Goals in your workplace probably include your sales, how you’re managing costs, customer acquisition, or growth. Let’s look at steps to achieve goals in your workplace, whether those are related to finances, communication, retention, culture, or any other factor.
1: Understand Your Baseline
While it can be easy to jump right into setting a goal like “we want revenue of more than $10 million by 2025” or “retain at least 95% of current employees,” the reality is that you will set better goals if you know where you’re starting.
For instance, if you’re losing more than half your employees each year, a goal of a 95% retention rate may be impractical. Yes, it’s easy to see some benefits in “aiming for the moon,” but there can be disadvantages to setting unrealistic goals. Employees may be less motivated if they feel they’re being tasked with an insurmountable obstacle. Once you’ve measured your baseline, you can move to step 2.
2. Set Your Goals
There are several essential components to this second step of achieving goals in your workplace. Consider the following:
- Include both short-term and long-term goals in your planning.
- Ensure goals are clear; without clarity, employees will be confused instead of inspired.
- Find the right balance between attainable and ambitious goals in what your company is hoping for.
- Choose measurable goals; for instance, “reduce customer attrition by 8% in the next 12 months” is better than “keep more customers.”
- Make goals visible. Whether you’re using an online system to track, send out a weekly email about progress, or put a poster up in the lobby, helping team members keep goals fresh in mind will improve your processes.
3. Create a Plan
Now that you have a baseline and set your goals, the next step to achieving goals in your workplace is to create a plan for each. Essential elements of your plan will include the following:
- Who is involved: Specify everyone’s role.
- All the tasks involved: Write these down and assign them task owners.
- Milestones you’re working towards: Breaking the plan into smaller measurable pieces will help retain morale and encourage forward thinking.
- Rewards: If you offer incentives for hitting goals, lay those out with the initial plan.
4. Track and Stay Accountable
While working on your steps to achieve goals at your workplace, remember that the action items don’t stop once the plan is made. You’ll want to ensure your team stays accountable to their tasks, frequently measuring their progress towards milestones, short-term improvement, and long-term goals.
Well-thought-out and well-planned goals create a solid foundation for building business success. While you are working on finding ways to motivate your employees to work hard towards those shared goals, remember that there are many ways to help employees feel happy and satisfied at work.
Keep communication clear and frequent. Don’t be afraid to give feedback, but make sure you’re doing it in a way that encourages improvement instead of criticizing a person. Take the time to make sure your team knows why you’re working towards those business goals so they can feel like an essential part of the solution.
Keeping employees happy can feel difficult, especially with many teams having remote and hybrid workers, but it doesn’t have to be. We can help you understand your employees’ feelings and work on ways to improve their overall happiness, and you will find that’s one of the most critical factors in reaching your business goals. You can elevate profits, financial performance, growth, stock price, and overall employee happiness by leveraging Amazing Workplace. Contact us to schedule a demo today.