Today we going to be talking about Viva Goals.
Microsoft's recent introduction of Microsoft Viva, along with its designation as a trailblazer in the emerging enterprise software category known as EXP (Employee Experience Platform), has been a source of great enthusiasm and encouragement for us here at AgilityPortal. This announcement instantly validated a concept we've been dedicatedly pursuing for nearly a decade.
These challenges are undeniably real, and addressing them represents a formidable task that extends beyond the capabilities of any single entity, including Microsoft, relying solely on technology. However, if we can enhance people's work lives, we can take an important step forward.
I'm not solely referring to employee engagement in this context. It's essential to recognize that engagement alone doesn't guarantee satisfaction. Instead, I'm focusing on the broader concept of the entire employee experience, encompassing the entire journey that an employee undergoes within your organization. Our vision at AgilityPortal has always been to optimize this journey to the fullest extent possible.
Our overarching mission is to enhance the functioning of organizations by fostering greater connectivity, engagement, and, most importantly, overall happiness among individuals. We fulfill this mission by supporting the four fundamental pillars of an intelligent workplace: communication, collaboration, knowledge, and processes. The outcome is a thriving workplace culture.
AgilityPortal, meticulously crafted by sociologists and user experience experts, elevates the employee experience by seamlessly connecting all into a unified, intelligent digital workplace that is 100% native to Microsoft. We eliminate complexity and confusion, allowing users to concentrate on their core responsibilities rather than grappling with technology.
The launch of Viva validates our product vision, affirming our commitment to creating a fully integrated employee experience. It sets the stage for us to build upon this approach collectively.
As previously mentioned, a significant component of Microsoft Viva is Viva Goals.
Understanding Microsoft Viva Goals
Microsoft Viva Goals is a comprehensive solution designed for goal setting and management, enabling organizations to synchronize their teams with strategic priorities and drive tangible business outcomes. This tool is an integral part of the Microsoft Viva suite, which encompasses a range of employee experience tools, including Viva Learning, Viva Insights, and Viva Topics.
At its core, Viva Goals is founded on the widely recognized OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework, a methodology embraced by numerous successful enterprises. OKRs represent quantifiable objectives with ambitious yet attainable targets, typically established on a quarterly basis and disseminated throughout the organization to ensure alignment and concerted efforts.
With Viva Goals, organizations gain the capability to effortlessly create, monitor, and oversee their OKRs. This solution offers a centralized platform where all stakeholders can access both the company's overarching objectives and their individual contributions towards these goals. Furthermore, Viva Goals seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Teams, allowing users to conveniently track and update their OKRs directly within the Teams interface.
Here are some of the benefits of using Microsoft Viva Goals:
- Alignment: Viva Goals helps to ensure that everyone in the organization is aligned around the same goals and priorities. This can lead to better decision-making and more efficient use of resources.
- Transparency: Viva Goals provides visibility into everyone's goals and progress. This can help to foster a culture of transparency and accountability.
- Motivation: Viva Goals can help to motivate employees by providing them with a clear understanding of what they are working towards and how their individual contributions impact the overall goals of the organization.
- Productivity: Viva Goals can help to improve employee productivity by helping them to focus on the most important tasks and avoid distractions.
Microsoft Viva Goals is a powerful tool that can help organizations to achieve their strategic goals and improve their overall performance. It is a user-friendly and affordable solution that is accessible to organizations of all sizes.
How To Use Viva Goals
To use Microsoft Viva Goals as an employee, you can follow these steps:
- Review your company's goals. In Viva Goals, you can view your company's overall goals and objectives, as well as the goals and objectives of your team and department. This will help you to understand how your individual work contributes to the overall goals of the organization.
- Set your own goals. Once you understand the company's goals, you can set your own individual goals for the quarter. Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
- Break down your goals into key results. Key results are the specific milestones that you need to achieve in order to reach your goals. Each key result should have a clear and measurable target.
- Track your progress. Viva Goals provides a variety of tools to help you track your progress on your goals and key results. You can set up automated check-ins, view progress reports, and compare your progress to others on your team.
- Collaborate with others. Viva Goals makes it easy to collaborate with others on your goals. You can share your goals with your manager, teammates, and other stakeholders. You can also comment on each other's goals and key results, and provide feedback and support.
Here are some additional tips for using Viva Goals as an employee:
- Be realistic when setting your goals. It is important to set goals that are challenging but achievable. If your goals are too easy, you will not be motivated to work hard. If your goals are too difficult, you may become discouraged.
- Be specific when setting your goals. Your goals should be clear and concise, so that you know exactly what you need to achieve.
- Break down your goals into smaller tasks. This will make your goals more manageable and achievable.
- Track your progress regularly. This will help you to stay on track and make adjustments as needed.
- Celebrate your successes. When you achieve a goal, take some time to celebrate your accomplishment. This will help you to stay motivated and focused on your future goals.
Viva Goals is a powerful tool that can help you to be more productive and successful in your role. By following these tips, you can get the most out of Viva Goals and achieve your goals.
Connecting Employee Experience and Business Outcomes
As business leaders and employers, it is our responsibility to establish well-defined goals and metrics of success, as this has a cascading impact throughout the entire organization. When we articulate these objectives clearly, it serves to enlighten everyone about what truly matters and allows them to align their efforts with the most significant priorities.
This clarity establishes a context for the level and nature of the work we seek, forging a shared vision and language that has a proven track record of bringing together hybrid teams. It offers departments and their respective teams a structured framework to concentrate on their individual priorities and articulate what success means in relation to the overall success of the business.
By having a clear understanding of both business and team goals, employees gain the empowerment to think, collaborate, and take action, both at the team and individual levels. With entire teams and departments rallying around explicit personal and collective objectives, everyday tasks propel the business forward with increased agility.
