Why Set Goals?
Setting goals is a powerful way to stay motivated, build confidence, measure progress, and track success. Goals keep us accountable, ensuring we perform tasks to the best of our ability and beyond. The process of setting goals helps document career objectives and celebrate milestones that might otherwise be overlooked.
Beyond personal growth, confidence, and satisfaction for individuals, goal setting carries numerous benefits for an organization. It enhances worker productivity, creates a sense of fulfillment for employees, strengthens teams, helps monitor employee performance, and identifies areas for growth and development within the organization.
Goal Setting Considerations
Reflecting on late last year, many of us set goals for the year ahead. Our team at HRTAS certainly did. Some of our business goals included expanding our team, improving internal communication channels, and focusing on individual self-care. Did you set goals for 2024? If so, why or if not, why not?
When it comes to setting goals, we adhere to the motto, “Keep it simple, stupid.” The SMART goal-setting framework is an easy and popular tool that guides people through setting attainable goals. Under this model, goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. What goal-setting framework did you use? If you didn’t use a structured framework, consider why not and reflect on the effectiveness of your goal-setting process.
Conducting a yearly performance appraisal with employees is crucial for every employer. It is a tool used to set goals and measure performance, development, and identify areas for improvement and training opportunities. How engaged are you or your employees in the performance appraisal process? Considering the benefits of goal setting in the workplace, does this procedure need reviving?
Reviewing Goals
Reviewing goals is as important as setting them. If we make the effort to set goals, we need to ensure we review our progress towards achieving them. As we get entrenched in our working life, it can be easy to lose sight of the goals we set for the year.
Reviewing your goals doesn’t need to be time-consuming or complicated. Here are some simple steps to help you review your yearly goals:
Time: Set aside at least an hour to review your goals.
Progress: For each goal, consider your progress. Are you on track or did you forget about the goal altogether?
Evaluate: Consider if the goal is still relevant. What is and isn’t working?
Adjust: It may be that a goal is no longer relevant, and it should be either disregarded, reshaped, or shelved for a later time. It’s not about failure but recognizing when a goal isn’t serving its purpose, allowing space for a new goal.
Celebrate: Acknowledge what you have achieved, whether big or small. Celebrating your success recognizes the hard work you’ve put into your goals and is a great motivator to continue focusing on achieving them.
This process can be done to review team goals, as part of a performance review process, or for an individual to review their own goals. Make sure to celebrate achievements within your team. Whether individual or team goals, it’s important to thoughtfully communicate and praise success with your team. If you didn’t set any goals for 2024, it isn’t too late. Now would be the perfect time to set yourself goals for the remainder of the year.
Contact HRTAS for any HR questions, queries or assistance.
