Jane Yao's Blog

Individuals may pick among numerous conditioning applications for personal use, most of them freeware, while fitness center owners are required to spend real money into health and fitness center software that is likely to generate eventual earnings by boosting product sales and improving general efficiency. Therefore, the choice of fitness software is essential when the matter you want is to select the best fit for one’s specific business needs, without burdening a business budget with additional IT-related costs.

A primary goal of all and every enterprise would be to boost sales of goods or services it provides, and modern-day software solutions provide valuable tools to meet such a goal, along with functionality that can help professionals improve overall productivity of both little gyms and large chains of fitness centers. Setup of licensed health and fitness management software provides managers with tools to generate targeted marketing activities, track customer conduct and preferences, with a few solutions featuring even advanced predictive analytics functionality.

Those are intricate solutions that cover a variety of aspects of business, like accounting and payment, marketing, sales, post-sales service, etc. Bringing these kinds of rich functionality in the roof of a single software program, an integrated module gives obvious advantages when it comes to increased efficiency, reduce payroll costs and optimization of the all round business process. Administrators can also expect somewhat fast return on their investment although select reputable application vendors provide complex yet easy to use ways of corporate customers.

Implementation of Gym Management Software can help fitness workers focus on their primary day-to-day tasks, allowing gymnasium managers to oversee your entire sales process, by drafting a marketing process to implementation of working sales procedures, automating organizing and other time-consuming procedures at the same time. Thus, a reliable health club management application will assist managers in improving efficiency in more methods than one.

A fair number of gym owners stay away from investing in new computer software due to the tight That budgets they control, but software distributors addressed the issue by providing monthly payment schemes that can fit any company budget. Therefore, immediate and ongoing expenses are not affected by buying a fitness management system, which in turn is able to aid boost sales and also pay back within an affordable period. Such a strategy to invest in an integrated health and fitness center management solution is built to allow small and large gym owners alike to resume their software along with take utmost good thing about what advanced technological innovation can offer.

Reducing the some time to efforts employees devote to various administrative along with documentation-handling tasks allow staff members to devote their particular energy to routines related to the primary business of a fitness center, thus markedly enhancing the overall efficiency. In addition, an advanced software program usually allows for advance of customized sales solutions that, in theory, bring about increased sales.

Obviously, an easy to use and complex answer cannot solve many issues and handle all challenges today’s fitness center is going through, especially in times of fiscal difficulties when a lot of households and individuals are on a tight budget. An excellent marketing strategy is required that should be crafted by devoted salespersons and gym software can only supply the means to work out this type of strategy. Nevertheless, reputable gym software provides unparalleled tools to boost sales, improve effectiveness, and focus on your core business.

For more information about Gym Management Software visit our website.

Individuals may decide on among numerous conditioning applications for personal use, most of them freeware, while health club owners are required to devote real money into health and fitness center software that is likely to generate eventual earnings by boosting product sales and improving general efficiency. Therefore, the option of fitness software is essential when the matter in question is to select the best fit for one’s specific business needs, without burdening a business budget with additional IT-related costs.

A primary goal of all and every enterprise is always to boost sales of goods or services it provides, and modern-day software solutions provide valuable tools in order to meet such a goal, together with functionality that can help professionals improve overall productivity of both tiny gyms and large chains of fitness centers. Setup of licensed health and fitness management software provides supervisors with tools to generate targeted marketing activities, track customer conduct and preferences, with a few solutions featuring even advanced predictive analytics functionality.

Those are sophisticated solutions that cover a variety of aspects of business, including accounting and payment, marketing, sales, post-sales service, etc. Bringing these kinds of rich functionality under the roof of a single software program, an integrated module gives obvious advantages when it comes to increased efficiency, reduce payroll costs and optimization of the all round business process. Administrators can also expect somewhat fast return on their investment even though select reputable software package vendors provide complex yet easy to use approaches to corporate customers.

