At work, it is not uncommon for employees to have their own objectives, often tied in with their performance or personal development. However, not so uncommonly businesses share objectives across employees, teams or divisions. How can this practice, if standardized, benefit organisations? And what is the true benefit for employees and managers in sharing objectives?
Shared goals
Think of recent events in the UK that have been moments when the country has come together; England’s journey to the semi-finals in the World Cup last year, the Queen’s diamond jubilee, the London 2012 Olympics. What do they all have in common? Everyone involved was working towards a shared goal. This included not just the active participants, but also us, the general public, who were swept along in a tide of enthusiasm. We understood what was involved and shared the journey. At the outset, the objectives were made totally clear to all involved and there was a common purpose.
In the workplace, sharing objectives within a team, a division or even with everyone in the business can bring people together in the same way, helping to drive collaboration and better performance. Objectives and Key Results, known as OKRs, developed by Intel and adopted by many companies across Silicon Valley have been credited with assisting these businesses to become incredible success stories.
OKRs are based on outcomes, rather than outputs and are designed to be both aspirational and highly measurable. They are intended to push employees to new levels, encouraging creative thinking and measured risk-taking. They are completely transparent, available for anyone from the CEO to the most junior employee to see, contribute to, and even comment on.
Shared objectives: A radical shift
Going as far as sharing all your employees’ objectives requires quite a radical mind shift and may be a huge leap for more traditional companies with years of heritage and ingrained processes. However, just taking the first steps and sharing objectives across a team can bring employees together, providing a shared purpose and ensuring everyone is pulling in the same direction. In the social media age, where so much personal data is readily shared, employees are far more open to this level of transparency than in previous generations. Working in this way, can bring teams closer together, creating a better understanding of the pressures each member is under and allowing colleagues to step in to share the workload when required.
With Appraisd, our customers can enable shared objectives as well as enable public profiles, which allows any employee to look up another employee in your organisation and see – and contribute to – all of their shared objectives. If you would like to know more about shared objectives, or would consider implementing this in your business, contact us to discuss your needs further.
