New Year’s is a great opportunity to celebrate your annual achievements and to analyze what goals will bring the most value to your business in 2019. Essentially, it is a time to reflect and to create corporate resolutions for your place of business. To help formulate your resolutions, ask yourself the following:

  • What is working for your business?
  • What is not working?
  • What changes can you enact that will improve productivity and overall work environment?
  • How can you make and more importantly, follow through on corporate resolutions?

We recommend using the SMART method. Make your 2019 goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This method is proven to be effective in both the personal and professional arena.

  • Specific:  The goal clearly explains what actions you are taking. The goal uses action words.
  • Measurable: The goal has a method of evaluation tied to it. The organization (or person) uses data and defines a target goal and measures progress to it.
  • Achievable: The goal isn’t a vague I-wish-I-could-do-this thought. It is an activity or task that is possible to obtain or do.
  • Relevant: The goal makes sense within your job function and responsibilities. It improves an aspect of the business’s daily life and work flow.
  • Time-bound: The goal has a specific due date when the task(s) will be complete.

Need inspiration? Check out the 2019 SMART corporate resolution examples below.

EXAMPLES OF SMART GOALS

Goal One

General Goal: to increase business continuity so that documents can be shared and collaborated on by multiple persons in different corporate office locations.

Smart Goal: to create an interactive SharePoint site where employees can collaborate on documents, regardless of physical locations. To post and archive 20 business procedures to the SharePoint site per month.

Explanation: The SMART version of the goal contains a specific course of action (site creation, document posting. The goal is measurable (contains precise number of documents to post) and time-bound (by the end of each month; for example, 30 days to post 20 documents). It’s achievable given the team resources and allocation of duties, and relevant. This change will improve the ease of access of information. Employees will be able to access the SharePoint from various locations in the event of inclement weather.

Goal Two

General Goal: to streamline documentation of business procedures, so that work is easily transferable to and from employees in the case of a sick day or leave of absence.

Smart Goal: to write 3-4 business procedures in 3 weeks that document lending policies and account for compliance risks.

Explanation: This goal is SMART because it is specific (to write documents), measurable (precisely 3-4 documents within the scope of 3 weeks), achievable (the organization has the capacity or hires technical writers to complete the task), relevant (the tasks addresses an important business need), and realistic (the timeline for work is accurate and builds in buffer time that is needed for manager and Subject Matter Expert reviews).

Goal Three

General Goal: to revamp online training and make it more interesting to learners.

Smart Goal: to create, in Captivate 9 and within 6 months, 13 new eLearning modules that educate on brand, business culture, and human resource policies. To increase meaningfulness to employees by including role-specific scenarios and interactive elements.

Explanation: This goal is SMART because it is specific (to create new modules in Captivate 9), measurable (13 modules within 6 months), achievable (there is an instructional designer either within the organization or for hire who has the bandwidth to complete the task), relevant (the company needs to educate employees on human resource policies to stay compliant, but also wants to create a more positive and friendly work culture), and time-bound (task will be completed in 6 months).

Try using the SMART method to create corporate resolutions that are meaningful to your organization. Smart is the difference between the classic New Year’s resolution of “I want to go to the gym more this year” and the more specific and measurable “I will go to the gym every Tuesday and Thursday at 5pm for 45 minutes.” When action steps are tied to the intent of the goal, the goal tends to gain more traction and become a reality rather than a wish. The first step is identifying a resolution that is tailored to your organization’s needs.

Sometimes a key part of setting a realistic corporate resolution for the New Year is finding the funds or right people for the job. Consider hiring consultants to do the tasks that your full-time employees might not have the right skill set or free time to do. It’s that easy.