When teaching employees compliance, one of the best ways to get them engaged is to give them individual and company goals around compliance. However, not all goals are created equally. Many times, companies or individuals unwittingly set themselves up to fail by creating exceptionally difficult goals to meet, creating frustration and lowering company morale. To make your training compliance training appealing, create goals within it that are SMART.
An acronym first developed by Peter Drucker, SMART is an acronym you can teach employees that stands for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
To create goals that are SMART, make sure that they’re:
- Specific. When setting compliance goals, make objectives that are focused, clear and comprehensible. Avoid vague, hazy goals that are too broad.
- Measurable. Use numbers or percentages to measure goals. For example, state “this department will have fewer than two compliance violations,” rather than “let’s reduce compliance violations. Without measurable goals, it’s impossible to know if the company achieved them.
- Assignable. Make sure goals can be assigned to a specific employee, or a group of employees. It’s it’s not assignable, the goal is too vague.
- Realistic. Company goals need to be realistically achievable, given the company’s track record and resources. A company who had a large number of compliance violations might not be able to go done to none immediately, however, a realistic goal is to reduce violations.
- Time-bound. Goals need to have a set time, such as a year or a month, to determine if they were achieved. It’s common for companies to have annual compliance goals, with sub-goals in smaller increments.
Contact us for more information about how we can make your compliance training great with goals that are SMART.