Another year has come and gone – did you achieve what you said you would, when you said you would? How can you begin developing an annual plan that is actionable, measurable, and achievable? As we think about our personal New Year’s resolutions, we should also establish our plan to achieve professional success.
Employees are the back bones of any organization – employee success is directly linked to and influences organizational success. Successful employees, successful agency. In order to support employee success, the organization and the employee must first work collaboratively to define what success looks like for them. These outcomes should be both measurable and achievable, and in alignment with the agency’s vision. The employee should also develop an action plan outlining the key activities that they will focus on throughout the year to deliver the defined outcomes.
At TransPro we practice what we preach – lacing annual performance plans into the fabric of our company culture. At the end of the fourth quarter, TransPro employees develop an annual plan for the upcoming year based on both feedback from performance reviews and the definition of success for the company. These annual plans are developed, and pressure tested in collaboration with team members; this fosters a culture of ownership and allows employees to understand how their success contributes to the company’s success. By developing their own annual success plans, staff members are encouraged to set goals that align with their professional and personal passions.
Key to success is developing annual plans BEFORE the beginning of a new year. If the year has begun and you don’t know what your goals are, it will be more difficult to prioritize activities and projects. It is also important to connect staff performance reviews to their annual success plan – did they do what they said they would do, when they said they would do it? At TransPro, both the success plans and the performance evaluation criteria are shared with the employee before the start of a new year/quarter.
As we enter 2022, we recommend revisiting your organization’s employee success planning process. The agency should ensure that the process allows employees to engage in the development of their own professional and personal annual or quarterly plans, while remaining in alignment with company goals. With the labor shortage facing the industry, it is all the more important for companies to think about ways to retain high-performing employees – annual success planning and reflection is one of them.
