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Top 10 Tips for Improving Organizational Performance in 2009 through Successful Employee Goal Setting

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^{Published in Science and Technology on Monday, January 12th 2009 at 7:00 GMT, Last Modified on 2009-01-12 07:01:58 by Market Wire}  

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--As organizations prepare for annual employee goal setting sessions at the start of the New Year, SumTotal® Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUMT), the market leader and global provider of talent development solutions, released the top 10 tips HR managers can use to drive better organizational alignment for improved performance across their company. Implementing sound, universally accepted goal setting processes, coupled with the use of an effective system for managing and tracking these processes is one of the best ways HR can contribute to an organization's bottom line.

"With the current economic forecast, it is now more important than ever to make sure employees' goals reflect the organization's overall goals to ensure everyone is working toward the same mission," said Richard Oyen, director of HR and Talent Development. "By helping to set organizational alignment, HR departments have the ability to impact their company like never before and create significant productivity improvements."

In an effort to enable HR departments to have a more profound impact on their organization's performance, SumTotal offers the following best practices for employee goal setting:

1. Know the goals– HR should be involved with executives and senior management as they plan organizational goals for the year ahead to grasp the business issues and challenges which are driving the goals.
2. Get buy-in– The executive team should support HR's efforts to align goals and help communicate the importance of the program so employees understand the executive team stands behind it.
3. Cascade goals– Once the goals are set at the top of the organization, they should work their way down in the organization.
4. Ensure consistency– As goals are being established further down in the organization, HR can assist by creating standards for goals and then monitoring for consistency.
5. Hold everyone accountable– A manager needs to make sure goals are measurable with specific deadlines and then hold employees to those dates and deliverables.
6. Reinforce through development– Ensure that employees have the skills and tools in place to actually reach the established goals – the best way to do this is through development plans, which HR can monitor.
7. Work the gaps – While managers can work with employees individually, HR should run company reports to monitor where the organization is falling short at a high level. Address those needs proactively by working with the Learning team.
8. Encourage year-long communication– It is easy for the manager and employee to set up the initial goals and then not touch them again. HR can leverage system technology to send reminders to employees to update their goals and work toward instilling a culture of frequent manager/employee communication.
9. Monitor compliance– Managers should be monitoring completion and updates of employee goals, but HR should monitor overall progress and provide reports to executives and department heads.
10. Measure twice, cut once– Goals should be a major component of a company's annual performance appraisal where employees are measured and ultimately held accountable.

For additional insight on how to approach aligning an organization's goals, a full-length [ whitepaper ] on the topic is available for download.

About SumTotal Systems, Inc.

SumTotal Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUMT) is the market leader and global provider of talent development solutions. SumTotal deploys mission-critical solutions designed to drive learning, align goals, develop skills, assess performance, plan for succession and set compensation. SumTotal's solutions aim to accelerate performance and profits for more than 1,500 companies and governments of all sizes, including six of the world's 10 biggest pharmaceutical makers, six of the 10 largest automotive companies in the world, four of the five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, three of the world's top five airlines, five of the six largest U.S. commercial banks and two of the world's top five specialty retailers. Mountain View, Calif.-based SumTotal has offices across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. For more information about SumTotal's products and services, visit [ www.sumtotalsystems.com ].

SumTotal and the SumTotal logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of SumTotal Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.