Performance appraisals are usually used to evaluate decisions related to promotions, salary hikes and professional development. The set of expectations is used to measure the performance of employees. It is important to write performance evaluation goals.
What are SMART Goals?
Performance management can be improved by using SMART goals in employee evaluations. Evaluations and performance reviews can be used with SMART goals to effectively formulate and achieve goals.
Specific Employee Review Goals for The Performance Appraisal
There should be clearly defined expectations for professional goals. What is to be delivered, how much is to be delivered, and what the standards are for the deliverables that are to be measured are some of the things that can be considered. An employee is expected to update an existing report on emerging trends in e- commerce.
There is no clear definition of what an update means. The goal should be updated with at least two new trends that aren't listed in the current report. Trends that impact the way shopping habits are changing can be identified as something that has a tangible outcome on your business objectives. Performance metrics made the goal more objective.
Measurable
How the goal will be completed should be included in the performance goal. Quality and cost-effectiveness are two ways that businesses can be measured.
Quality
Quality of work can be determined by the accuracy and effectiveness of new information.
Cost-effectiveness
Cost-effectiveness is measured by the efficiency of a task. The number of hours taken to update the report can be used to calculate the cost-effectiveness of the goal. The revised goal could read, "Update the report on emerging trends in e-commerce with at least two new trends that aren't listed in the report and try to come up with new research methods to save time."
Achievable
Employees should be in charge of the outcome of a performance goal. If a goal is considered successful or not, external factors should not be involved. It will be unfair to not consider the unavailability of data when evaluating trends in our example of report update. Update the report on emerging trends in e- commerce with at least two new trends that aren't listed in the report and try to come up with new research methods to save time. Sources for research should be given if statistically significant data isn't found. The sources should be reliable.
Relevant
For performance goals to be beneficial for employees and the organization, they should be relevant to their job responsibilities and relevant to the short or long-term goals of the organization.
It makes sense to give the responsibility of updating a report to a content writer. The work that the employee is doing is mostly research based. If you have a projection of increasing sales, the goal makes sense. You can come up with new marketing strategies if you identify new trends.
Timely
This is to make sure that the goal is met on time. Update the report on emerging trends in e- commerce with at least two new trends that aren't listed in the report and try to come up with new research methods to save time. Sources for research should be given if statistically significant data isn't found. The sources should be reliable. Manager A will receive the first draft of the report in June.
Other Examples of SMART Performance Goals
Example 1
There is a vague goal of learning and implementing new social media tactics.
The goal is to learn four new social media tactics by the end of the month. In regards to users reached, users engaged and new users engaged, document the effectiveness of the tactics.
Since the employee has access to the required resources, it is assumed that the goal is doable.
Example 2
It's a vague goal to increase employee productivity.
The team should be trained to meet at least 85% of department goals for this fiscal year.
It is assumed that the manager has all the necessary resources to hold regular educational seminars and approvals from relevant authorities.
Example 3
The goal is to create 100 new posts by the end of the year.
The goal isn't measurable in terms of effectiveness.
The goal is to create 100 new posts by the end of the year. 50 posts should be related to current trends in the industry in order to increase chances of engagement.
It is possible to make the goal impossible by linking measurement to the amount of traffic that the posts bring. Unless the employee is responsible for content marketing too, the employee's control over the factors that influence the reach of content is gone.
Aligning, boosting job performance, and improving annual reviews are some of the benefits of implementing SMART goals. It has been proven to be the most effective way to set goals for organizations of all sizes.
