1. 4 Reasons CEOs Struggle to Align
Employee Goals to Corporate Strategy
Recognizing why so many employees
are working without a purpose
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2. Source: Gallup “State of the American Workplace” 2013 http://www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/163007/state-american-workplace.aspx
41% of employees feel they know what
their company stands for and what
makes its brand different from its
competitors’ brands
70% of workers are disengaged on the
job
Active disengagement costs the U.S.
$450 billion to $550 billion per year in
lost productivity
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3. Much is riding on their decisions and their leadership. They answer to executives, employees,
partners and shareholders. Yet one of the most fundamental job requirements is to get employees to
care about what they do and be invested in their work.
Yuriy Boykiv, CEO of Gravity Media says, “When you become CEO, you think most of the time you’ll
be promoting the company and dealing with big picture stuff. But I realized 50 percent of the time I
am a psychologist for the company, for the business partners and employees.”
Aligning employee goals to corporate strategies is key to maximizing employee productivity and
effectiveness but the first step is to understand where executives go wrong.
CEOs have a lot on their plate.
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4. Source: Tribe, Inc http://www.tribeinc.com/pressroom.html
The clear vision of senior management gets cloudier as it works its way through the organization.
We’ve all witnessed the effects of a rumor mill. An original story gets twisted as it spreads until there
is little semblance of the truth remaining. Senior management often assumes the company vision will
make it down the chain of command intact, but it rarely happens. In fact, many employees have no
idea how to respond if asked by a CEO, “Why do we exist,” “Why do you exist within this company,”
or “What is it you do every day and how does that affect why we exist?”
The problem is, if you don’t fill in the communication gap, someone else will and it will usually be a
far cry from reality.
Nearly half of employees do not know top management’s vision for
company growth
68% of employees say they would like to hear about their company vision
and values directly from corporate and not from their direct managers
58% of employees say they hear from corporate only a few times a year
or hardly ever
The Trickle Down Theory Has Leaks1
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5. 1
Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, “The Strategy-Focused Organization,” Harvard Business School Press 2001.
2
“High Impact Talent Management and High Impact Performance Management,” Bersin & Asoociates 2006 and 2007
There is a disconnect between what employees view as their job description and the overall
corporate goals.
Being part of a team not only creates accountability but it just feels good. People inherently want to
be part of a bigger picture, knowing their efforts have a purpose and are for the greater good. If
management doesn’t effectively communicate the overall company mission the team is working
towards, employees have no idea how their jobs directly affect corporate goals. It’s like playing
basketball without knowing how many points a basket is worth and how many points you need to
win the game.
“With a clear goal in mind for the team as a
whole, individual members are able to
establish a clear line of sight between their
specific day-to-day responsibilities and the
broader, long-term objectives of the
business.”
– Ernst & Young 2013
Only 7% of employees fully
understand their company’s
business strategies and what’s
expected of them in order to
help achieve company goals1
Only 29% of organizations
create employee goals which
are aligned to the organization2
The Dots Don’t Connect2
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6. Source: Frankii Bevins, McKinsey Quarterly 2011,
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/making_time_management_the_organizations_priority
The organization responds only to urgent matters and fails to regularly
check progress toward strategic priorities.
Even when executives effectively communicate corporate goals, managers
have little time to ensure their teams are on the same page. Managers often
find they spend much of their time putting out fires instead of focusing on
strategic initiatives that help drive company growth. Things get missed and
issues are allowed to smolder until they become an inferno that consumes
too many resources. When everyone is in reactive mode, innovation is put
on the back burner, exhaustion sets in and employee retention takes a hit.
“When managers don’t have enough time to
supervise their people, they tend to manage
by exception (acting only where there’s a
significant deviation from what’s planned)
and often end up constantly firefighting.”
– Frankil Bevins
52% of executives across the globe said they way
they spend their time largely matches the
organization’s strategic priorities
40% of general managers consider themselves
firefighters, micromanaging emergencies instead of
dedicating time to set strategy and organizational
direction1
Firefighters Often Get Burned3
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7. Source: American Management Association
Traditional management systems keep departments and communications in silos
We were created to work in partnership, not alone in a vacuum. Collaboration yields creativity and
innovation that changes the world. When departments work in silos with little integration with other
departments, redundancy and chaos are about all that can be produced. Any idea that has ever
been deemed successful can credit a team of people working together to have made it happen.
When people pool their talents and resources, sharing information and using individual abilities for
the good of the whole, the sky is the limit.
“The goal is not to destroy the silos
themselves but to eliminate the problems
across silos. The solution is about losing
tower vision and being able to look at and
see things from a different person’s or
department’s point of view.”
– Neil Smith
How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb
Things 2013
83% of executives said silos existed in their companies
97% of executives think silos have a negative effect
Silos Were Meant for Grain, not People4
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8. You don’t have to figure this out on your own.
“The more we know, the more we can grow, so keeping others
regularly informed and frequently sharing ideas, resources, and
other knowledge enhances the individuals’ value to the
organization.” – Jeffrey Cufaude, The Center for Association
Leadership 2009
When employees feel they are valued and appreciated,
understand how their specific job function contributes to the
corporate strategy, and have open lines of communication with all
levels of management, they proactively engage. Engagement
means loyalty, productivity and job satisfaction.
Khorus is the only management system to give CEOs a
hierarchical view of the entire organization which ensures
employees are aligned, engaged and working in harmony to
achieve corporate goals. To learn more about Khorus solutions,
please visit the Khorus website.
So what’s the solution?
KHORUS.COM
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