2023 is right here, which suggests annual planning and goal-setting are top-of-mind. Maybe you’ve gotten finalized your online business’s objectives and are starting to speak and act on them. More probably, you’re refining objectives or deep in conversations on alignment and prioritization.
In the meantime, your workforce is ramping again up after the vacations, on the lookout for steerage and motivation as they head into the brand new 12 months. You wish to set the precise objectives as a workforce, see progress on an ongoing foundation, and focus your workforce on touchdown influence.
Microsoft Viva Goals
Create a purpose-driven tradition the place groups align to attain outcomes.
From my expertise having run a number of organizations and companies, workers are motivated by having readability on the objectives and the flexibility to see direct outcomes of their work. So how can organizations present a goal-setting expertise that helps workers work independently, take possession of their objectives, and be motivated daily whereas additionally giving leaders visibility into progress towards enterprise outcomes?
Let’s take a look at the most recent tendencies in goal-setting, concepts for what to do in another way in 2023, and the way Microsoft Viva Goals may help.
1. Clarity is the important thing to stronger influence and extra glad workers
Employees need readability round objectives greater than ever—and it’s good for enterprise. Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a survey of leaders and workers to ask them about goal-setting inside their organizations. Results from the survey will likely be launched in February within the 2023 State of Goal-Setting Report, exhibiting that leaders and workers agree that clearly structured objectives result in motivation, with 47 p.c of leaders observing that poorly structured goal-setting reduces people’ motivation.
Employee respondents say that objective readability offers them a better sense of objective (50 p.c) and motivates them to do every day work (50 p.c). Sixty p.c of leaders imagine that clear and clear objectives inspire workers with a better sense of objective. This in flip helps with worker retention.
Figure 1. Base: 209 international enterprise practitioners in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, or monetary providers with outlined objectives. Source: A commissioned research performed by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, December 2022.
This is aligned with Microsoft’s newest Work Trend Index information, which discovered {that a} majority of workers (87 p.c) report they’re productive at work, however 85 p.c of leaders aren’t so certain. The lacking piece right here is alignment on what groups are engaged on and readability on progress.
Seventy-eight p.c of worker respondents within the Forrester 2023 State of Goal-Setting Report absolutely perceive their private objectives, however that quantity drops considerably for workforce objectives (63 p.c) and even additional for firm objectives (39 p.c). This highlights the necessity to clearly outline objectives and ensure they propagate throughout all ranges of the group.
How do you guarantee that there’s a shared understanding of the objectives on the firm, division, and particular person ranges and supply readability on what the goals are to get there? The clearest approach is by utilizing a clear goal-setting and administration course of that everybody has entry to, which can even be one of many largest challenges for companies immediately.
2. Goal-setting will not be a one-time train
Goal-setting and administration processes typically fail as a result of they keep on the management stage in an ad-hoc, disorganized mixture of tooling—suppose some mixture of Excel sheets, PowerLevel decks, Word docs, and assembly notes not everybody has entry to—and aren’t translated to the remainder of the group in a approach that connects the enterprise’s high priorities to workforce initiatives. This creates silos between cross-functional groups and a disconnect between what management cares about and what workers are literally doing every day.
Leaders know this disconnect is actual. According to the survey outcomes for the 2023 State of Goal-Setting Report, leaders cite their primary problem with the goal-setting and administration course of is getting workers concerned, whereas the highest two issues workers would change of their present goal-setting course of are getting extra constant updates and seeing a stronger connection between objectives and firm outcomes.
Figure 2. Leaders: 429 international enterprise folks managers and director resolution makers in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, or monetary providers with outlined efficiency objectives. Employees: 209 international enterprise practitioners in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, or monetary providers with outlined objectives. Source: A commissioned research performed by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, December 2022.
This signifies that creating cohesion and readability doesn’t cease at setting objectives. Leaders and workers wish to join on objective progress over time, at a daily cadence, and from a central supply of fact, together with constructing rituals comparable to month-to-month evaluations, department-wide objective updates at All Hands conferences, and discussing objectives in workforce conferences and one-on-ones.
