Employees should be made aware of how their work fits in with the broader organizational mission and strategy. When your company aligns employee performance with organizational goals, these goals are better met because all tasks performed within the organization will be specifically targeted towards this end. This boils down to a productive and successful organization.
Three steps to help you align performance to organizational goals are offered by Andre Lavoie on Entrepreneur, who shared the alarming result of a report (The Greatness Gap: The State of Employee Disengagement) that showed that of 397 employees surveyed, over 60% were unaware of their organization’s mission, vision, or values. The underlying issue is that many organizations seem not to be aware of the importance of connecting individual jobs to organizational goals. Employees are therefore left without a performance compass. The following are the steps referred to above:
Step 1: Give regular feedback to help employees to be purposeful about their work. Feedback is like a reminder that helps them to remain focused. It’s easy for employees to get sidetracked and lose focus on the essence of their work.
Step 2: Assign the right tasks to the right people. This requires knowing each person’s capabilities and motivation for the assigned task. Knowing each employee’s strengths and weaknesses will help to determine how motivated the person will be to perform the given task. If necessary, graphically explain or demonstrate the organization’s overall strategy. This may help some employees to better understand their roles and how these roles relate to the goals of the organization.
Step 3: Every employee needs a pat on the back from management for a job well done. This should come by means of recognition in one form or another. Recognition encourages employees to strive harder and perform better. It makes employees feel good about themselves and that they are making a valuable contribution to the company.
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