Implementation of Gym Management Software can help fitness staff focus on their central day-to-day tasks, allowing health and fitness center managers to oversee the full sales process, from drafting a marketing process to implementation of working sales procedures, automating organizing and other time-consuming procedures in the process. Thus, a reliable gymnasium management application will assist managers in improving efficiency in more methods than one.

A fair number of gym owners stay away from investing in new computer software due to the tight The idea budgets they control, but software sellers addressed the issue by providing monthly payment schemes that may fit any company budget. Therefore, immediate and ongoing expenses are not affected by buying a fitness management program, which in turn is able to aid boost sales and also pay back within a fair period. Such a strategy to invest in an integrated health and fitness center management solution is built to allow small and large gym owners alike to resume their software along with take utmost good thing about what advanced technological innovation can offer.

Reducing the some time to efforts employees devote to various administrative along with documentation-handling tasks allow staff members to devote his or her energy to pursuits related to the central business of a fitness center, thus markedly helping the overall efficiency. In addition, an advanced software program usually allows for coming of customized sales options that, in theory, bring about increased sales.

Obviously, an easy to use and complex remedy cannot solve many issues and handle all challenges a modern day fitness center is going through, especially in times of economical difficulties when quite a few households and individuals take presctiption a tight budget. A fantastic marketing strategy is required that should be crafted by committed salespersons and gym software can only supply the means to work out this kind of strategy. Nevertheless, reputable gym software provides unparalleled tools to boost sales, improve effectiveness, and focus on your core business.

For more information about Gym Management Software visit our website.

Individuals may select among numerous physical fitness applications for personal use, many of them freeware, while gym owners are required to make investments real money into gymnasium software that is meant to generate eventual profits by boosting sales and improving overall efficiency. Therefore, choosing fitness software is crucial when the matter showcased is to select the ideal fit for one’s particular business needs, without burdening a company budget with additional IT-related prices.

A primary goal of the and every enterprise is to boost sales of merchandise or services it offers, and modern-day software solutions give valuable tools to satisfy such a goal, in conjunction with functionality that can help administrators improve overall performance of both small gyms and large snowchains of fitness centers. Execution of licensed fitness management software provides executives with tools to produce targeted marketing promotions, track customer behavior and preferences, with some solutions featuring possibly advanced predictive analytics efficiency.

Those are complicated solutions that cover different aspects of business, which include accounting and charging, marketing, sales, post-sales assist, etc. Bringing this kind of rich functionality within the roof of a single software application, an integrated module offers obvious advantages in terms of increased efficiency, lower payroll costs in addition to optimization of the general business process. Supervisors can also expect reasonably fast return on their investment whilst select reputable computer software vendors provide superior yet easy to use answers to corporate customers.

Enactment of Gym Management Software can help fitness employees focus on their core day-to-day tasks, allowing health club managers to oversee the complete sales process, via drafting a marketing technique to implementation of doing the job sales procedures, automating booking and other time-consuming procedures in the operation. Thus, a reliable fitness center management application will help managers in strengthening efficiency in more ways than one.

A fair amount of gym owners prevent investing in new software program due to the tight This budgets they handle, but software suppliers addressed the issue by offering monthly payment schemes which will fit any corporate budget. Therefore, immediate and ongoing expenses are not affected by purchasing a fitness management process, which in turn is able to assist boost sales as well as pay back within a sensible period. Such a method to invest in an integrated gymnasium management solution is made to allow small and large health and fitness center owners alike to resume their software and also take utmost benefit of what advanced technology can offer.

Reducing the serious amounts of efforts employees invest in various administrative and also documentation-handling tasks allow workers to devote their own energy to actions related to the core business of a work out center, thus markedly increasing the overall efficiency. Also, an advanced software system usually allows for development of customized sales answers that, in theory, lead to increased sales.

