Perfect Phrases for Setting Performance Goals, Second Edition

PERFECT PHRASES™ for SETTING PERFORMANCE GOALS

PERFECT PHRASES™ for SETTING PERFORMANCE GOALS

second edition

Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases for Communicating Any Performance Plan or Review

Robert Bacal and Douglas Max

Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-175933-5

MHID: 0-07-175933-6

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Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

PART ONE. BACKGROUND FOR DEVELOPING AND WRITING PERFORMANCE GOALS

Using This Book to Write Better Performance Goals

What Are Performance Goals Used For?

For the Organization

For the Manager

For the Employee

Where Do Performance Goals Come From?

How to Use This Book

What’s Next?

Setting Performance Goals That Work

Specific and Measurable Goals? A Balancing Act

The Objectivity Bugaboo—Holy Grail of Goals

Where Does That Leave SMART Goals?

Parts of a Goal Statement

Goals Without Criteria

The Goal-Setting Process

Ten Tips for Setting Performance Goals

Getting the Most from Performance Goals

Using the Goals During the Year

Using Goals for Evaluation and Appraisal

Conclusion

PART TWO. PERFECT PHRASES FOR SETTING PERFORMANCE GOALS

Descriptive Contents

Section One. Performance Goals for Any Position

Readiness for Work

Punctuality

Attendance and Absenteeism

Health

Conflict Management and Team Contributions

Contributions to Team Health

Contributions to Team Productivity

Handling Customer Conflicts

Handling Internal Conflicts

Self-Management and Work Habits

Appearance and Clothing

Ethical/Personal Conduct

Organization and Use of Time

Willingness to Help/Volunteer

Work Outputs and Productivity

Own Work

Contributing to Work of Others

Contributing to Overall Productivity

Personal and Skill Development

Assessment

Formal Learning

Informal Learning

Communication

Interpersonal/Team

Management

Customers

Media Relations

Section Two. Performance Goals for General Management Responsibilities

Managing Performance

Setting Performance Goals

Communicating about Performance

Observing and Documenting

Performance Appraisal/Review

Planning

Financial Planning

Personnel Planning

Strategic and Work-Unit Planning

Work Planning/Scheduling

Personnel/Hiring/Retention

Employee Retention

Forecasting

Interviewing

Preparing for Hiring

Leadership and Organizational Climate

Communication

Personal and Staff Development

Work Climate

Productivity/Process Improvement/Organizational Results

Productivity

Process Improvement

Organizational Results

Communications

Downward

Customers/Clients

Peers

Upward

Section Three. Performance Goals for Specific Industries and Jobs

Creative Communication

Copywriting

Copyediting/Layout

Graphic Design

Website Design

Customer Service and Support—Management

Customer Communication/Satisfaction

Customer Service Improvements

Customer Service Management

Customer Service Quality

Customer Service and Support

Customer Communication

Customer Satisfaction/Retention

Customer Service Improvements

Customer Service Management

Customer Service Quality

Financial

Bottom-Line Results

Budgeting

Conformance to Financial Practices

Spending and Financial Control

Processing

Reporting and Communicating

Revenue Enhancement

Other

Food Preparation—Management

Cleanliness/Hygiene/Safety

Cost-Effectiveness/Organization

Quality

Food Preparation

Cleanliness/Hygiene/Safety

Innovation

Inventory Control/Equipment

Quality

Food Services—Management

Catering

Customer Service

Employee Supervision and Training

Facilities Management

Food Services

Environment

Order Taking/Processing

Serving

Human Resources and Personnel—Management

Compensation/Benefits

Conformance

Hiring

Labor Relations

Policy Development/Communication

Privacy and Confidentiality

Staff Development

Staff Retention/Promotion

Staff Satisfaction

Human Resources and Personnel

Hiring

Staff Development

Staff Retention/Promotion

Staff Satisfaction

Conformance

Policy Development/Communication

Work-Unit Support

Compensation/Benefits

Labor Relations

Other

Information Technology: Hardware and Operations—Management

Project/Staff Management

Purchasing and Maintenance

Results Management

Information Technology: Hardware and Operations

Backups/Disaster Recovery

Customer Support

Data and Hardware Security

Maintenance and Operations

New Equipment

Information Technology: Software—Management

Communication/Training

Productivity

Project Management

Information Technology: Software

Data Entry

Business Systems Analysis

Programming

Testing

System Deployment

System Support (Help Desk)

