Archived Publications Ebook: Using Goal Setting and Performance Manageme | Page 8

GOAL SETTING: THE RIGHT WAY
Goal setting is one of the most important activities for
an organization. A culture that ensures all employees
understand their roles, expectations, and why they are
critical to organization success often find themselves
well prepared to handle the many challenges we find in
healthcare today. Unfortunately, many organizations
do not spend time ensuring goals are aligned well with
expectations of employees, and then wonder why they
aren’t achieving their organizational objectives.
We know that every discipline in our health systems is
mission critical in providing patient-centered excellence.
Ensuring that every team member who wears our
employment badge is competent (and ultimately confident)
is a supreme responsibility we face as healthcare leaders.
Once those competencies are clearly outlined, then
an ongoing Performance Management system is key to
ensuring employees understand the importance of their
work, and the quality of their performance.
Best Practice Goal Setting provides:
• Organizational direction and discipline to ensure that
everyone is focused on the same objective.
• Effective utilization of workforce and organizational
metrics to ensure appropriate resources, and to reduce
the likelihood of delays.
• An opportunity for the organization to achieve an
advantage over the competition.
• Clarity to the workforce regarding what is expected
of them.
The steps to Best Practice Goal Setting vary, but typically
include the following:
• Create goal statements. This statement describes
what the organization is trying to accomplish.
• Setting Goals. Many organizations utilize SMART
objectives when goal setting. The utilization of this
approach has been proven to align organizational
strategic initiatives with goals that can be obtained.
• Specific. A goal is specific when it provides a clear
description of what is to be accomplished and is
easily understood.
• Measurable. A goal is measurable if it is quantifiable.
Typically you start with baseline data, and then set a
target towards which you can progress to, as well as
utilization of external benchmark data. Consistent
metric ranges should be used.
• Achievable. Goals should be achievable. This does
not mean that goals should be easy, but should be
challenging and able to be accomplished.
• Relevant. Relevant goals should be appropriate
to and consistent with the mission and vision of
the organization. Short term goals should also
be relevant to the longer, broader goals of the
organization.
• Timely. Finally, a goal must be timely and include
a starting and ending point. Often goals have
intermediate steps, which can be assessed as the
individual progresses.
A culture that ensures all employees understand
their roles, expectations, and why they are critical to
organization success often find themselves well prepared
to handle the many challenges we find in healthcare today.
HealthStream E-Book: Improve Outcomes Through Goal Setting and Performance Management
5 8 HealthStream White Paper: Goal-Setting