“There is a strong correlation between a successful company and an effective goal setting process”
Originally Posted on the GamEffective Blog
In today’s business environment, managers are constantly pressed to produce results, usually through industry-specified KPIs – setting challenging targets to be achieved on a day-to-day basis. Methodologies, such as MBO (management by objectives) and CPM (corporate performance management) aim to align the managers with their business’s goals. Targets are set and feedback is collected through scorecards and dashboards.
Stemming from the line of thought that “you can only manage what you measure” and “what gets measured gets done”, managers are put in the position of not only constantly evaluating their employees, but also being appraised themselves.
There is a strong correlation between a successful company and an effective goal setting process.
Managers and the entire executive team should be part of the system that helps each employee set a goal – thereby, fully engaging your workforce and encouraging everyone across the company to focus and successfully achieve these goals together. Setting the stage for each employee to feel a greater sense of commitment to the company and to perform at higher levels. Engaged employees not only plan to stick around—helping to lower your recruiting costs—but they are also enthused and motivated to impact your bottom line.
Even though it might be hidden and behind the scenes, all businesses are competitive work environments.
In order to be able to achieve the target goals managers need their workforce to be engaged and striving for the same goals as they are. The optimal path to higher employee engagement and proper business alignment is, we believe to be, Gamification combined with the already implemented performance management.
Unlike VPs of sales and customer service that tend to have a great deal of decision-making IT integrated into their work process, with multi-dimensional feedback embedded in their surroundings, sales and service reps usually have feedback that consists of only one element: actual sales. Gamification allows managers to view, analyze and base decisions upon a broader spectrum of variables.
When the game is designed correctly, the rules are set to provide a clear call to action for the employees. Turning the oftentimes unexciting MBO process into a fun, challenging and fruitful narrative – guiding the employees to higher achievements that are presented, both privately and publicly on scoreboards. This type of real-time feedback encourages, improves and most importantly leads to measurable accomplishments.
Clearly communicating aligned goals ensures that valuable time is not wasted on unrelated tasks. It is important for everyone at an organization to understand how their work supports the short and long-term goals of the company. When employees execute on individual goals that are aligned with the overall organizational goals, they are effectively sharing the responsibility for reaching the same objectives. When goals are aligned and someone misses their goal—managers can identify it simply and step in with necessary coaching or additional resources to get back on track more easily.
The inherent workplace competition takes the form of gamified public rituals such as races and games, morphing it into a controlled process and keeps it friendly and productive. Successful actions are instantaneously awarded recognition by peers and management through leader-boards and system-wide bulletins.
Gamification facilitates the trickling down of business agendas and goals to every employee in a non-intrusive fashion, making it part of the daily routine using enjoyable activities. Instead of trying to convey to your employees what the organization is striving for using antiquated techniques that might miss the mark, you let the game guide them seamlessly towards personal achievements that contribute to the business and their own success.
I will appreciate receiving any feedback and suggestions
Regards,
Gal Rimon, CEO
GamEffective, your Workforce Gamification platform
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CC Image by Kim Pierro
