If you establish performance goals during the annual performance
evaluation process and have often wondered where to start, here
is a little guidance. I work with many supervisors and employees
who see goal setting as the opportunity to list the classes the
employee will attend for the coming year. And, while learning
goals are appropriate, the goal setting process can be much more
meaningful. Here are four kinds of goals that you might consider
when setting annual performance goals.

1. Essence of the Job Goals – These are the goals that clearly
describe tasks that are required on the job. For example, an
accountant might have a goal to prepare and submit monthly
financial statements. A librarian might have a goal to catalogue
and reshelf returned books within 12 hours. A mail clerk might
have a goal that requires her to deliver all mail daily to all
work sites. Essence of the job goals make the expectations for
the job clearer than they are listed on the job description.
These goals personalize the job to the position and to the
individual employee.

2. Project Goals – Project goals are those activities that the
employee will pursue with a beginning and an end and may be
above and beyond the employee’s routine duties. Project goals
can be related to improving systems, developing new products,
creating new programs, or anything else that you can think of.

3. Professional Development Goals – Professional development
goals specify what the employee will learn for the coming year.
While attending a class to learn something new is noble, I
challenge you to find new ways to help employees develop their
skills while clearly linking the goal to the organization’s
needs. For example, “cross training in a new work area at least
one day per week” is a professional development goal. A better
goal would be to cross train in the accounting department at
least once per week and be able to reconcile bank statements by
October 31. Or, “attend a training class on PowerPoint and
develop a new slide show to be used in new employee orientation”
would be more challenging than just attending the class. Make
sure the professional development goals not only develop the
employee, but also help your organization.

4. Performance Improvement Goals – Performance improvement goals
should be saved for those times when you want to emphasize
clearly that an employee’s behavior must change. Performance
improvement goals include things like, “arrive to work ready to
serve customers at 8 a.m. every day” or “limit the number of
customer complaints you receive to three per quarter.”
Obviously, not all employees would need these kinds of goals.
However, they can be helpful in documenting your performance
expectations in a clear and measurable way.

Now, go out there and set some goals! Make your expectations
clear and everyone wins!