Improve Employee Performance by “linking” Performance to the Achievement of Organizational Goals

Do your employees know how their specific4. Cooperating with other departments
performance contributes to the achievement of your5. Mastering new electronic systems
organization’s goals? If not, you may be missing a6. Implementing new workload management
great opportunity to improve performance. Employeesprocedures
want to see the BIG Picture and where they fit intoAs you can see, there are many ways to create
that picture. They want to know “why” theirthese links. Consider projects, tasks, and activities. You
performance matters. So when you link (directly orcan probably connect everything your employees do
indirectly) employee performance to the achievementto the achievement of some organizational goal. You
of organizational goals, you increase the likelihood ofjust want to encourage them to do those things faster,
getting better performance.smarter, and better. 
To make these links, do three things. First, examine theAnd you don’t need 10 organizational goals. One or
goals in your organization’s strategic plan. If yourtwo can work just as well. If you think about the
organization does not have a strategic plan, identify theabove example, there are probably dozens of ways
short-term or long-term goals where you work.to link performance improvement to Increased Sales.
Second, identify the areas where you wantWhen Performance Matters, Employees Perform
employees to improve performance. Third, explain toTo motivate employees to improve performance, you
employees how improvement in these areas helpsmust find a way to have meaningful discussions about
achieve organizational goals.performance.  Linking performance to the
For example, suppose your organization wants toachievement of organizational goals is meaningful
Increase Sales By 15%. Your employees’ mightbecause it allows you to focus on a “common
help your organization achieve this goal by doing thepurpose.” It also gives you a way to let employees
following things:know that their performance is very important. And
1. Increasing individual or team productivitythe more employees’ believe that their
2. Improving individual or team qualityperformance matters, the more likely you are to get
3. Solving customer problems fasterthe kind of performance you want.