Two major reasons for having goals are to allow employees to
monitor themselves during the year and to form the basis for
formal and/or informal discussions during the year to identi-
fy and remove any barriers to achieving the goals.- The process of setting individual performance goals should
take place after the employee’s work unit has its set of goals
for the year. Then each employee’s goals can be directly tied
to what the work unit needs to accomplish. - Performance goals should specify the results the employee is
expected to achieve rather than how the results are to be
achieved. We don’t want to be too rigid about this, since
means and ends are not so black and white. In situations
where the process to be followed is as important as the result,
it should be mentioned (e.g., “File statutory information in
accordance with government requirements”). Often process-
based goals (means) can be turned into results (ends), but
let’s focus on common understanding and flexibility. - Shift your thinking about performance goals from using
goals to evaluateperformance to using goals to aimand
guideperformance. Proper aiming and guiding means you
need to evaluate less. - It’s possible to generate dozens, sometimes hundreds of
goals for any one employee. Clearly the cost and effort of
doing so can outweigh the benefits. Strive to cover the
importantfunctions. Try to limit the number of goals for any
employee to 10 or so, with those goals covering at least 80%
of what the employee actually does.
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Perfect Phrases for Setting Performance Goals