Employees are bracing themselves for new (and maybe familiar) issues as organizations around the world migrate to in-office or hybrid workplaces. Employee motivation is crucial for an organization’s continuing success during these periods of transformation. So, how can we ensure that our employees’ motivation is high? It all starts with employee objectives.

How important is it to set employee goals

It’s a well-known fact that writing down your goals boosts your chances of accomplishing them. The mere act of writing down an objective helps to encode that goal in your mind. As a consequence, you’ll be more motivated to work toward achieving it.

Clear goals provide employees with a way to objectively measure their success at work. If a job or project isn’t progressing quickly enough, the individual can take a step back to figure out how to get back on track, and management can interfere if necessary.

Read more: 12 Things to Do When You’re Dreading Going to Work

Connect your employees to the greater mission

You’ve heard the expression, “you can’t see the forest for the trees.” This idea, that we become so focused on our individual work that we fail to take a step back and look at the broader picture, is not unusual, especially in fast-paced, rising firms. Employees’ drive to assist a business accomplish its bigger objective is regularly refreshed when they understand how their daily work relates to that mission. As a result, the entire company is able to expand and achieve new goals.

Discuss your company’s goals on a regular basis, and explain how your workers’ goals help you achieve them. “Regardless of the employee’s position, he should be able to define clearly how his activities contribute to the greater corporate plan. The essential term here is “routinely,” since as your business develops and requirements change, your objectives will surely alter as well.

Be more and less specific – it will make sense in a second

Leaders frequently discuss having a hands-off approach, which means allowing staff to find out how to accomplish their goals on their own. While this is true—research shows that autonomy boosts engagement—there is one caveat to make this method even more effective. You can specify less, but you can also specify more. What exactly does that imply? Allow staff authority, but first set out their goals openly (i.e., describe them further).

The HBR writers propose fostering exploration—experimenting and taking risks—as well as connecting to achieve this paradoxical condition of more/less. Create a physical and social workplace where employees may engage and share ideas on a regular basis. A leader may, for example, promote discovery by praising failures and emphasizing instructive opportunities. That’s not to argue that sloppy or careless labor is acceptable, but well-intentioned mistakes may teach essential lessons.

Setting employee objectives benefits not just the employees but also the entire organization. Staff motivation is a key factor in a company’s performance, which is why defining employee goals is so important. Hopefully, as your firm navigates the months ahead, these tactics will assist your staff in setting and achieving goals that will help the entire organization gain momentum.