The following post is a proposal I gave to my current employer. For the sake of this blog, I changed the company name to “Pretzel Mania” and changed the names of the people in it.
Starting SMART Goals in Pretzel Mania
Pretzel Mania employees who are experienced and motivated
collectively produce high volumes of product. Pretzel Mania makes a profit from
their labor and in return, the employees receive personal satisfaction and a
solid paycheck.
It took time to build this workforce. Each station is simple
to learn, but it has taken years for each employee to become experienced and
proficient. Improving by learning has been the key to achieving the level of
production. Problems occur when employees stop learning or lose motivation to
improve. The goal of this HR Plan is to help employees work with excellence, by
maintaining high motivation and high pursuit of learning.
When employees began, he or she worked to attain job
security and was highly motivated. After that security was felt, he or she
needed something more for motivation. The solution lies in motivating the
person beyond job security.
Encouraging employees to pursue excellence is not easy.
Excellence requires full engagement in the job. The reason employees don’t
fully engage is because they lack motivation. If all the Pretzel Mania employees were motivated, no problem would exist, but that isn't the case. Despite the fact that some employees
work with low motivation, it is good as an employer to reward good
work. Rewarding employees isn't a new concept to Pretzel Mania, since the company has a
reputation for above average pay.
The purpose of a human resource department is to motivate
employees beyond pay, and to optimize employee performance. Employees are
individuals who are motivated to work hard for different reasons. Each person
wants a customized combination of time, recognition, money, status, music,
relationships, and much more.
You might be thinking, “We just want to get the work done.
Won’t implementing this plan complicate the simple objective of producing
product? If we try to fix everyone’s problems, nothing will ever get done.”
There is a solution. Remember, the goal is to maintain high motivation for high
performance.
Each employee has a mind that is unique and complex with vast resources locked inside of him or her. Imagine 44 people
pursuing an ever-increasing excellence every day. This occurrence will create a
level of performance high above normal output. Everyone would be in passionate
pursuit of improvement all the time. Can a human resource department unlock
this vast resource?
For now, the human resource department would start with a
human resource specialist. This specialist would help each employee create a
plan. There would be no tricks, manipulation, excessive pay, threats,
micro-management, or domination. The specialist shows employees how to make a
plan, and keeps them on track every 90 days.
The specialist helps employees evaluate and manage
themselves. He encourages them to think to get the job done. When employees
don’t actively think, work quality slides, which would require endless effort
to react to it and manage.
Reactive methods use employee evaluations to advance
employees. It is a method that reviews the past six to twelve months of
performance, then corrects for slippage, and makes recommendations to adjust
work to an adequate level. It is a backwards model. Looking backwards doesn't motivate to improve or change, but future planning does.
This HR plan is mutually beneficial for both employees and
Pretzel Mania. In the plan, each employee makes 2-3 SMART goals every 90 days.
As the employee accomplishes his or her goal, Rolling Hills has the benefit of
a more competent employee. When Pretzel Mania invests the time and effort
through an HR specialist, the employees will be motivated to improve, resulting
is excitement and passion for the future.
This passion is what drives employees to work with active
minds. As they pursue their goals, they will be excited about their future
potential. That passion and excitement drives them to work with excellence. The
SMART Goal System is the key to the HR Plan.
My goal is to compile an HR manual, which detail other HR
methods which support the SMART Goal System. The handbook would be at least
thirty to forty pages.
Remember, the employees drive their own goals. The system
never allows the employee to rely on the HR specialist. From the start, the employee creates the goal, pursues the goal, and completes the
goal. There is a specific approach to doing this.
Implementing SMART
During SMART Goal sessions, the HR specialist will ask specific
questions to lead employees in creating goals. They will evaluate themselves to
make goals for improvement. Even if the HR specialist wants specific
improvements for the employee, those can be discovered through the employees
own evaluation.
It might take two or three goal-setting sessions to achieve
efficiency at this process. If the first goals, which are set, are too
ambitious or too easy, that is okay. Employees will learn by experience. A
SMART goal has the following characteristics: It is specific, measurable,
attainable, relevant, and trackable. The HR manager aids the employee in this
process, and the two together, will eventually make a 90-day goal that is
SMART. The goal must not change during the 90-day period.
After employees make their goals, it is their responsibility
to accomplish them. Unless the goal has a scheduled checkpoint, at 30 or 60
days, the HR specialist will make no special effort to check the progress. After
90 days, in the session, the HR Specialist will ask, “How did you do on your
goal?” Some employees will have accomplished 80%, and others 45%. The amount
accomplished is not the point. The purpose of the session is for the employee
to make improvement. In addition, accomplishing 45% of a goal, which was too
ambitious in the first place, is an excellent result. Eventually, employees
become experts at setting goals, and succeed in achieving 100% of their goals.
You can understand how this plan is a satisfying system.
This plan can be compared to evaluations where managers
evaluate on a subjective scale from 1-10, using subjective categories, which
can’t be measured. Additionally, no evaluator ever puts 10 across the chart,
because who can be that good! It is a lose-lose system. Creating the SMART Goal
System is a win-win system.
Initially, it will take 1 or more hours for each employee’s
session, but eventually, the employee will become a professional at setting
goals. The employee will quickly complete the process in about 10 minutes. He
or she will efficiently outline the result, and prepare three new goals to
start the next 90-day period. The system is designed to make cognizant
employees who are always improving and pursing excellence.
The objective of the HR specialist is to make the employee
comfortable in setting goals. The object is not to control the employee, but to
guide and support him or her. For bilingual purposes, Lupe and I would conduct
the sessions with each employee in the beginning. Eventually, I would like to
learn Spanish to conduct the sessions on my own.
Employees will think of many goals. Each goal will range
from learning Microsoft Office to learning English, from job skills to weight
loss, from efficient production to personal finance. When many people make
similar goals, Pretzel Mania could support them by offering classes. These
classes could include Spanish-to-English or sanitation certification. The
classes could be 3:00 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. This time slot is after the morning
shift and before the evening shift. The employee would choose to attend the
classes voluntarily, but Pretzel Mania would sponsor the class without a fee.
Some employees will oppose the SMART Goal system completely.
This situation is normal, because people don’t necessarily like change. For
those people in opposition to the plan, the HR specialist would develop simple
and easy goals. After a few sessions in the goal-setting process, they will
begin to understand the benefit of the system.
Items Addressed by HR Plan
Many other benefits would come with the SMART Goal System,
as will other HR ideas which would be included in the HR handbook. Each one of
the following items would be addressed by this HR Plan.
· Fitting a
round peg in a round hole;
· Creating a training plan during the hiring interview;
· Coaching
employees towards excellence;
· Counseling
employees to be highly motivated;
· Rewarding
employees for high performance;
· Unifying the company with one primary objective;
· Rewarding
employees for contributing to company improvements; and
· Employing a
method for employee discipline, when needed.
Direct Benefits from HR Plan
Employee’s will:
· Own his or
her job;
· Feel pride
in the company;
· Seek
improvements;
· Seek
excellence;
· Be excited
about his or her work;
· Help each
other;
· Communicate
more efficiently with associates; and
· Manage his
or her weight and health.
Managers will have employees who:
· Are excited
and eager to work;
· Have no need
to be monitored;
· Have
creative ideas that are useful for productions;
· Have high
morale;
· Perform and
record sanitation procedure better; and
· Produce
better production reports.
Pretzel Mania will:
· Have product
processed faster and cleaner;
· Have less
wasted product;
· Have
employees with high skill levels;
· Support
excellent work habits;
· Develop
employees’ futures;
· Resolve
conflicts without getting involved;
· Save
employee work hours;
· Decrease
wasted employee work time; and
· Receive
enormous value from collaborated ideas.
Corporate Reputation will be:
· Excellent
product being sold;
· Excellent
procedure practice;
· Stewardship
of possessions;
· Employees
equipped to work with excellence;
· Work
schedules adapted to family needs; and
· Employees
who pursue healthy eating and living.
Starting the Plan
The first step would be to schedule SMART sessions with each
employee. Sessions could be conducted Monday and Wednesday, between
7:30am-10:00am, totaling 5 hours a week, with a floater assigned to cover Area
A. Five hours of writing on each Friday would allow for the development of the
HR Handbook.
The other features in the HR handbook would be incorporated
as time progresses. Once the SMART sessions are in process, these other HR
components could be added to enhance the system.
In the SMART Goal System, there are 7 steps:
- Assessment
- Mission/Vision
- SMART goals
- Timing
- Responsibility
- Action Item
- Flexibility.
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