By Amanda C. Kooser Updated December 07, 2021
Businesses move forward by setting goals and then working to attain them. However, in businesses big and small, staff members can feel separated from management. Breaking down the walls between employees and management can improve the health of a business. Getting everybody on the same page is crucial to moving ahead, sustaining and growing a business over the long haul. Synergy happens when there's a common goal, meaning that individuals at all levels of the organization pull together in the same direction.
Projections emphasizes the importance of aligning individual goals with the goals of the organization. To have common goals, you first need to define those overarching goals. Employees will be more invested in the process and outcome if they are given a voice in determining what those goals should be in the short term and long term.
Short-term goals might include reaching a certain amount of sales for the month, improving on specific customer service issues or successfully launching a new product. Long-term goals may include generating a certain amount of profit over the course of a year or expanding into more locations over the course of five years. Short-term goals should be in support of the larger long-term goals.
For goals to be common between staff and management, they need to be communicated and understood from the business owner to all involved. Periodically bring all employees together to review shared goals and ask for updates on the steps being taken to reach these goals.
Clarify or adjust what each person's responsibilities will be for the duration of the project. Identify new actions that need to be taken to reach common goals. Let management and staff know that every person is involved in this process and that everyone plays an important role. Continually adjust and reinforce the goals as you go along.
Listening to employee input from management and staff can be key in attaining common goals for the betterment of the business. Most businesses make it a habit to ask for input from management. Sometimes staff members get overlooked and can feel left out of the process of growing and improving the business.
Involve staff by specifically requesting feedback on how they're doing. Actively listen to any concerns and respond appropriately. Provide positive reinforcement, resources and training to help individuals and teams do their best work. Even something as simple as providing a feedback box or calling a meeting to ask for ideas can be effective. Employees will feel more invested in the business.
Having common goals gives management and staff something to work toward together. This can improve morale on both ends, increase trust between different levels of workers and keep management in touch with the employees they are responsible for supervising.
Bringing staffers into the process of setting and achieving common goals makes them feel valued and committed to the success of the business. This is a tremendous morale booster that will show in employees' interactions with each other, management and customers. Companies that offer employee incentives for reaching goals often see an increase in morale, according to Business News Daily.
Setting common goals is a good start. Another step to take is to reward management and staff for achieving those goals. This plays into the personal motivations that encourage people to work together and share a dedication to improving the business. Reward management and staff with recognition, bonuses or promotions. This sets productive team members up as good examples for others to follow and gives management and staff a personal investment in reaching goals.
One of the most important things you should communicate with your employees is your company’s goals. To ensure success, your staff need to understand what you want the business to achieve, and how you plan to do achieve it so that they can be part of the same journey.
Why is it important to communicate company goals to employees?
Quite simply, if your employees don’t understand what the goals are, how can you expect your goals to be met? Goals can also change over time, so if the company has a new strategy or is taking a new direction you need to make sure this vision is shared with employees in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
No matter what industry you work in, fostering a shared vision among employees at every level of the organization means that they have an understanding of how their own role and their team or department contributes to the overall success of the company.
Unfortunately, many employees don’t feel as though they understand their company’s goals. According to research from Gallup, 40% of employees say they don’t know what their company stands for, while just 50% say that they feel connected to their company’s mission.
By communicating your company goals you can:
- Get buy-in from your employees
- Generate enthusiasm for your proposed outcomes
- Build accountability and trust with your employees
- Deliver better outcomes for your customers
- Have a more productive and profitable company
- Increase levels of employee engagement
- Have better decision-making processes
- Create a strong brand as an employer of choice.
Tips for communicating company goals to employees
1. Make sure your goals are clear
It’s important that your goals are clear and easy to understand. Avoid jargon and buzzwords. Find someone impartial – a friend or family member – who doesn’t really understand the ins and outs of your business and see if they understand what your goals are. If they can’t, you need to make them more simple. New hires in your company, for example, aren’t going to know what you’re talking about and many existing employees may not understand either.
