Driving Success: The incredible Power of Company-Wide Goal Alignment

I recently read the above article from Success Factors (www.successfactors.com)
 This specific article is about the relationship between companywide strategy
goals and individual employee goals.
Empower your employees, make sure that they understand what his/her goals are
and align them towards the company goals and the results should be Employees
performing up to their full potential.

 The top three business benefits of clearly setting and Aligning
goals across your Company:

1. Increased Operating Margings
2. Quicker Execution of Company strategy
3. Reduced Employee Turnover
"A recent Gallup Poll
turnover showed that Companies with large numbers of dissatisfied workers
experience greater absenteeism and lower productivity - As well as 51% higher
Employee turnover rate"


Setting Effective Goals for your Employees and your
Company
To be effective, goals must serve both the needs of the Company as well as
those of the Employees. Goals should be aligned with short and
long-term business strategies. These goals should be clear, objective,
understandabe  attainable  and measurable otherwise they will be prompt to
failure.
To achieve "Goal Alignement" strategic business objectives accross the
Company at all levels should be clearly identified and this exercise should be
done from top to bottom. It is almost impossible to create a set of
aligned Departmental goals or a Departmental long term strategy unless there is
a clear strategic objective dictated from higher levels of Management.
S.M.A.R.T Goals: Intelligent by Design
S.M.A.R.T. goals have been found to be a very effective method of motivating
employees to perform at peak levels.

A S.M.A.R.T. Goal must be specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant
and  Timely

I have been thinking about this topic while putting together a document for
my CFO about the state of the It Department its past and his future. (Believe it
or not I have been already almost 7 months at Whitsons Culinary Group).

While thinking about what should be IT Department Long and short-term goals
and how to align the specific roles and goals of the IT Team, it made me realize
how important it is to spend time in designing goals for your Team members that
are S.M.A.R.T.  and aligned with Company and Department goals.