"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

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.