Why It’s Important to Cascade Goals Across Your Organization

Posted by Julie • September 21, 2018 (Last modified February 15, 2021) • 5 min read

If you own a business, you may have many high-level organizational goals. However, many business owners keep these goals to themselves, thinking that their employees either do not care about the goals or should not be privy to the business strategy. Withholding all of the top-level goals from your employees can be a huge mistake though. Cascading goals across your organization can help give your employees something to strive towards, create a sense of community, and improve employee morale.

What Does It Mean To Cascade Goals?

Cascading goals are goals that slowly cascade, or work their way down the organizational chart. To accomplish top-down goals, you need to align the initiatives of the organization with each department and employee. For example, the goal of a business may be to boost revenue by ten percent. From there, each department identifies a goal to help make this happen, like the sales department increasing their sales goal.

Then you can break down the teams even further to individuals having individual goals. When you look at it backwards, the individual goals help to hit the team goals which help to hit department goals which help them hit company goals. As such, every person in the organization is working to hit goals that ultimately cascade across the organization to hit a bigger goal as a group.

Why Is It Important to Cascade Goals Across Your Business or Organization?

As a business owner, it is extremely important to share your strategic plan with the people who work for you. This includes everyone from upper management to entry-level employees. All of your employees work together to make your business a business, so they should also be on the same page when it comes to goals for your business. Here are a few of the reasons why it is so important to cascade these goals from the top all the way down.

Setting Goals Give Employees Something to Strive For

One of the reasons why you want to cascade goals across your organization is that it helps to give employees something to strive for. Many employees make their own goals in their heads. If they are in the sales department, they may set a goal to sell a certain amount to earn the commission money they need to pay their bills. If they are in an entry-level position, they may set a goal to advance in the company. But often times, the employees are only striving for personal goals. Most people can be easily motivated if they know what they are working for and towards. Sharing your goals for the business with your employees and then setting up goals for them with rewards gives them something to strive for. It can be as simple as doughnuts or pizza if the company meets their goals to gift cards or vacation time for exceeding personal goals. This increases productivity, gives employees something to strive for and can help give them a sense of being appreciated and needed.

Goal Alignment Creates a Sense of Community Among the Business

Another benefit to goal cascading goes is that it helps create a sense of community among the various employees and the different departments in your business. Often times, employees only interact and talk with those that they feel they need to. They do not branch out and learn about other people, even if they work with those people. And departments are sectioned off from each other. One department may not know or care what another department is doing. However, in order for your business to thrive, you need all of your employees and departments to work together. When your employees have a group goal, they come together as a community of sorts to achieve this goal. This can help them get to know one another and communicate more effectively with each other. Employees who are happy with their job and co-workers are less likely to leave the company, so this also helps with your employee retention rates.

Can Help Improve Employee Morale

The last benefit to cascading goals across your organization is that it can help boost employee morale among the employees in your company. Many employees feel like they come to work, do a job and then leave. They do not feel appreciated and do not understand how important and integral they are to the company. Cascading goals helps an employee to see how doing their part can help the department and the company achieve the goals that have been set. It makes them feel like they understand what the goal of the company is and how they play a part in this. This can help make them feel wanted, needed and appreciated and understand the importance and significance of the job they do day in and day out for the company.

How Can You Track Your Organizations Goals

Keeping track of productivity and goals for every individual in your company can be challenging. However, there is now an easier way than ever to do this. Employee goal setting software helps employees to input their goal and then input data to help them track their goal. This software can be used by every individual in your company and can have different baselines. It can track individual goals, group goals and company-wide goals. All in all, this is a great way for employees to see the progress they are making, supervisors to see the progress their team is making and you to see the progress your organization as a whole is making.

If you are looking to purchase employee goal setting software, Trakstar can help. We offer a wide selection of company software that allows you to handle performance management, and goal setting. Visit our website to learn more about our company, and how we can help you today.

 

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