Performance objectives have been around forever (think Moses!) but I still meet business owners and managers who are confused about what they are and why they are important. And, clearly, when business owners and managers are confused they are much less likely to utilise performance objectives for improving employee performance, employee satisfaction and business performance. That’s a shame. Here’s my take on the two issues – the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of performance objectives (P.O’s)
What are ‘performance objectives’?
P.O’s are simple written descriptions of what good performance in the job looks like; performance related to the ‘what’ of the job – the quantity, quality and time elements – and to the ‘how’ of the job – the behaviours. The purpose of P.O’s is to ensure that your employees know exactly what they need to do in order for your organisation to meet its goals. P.O’s clearly define what good performance looks like for the employee’s job. The idea is that once you and your employee have agreed what good performance looks like, using P.O’s, then they will meet those objectives. You will, of course, be monitoring and measuring their performance against the objectives, and giving feedback, to ensure that they are meeting those objectives
Why are performance objectives so important?
Research shows that;
Having clear objectives with effective measures improves performance by over 30%. What difference would 10, 20 or even 30% improvement in performance make to your results, your team, your business?
Teams who say that they know what was expected of them are found to be both more productive, more profitable and had higher satisfaction ratings than those who didn’t. P.O’s are the easiest way to help your employees understand what is expected of them
Employees who say they lack any real commitment to their job give one of the key reasons for that lack of commitment as not knowing what was expected of them.
In short, performance objectives improve performance. The performance of the employee and performance of the business. They also improve employee motivation and job satisfaction. And there’s more…
And what about you as the manager?
A couple of key points:
If you get clear with your employees on what you want from them, you’ll get more from your employees of what you need from them. Many business owners and managers seem to think that their employees should just know what they need to do, what’s expected of them. Well maybe they should, but often they don’t
Your employees can’t give you what they don’t know what you want. So much of the frustration I see and hear from employees sounds something like ‘I just want to know what my boss wants from me. Why doesn’t she just tell me?’
When you agree performance objectives with your employees you put in place the ‘foundation stone’ of effective employee management. How can you give your employees the feedback they want and need (and which they tell us they want a lot more of) unless you have objectives? What else would you be giving feedback on if not the employee’s performance against objectives?
