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It’s January 1. Riya has prepared a list of personal goals she intends to achieve by the end of the year. These objectives keep her going throughout the year, motivating her to do her best. Just like Riya, organizations, too, can benefit from goal setting when it comes to performance appraisal.
A crucial part of an organization’s growth strategy, performance appraisal is a periodic evaluation of an employee’s performance and contribution to the organization. Managers assess employees’ job-specific skills, behavior, accomplishments and shortfalls—rewarding high-performers and training those who are falling behind.
Setting performance appraisal goals is at the heart of a successful appraisal process. These objectives help align employees with the organization’s mission. Employees know what’s expected of them and are able to put their best foot forward by delivering quality work.
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Objectives Of Performance Appraisal
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Examples Of Performance Appraisal Goals
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Importance Of Appraisal Goal Setting
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The Right Tools To Drive Performance
Objectives Of Performance Appraisal
The objectives of performance appraisal go beyond simply boosting workforce productivity. Let’s look at some of the top performance appraisal goals and objectives:
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Providing Frequent Feedback
Regular feedback is a significant performance appraisal objective. Managers should provide frequent actionable feedback to employees through a performance appraisal process. Not only does such feedback keep employees focused on end goals but it also steers them in the right direction, increasing their ability to contribute meaningfully.
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Establishing SMART Goals
A major performance appraisal objective is establishing a set of well-defined goals to be achieved within a time frame. Such goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely (SMART). They should give employees a clear picture of the expected standards of performance.
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Simplifying Promotions
A performance appraisal process is the best way to identify high-performing employees and reward them accordingly. Managers assess employee performance over a set period and analyze whether they’ve met their goals. This allows them to easily determine who’s ready to move on to a bigger role within the organization.
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Highlighting Training Needs
Determining training needs is a significant performance appraisal objective. An effective performance appraisal process highlights gaps between expected and actual performance of employees. This helps managers decide which employees need training to improve their skill set and lets them fine-tune their existing training programs based on areas of concern.
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Workforce Planning
Workforce planning is another top performance appraisal objective. A performance appraisal process should help organizations get a clear picture of their competencies, set a benchmark for future hires and realign employees to meet evolving business requirements. Managers map out a future course of action based on factors such as available skill sets and changing roles, which determine whether the organization’s future needs shall be met by recruiting, training or outsourcing talent.
An underperforming workforce can reflect badly on the business. Organizations must ensure they’re working with the right performance appraisal objective in mind to be able to achieve the desired outcomes.
Examples Of Performance Appraisal Goals
Appraisal goal setting is the first step to creating an impactful performance evaluation process that helps organizations retain and nurture the best talent. Here are a few examples of performance appraisal goals:
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Efficiency Goals
Managers set efficiency goals to measure whether an employee is executing a task in the correct way with minimum wastage of time and effort. Efficiency goals help employees reduce errors in work and achieve more in less time without compromising on quality. Asking an employee to earn 10% more revenue from outside sales in a particular month is an example of an efficiency goal.
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Collaboration Goals
Collaboration and teamwork in the workplace can not only stimulate productivity but also reduce costs, save time and foster a sense of camaraderie among coworkers. Collaboration goals are intended to bring complementary skill sets together and create a harmonious working environment. Employees are able to share knowledge and learn from one another. Examples of collaboration goals include asking an employee to work with their colleague to prepare a detailed customer segment analysis within a week.
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Workflow Goals
Workflow goals are any goals that result in the successful completion of a project or assignment. Such goals can focus on customer needs, domain expertise or software use. Asking an employee to familiarize themselves with the technicalities of the new software on board is an example of a workflow goal.
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Professional Development Goals
To stay relevant in a highly competitive business environment, employees must consistently keep up with the latest developments and best practices in their field. Professional development goals help employees polish existing skills, stay up-to-date and increase their competency in the workplace. Examples of such goals include concentrating on developing a particular skill over a set time frame, completing a training course within a specified period or taking on new responsibilities in the organization.
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Personal Development Goals
Foundational skills such as communication, leadership or problem-solving, adaptability, decision-making and eagerness to learn can be as effective as technical skills in ensuring employee success and organizational growth. Personal development goals focus on soft skills, allowing employees to track their own progress over time, maximize potential, improve working relationships and grow as an individual. (Xanax) Common personal development goals are nurturing active listening ability, developing emotional resilience or improving people skills.
As these examples of performance appraisal goals show, powerful appraisal goals translate to improved workforce performance. It’s imperative for organizations to set strategic and engaging goals to refine their performance appraisal process and drive profitability.
Importance Of Appraisal Goal Setting
Establishing definite performance appraisal goals is important in more ways than one. It benefits both organizations and their employees, setting the stage for effective workplace communication and promoting transparency. Here’s why appraisal goal setting is important:
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Motivates Employees
Appraisal goal setting is a great opportunity to keep employees motivated and invested in the work they do. Without proper appraisal goals to guide them, employees may lose confidence, which hampers productivity. Purpose-driven employees are more efficient, they understand how their personal goals fit into the bigger picture and can push themselves to reach the required levels.
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Time Management
In a competitive business environment, time is of the essence. With definite performance appraisal goals in place, employees can effectively manage their time, learning to prioritize tasks and keep distractions at bay. This helps them stay on track and complete projects on schedule.
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A Measure For Progress
Managers measure employee progress against a set of predetermined performance appraisal goals and objectives. It gives them a clear picture of employee productivity, deviations from expectations and factors hindering progress, if any. It also highlights the effectiveness of the appraisal system, allowing managers to fine-tune the process if necessary.
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Creates A Paper Trail
An organization usually documents the performance appraisal goals it sets and the feedback received during the employee evaluation process. These documents serve as legal evidence that employees were aware of the expected standards of their job. The organization is able to demonstrate that all promotion and/or termination decisions were made based solely on performance and were free from bias or discrimination. Such documents can also help managers develop a performance improvement plan for employees under review.
Setting performance appraisal goals guides employees, keeps them focused and improves job satisfaction. All of this results in reduced turnover rate and better profitability for the organization.
The Right Tools To Drive Performance
A successful performance appraisal process begins and ends with the managers of an organization. Managers must define appraisal objectives, discuss employee goals, measure performance and offer feedback. They need to be able to extract the best from the teams and employees they evaluate, developing a robust appraisal system that yields long-term benefits for the organization.
Created for individuals preparing to take on managerial roles, Harappa’s First Time Manager Program brings together the best of a rich, blended and integrated online-first learning journey. It aims to achieve six crucial outcomes—making the leap from an individual contributor to people and project manager, assembling cohesive teams to consistently deliver quality performance and creating an environment of learning and trust for improved internal collaboration.
The program curriculum incorporates academically-robust and application-oriented concepts such as the SMART Framework, Bruce Tuckman Model, Skill-Will Matrix, System 1 & 2 Thinking and Leadership Equation. Complete with a skill map of 15 must-have “Thrive Skills”, the program equips managers to successfully mentor employees, define clear roles and expectations, delegate tasks effectively, invest in their team members’ growth and analyze problems from different perspectives.
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Empower your managers with the right tools to drive performance in the workplace. Sign up your organization for Harappa’s First Time Manager Program today!