It's this connection and visibility into the bigger picture that excites us the most. It not only fosters flexibility in day-to-day tasks but also imbues employees with a sense of purpose. Knowing why they show up every day and collaborating with others while comprehending the significance of their work to the company's progress significantly boosts morale and enhances the overall employee experience.
Creating OKRs With Viva Goals
Creating Objectives and Key Results or OKRs with Viva Goals involves a systematic approach to setting and managing goals within your organization.
Here are four key steps to guide you through the process:
1.Define Clear Objectives: Begin by identifying specific, actionable objectives that align with your organization's strategic priorities. These objectives should be ambitious yet achievable and should answer the question, "What do we want to accomplish?" For example, an objective could be "Increase customer retention by 15%."
2.Develop Measurable Key Results: Key Results are the quantifiable metrics that indicate progress toward achieving your objectives. They provide a clear picture of success and help you measure your progress. When creating Key Results, make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For instance, a Key Result could be "Reduce customer churn rate from 10% to 5% by the end of the quarter."
3.Cascade Goals Throughout the Organization: OKRs are most effective when they are cascaded throughout the organization, creating alignment from top to bottom. Start by setting company-wide objectives and then break them down into departmental or team-level objectives and Key Results. This ensures that everyone understands their role in achieving the overarching goals and contributes to a unified effort.
4. Regularly Monitor and Adjust: OKRs are not set in stone; they require regular monitoring and adjustment. Use Viva Goals to track progress, update Key Results as needed, and assess whether you are on track to achieve your objectives. Regular check-ins and performance evaluations help keep everyone accountable and provide opportunities for course correction when necessary.
By following these steps and utilizing Viva Goals, you can create a structured and effective OKR framework that fosters alignment, accountability, and a clear path to achieving your organization's goals.
What is SMART Goals?
SMART goals are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
- Specific: Your goal should be clear and well-defined. What exactly do you want to achieve?
- Measurable: Your goal should be measurable so that you can track your progress and see how close you are to achieving it.
- Achievable: Your goal should be challenging but achievable. If your goal is too difficult, you may become discouraged and give up.
- Relevant: Your goal should be relevant to your overall goals and objectives.
- Time-bound: Your goal should have a specific deadline. This will help you to stay on track and focused.
Here are some examples of SMART goals:
- Specific: I will increase my website traffic by 10% in the next quarter.
- Measurable: I will track my website traffic using Google Analytics.
- Achievable: I will increase my website traffic by writing and publishing new blog posts every week and promoting them on social media.
- Relevant: Increasing my website traffic will help me to generate more leads and sales for my business.
- Time-bound: I will increase my website traffic by 10% in the next quarter.
SMART goals can be used to achieve any type of goal, whether it is personal or professional. By setting SMART goals, you can increase your chances of success and achieve your desired results.
Here are some additional tips for setting SMART goals:
- Start by brainstorming a list of all the things you want to achieve. Once you have a list, you can start to refine your goals and make them more specific and measurable.
- Break down your goals into smaller, more manageable steps. This will make your goals seem less daunting and help you to stay on track.
- Set realistic deadlines for your goals. If your deadline is too soon, you may stress yourself out and become more likely to give up.
- Review your goals regularly and make adjustments as needed. Circumstances may change, so it is important to be flexible and adaptable.
SMART goals are a powerful tool that can help you to achieve your goals and live a more successful life. By following the tips above, you can set and achieve SMART goals that will help you to reach your full potential.
Align Your Workforce with SMART Goals in AgilityPortal
AgilityPortal SMART Goals
What's the use of having goals if you can't measure them? This is one of the major challenges in goal-setting: the need for goals to be quantifiable. Organizations must have the ability to gauge employee progress, compare it against benchmarks, and gauge the pace of employee development.
With SMART goals, you can't simply set a vague goal like "boost my sales numbers." Such a goal lacks specificity and a time frame, even though it is measurable and relevant.
Instead, you would formulate a goal like "increase my ad sales by 30% in the next six months." Now, you have a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. The employee has a clear six-month deadline (time-based) to achieve a 30% increase in ad sales (specific, relevant), which is both measurable and attainable.
This exemplifies an excellent SMART goal. Monitoring progress on this goal is crucial so that both the employee and the manager can ascertain whether the employee is on track to achieve it or if adjustments are needed to reach the goal within six months.
This is where a robust SMART goal software like AgilityPortal becomes invaluable.
AgilityPortal empowers employees to establish, track, and attain their goals. Managers can monitor employee progress, engage in check-ins to redirect efforts if necessary, and seamlessly integrate employee goal data into the review cycle.
Benefits of Using AgilityPortal for SMART Goal Tracking
The SMART goal system serves as a valuable tool for concentrating on the essential objectives that both employees and organizations aim to attain.
SMART goals are not only measurable but also actionable—goals that are achievable by employees and can form the basis for performance evaluations.
AgilityPortal stands out as the ideal software for seamlessly merging goal management and performance reviews. It centralizes your goals, offers automatic updates and analysis, and effortlessly integrates your goals into the performance management process.
This integration streamlines and enhances the performance review cycle, enabling managers to assess how their direct reports have not only met but also exceeded their defined objectives during the review period—all within the performance review platform. Everything is harmonized, simplifying the entire process.
However, don't just take our word for it. Explore how AgilityPortal has made a positive impact on some of our clients' performance management processes.
Reach out to us to discover how PerformYard can assist you in setting and achieving your SMART goals effectively!
Book a demo of our employee app today to see how you can build your very own Enterprise Social Network, and keep all employees engaged in one place.
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