Microsoft Viva Goals is making the connection between objectives and every day work simpler than ever. We’re enhancing the Viva Goals integration in Microsoft Teams to carry parity between the Viva Goals net app and Teams app, so leaders and workers can obtain notifications round goals and key outcomes (OKR) exercise and pin a number of division’s OKRs. In addition, to carry goal-setting into the circulation of on a regular basis conversations, customers can create, edit, and make check-ins to OKRs straight within the Teams chat.
3. The OKR framework is primary for influence
The survey for the 2023 State of Goal-Setting research discovered that the OKR framework is probably the most generally used framework for leaders, providing a constant methodology for setting objectives that the entire group can snap to, and one which motivates groups whereas together with measurable outcomes for accountability and inspiring a progress mindset.
According to the 2023 Forrester State of Goal-Setting Report, 73 p.c of leaders utilizing OKRs say clear objectives and outcomes alleviate some strain on them to attain workforce and group objectives as a result of it helps direct stories concentrate on the work that issues most, versus solely 55 p.c of leaders utilizing different methodologies.
The new 12 months is a good time to introduce workers to a special approach of doing issues and start to roll out the required communications and coaching for OKRs.
Viva Goals now has a brand new Analytics function which helps inform and speed up OKR deployments. This functionality permits group directors to view OKR adoption metrics throughout their group, together with whole customers, groups and OKRs, energetic customers, check-ins, and extra to allow them to perceive how engagement with objectives is progressing.
4. Employees are reflecting on easy methods to develop out of their consolation zones
According to the survey outcomes of the upcoming 2023 State of Goal-Setting report, one of many high questions on the minds of workers as they head into 2023, chosen by 44 p.c of respondents, is “What are the skills I have and the skills I need right now?” In an period the place companies are being requested to do extra with much less, studying and progress is a significant multiplier on the enterprise stage, too, serving to workers develop so your online business can speed up.
Setting objectives round studying and improvement can take many varieties. You can set objectives across the completion of coaching programs you assign based mostly on particular person worker pursuits and the wants of the enterprise, or round studying from cross-functional groups and sitting in on a sure variety of buyer calls. It’s necessary that workers perceive the why behind these objectives—how studying and improvement will transfer the needle for them as professionals and the collective workforce. Microsoft Viva Learning is making this simpler with new studying paths and studying collections.
Viva Learning
Empower workers to prioritize their progress and improvement.
New 12 months, new objectives with Microsoft Viva Goals
In 2023, info, information, and hybrid groups will likely be unfold throughout numerous geographies, programs, and expertise stacks. Unifying and contextualizing crucial info by way of a centralized, digital OKR system like Microsoft Viva Goals that integrates with already current worker rhythms offers leaders and workers the visibility to be agile and make choices with autonomy. By integrating inside an worker expertise platform like Microsoft Viva, OKRs now not exist in a silo separate from the worker expertise and the place folks work.
When readability, alignment, focus, and integration inside the worker workflow come collectively, groups really feel linked to objective and able to make an influence—irrespective of the place they work or how the world adjustments.
To assist your group embrace these tendencies, we’re excited to share new options in Viva Goals to satisfy your online business and workers precisely the place you’re immediately on the subject of goal-setting and administration, together with:
- Security and scalability constructed for the worldwide enterprise: European Union information residency, availability in 37 languages coming quickly, Conditional Access, Google federation in Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), in addition to Okta federation in Azure AD, all give Viva Goals the safe and global-ready options you’ve come to count on from Microsoft.
- Continued dedication to deep integrations for accelerated OKR adoption: With a completely featured Teams app, in addition to integrations with Microsoft Planner, Power BI, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Excel bulk import, and Microsoft Project, you’ll be able to join your group and workforce objectives with the programs of file you’re already working in.
- Flexibility based mostly on your online business’s OKR maturity: Features like Baseline KRs present further flexibility with OKR adoption by permitting a consumer to create a key end result with out having a goal; phased targets allow nonlinear progress monitoring relying in your have to pivot repeatedly as a enterprise and the granularity at which you want to trace progress.
- Powerful visuals to offer admins goal-setting insights: With the Analytics function, group directors are empowered with metrics from adoption, engagement, and OKR well being to grasp progress.
To study extra about our newest product releases from Microsoft Viva, take a look at our breaking bulletins right here: