Goal Management
Goal Management is yet another important area for improved collaboration as per my first post in this series. Growth of an enterprise depends on the realistic goals set by the top management year on year as well as continuously providing the means to achieve the set goals. Many a times, the goals set at the start of the year are not met due to various reasons. Let us take some time to understand the nuances of goal management and where we potentially go wrong.
Goal Setting : This is a very complex exercise and it requires a lot of collaborative analysis of past data and planning with multiple stakeholders to set realistic goals.
- Past data visibility: Trend of data for revenue, profitability, resource utilization, cash flow not being available
- Planning with next level: Lack of collaborative planning with the different stakeholders like
1. Geographical Sales Planning
2. Core Operations Planning (Product/Service Verticals)
3. Financial Planning
- Goals setting at multiple levels: Top level goals need to translate to department level goals which then translate to KRA for different set of teams/individuals.
- Knowledge of Goals/KRAs: The Goals and KRAs should be visible to all the relevant stakeholders in the organization
- Goals tied to appraisals/incentives: Goals/KRAs never get achieved if they are not tied to appraisals/incentives.
Collaboration tools like SharePoint and Excel Services/PowerBI can be used in an enterprise to:
- Consolidate information from different LOB systems to get trends of data for better visibility of past data as a dashboard
- Consolidate the planning data across multiple teams like Sales, Operations and Finance instead of exchanging emails with a lot of excel sheets
- Link top level goals to department level goals
- Provide visibility of the respective Goals/KRAs in a dashboard for each stakeholder
- Link the goals to the appraisals and for calculation of incentives for respective stakeholders
Goal Tracking : This again is an equally complex activity and requires active follow-up and due diligence
- Forecasting: Enable stakeholders to forecast the respective data-points for each of the set goals
- Performance Reports: Data from different systems and associated reports are scattered
- Stakeholder Review Meetings: Monthly/Quarterly reviews of performance
Collaboration tools like SharePoint, Excel Services/PowerBI and Exchange/Lync can be used in an enterprise to:
- Set recurring reminders for stakeholders to update the forecasts for the upcoming month and the remaining part of the year. Consolidate the forecasts of different stakeholders and to compare the forecasts versus the actual performance.
- Consolidate information from different LOB systems for better visibility of operational performance as a dashboard for the respective stakeholders.
- Assist in scheduling and conducting meetings and track action items for corrective action to bring the performance figures on track (as explained in my previous blog post)
Goal Recognition : Though this is the last step it is an important part of Goal Management which requires accuracy of data for different stakeholders and sending the appropriate message to all the stakeholders
- Reconciled actual performance against set goals
- Recognizing and rewarding the employees/departments that have achieved their set goals
- Appraising the employees/departments who have not achieved their set goals
Collaboration tools like SharePoint, Excel Services/PowerBI and Exchange/Lync can be used in an enterprise to:
- Consolidate final performance data from different stakeholder including Finance and comparing that with the set goals for the group/department
- Publishing information of groups/department/employees that have achieved or exceeded their set goals within their intranet. Following it up with other rewards as per company norms
- Having formal sessions with groups/department/employees to apprise them of the gaps in achieving the set goals. Reviewing the reasons for the shortfall and setting correction actions.
As you can see, the different steps of goal management require effective collaboration of the different stakeholders within the enterprise to ensure that goals are set, tracked and recognized effectively using tools like SharePoint, Exchange/Lync and Excel Services/PowerBI.
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