Of course, an easy to use and complex solution cannot solve most issues and deal with all challenges a contemporary fitness center is dealing with, especially in times of monetary difficulties when several households and individuals take a tight budget. A great marketing strategy is required which should be crafted by loyal salespersons and health and fitness center software can only provide the means to work out such a strategy. Nevertheless, trustworthy gym software delivers unparalleled tools to increase sales, improve efficiency, and focus on a person’s core business.

For more information about Gym Management Software visit our website.

Here’s a productivity tip that will save you a lot of time and trouble if you need to collate responses from staff for any reason, especially if you work for an organisation with a lot of staff.

Case Study: I worked for a financial institution with 3,000 plus employees and had to identify how many employees needed compulsory training in certain legislation so that we could plan and resource the training.

I emailed everyone within the centre with a request that if they had not completed the training within the last three months, they were to reply to my email without changing the subject line. They were to reply by a certain deadline … any queries were to be sent via a new email addressed to me and I explained why.

I created a folder called ‘Legislation Training’ and used Rules Wizard to divert any email received with the subject line: ‘Legislation Training Requirement’ into the folder. Every time a new email arrived it automatically went into the folder and Outlook incremented and displayed the number of unopened emails in the folder in brackets at the end of the folder name. It looked like this: ‘Legislation Training (125)’.

By the deadline all I had to do was look at the end of the Legislation Training folder to see how many people needed the training. No counting … all done automatically by our productivity tool Outlook 2002.

As the fast talking salesman on the television said, ‘And there’s more!’

When I was asked for a list of the names of those who had responded, all I had to do was export the Legislation Training folder emails to MS Excel. Excel allows you to choose the fields you export. I chose the ‘From’ field and finished up with a list of names since all email addresses were in the format WILLIAMS Royston. Once in Excel it was a simple matter to sort them into alphabetical order.

Not only that, I could now email 20 people at a time and advise them when and where they had to attend this mandatory training.

This is an excellent way to deal with large numbers of people and, although Outlook does have options for creating forms with yes/no buttons and so on in them, it is more complex than this option.

I hope this short article has been of interest to you and that it helps you improve your work performance.

Researchers have undertaken numerous studies to look at the connection between customer and employee satisfaction. A majority of these studies were able to uncover a correlation between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability.

In a recent study for an international computer firm, the data reinforced the crucial link between customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and profitability. Some of the key factors they found:

• Profit and growth are stimulated primarily by customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Employees who are satisfied in their jobs provide higher levels of customer service.
• Employee satisfaction results primarily from internal high-quality support services and policies that enable employees to deliver results to customers.

Putting employee and customer satisfaction in the spotlight when planning strategy is one of the top priorities for organizations committed to continuous improvement, both internally and externally. Maintaining a continuous flow of information from both employees and customers is how successful organizations are able to continually maintain their high rankings in the marketplace.

At the heart of these endeavors is a strong belief that today’s employee satisfaction, loyalty and commitment influence tomorrow’s customer satisfaction, loyalty and commitment-and, ultimately, the organization’s profit and growth. This belief in practical management is reinforced by a growing body of empirical research. These all-important “links” comprise what is generally termed the “value profit chain.”

A recent Gallup survey of 55,000 employees matched the following attitudes with higher profits:

• Employees felt they had an opportunity every day to do what they do best
• They believed their opinion counted
• They sensed that their co-workers were committed to quality
• There was a direct connection between their work and the company’s mission statement

Yes, it’s true that people need to feel as if they are fairly compensated; but they also want to feel like they are a part of the company and that their ideas and suggestions are important. They also like to feel that they add value and aid in the company’s growth.

According to many management experts, the single greatest key to productivity is employee happiness. Satisfied employees are usually energetic and tend to be highly motivated. But, determining what makes workers happy can be a mind-stretching exercise. For years, the belief was that money was the source of employee happiness and retention. While there is no question that money is important, management studies show that it does not buy employee satisfaction. While employees want to be fairly compensated for their efforts, they also want to be challenged and treated with respect.

