Edit: you can find a more up to date version of this article here.
In part 1 of this article we looked at the definition of a SMART objective. In part 2 we turned the problem producing provide good service to all customers into new SMART objectives.
There’s three things left to do that’ll make the new objectives work really well for you. On top of this they’ll help remove headaches come review time. They are…
Measurement
Performance standards, and
Actions.
Let’s see what this looks like with our two new objectives from part 2 (Retain 99% of your customers, and Increase your Customer Service Satisfaction Rating to 4). We can break these objectives down further.
Objective: Retain customers
Measurement: Percentage of your customers retained. Using data from the CRM system.
Performance standard:
90 – 92% = partially met
93 – 95% = met
96 – 98% = exceeded
over 98% = outstanding
Objective: Increase customer satisfaction
Measurement: Your average customer satisfaction rating. Measured using the monthly mystery shopper result.
Performance standard:
This objective will be partially met when:
- Average time taken to respond to customer requests is 4 minutes.
- Mystery shoppers record that you are usually courteous.
- Fewer than 1 in 10 enquiries need to be escalated to the supervisor.
- On your follow-up, 7 out of 10 customers report that their needs have been met and no further action is needed.
It will be met when:
- Average time taken to respond to customer requests is 3 minutes.
- Mystery shoppers record that you are almost always courteous.
- etc…
I’m using Measurement to describe the source of the data and how it will be measured. The Performance standards are basically explaining how the end rating or score will be determined.
This is great! Once those objectives are agreed by the manager and employee, there’s no disagreement as to the result.
But wait … that’s not all – if the employee knows how to measure their progress, they’ll know how they are traveling. Why does this matter? Well, when something is achievable and you know how you’re traveling, you’re much more motivated to reach the end goal.
Making the objective a more powerful statement
OK, now something I do to turn the objective into a really powerful statement . . .
Find out what sort of result your team member wants to achieve. Then write that into the objective. So Retain 99% of your customers for example. The measurement and performance standards stay the same. It’s just a memory aid. Making sure that when you think of the objective, you think of the target as well.
To illustrate why this technique is useful, it might be useful to relay a story about Ethan Hunt’s first six months working at Mission Impossible.
Basically he used to receive his jobs via video recordings on his iPod. The message would describe the mission goal, measurement and performance criteria. And then the iPod would self-destruct.
The only problem was within five minutes of the iPod self-destructing, poor old Ethan would be like Oh crap! How many bad guys was I supposed to capture again?
Now they include the target in the objective. And you know the rest of the story – he’s been very successful since!
Back to serious stuff now – a word of caution – don’t use this technique where there is a potential for putting an employee on a performance improvement program for unacceptable performance.
Actions
One thing left to do . . . and this is an important one. How is the objective going to be achieved? What actions are needed? You need to describe the steps or plan for reaching the goal.
Even if your organisation hasn’t reached the point yet where a manager and employee set objectives jointly, you at least need to have input on this one from the employee. For employees with little experience, you’ll need to do most of the work here in terms of outlining the actions. But even then, I’ve been amazed at the value of the ideas provided by inexperienced employees. It is so worth getting employees involved.
For people with a lot of experience, you’re really going to benefit by using their collective knowledge and skills. And they’ll be more satisfied and more likely to be motivated if they have planned their own action steps.
Some things to avoid…
OK there’s a few things you need to avoid when writing objectives. I’m not providing legal advice though, so if you want a definitive answer on what you can and can’t do, you’ll need to consult someone who can provide that advice.
- Objectives must be achievable.
- Avoid using terms that don’t allow a margin for error like always, every, each, all, never.
- An objective can be very challenging, but it should be possible for someone to achieve outstanding performance.
- Avoid describing objectives as things you don’t want done, focus on what you want achieved instead.
- There can’t be an expectation for a person to be perfect.
Go for it!
OK there you have it. I hope you’ve got something from these three articles on writing objectives that produce results. Thank you to everyone for your comments and emails.
At the start of your next review cycle write SMART objectives. You’ll reduce your performance review headaches . . . . . and be more successful.
How do you do this when you barely have the time to get through your email inbox?
Learning how to write SMART objectives is one thing. But how do you manage to do this for a whole team when you barely have enough time to get through your email inbox each day? The answer is software. Cognology has designed an online performance management system that makes the process easy.
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:52 pm
what a load of rubbish… who is going to get mystery shoppers in to review their customer staff.
come on, we don't have time for that!
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:02 am
My company does. What happens at the interface with our customers has a huge impact on our business.
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:31 am
Thanks for your input.
A lot of organisations use mystery shoppers or some other form of quality checking. Have you ever phoned a company and heard the message “this call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes”.
This article isn’t saying you need to use mystery shoppers. It’s just an example of how to measure an objective and use performance standards to differentiate levels of achievement.
May 29th, 2006 at 10:36 am
[…] Objectives and SMART goals – part 3 […]
November 21st, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Thank You
This article is very good and it helped me to make an objective for my Department. I wounder if you could provide me some tips to guage employee performance (specially field staff). We provides service by receiving calls from customer and try to provide service as soon as possible.
Once again thanks for this article
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:46 pm
[…] This question has been posted by a reader Sarfaraz for the article “Writing SMART goals – part 3”. […]
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Thanks for your comments and question Sarfaraz. I’ve written a new post to respond:
October 8th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
hi,
good site 🙂 Whish you good luck!
October 30th, 2012 at 6:28 am
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October 30th, 2012 at 8:20 am
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November 25th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Many thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel can find any details in content and discus forum
November 26th, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Thanks Jason, I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment.
February 4th, 2013 at 6:27 am
This really is the 3rd posting, of your blog I actually browsed.
But yet I enjoy this 1, “Writing SMART goals – part 3 The performance management evolution”
the very best. Take care -Rueben
February 4th, 2013 at 11:52 am
Thanks for leaving a comment Rueben.
March 3rd, 2013 at 1:58 am
“Writing SMART goals – part 3 | The performance
management evolution” lmddgtfy in fact enables me ponder a somewhat
extra. I personally admired every particular piece of this blog post.
Regards -Jacelyn