2. Make sure your goals are realistic
Your company goals should be realistic and ones that your employees can reasonably achieve. When they aren’t attainable, your employees will become demotivated and won’t even try to reach them.
3. Get the whole leadership team on board
The leaders in your company need to be reminding people whenever appropriate what the goals of the company are. Not only that, they need to model behavior that is consistent with achieving the goals. If employees perceive that leaders don’t really believe in or understand the goals they’ll be less inclined to do so themselves.
4. Use a variety of communication channels
Your company goals shouldn’t be in a document that you file away somewhere and never look at again: you need to communicate them in a variety of ways using different internal communication channels. Repetitive messaging in different formats can help with message retention.
5. Share updates and success stories
When you are on track to reach your goals, or if you have met them, you need to let people know. Send regular updates to your employees letting them know how you’re tracking. For example, you can use desktop tickers or company newsletter articles to keep people informed.
6. Performance plans should reflect company goals
When your managers and employees are developing individual performance plans, it is appropriate that each individual plan should reflect and align with the company’s overall goals. This helps each employee to understand what part they play in delivering successful outcomes and ensures accountability.
7. Managers should talk about company goals with employees
Whether it’s a team meeting or a one-on-one conversation with employees, your managers should identify opportunities to remind employees of your company goals and talk to their team members about how to make them a reality.
8. Recognize staff who achieve company goals
Your organization’s employee rewards and recognition program should be used to acknowledge any individual employees who are responsible for meeting or helping to meet company goals. This is a good way to remind your team just how essential the goals are to the company.
Read more about thank you messages for employees.
9. Make your goals visible
Your goals shouldn’t be buried away on a page on the internet or your corporate plan: make them a focus in your workplaces. Using tools like corporate screensavers and digital signage displays, you can display the goals in a way that employees will see all the time, reminding them of what you need them to achieve.
10. Survey your employees
How can you be sure your employees understand your goals and vision? You can survey them either as part of larger employee engagement surveys or by specific, targeted, climate surveys asking questions about what they understand the company’s goals to be.
11. Have ambassadors and champions
In most companies, there are outgoing, popular, respected staff members with a lot of influence over other employees. These are the types of staff members you can identify and recruit to be ambassadors or champions of your company goals so that they inspire and encourage other employees to achieve and contribute to meeting goals.
12. Every strategy and project should align with your goals
If your strategies and projects don’t align with your company’s overall goals, why are you doing them? All the work that your company does should be done to help the company to meet its goals. Whether that’s regulatory compliance, sales success, delivering great customer services, or being a leader in the field.
13. Make goals part of internal branding
Many companies have internal branding – the fonts, colors, slogans, designs and images that reflect the company’s image. Sometimes they are the same as the external branding, sometimes they are slightly modified so that employees can easily tell the material they are viewing is for an internal audience. There are ways to incorporate the goals in your internal branding, for example printing them on to mouse mats or coffee mugs, using some of the goals as slogans or making corporate artwork that incorporates them.
14. Your CEO should regularly update how the company is meeting goals
People want to hear from the person in charge. When the person in charge is seldom heard from, employees down the line will find it hard to relate to them – and that includes their goals and vision. Find ways for your CEO to address employees, such as via in-person meetings, webinars, or town halls. Your CEO should also directly address employees when your goals are met – or even if they aren’t met – to keep them informed and engaged.
15. Make videos demonstrating staff achievements
Many people prefer visual communication to written – it helps them to better understand the information that is being presented. Instead of talking about or writing about goals, you can show employees in action doing work that achieves those goals. Videos shouldn’t be too long but are a great inclusion on your intranet, your corporate social media and to send via pop-up alerts.
16. Celebrate success with employees
When you reach your goals, it’s important to acknowledge them. One of the best ways to do this is by celebrating and including your employees in the celebrations as a way of saying thank you for their contributions to that success.
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Getting your employees to understand and share your company’s goals is one of the best ways to ensure that you can actually achieve them. Overhauling your employee engagement and internal communication systems is one of the best places to start.