"If a goal is not measurable it is not possible to know whether a team is making progress toward successful completion."

Most managers fail in hitting their objectives because they do not set comprehensive employee engagement elements into their 'measurable' goals.  Managers must do the following things when creating  measurable goals:

• select carefully
• communicate well
• track in real time
• display publicly
• reinforce continuously
• rewarded upon achievement

Johnny HR of Widgets International,  knew he had laid the foundation for measurable goals when he started defining numbers in the 'Specific' section of his Smart Goal template but he needed to take it to the next step! He knew if he wanted his team to stay on track, reach their goals and feel engaged through achievement he would have to execute the 3 core components of 'measurable' goals.

1. Define How Much / How Many
2. Create Quantifiable Indicators
3. Create a Real-Time Progress Tracking & Engagement Solution

Johnny is an HR manager for a multi-state corporation that was called into the office by his CEO, Ron. Ron recently got an e-mail from a customer that said their experience at one of their stores was appalling! Johnny is a smart HR Manager and immediately asked in which store they received the complaint and for a copy of the e-mail that described the customer experience. He assured the CEO that he would investigate,improve and initiate an employee recognition program that would empower employees to give better customer service. Ron smirked and asked Johnny, "employee recognition does that?" Johnny smiled and said, "An employee engagement and recognition program with SMART Goals does," and quickly ran to his office to pull up his SMART Goals template.

What Johnny Did First

Since Johnny knew that the first step in creating a SMART GOAL is to be very specific he did some research and found that the complaint happened out of one of the company's Florida stores. The customer complained that the store rep didn't know anything about the product and seemed frustrated with not being able to answer the questions. Johnny knew the employee needed to:

• learn more about the company's product lines
• receive localized education
• be tested on product knowledge

So Johnny created a 'Specific' smart goal by using the 5 W's.

"To make goals specific, they must tell a team exactly what's expected, why it's important, who’s involved, where it's going to happen and which attributes are important. A specific goal will  answer the five 'W' questions making it clear and unambiguous.

The most effective employee engagement programs recognize their employees for good work behavior. Deciding how to incentivize your employees is a whole other story and gets quite complicated. Employee of the month programs, quotas, customer satisfaction scores and employee evaluations can be great tactics to incentivize, but why should someone be recognized exactly and how should that affect your budget?

Most organizations focus on three universal goals: sales, employee turnover and customer service. By creating smart goals and allocating your employee recognition budget around the metrics of Performance, Employee Tenure and Customer Satisfaction scores you are able to ensure a holistic and integrated plan that drives results down to the bottom line.

Management has always been known as "the art of getting things done through people." But make no mistake management is also a science that can be scaled through a defined process. Maximizing the process makes you the most 'effective' manager you can be yielding the best results by motivating your team. When initiating any new process you should think of the end first. Meaning if your goal is for your own team to be engaged and pro-active (don't we all) you must empower them to create their own goals through what we call a SMART meeting.

What is a SMART Meeting?

A SMART meeting is a a type of in-office 15 minute meeting where you and your team set goals for yourselves with the assistance of everybody in the team and check in on each other periodically to show support and encouragement. SMART meetings are also known as SMART circles as team members can form in the shape of a circle during their employee engagement sessions. The three times that SMART meetings should be held are on the 1st of the month, mid-month and end of the month. All team members get together in groups of no larger than 5 and create, evaluate and reward each other on their personalized SMART goals. You can download a smart goal template here.

As the end of 2014 approaches we can look back and see our shortcomings and pat ourselves on the back for our achievements. True business success comes from seeing where one has failed and how you can make changes to implement growth for future success. Are you ready to have a great workplace environment which you and your team enjoy coming to? These top 5 New Year's resolutions are designed to help you increase employee engagment & motivation so you can improve employee performance and create a truly inspirational culture.

Motivate your employees to do it!

Delegate, delegate, delegate. You can only do so much yourself no matter how talented and energetic you may be. Rewarding creative employees in your Employee of the Month program or other employee recognition programs will help actively disengaged employees emulate that behavior. It is crucial that your team feels empowered and engaged so that they can try new things, take initiative and surprise you with new ways of doing things that will deliver amazing results. If an employee does something new that did not get the result you wanted the key is not to scold them for wasting time but to recognize them for thinking outside of the box. Traveling luggage was a stale industry for hundreds of years until a small innovation revolutionized everything: Wheels!

When introducing your crew to their brand new engagement software it is important to remember that a properly trained staff will use and benefit most from using it day-to-day. In the next 3 blog series we will teach you how to: