As HR leaders and/or 15Five account administrators, you can use 15Five to drive your company's goals forward. There are two ways to track "goals" in 15Five: Priorities on Check-ins and the Objectives feature. This article shares some best practices for managing your company's goals in 15Five.
Two ways to set goals in 15Five
Priorities and Objectives can both be used to set goals in 15Five. Priorities are short-term goals or tasks that follow the cadence of Check-ins. The Objectives feature in 15Five uses the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) Methodology which is a framework for defining and tracking business objectives and their outcomes. Objectives are long term goals. In 15Five you can have company-wide, department, individual, and self-development objectives. For more information on the Objectives and Key Results methodology, see the Methodology Explained: OKRs article and the OKR Methodology overview from our Science pages.
The value of company-wide objectives
Company-wide objectives are instrumental for prioritizing focus areas, directing attention, and ensuring that everyone is aligned and motivated by contributing to something greater than the self. Provide context and purpose by setting company-wide objectives at the beginning of every quarter or six months, so the work each individual performs and the goals they pursue can align with the purpose and goals of the organization as a whole. Talk about your company's objectives at an all-hands meeting at the beginning of each quarter. Be clear about your company's top priorities and communicate them regularly. Sharing your company-wide objectives from the start is a valuable opportunity to increase performance, engagement, and motivation in your people.
Note
Don't set your objectives quarterly? You can also set monthly, quarterly, annual, or custom dates for your objectives in 15Five.
How to effectively set goals throughout your organization
Top leadership should set quarterly company-wide objectives first. CEO’s are encouraged to set and prioritize a limited number of objectives—3 to 5 company objectives with a few key results per objective. People and organizations that choose a few priorities and channel tremendous effort into doing exceptional work in those areas, greatly outperform those who overextend themselves. Fit objectives into your company's vision, mission, and values to motivate your company with purpose. Then team leaders should create nested department-level objectives that support company-wide goals. Finally, people should align their individual objectives with the department and company objectives or own key results of department objectives (see: collaborative objectives). 15Five’s align objectives feature allows for direction setting and alignment across all levels.
Reporting
15Five makes it easy to track progress on objectives and priorities. The “set it and forget it” mantra that so often happens with goal setting is a thing of the past. Leaders and account administrators are encouraged to go over objective progress regularly at all-hands meetings. Let your people know highlights and lowlights regarding progress on your company's objectives. You can also report on Priorities to get clear on tasks that your people are working on. Priorities are individual-driven to-do lists and you can run a report on them to see what percent of tasks are getting completed, perhaps giving you an indicator to step in or a reason to celebrate. For longer-term goal tracking, report on Objectives to see the progress your people are making on their bigger goals.