Employees are bracing themselves for new (and possibly familiar) issues as organisations around the world migrate to in-office or hybrid workplaces. Employee motivation is crucial for an organization's continuing success during these periods of transformation. So, how do we ensure that our employees' motivation is high? It all starts with employee objectives.
But, before we get into how to set them properly, let's take a deeper look at why it's so important to set employee goals on a regular basis.

The Importance of Establishing Employee Goals

It's a well-known fact that writing down your goals boosts your chances of accomplishing them. The simple act of writing down an objective helps to encode that goal in your mind. As a result, you'll be more motivated to work toward achieving it.
Clear goals provide employees with a way to objectively measure their success at work. If a task or project isn't progressing quickly enough, the individual can take a step back to figure out how to get back on track, and management can interfere if necessary.
However, you may be wondering why employee motivation is so important right now. To say the least, the year 2020 was tumultuous. Many people have recently been suffering "languishing," or a feeling of stagnation or emptiness, as described by popular author Adam Grant. You aren't entirely exhausted, but you aren't prospering either.

1. Connect Them to the Larger Mission

You've heard the expression, "you can't see the forest for the trees." This idea, that we become so focused on our individual work that we forget to take a step back and look at the big picture, is not unusual, especially in fast-paced, rising firms. In fact, I had firsthand experience with it before launching my webform startup, JotForm. Management rarely stepped in to remind us how our work contributed to the greater purpose when I was a new developer.
Employees who are isolated in their own personal missions risk losing their sense of purpose, which will inevitably lead to a drop in motivation. Employees' drive to help achieve an organization's greater objective is continually refreshed when they understand how their day-to-day work relates to that mission. This, in turn, aids the entire organization's growth and achievement of new goals.
So, how can executives make the connections?
Discuss your organization's goals on a regular basis, and explain how your employees' ambitions contribute to those goals. "No matter what level the employee is at, he should be able to define clearly how his efforts feed into the greater corporate plan," writes Amy Gallo for Harvard Business Review.
The crucial term here is "routinely," since as your business grows and needs change, your goals will surely alter as well.

2. Be More and Less Specific

Many executives talk about taking a hands-off approach, which means allowing people to find out how to achieve their goals on their own. While this is true—research shows that autonomy boosts engagement—there is a catch to making this method even more effective.
You can specify less, but you can also specify more. What exactly does that imply? Allow staff autonomy, but first set out their goals explicitly (i.e., specify them more).
At JotForm, we strive to be very precise about our goals and then get out of the way so that our employees can figure out how to get there. Employees frequently dazzle us with their creative thinking.

3. Enforce Accountability

When employees fail to meet their targets, it's critical to peel back the next layer of the onion and figure out where they went wrong.
According to Linda Hill, co-author of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader and Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

4. Consider Reframing Objectives

It may come as a surprise, but small modifications in the way we express a goal can have a significant influence. According to new research, the way you frame a goal can influence your chances of achieving it. Specifically, framing a goal in a way that appears to be at odds with the goal can lead to more ambitious targets being set.
So, how does that work in practise?
Let's imagine an employee want to lessen their workplace distractions. It will be more beneficial to frame the objective as "I will not web browse or use social media today," rather than "I will work undistracted for 6 full hours today."
Negative sentiments like guilt and shame associated with failure to live up to the goal-inconsistent framing are found to be considerably more intense than the identical feelings connected with the consistent framing. As a result, the employee will set bigger goals in the future.
Furthermore, we understand that employees are in charge of setting their own objectives. Managers, on the other hand, can be proactive in assisting them with goal development.
A small change in wording can have a big influence on employees, motivating them to go above and beyond, and the impact on the business can be huge.

5. Recognize Significant Goals Achieved

While it's impossible for leaders to give a pat on the back for every goal achieved, achievements that move the needle for your company—breaking into a new market, hitting a new sales target, etc.—deserve special attention.
This entails compensating everyone from interns to senior executives. Employee recognition does not, however, necessitate a formal banquet. Even casual acknowledgement, such as praising an employee in a business newsletter or delivering a "job well done" at the water cooler, can provide a much-needed motivating boost to a colleague.