Internet/Intranet Related

Community Development and Customer Support

Content Development and Blogging

Hardware Management

Intranet Content Manager

Social Media Involvement

Web Design, Development, Webmastering, and Web Maintenance

Mechanical Repair and Trades

Customer Communication

Diagnosis and Quality of Work

Speed of Repair

Work Planning and Estimating

Physical Plant Maintenance—Management

Cleaning

Plant Maintenance

Safety

Physical Plant Maintenance

Cleaning

Plant Maintenance

Safety

Production/Manufacturing

Quantity

Quality

Safety and Environment

Retail/Merchandising—Management

Customer Service

Scheduling/Staffing

Store Management

Retail/Merchandising

Checkout/Cash Register

Customer Service

Retail Environment

Stock/Inventory

Sales and Business Development—Management

Generating New Sales/Customers

Managing Current Sales/Customer Relations

Sales Strategy Development

Sales Training/Communication

Sales and Business Development

Managing Current Sales/Customers

Generating New Sales/Customers

Sales-Related Customer Relations

Sales Strategy Development

Sales Training

Security—Management

Communication

Compliance

Improvement

Supervision and Training

Theft

Security

Communication and Training

Compliance

Enforcement

Improvement

Theft

Personal Security

Premises Security

Traffic Control

Support—Management

Communication, Supervision, and Training

Office Management

Scheduling and Work Assignments

Support

Clerical/Filing

Reception

Secretarial

Switchboard/Phones

Transit/Transportation

Customer Support

General Operations

Safety and Maintenance

Vehicle Operation

Workplace Health and Safety—Management

Compliance

Improvement and Investigation

Training and Communication

Work Environment

Workplace Health and Safety

Compliance

Improvement and Investigation

Training and Communication

Work Environment

Preface to the Second Edition

There’s a popular misconception that the work of improving performance starts and ends with the performance appraisal meeting. If you look at what most managers do, it seems like they believe this misconception. The time they spend in performance appraisals is just about all the time they spend on improving performance. As a result, the many benefits of managing performance are lost as they focus solely on the appraisal process, the end point and, unfortunately, the wrong point.

Is there a secret to improving work performance? In a way. It’s simple. The secret for organizations, managers, and employees is to put more emphasis on making sure managers and employees know what they must accomplish. When each employee understands what he or she needs to do to succeed, it’s much easier for that person to contribute. It’s also much easier for managers to do their jobs, improve productivity, and manage proactively. Otherwise, managers will spend far too much time stomping out many, many small fires rather than preventing them.

Clear purpose helps everyone succeed, and that’s what everyone wants and benefits from. Appraisals look in the rear view mirror and involve looking at things that are often too late to change. Planning performance—setting goals and objectives—is the opposite. It’s looking forward to deal with things that are yet to come and are still under our control.

This book helps you set performance goals and objectives—those statements that are used to aim and guide performance throughout the year. These same performance goals are also used to evaluate employee performance and, more importantly, identify barriers to performance so they can be removed. The purpose of this book is to make the goal-setting process as easy and painless as possible. When you get the goals in place, it also makes the appraisal process much easier. It’s the goals that make employee reviews and appraisals work!

The performance goals (perfect phrases) offered in this book should help you and your employees come to agreement about what is expected of employees (and their managers) to maximize the value each adds to the organization.

These phrases, translated into goals and objectives for your employees, will improve your ability to track progress all year long and reduce the stress and anxiety often associated with performance reviews when the review criteria are fuzzy, vague, and misunderstood.

Before you start, one thing. Please read the introductory material. It explains some important issues regarding objectivity and specificity of goals and objectives. We believe that for most employees and managers, what is most important is that the goals in use are negotiated and based on a mutual, common understanding of the meaning of the words. We stress a negotiated common understanding approach because it’s virtually impossible to set precise, specific unambiguous goals for many jobs while keeping the goals relevant and meaningful. If you skip the front material you will miss important parts that make the rest of this book make sense.

If you would like more in-depth coverage and explanations of performance management