Did you know that around 25% of employees in the United States quit their jobs last year?
With all of the openings in the job market, people are getting the courage to leave unfulfilling jobs that aren’t leading to career growth.
If you want to get fully staffed and retain your employees, you should help them set SMART goals.
Keep reading if you want to learn how to Smart goals template write SMART goals so that your team can be more productive and increase sales!
Focus on Specifics
One of the first steps in learning how to write SMART goals is to focus on specifics.
You can’t manage people if goals have multiple interpretations. Set specific goals that aren’t open to interpretation. It is helpful to provide more detail when helping set employee goals so that they understand their next steps.
While focusing on the specific goals you want to achieve, you need to think about the specific and detailed tasks to get the job done.
Think about what needs to get accomplished to meet the goals that they are setting. You should also consider the person responsible for attaining these goals and identify who needs to help along the way. Often, the specifics of a goal look like a list of steps.
Ask your employee if they have any confusion about their goals and how to reach them. When employees don’t understand a process, it can hold them back from achieving their fullest potential.
An example of a specific goal for some in the hiring department could be to get 15 people to apply to a specific position within the next 2 weeks.
Make Sure They Are Measurable
If you want to help your employees, make sure that they set measurable goals.
Setting a goal to be happier each day at work isn’t exactly measurable since you can’t accurately track emotions. An example of a measurable goal is to increase the job output by 5% each week. This is a measurable goal since you can track the employee’s output each day and monitor their progress.
Measurable goals are all about the numbers. These numbers make it possible to track progress and find areas of loss. If the goals that your staff set aren’t measurable, there are ways to adapt them so that they can get tracked.
A great way to track measurable goals is with set KPIs. Key performance indicators are specific objectives that can get quantifiably measured.
Are the Goals Achievable?
No matter how hard a fish tries to work towards the goal of breathing on land, it can’t achieve it.
Goals should always be achievable, otherwise, progress won’t occur. Although it is good that employees are ambitious, make sure they aren’t getting in over their heads. When unattainable goals are mentioned, take a step back and try to figure out what the person is truly trying to accomplish.
Confusion often leads people to set a goal that they don’t realize isn’t realistic. If you don’t think that your employee can achieve the goal, rephrase it or redirect them to another issue.
Pride also gets in the way of people setting unachievable goals. When staff set goals that aren’t achievable, they could feel insecure and unproductive. If you notice that tasks aren’t getting completed, talk to your employees to see if their goals were a little too far out of reach.
Must Be Relevant
When you help employees set SMART objectives for themselves, ensure that they are relevant to being successful at their job.
Some people make the mistake of investing time, resources, and money into a project that really has nothing to do with their job. When this happens, it can be frustrating, because the attempts almost seem pointless.
Before acting on any goals, you and the employee should understand what makes each goal relevant to their job. Reviewing job descriptions can help you identify if the goals and tasks to reach them are appropriate for the person setting goals.
If someone is focused on a project that doesn’t relate to their job, you might need to reevaluate if they are in the correct position.
Should Be Time-Sensitive
It’s easy to set an achievable, yet ambitious goal, however, if there aren’t deadlines, it could become an issue.
Without setting a timeline for reaching goals, it is difficult to achieve them at all. If the goal is too far away, it can also lead to procrastination and incomplete projects.
Time-sensitive goals should get tracked to ensure that they don’t finish after the deadline. Using this platform can help you monitor each task and who is responsible for it. This tool comes in handy when working on independent goals for each employee and goals for the company as a whole.
If your employees aren’t meeting their goals by the Gantt chart for business plan deadlines, but are getting close, simply add a few days to their timelines. This can help keep them on track and not always feel like they are falling behind.
Do You Know How to Write SMART Goals?
Learning how to write SMART goals and using them with your employees can lead to success.
When staff is motivated to work hard and enjoy learning, they are a bigger asset to the team. The best way to strengthen your staff is by setting SMART goals and implementing strategic planning.
When goals are achievable and specific, there is less confusion in the workplace and people can confidently do their jobs. Don’t hesitate to update goals when necessary, to reflect new courses of action.
Be sure to check out our page for more content about using smart objectives in the workplace and managing staff!
