs to be done proactively from a well designed customer service management plan. Think about the

  1. Inputs to the system, such as best practices in customer service, sales and marketing; computer technologies; funding; and human resources
  2. Ongoing processes to sustain great customer service, such as clarifying customers’ needs, meeting or exceeding those needs, getting feedback, managing complaints, and overall managing customer relationships
  3. Outputs from the system, such as useful reports about customers’ needs and activities, and more highly skilled employees in providing customer service
  4. Outcomes, the greatest of all including increased customer satisfaction and loyalty

Establish Customer Service Goals

  1. Consider your organization’s overall strategic priorities. For example, does your organization want especially to increase sales and profits, increase impact in the community (if yours is a nonprofit), expand marketshare and/or reduce customer complaints?
  2. Then consider the different types of customers that you have (market segments) and how you want to manage each differently in order to help achieve your organization’s goals. For example, do you want to focus even more on the most profitable customers? Reduce the types that generate the least revenues? Expand marketing to new customers to expand marketshare?
  3. Then consider where to focus in your customer service activities in each group. For example, better tools to get feedback from customers, starting a call center, starting a new customer service manager position and/or use more social media?

Be Realistic In Your Planning

Especially if yours is a small to medium-sized organization, or if this is your first time in being focused and intentional about customer service, then be very realistic about your planning. For the first draft of your plan, focus on its most basic elements and then embellish the plan as you implement the plan during its first year.

Also see
How to Do to Planning

Begin Changing Your Organization’s Culture

Great customer service is a mindset. It is a way of thinking, prioritizing and planning about customers in an organization. It guides how decisions are made and how problems are solved regarding customers. When many people in an organization have that mindset, then the organization has a customer service
and customer-centric culture. In that culture, organizations always “partner” with customers to ensure a great customer experience — they always solicit feedback from customers in order to exceed their expectations.

Research shows that long-lasting, successful change in an organization usually requires a change in its culture. Unless the culture begins to change, it does not matter how much advice and many tools that the organization gets. A change in culture will determine whether they are actually used or not.

Also see

Train Your Employees About Customer Service

Strong customer service requires well developed knowledge and expertise. It requires skills in building trust, having empathy for others, listening, asking thoughtful questions and sharing feedback. These skills do not come easily for most people. Therefore, arrange highly practical trainings for your employees — trainings that match their busy schedules and trainings that include practice sessions.

Also see
About Training and Development

SATISFY YOUR CUSTOMERS

Clearly Identify Customers’ Needs

One of the biggest mistakes that an organization can make is to assume that all of its customers are the same. The power of excellent sales, marketing and customer service comes from realizing that different types of customers have different types of needs. Do you have different groups of customers who have different needs? How do you know? Do some need prompt provision of products rather than ordering online? Self-maintenance rather than ongoing support? Basic functionality rather than high-quality? Consider the different groups to be different market segments.

Also see
How to Conduct Market Research

Meet Customers’ Needs

Different market segments have different needs. They have different interpretations of value — of what will meet their needs. To remain viable, your organization has to be meeting the different needs of its different market segments. How do you best meet the needs of each different market segments? How do you know?

Also see

Get Customers’ Feedback

The way to ensure that your organization is meeting the needs of its customers comes especially from their feedback. According to Barb Lyon, there are many different ways to ask: post-purchase and post-support surveys, enclosures in the monthly invoice, follow-up phone calls and quarterly or annual surveys. Each different market segment might prefer different measures.

How are you getting feedback from each of your different groups of customers? Is feedback actively solicited or informally collected? What are you hearing from each different market segment? How do you respond to what you are hearing?

Also see

Measure Customers’ Satisfaction

There are numerous different ways to measure the satisfaction of your customers. The challenge with specifying key measures is that not all businesses will use the same metrics. According to Barb Lyon, for call centers, support, and service desks, first call resolution is the Holy Grail. For a shipping operation, product delivery and project implementation, on-time performance is the measuring stick.

In a high transaction business, the first interaction with a customer will be a key determinant of whether the customer will return. How should you measure satisfaction for each of your different market segments? How do you know?

Also see
How to Design Successful Evaluation and Assessment Plans

RETAIN YOUR CUSTOMERS

Retain Customers

It is conventional wisdom among experienced marketers that one existing customer is worth five new ones. Bain & Company found that, “increasing customer retention by just 5 percent can increase profits by 25 percent to 95 percent.” Yet, conventional wisdom is also that a typical business loses around 20% of its customers per year.

There are a variety of strategies to help retain your customers, as included in the articles listed below. Retention is primarily a result of customer loyalty. What should you be doing to retain the customers in each of your different market segments? How do you know?

Manage Customers’ Complaints

While some organizations consider customer complaints to be signs of failure, others see them as opportunities to learn from. Also, research suggests that customers who experience prompt resolution to their complaints often are some of the most loyal customers.

However, there are some best practices in handling complaints that you should be aware of. How are you handling complaints to each of your different market segments? Is that the best approach for each? How do you know?

Manage Customer Relationships

You can understand why the most important aspect between your organization and its customers is the quality of the relationship between the organization and its customers. That quality determines how loyal your customers are to your organization. Fortunately, there has been an increasing amount of research about best practices to manage the relationships.

The field has come to be known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Various software packages make it much easier to collect, organize and reference a vast range of information about customers. CRM has been proven to increase the number of customers and profitability for organizations.

Evaluate Your Customer Service Management System

Evaluation should be done while you are working to satisfy your customers and to retain them. Periodically, you should stand back and evaluate your progress in achieving the various goals that you had established for your customer service management system.

Be sure to use the learning from your evaluation activities to improve the next round of the planning of your customer service management system. In that way, you are indeed treating your customer service as a recurring system of aligned and highly integrated activities.

Also see
How to Design Successful Evaluation and Assessment Plans

General Resources

Additional Perspectives on Customer Service

Glossaries About Customer Service

Organizations

Learn More in the Library’s Blog Related to Customer Service and Satisfaction

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blog that has posts related to Customer Service and Satisfaction. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s Customer Service Blog

For the Category of Customer Service and Satisfaction:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.