Objective Setting Process 

The objective setting process facilitates the implementation of an enterprise’s strategy.

A continual objective setting process integrates the breaking down of overall enterprise objectives to departmental level with the planning of tasks to be agreed with individual employees, checking these tasks are fulfilled in a review and the final appraisal, and the resulting feedback cycles.

This kind of orientated objective setting process ensures a high degree of transparency regarding the objectives communicated to an employee and the employee’s own performance. Furthermore, the objective setting process can be coupled with a performance-related compensation adjustment for the employee. This transparent procedure thereby boosts employees’ motivation and willingness to perform well.

Enterprisewide processes such as the setting and monitoring of objectives and the performing of appraisals are thereby amalgamated and standardized. This dramatically increases the objectivity of performance appraisals.

Continual feedback processes enable you to establish a modern and future-oriented personnel management procedure.

An objective setting cycle encompasses the following phases:

Planning

In a planning consultation, the necessary qualifications and competencies are first identified for an employee and then concrete objectives and required performance levels are agreed. For example, sales targets could be defined and the employee could agree to take on specific tasks in a project, and so on. These aspects can be defined by the manager, by the employee or both. The employee’s personal training and development requirements are discussed and entered in the objective setting agreement.

Review

During the review, the objectives agreed with the employee during the planning phase are checked and adjusted to reflect the current situation. The manager and employee discuss the possible need for support, establish whether the objectives defined in the planning phase are still relevant, and add further objectives or decide to delete obsolete ones. Furthermore, the manager can make comparisons between the objectives set previously and the employee’s current performance.

Appraisal

During the appraisal, the manager and employee discuss the extent to which the employee has fulfilled the set objectives. They check and assess the employee’s overall performance and the implementation of concrete set objectives. Any further training requirements or an overfulfillment of the objectives are identified in the different areas. The appraisal document is completed when the manager and employee agree on an valuation. As soon as the appraisal document is saved in the system as Completed or Approved, the employee’s compensation can be adjusted automatically and the employee’s qualifications profile can be updated.