Here are some suggestions on how organizations can increase employee satisfaction:

Understand why people are working and commit to helping them achieve their goals on the job. Develop a plan that will assist them in getting where they want to go.

Empower workers to do the job you hired them to do. A work environment in which employees are constantly monitored, micro-managed and bossed around can be stifling. While most employees are capable of receiving empowerment, not all will seek it. The overriding motivation for all employees is respect.

Keep employees informed. Share the big picture as to why they are being asked to do what they do and how their work can benefit others. Invite them to share their opinions. Allow them to actively participate in the discussions that lead to business decisions. By including them, you signal that you value their expertise and recognize that they are a valuable asset for the organization. Remember, involvement equals commitment!

Communicate your expectations. Let your employees know what you expect from them in terms of work ethic, quality, honesty and job performance. Do not assume that employees somehow inherently understand what is required.

Take care of the people who work for you. Acknowledge their accomplishments with frequent and sincere recognition. Take time to single out employees who have gone well beyond the call of duty.

Hire the best people for the job, give them directions and tools to do the job and step aside. But, be sure to follow up.

Treat employees the way you would want to be treated. Think about how you would want to be informed of changes and recognized for a job well done. Then do the same with your employees.

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This article may be reproduced provided it is published in its entirety, includes the author bio information, and all links remain active.

For additional employee surveying resources go to http://www.alphameasure.com.

2004 © AlphaMeasure, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

You’ve seen it happen many times. An organization that provides top wages and benefits loses a great employee to a competitor for no apparent reason. Of course, some employee turnover is to be expected, but if your company is truly engaging your employees, there is no good reason for the unexpected loss of quality staff members. Many companies already know that wages and benefits are important to employees, but compensation alone is not enough to keep the highly skilled, motivated and experienced workforce your business needs to excel.

Defining Employee Engagement

What is employee engagement exactly? AlphaMeasure defines employee engagement as the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values.

The primary behaviors of engaged employees are speaking positively about the organization to coworkers, potential employees and customers, having a strong desire to be a member of the organization, and exerting extra effort to contribute to the organization’s success. Many smart organizations work to develop and nurture engagement. It is important to note, the employee engagement process does require a two-way relationship between employer and employee.

Why is Employment Engagement so important?

An organization’s capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability to achieve high performance levels and superior business results.

Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and its products and services, and contribute to bottom line business success. Engaged employees also normally perform better and are more motivated. There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability. Employee engagement is critical to any organization that seeks not only to retain valued employees, but also increase its level of performance.

Factors of Engagement

Many organizational factors influence employee engagement and retention such as:

• A culture of respect where outstanding work is valued
• Availability of constructive feedback and mentoring
• Opportunity for advancement and professional development
• Fair and appropriate reward, recognition and incentive systems
• Availability of effective leadership
• Clear job expectations
• Adequate tools to complete work responsibilities
• High levels of motivation

Many other factors exist that might apply to your particular business and the importance of these factors will also vary within your organization.

Engagement Essentials

How will you know to what degree your employees are engaged? The first step is to determine the current level of employee engagement. The best tool to determine this base line is a comprehensive employee satisfaction survey. A well administered satisfaction survey will let you know at what level of engagement your employees are operating. Customizable employee surveys will provide you with a starting point towards your efforts to optimize employee engagement.

The key to successful employee satisfaction surveys is to pay close attention to the feedback from your staff. This is the only way to identify their specific concerns. When leaders listen, employees respond by becoming more engaged. This results in increased productivity and employee retention. Engaged employees are much more likely to be satisfied in their positions, remain with the company, be promoted, and strive for higher levels of performance.

Listening to employee ideas, acting on employee contributions and actively involving employees in decision making are essential to employee engagement.

Taking Action to Improve Employee Engagement

Nothing is more discouraging to employees than to be asked for their feedback and see no movement toward resolution of their issues. Even the smallest actions taken to address concerns will let your staff know that their input is valued. Feeling valued will boost morale, motivate and encourage future input.

