1. What’s the problem?
Creating poor objectives and setting them up poorly
with employees will lead to misdirected efforts, weak
accountability and slows the forward momentum of
your business.
When people work to good objectives, they’re more likely to
achieve excellent results. There’s an opportunity here for HR
professionals to support the writing and acceptance of good
objectives. This is the starting point for achieving a high-
performance culture.
How do you solve it?
Help individuals to take accountability
Individuals are far more likely to do something when they
make the decision to do so, rather than if their manager wants
or tells them to. There are several routes to achieving this,
which can be used together:
Employeesdrafttheirobjectivesforagreementwiththeirmanager
The measure of performance is agreed. Ideally, the
individual can use this information to make any necessary
changes to achieve the desired result
Identify the resources available to help meet the objectives
Individual understands what happens as a result of
different levels of performance
Outline and agree personal development plan
Agree what high performance against these objectives
would look like
Employee commits to delivering the objective.
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inspire brilliance
How to: Set individual performance objectives
H
ow
to
guide
How to:
Set individual
performance
objectives
Call us on: +44 (0)1932 222700 or visit: etsplc.com

2. inspire brilliance
How to: Set individual performance objectives
Define a good performance objective
Your employees may need support to understand that, for
an objective to be effective, it needs to be successful across
several dimensions:
If achieved, it must self-evidently advance the aims of the
team and the business
It should be so clearly written as to be understandable
without further information
It must be measurable either objectively (e.g. sales, time
spent) or subjectively (client opinion, benchmark against
similar activities)
One person should feel personally responsible for the
delivery of each objective.
Case study
The objective-setting screen on one system we created
features five separate boxes to encourage employees
to describe, in writing, how each of their objectives is
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-
bound (SMART).
Review the quality of objectives
Ensuring that people are using good objectives requires
review and support. We advise the following steps:
Conduct a business-level review of a sample of objectives
to ensure they’re high quality. Identify interventions
needed to bring about any required improvement
Encourage peer review and calibration of objectives by
managers before signing them off to ensure they’re equally
stretching and meet the definition of a ‘good objective’.
What next?
This guide deals with setting performance objectives but the
same principles apply to setting developmental objectives.
On a related note, we increasingly advise clients to give more
consideration to how people are achieving their results.
To find out more, click on the links below:
► Case studies
► Webinars
► About us
Would you like more help with this?
If you want to talk – either about this specific issue or a
broader performance or talent challenge – please contact us.
Call us on +44 (0)1932 222700
Or e-mail us at info@etsplc.com
www.etsplc.com
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Call us on: +44 (0)1932 222700 or visit: etsplc.com