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Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:23 am
by A_B
Do your bosses make you do them at work? Do you like doing them? If you're the boss, do you make them for yourself and staff?

Mine asks for something each January, and looks like today is the day I will be going over them with him and he will add anything that he thinks we need to get done. I like having lists - my wife will put even the smallest task on a list for me because she knows I love marking things off - so I enjoy having some general themes that will go through the year. Some are project oriented, some are personal and some are general workday/workflow oriented.

I've even been able to mark one off the list already-be accepted into an MBA program!

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:26 am
by Giff
They are meaningless to me when you know 95% of your employees are going to get the same rating/merit raise regardless.

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:28 am
by degenerasian
Yes, we have yearly goals and reviews. These are tasks outside of day-to-day work.

Projects and school are the big ones.

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:29 am
by A_B
(replying to giff)

Oh. They don't seem to be tied to that in our organization at all. Of course, raises were frozen for a bit (Bonuses were still good and generally larger than the previous year with a one year exception) so it couldn't be tied to what you got done/didn't. And most of mine are vague and achievable. I'm not looking to get promoted to VP!

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:33 am
by BSF21
A_B wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:23 am Do your bosses make you do them at work?
-No. That would be highly inappropriate!

Do you like doing them?
-Well it does make it kinda hot since we know we're not 'sposed to...

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:47 am
by Giff
A_B wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 11:29 am (replying to giff)

Oh. They don't seem to be tied to that in our organization at all. Of course, raises were frozen for a bit (Bonuses were still good and generally larger than the previous year with a one year exception) so it couldn't be tied to what you got done/didn't. And most of mine are vague and achievable. I'm not looking to get promoted to VP!
We have performance and development goals, the former of which your rating is supposed to be based on.

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:22 pm
by Nonlinear FC
Yeah, we have them and I have to fill them out and also manage a bunch of folks that fill them out.

Double-edged sword on a number fronts, most notable being that we are busy enough without kind of conjuring up projects outside of our day-to-day. People tend to let some things that I would consider important or proactive slide because it's not on their goal list.

On the other hand, we need something uniform to measure people, so even if it's not consistent across the organization, at least the ratings within divisions and departments are fairly consistent.

We operate on an FY that begins in July, so we are at the midyear point. They have streamlined this process, so now midyear only needs to be "doing good, needs monitoring, or holy shitballs" (not the real categories, but close enough.)

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:52 pm
by P.D.X.
The worst fucking shit ever if you're doing it for someone else's approval.

Re: Goals and Objectives

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:33 pm
by The Sybian
I think my company has this down (we should, as an HR outsourcing company). Our bonuses are tied to objective metrics. The funding of the bonus pool is outside our individual control, like profits, client retention rates, etc... then we get a percentage of available bonus based on a point system. My target is 40 points/ year, and I get points for renewing professional memberships, getting certifications, college degrees, membership on internal work team projects, providing specific services for clients like onsite training sessions, and drafting white papers... I love knowing where I stand, I can see I have 30 points, so I need to get 10 more by the end of the year. I also love that there is no room for touchy-feely bullshit, purely measurable and objective is the key. And I don't have to waste time making up my own damned goals.

We also have to do self-reviews and rate ourselves on specific questions. This year we apparently changed our corporate value statement, so we had to relate each question to each of the 5 values. I hate that type of stuff, but I can waste one afternoon a year doing it.

ETA: And if it wasn't for this exercise, I wouldn't have known we changed our core values.