Get your workforce to work smart with the usage of S-M-A-R-T goals / Objectives

Overview 

Setting up goals, is one of the preliminary actions that an organization should perform to guide the organization’s effort towards the desired definition of success (Shahin and Mahbod, 2006). As per Toader and Roibu, (2016), traditionally the defined goals have always been targeting financial aspect, however lately it has come to attention the need on new key performance indicators that will not only help the organization to achieve financial success but also enable an organization to gain a competitive advantage over the fellow competitors. Gabcanova (2012) has stated that measure, benchmark, and assessment on goals are vital in the context of figuring the current status of work , areas to focus for future improvement and also the effect of previous corrective actions. Toader and Roibu, (2016) has also stated that managing the human capital and its performance is a key for any organization's success, therefore using the correct and relevant KPIs/Goals to measure the workforce has become a crucial action to focus. Below is a video by DecisionSkills (2014) that describes the usage of effective goals, which will be discussed in detail in the preceding section.

Video:1

SMART Goals - Quick Overview

Source (DecisionSkills, 2010)

SMART Goals/Objectives

According to Hursman (2010), an effective goal can be explained using five main characteristics symbolizing “S-M-A-R-T” are described below

·       Specific: Define exactly what needs to be accomplished as a goal, providing absolute clarity

·   Measurable: Goals should be quantified to assess the degree of accomplishment and clear measuring criteria to be defined.  

·      Attainable: Goals should be achievable based on the provided timeline, resources, and talent. If not, employee dissatisfaction and demotivation can occur, because employees are working on something unrealistic.

·      Relevant: Individual goals need to be in sync with the desired outcomes. If not, there is a risk of spending effort on areas that will provide little outcomes and loose focus on more important goals. Prioritization goals are also an important aspect to make goals more relevant. 

·      Time-Bound:  In the corporate business world time-boxing, all goals are highly important, setting up clear expectations of when things need to be done will negate any loose ended expectations.

Prioritizing the GOALS

Shahin and Mahbod (2006) have emphasized the need for assessing the goals based on the SMART criteria and using that for prioritization of goals. He has recommended the below hierarchical analysis model, as an effective way of assessing a goal and prioritizing it.

Figure:1

Integration of AHP model and SMART goal setting

Source (Shahin and Mahbod, 2006)

As per the above diagram, Shahin and Mahbod (2006) advice to weight every goal on a pairwise characteristic to figure out a global weight for each SMART characteristic. This will provide a clear perspective to decide, and help priorities objectives and the rationale for such prioritization.

Usage of effective goal setting

The organization which I work for has effectively used SMART concept to define its goals. The organization have embedded the usage of SMART to its engineering-delivery process where it is not only limited to an assessment procedure but also helping the organization to drive desired behavior among employees. Below is an explanation of how the organization has archived this.

• All the employees in the organization have been assigned a specific role according to the nature of the work associated (e.g. Software developer, QA analyst)
• Each role is associated with a set of behaviors that the organization desire to drive among the given type of employees.
• Goals are assigned based on the associated role, making them Relevant
• Each behavior is associated with a certain set of KPIs and tracked as well-defined metrics, making the goals Measurable
• Each KPI and its associated metrics are clearly defined, and all the employees have been educated as apart of on boarding training making the defined goals Specific
• Each KPI and its associated metrics have a target that the employee need to achieve. These targets have been derived based on industrial standards (e.g. “caper jones estimation model”) and altered for given project situation making them Attainable
• All goals are Time-boxed to the life span of a specific software release timeline, providing clarity to the employee when to accomplish the expected goal
• As a metrics-driven organization all the relevant KPIs and associated metrics, together with the employee’s degree of accomplishment to the target are published as Realtime dashboards.

Below is an example on how the above applies to the Role of a software developer

·      Role: Software Developer

·      Timeline : Release start date  to Release end date

·      Desired behaviors to drive: “Write clean code”, “Be productive in Coding”, “Help the team”

·      Associated KPI-Metrics and targets:

o   Write clean code: Net violation Density (target: 0.0), Functional Defect Density (target 0.5)

o   Be Productive in coding: Story points per day(target: 2), Reuse Index(target: 90%)

o   Help the team: Collaboration index (target: 80%)

Conclusion

Modern-day workforce expects a working environment that provides them with tasks that has clarity and transparency, with sufficient resources to perform them. Employees also expect to be assessed on fairgrounds. Setting up effective goals with SMART characteristics can be used effectively to assign meaningful work to your employees that are tightly coupled with the organization's desired state of success.

References

DecisionSkills (2019). SMART Goals - Quick Overview. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SvuFIQjK8 [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].

Gabcanova, I. (2012). Human Resources Key Performance Indicators. Journal of Competitiveness, [online] 4(1), pp.117-128. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269829585_Human_Resources_Key_Performance_Indicators.

Hursman, A. (2010). Measure What Matters. Information Management, [online] 20(4), p.24. Available at: http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/52725168/measure-what-matters [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].

Shahin, A. and Mahbod, M. (2006). Prioritization of key performance indicators. An integration of analytical hierarchy process and goal setting. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, [online] 5(3), pp.226-240. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/488f/f5fa5ca4e146f3fe41362b2c77604e03b439.pdf [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].

Toader, G. and Roibu, E. (2016). MANAGING THE HUMAN CAPITAL PERFORMANCES THROUGH THE KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: A BALANCED SCORECARD APPROACH. International Journal of Management and Applied Science, [online] 2(1), pp.58-63. Available at: http://www.iraj.in/journal/journal_file/journal_pdf/14-223-145439622558-63.pdf [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].