Interviews

Company objectives: keys to successful performance

A company without objectives is like a road without direction. That is why defining our objectives is key to getting where we want to go. To make sure we are going in the right direction, monitoring will be the compass that will determine whether the performance of our employees is being optimal.
This week we talk to Miguel Burgos, speaker, researcher and consultant in People Management and Business Development with more than 20 years of experience with different companies: private and public, traditional and startups, large, medium and small.

Welcome, Miguel. To begin, please tell us who you are and what you are passionate about.

I am Miguel Burgos, Human Resources and Business Development consultant. I come from the world of sports and I am passionate about people management. The sports environment is an excellent test bed for people management, because results are immediate, emotions are visible, and teamwork is the key element. I have been applying my experience in the sports world to companies for more than 20 years.
So I am passionate about companies that put their employees at the center of their attention. I am passionate about brave companies that decide to take care of their employees, train them and make them part of the day to day. It is the best form of motivation, the best way to have happy workers, and if the company has happy workers, a virtuous circle begins where they are more productive, there is less absenteeism, talent is attracted and retained, and this results in improvements for the company.

Why is it necessary for companies to have clear objectives at both general and specific levels?

"There is no favorable wind for those who do not know where they are going," said Seneca. Today we move in unstable environments, VUCA environments, in which we often hear that companies must have flexibility and be willing to "pivot". While this is true and we must adapt our actions to what is happening, it is also true that we must know what we want and where we are heading because, otherwise, we cannot ask the entire organization to row in the same direction.
The fact that a company has clear objectives helps its managers to focus on what is important, and all its employees to know what is important. It helps them to understand many decisions, in short, it helps to align the entire company to a common goal.

"I am passionate about brave companies that decide to take care of their employees, train them and make them part of the day to day. It is the best form of motivation, the best way to have happy workers, and if the company has happy workers, a virtuous circle begins where they are more productive, there is less absenteeism, talent is attracted and retained, and this results in improvements for the company."

If a company does not have its objectives well defined, where can it start to make them clear?

The start must come from the top. The company's management must set the general objectives. This does not mean that they have to be decided from the top, but that actions can (or should) be taken to involve more people. There are many ways to do this.
Once the general objectives have been established, they must be integrated into the company's philosophy so that all its managers are aligned. It goes without saying that, in order to set objectives, all companies must have defined what they are, what they are like and what their meaning is, i.e. they must define their mission and vision as a company, and they must establish the values that characterize them. Likewise, the definition of the mission, vision and values can (or should) be done in a participatory manner.

Once these objectives have been established, how can we help or push teams and collaborators to achieve them?

Once we have the general objectives of the company, we must deploy departmental or team and individual objectives. This must be done in the form of a tree that approaches the reality of each department and each work team. The best way to ensure that an employee can meet the objectives is that he/she understands them in the first place, and shares them in the second. That is why specific, measurable, achievable, challenging and time-achieved objectives must be assigned, what we know as SMART. But we must also explain them to them.
Each employee who has assigned objectives must know how their fulfillment has an impact on the company, and they will know this because their objective or objectives have a direct impact on the achievement of their department's objective, and this in turn is reflected in the company's overall objective.

"The fact that a company has clear objectives helps its managers to focus on what is important, and all its employees to know what is important. It helps them understand many decisions, in short, it helps align the whole company to a common goal."

In what other ways can we help meet these objectives?

Employees must understand their objectives and see how their work benefits the company. To do this, managers should have a meeting at the beginning of the year where they explain to each employee what is expected of him/her, what indicators will be used to measure the objective. And it will be explained from the point of view of the employee, the department and the company.
Intermediate meetings will be set up to evaluate objectives, where the manager will prepare a meeting to give feedback to his collaborators. The manager assumes the role of helping his employees to achieve the results, he is not the supervisor who reproaches the mismatches because everyone is rowing in the same direction. If circumstances require it, modifications can be made throughout the year, or the period established to achieve the objectives, and at the end of this period, there will be an evaluation of achievement.
Some companies associate variable remuneration to the achievement of objectives; public recognition can also be made, by publicizing the results of the departments, or by making rankings of the best employees. Another common formula is that the total results are the sum of the achievement of individual and team objectives. This encourages the best employees to share their best practices with their colleagues, because their final result also depends on the result of their department.

What tools can we use to monitor compliance with the objectives?

Undoubtedly, technology helps a lot in this management by objectives, since there are tools to record the objectives of each employee and to be able to track them. We must rely on software tools where we can also record our notes from the feedback meetings, whether in the objectives part or in other types of evaluations, so that we can have a repository of results, evaluations, comments, etc., for each employee, which will help the company in making decisions, such as restructuring, promotions, training plans, etc.
We will talk with Miguel Burgos this Thursday, March 16th at 5pm (Spanish time) about this topic in an interview that you will be able to watch through our channel of YouTube channel channel or on LinkedInWe are waiting for you!

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