Have you ever interchanged the terms “Performance Goals” and “Performance Objectives”? The fact is, both the terms have different goals and objectives attached to them. In short, they are not “Intechangeable”. Before you think much or be embarrassed, let us tell you that you are not alone. A lot of people confuse both the terms and use them freely in each other’s places.
So, today we are going to discuss and identify the basic differences between both the terms and where the one should ideally be used. Also, I will discuss the importance of these two terms at a working place……
What Does it Mean By Performance Goals?
Meaning
Performance goals are broad and overarching outcomes and focus more on end results and end of the journey. These are usually long- term and focus on the bigger picture or vision of a brand, business or company.
Targets
It focuses on the end of a destination that goes towards a betterment of a business like:-
- Becoming the top company in a particular category
- Increase market profits and shares
- Building a stronger company culture
This also can be seen over an individual’s goals like:-
- Expertising a particular skill
- Reach this much LPA by the end of the year
- Get a promotion by the end of the year
Key Traits
There are some specific traits or features attached with the term performance goals and these are:-
- They can be of span of months, a year or years.
- They focus on the blogger picture.
- They are designated to bring motivation and spirit of success in the employees and a team.
What Does it Mean By Performance Objectives?
Meaning
Performance objectives are like the steps of the staircase, if the goal is to reach the terrace using the staircase then each one step on that staircase is what the performance objectives are. There are plans, set of timeline, and each step a particular person or business will take to reach a particular goal.
Targets
As mentioned, performance objectives are like the steps or plans or measurable actions that are made to reach a particular performance goals, so these includes:-
- Achieving this much customer retention in a particular timeline to increase the company profit percentage by the end of the year.
- Launch a new product line by Q3
- Secure five new key accounts by the end of the year
Performance objectives can also be at individual level like:-
- I need to save this much amount of money everyday for 2 months in order to save this much final amount by the end of 2 months.
- Closing £50,000 in sales this quarter
- Reducing response times for customer inquiries to under 24 hours
Key Traits
There are also some key traits involved with performance objectives just like performance goals, these are:-
- They are focused on a small specific timeline that ultimately is done to achieve a goal in a bigger timeline.
- They’re clearly defined and trackable
- They focus on the steps needed to achieve broader goals
Performance goals Vs. Performance Objectives: The Relationship Between the Both-
Both the performance goals and performance objectives are interlinked and are dependent on each other. Let’s understand this with an example of a GPS. A person uses GPS when he wants to reach an already known destination and just wants direction to reach there. If there is no already known place the person wants to go, knowing the route is also not possible and if the location is clear cut known but no way of following the right route, then also it is not possible to reach the destination. Thus, both the things are interlinked and depend on each other.
In the same way are both the performance goals and performance objectives. Goal is the destination where a person wants to reach and objectives is the route to reach that destination. If there is no specific goal decided then the path or route is hard to decide as well and if the goal is set but there is no planning or calculated steps that need to be taken to reach that goal is decided, then achieving the goal is the same way not possible.
These performance goals and performance objectives are decided by the management team and HR. While these tasks can be overwhelming to circulate and explain to the employees, a hrms (Human Resource Management Software) can help with this by reminding, circulating and updating the employees regarding these goals and objectives. The software can also help with automating the reminders and updates and will do these tasks on its own from time to time.