Taking action starts with listening to employee feedback. Then the data needs to be analyzed. Next, a definitive action plan will need to be put in place and finally, change will be implemented. It is important that employee engagement is not viewed as a one time action. Employee engagement should be a continuous process of measuring, analyzing, defining and implementing.

What is the Alternative to Employee Engagement?

Conditions that prevent employee engagement seldom alleviate themselves. They should be assessed and addressed as soon as possible. Left to multiply, negative employee satisfaction issues can result in:

• Higher employee turnover – Employees leave, taking their reservoir of knowledge and experience to another workplace
• Diminished performance – Competency of the workforce is reduced, at least short term, until new employees are trained
• Lost training dollars – Time and money invested in training and development programs for departing workers is wasted
• Lower morale – Remaining employees can be overburdened with new duties, in addition the unresolved issues that already prevent their full engagement

How Can You Attain Employee Engagement?

Listen to your employees and remember that this is a continuous process. The information your employees supply will provide direction. Insist upon increased engagement at the managerial level, and create and deploy a customized employee satisfaction survey from AlphaMeasure to assess your current level of employee engagement. Identify problem areas, make a plan and take action towards improvement.

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This article may be reproduced provided it is published in its entirety, includes the author bio information, and all links remain active.

Proceed to AlphaMeasure for additional resources on employee satisfaction surveys and employee engagement surveys.

2004 © AlphaMeasure, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

We all have psychic abilities that we use daily, although most of us don’t even realize that. The full study of this issue would take many books, and years of experience to grasp all the factors. Since we can’t do that here, we can still focus on applying these skills to making informed business decisions. Those of us making constant business choices, effecting staff, ethics , health, and the bottom line, need all the data we can get our hands on. So these tidbits are designed to help you use your natural abilities, and to improve your business situation!

First of all, there are many, many management styles. It is in your best interest to honestly evaluate your personality and your personal approach to making choices and running your business. This gives you a baseline to start from when adding ESP into your operating formula.The ancient Greeks said “Know Thyself.”

Some of us are very mental in perspective, some emotional, and others more physical. These basic personality factors often don’t change much during our lifetime. We tend to keep processing life from the same angle. When we pick up psychic data from outside this base personality, we tend to ignore it. It’s not coming from our comfort zone.

In the business world, what we ignore can create lost potentials or major problems. What we tune out doesn’t really go away, it just stays out of our awareness. So our business is effected but we never get to know it, it stays in our blind spots.

When working in a group situation this blindness is compensated by others around us, often with different main personality types. They can pick up what we miss. This works fairly well, but…

Frankly, at the executive level you often must make choices by yourself. This leaves you open to your limitations. Sure you can get data, but still the final choice is usually yours. Remember that both your strong and weak functions tend to stay that way for life. So you will tend to always focus on some things while ignoring others.

Opening your natural ESP abilities can present a personal challenge. As you pick up data from your comfort zone, well…no problem. But when you get psychic information from your weaker traits, again you will want to tune it out…you will tend to feel it as a stress.

So, if you want to include data from a broad range of psychic information..even beyond your comfort zone, there are many techniques you can use…

Realize that stress can be a sign that you are aware of something that you would rather ignore.Then use stress busters to help you handle that. Try to meditate each day, in a quiet place… and see what happens. If stress kicks up try to breathe through it, so you can stay focused on what you are processing.

It takes great courage to trust your whole self, and all your awareness. Don’t push yourself beyond your limits, but try to broaden your scope, little by little.

The real test is to see if you are willing to apply your ESP gained data into your daily business planning.

This article relates to the Coworkers competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It tells the story of a coworker whose performance consistently facilitated effective cooperation, collaboration, and communication between the employees within one organization. While the Team Dynamics competency focuses on relationships within a single group, this competency targets coworker topics spanning the entire organization over multiple work units. This competency investigates your organization’s ability to successfully work in partnership on projects with one another and between groups to reach the common goals of the organization.

This short story, Coworker and Caretaker, is part of AlphaMeasure’s compilation, Tales From the Corporate Frontlines. It illustrates how one coworker’s knowledge, compassion, and dedication to the common goals of her company made getting the job done a joy for her entire work team.

Anonymous Submission

Every workplace has one. The employee who keeps the operation moving, the “go to” person who can always be depended upon to know the answer to any question. The person who always has time to hear your thoughts, and everyone in the office feels comfortable talking to. In short, the exceptional coworker.

Mary Ann retired from our office last week after 40 years of faithful service. She knew every client, sales rep, contact and associate of the company and in particular, her manager. She knew her own job duties completely, and was acquainted with the responsibilities of every other employee in the office.

Mary Ann was not management material, it was said around the office. I don’t believe that statement was true. I think she could have done anything she wished, and quite successfully. But she didn’t want to lead. She seemed quite content to do her part to keep things running smoothly – behind the scenes. She was the office “mom” – the birthday celebration organizer, the office supplies coordinator, the interior decorator. Her work was always finished, flawlessly, and she made herself available to train new employees and help them fit into the office family. Mary Ann put together lunches when coworkers retired or moved on, and always did a major part of the holiday party planning.

Always even-tempered, even under stress, she consistently had a good word for everyone who stopped at her desk. She could be depended on for a dose of common sense and practical wisdom. Whenever a crisis came up, and there was mass panic or chaos in the office, Mary Ann would enter and bring calm to the situation with her mere presence. She’d assess the facts, make a few suggestions, and everyone would begin to get back to reality and set about making things right again. “The Voice of Reason” we called her, and rightly so.

She will be missed. It will be interesting to see how our office gets along without her, and if anyone will move into her position. Any volunteers?

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© 2005 AlphaMeasure, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

This article may be reprinted, provided it is published in its entirety, includes
the author bio information, and all links remain active.

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Employers have become so concerned about seeming “unfair” or worse becoming the victims of lawsuits by unhappy ex-employees that they’ve stopped requiring minimum standards of employees. This can only lead to poor individual and eventually poor company performance. Your best employee performers will resent the fact that you use company money to pay people who aren’t up to standard and will reduce their own level of performance or leave.

Take back the power in your workplace and set standards of performance. How to fairly assess each of your employees? I use a simple three part measurement tool with the acronym AWE or Able – Willing – Engaged.

Is the Employee Able?

This is the minimum standard of employment or continued employment. Does the employee have the basic job skills? Does he or she also have the people skills to be able to work effectively? Does the employee have family or personal issues that make it impossible for the employee to work the expected hours? Does the employee have any emotional or physical health issues that make it impossible to do the job effectively? Is he or she lacking any problem attitudes, such as racism or sexism that make them unable to be open to customer or co-worker interactions.

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you should move the employee to another job where the issues aren’t going to affect their competency or transition them out of the company.

Is the Employee Willing?

The next level up that is also a make or break issues – is the employee willing to do the work available? Does the employee seem happy to be at work? Does he or she genuinely care about the welfare of customers, co-worker, and the company in general? Does the employee get to work well-rested and prepared so that he or she is able to be fully present and concentrate? Does the employee gracefully take on assigned tasks? Does the employee arrive at meetings on time and prepared? Is the employee open to dialogue and answering questions related to his or her work?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, there may be some resentments that have built up meaning that the employee can do the job, but isn’t willing to give 100%. This employee needs to have the opportunity to vent frustrations, get clear instructions on what is expected, and then have the opportunity to recommit to the work of the company. If the employee remains unwilling and hinders the work of others with a poor attitude, the employee should be transitioned out of the company.

Is the Employee Engaged?

This is the highest level of employee involvement and commitment. These are employees who are engaged in the work of the company take initiative. They are problem-solvers and actively work out work problems, including inter-personal problems. They actively seek feedback about their performance. These employees are natural leaders and will lead in a project whether or not they have a management title – other just seem to follow them because of their willingness to take risks or because of their demonstrated expertise. They also look outside the company for sources of good ideas and are always setting goals to take their own work to the next level. They like to learn and will look for opportunities to take on new tasks to learn new skills. These employees give 100% because they are motivated to do so internally.

It is only if a company gets in the way of superior performance that these employees will stop working at the highest level. If they become frustrated that management does not support their efforts to raise the performance bar in the company, they will disengage and eventually leave.

Final Comment

Employees who are not able to do the job shouldn’t be offered continued employment. If you can create open communications with employees who seem unwilling, you can often turn around their performance. Your best point of leverage is taking employees who are willing and helping them become employees who are engaged. The best way to do that is to have plenty of engaged employees around. Their work behavior can be infectious. And get out of the way of the engaged employees. They want room to run and will only leave if micromanaged or not allowed room to experiment with new ideas. Follow these few simple ideas and you will be in AWE of the contributions made by your employees to the prosperity of your business.

Have you ever tried to drive somewhere without proper directions? This almost always turns out to be a frustrating experience. Sure, if you stop and ask enough people you may eventually reach your target destination, but think of all the wasted energy, time, and resources needed to accomplish your goal.

Let’s take this concept and move it to the realm of managing a business. Does it make sense to expect your employees to reach a goal or strategic objective without providing them a road map of where they are headed? This is the reason clear and detailed employee performance objectives play a crucial role in helping companies perform to their business plan and achieve their strategic goals.

Performance objectives establish how your business plan will be achieved. Performance objectives also play a major role in defining the end results expected through your staff’s hard work and dedication. Performance objectives are a necessity in setting clear goals for employees. They also challenge staff members to achieve maximum results to promote business growth and make continuous improvements to meet the challenges and changing demands of the marketplace. Performance objectives must be clear and guide action.

Now that we understand the importance of clear performance objectives, lets investigate the criteria of a well documented performance objective.

Criteria of a Successful Performance Objective:

Specific

What specifically is to be achieved? Not just what actions are to be performed, but what results are to be achieved through these actions? Keeping objectives simple ensures they are clear and specific. This also reduces the chance for disputes or confusion come performance appraisal time. Complex objectives should be broken into sub-objectives. This allows individuals to focus their efforts and guides them in marshaling the resources necessary to achieve results.

Measurable

How will you know how well an objective has been achieved? Although it may not be readily apparent, every object can be measured. Some objectives can be measured quantitatively; others must be measured qualitatively. What data will be used to measure/track what is achieved and is that data available to provide ongoing feedback on how the employee is doing? Measurements are subject to change and should be reviewed periodically.

Accountable

Accountability for performance objectives must be crystal clear and must specifically state who is accountable. The more detail the better. A clear definition of what he or she is specifically accountable for will help reduce confusion come performance appraisal time. Defining accountability will ensure a sense of urgency and purpose on the part of the employee.

Realistic

For an objective to be meaningful, it must be realistic and reasonable. A well written performance objective focuses on the goals and objectives required to meet the objective. In highly efficient organizations, performance objectives ultimately link back to the company’s overall strategy and business plan. Objectives should challenge employees towards continuous improvement, but should not be unrealistic or unattainable.

Time based

An achievable time frame must be set for reaching the objective’s goals. Consider assigning specific target dates not only for the performance objective itself, but also each lesser milestone linking the entire goal. Remember to be specific towards achieving results and guide action in a results oriented ways towards the objective.

Strategically Linked

Every performance objective must always be linked to the overall business plan and over-arching strategy of the organization. Well thought out performance objectives create a link between the direction of each individual employee which also align upstream through departments and divisions to unify the goals of the entire organization.

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This article may be reprinted provided it is published in its entirety, includes the author bio information, and all links remain active.

2004 © AlphaMeasure, Inc. – All Rights Reserved