Source: Insight

Are your employees too busy because they are doing the wrong things? It may be because they don’t know the goals of the organization. In a survey by Franklin Covey, six out of seven employees could not identify the company’s three most important goals. Furthermore, in another survey by Franklin Covey, over half of all employees did not know their individual roles in achieving company goals. And half the employees in the U.S. spend their time on demanding but unimportant work.

Goals should be set with the following in mind:

• The firm should establish goals for which everyone in the firm can generate enthusiasm.
• Everyone needs to be committed to the goals.
• The goals must be
  • Specific.
  • Measurable.
  • Clearly understandable.
  • Challenging
  • Achievable; otherwise they will be disregarded.
  • Linked with the strategic plan.
  • Limited–if there are too many, you get stress instead of achievement.
• Achievement of goals should be rewarded with something valuable, not necessarily cash.
• Partners must support the goals. Employees reported the biggest obstacles to achieving goals are too much workload and too few resources.

From Insight, The Magazine of the Illinois CPA Society, May/June 2006. For the complete article, click on the following link: http://www.icpas.org/hc-insight.aspx?id=924.