FREE MONEYS TIPS

Ask any competitive sports’ coach to identify the primary team goal before any given season and he or she would certainly respond with something along the lines of, “to win championships”. The individual tasks of all members of the organization, both big and small, revolve and the realization of this one, all-important goal......

Most businesses operate according to the same basic principle; yet championships instead manifest in the form of augmenting profit margins. Now, in the ever-exasperating world of budget management, it is sometimes difficult to link pay to performance, for how can one determine a specific individual’s impact on the overall budget, and therefore his or her proportional cut of the pie? 

Think of cascading goals like a pyramid: at the top is the single, dominating objective, supported by decreasing layers of goals, that although increasingly-vary as one approaches the bottom, are all connected to the original objective. The top is narrow and controlled by few, while the bottom layers are comprised of the rest of the bunch. Although the direction of the various enterprises is limited to a select group, without the support and aid of its bottom levels, any pyramid is destined to collapse. For this reason, as in sports, the whole success of a business is the sum of each and every one of its parts. This system is more than worth its weight in gold for alleviating some of the stress of budget management. 

‘Cascading goals’ tie an individual’s pay to his or her control over the primary objective. For example, top executives of a company, whose jobs include activities like spearheading marketing campaigns or making big financial decisions, make the most money. In working towards the company’s ultimate goal of garnering greater profits, these individuals make the big decisions and are therefore allotted the greatest percentage of the budget. Along the same lines, managers who might control hiring in a specific region are given a less, yet proportional sum and other employees under them a still less, but still comparable amount. 

For the new employee, working hard hours throughout the long days, the ‘cascading goals’ system should not be seen as an obstacle, but rather as a window of opportunity. Sustained outstanding work etiquette gives way to promotions, which assign the employee with more and more responsibility – and added compensation as his or her professional goals inevitably draw greater connections to those in the top tier of the pyramid. 

There is an added morale benefit to paying for performance. When an employee feels like the work he or she is doing is menial, there is just less excitement in the job. The motivation and desire to take pride in one’s work really aren’t there. However, employees who believe that their work is crucial to the advancement of the business as a whole will almost invariably work to the best of their abilities. 

The ability to peer up the steep slope towards the pinnacle of the pyramid gives them perpetual incentive for the future. 

While an HRMS is not designed specifically to perform the full cascading goal process, however it can be used to track basic HR performance and therefore ultimately affect the HR & Payroll combination of events.

                                         

I think one of the biggest challenges facing business leaders today is sifting through all the potential projects that cross their desks and deciding which initiatives are worth pursuing and which aren't. 

Recently, I got a wild hair and decided I wanted to build a boat. I've searched the Internet for the last several weeks looking for the right "project." I found a builder in Maine who's website convinced me that I wanted to buy the plans to build one of his boats. I measured my garage to see how much space I had to work with and narrowed my choice down to two styles.....

Late last night I wrote him, explained my level of experience, and asked him if he had any advice. His reply came early this morning. He described the characteristics of each boat, including building and sailing, and asked me questions about what I wanted to accomplish with my boat. What was I looking for in the building process as well as what I wanted in sailing the boat later? 

Basically, he presented the business case for each boat including}

1. My goal for building and sailing.

2. The unique characteristics of each boat. 

3. The costs associated with building each boat. 

Business leaders today often face the challenge of too many good ideas and not enough resources to act on them all. Sometimes difficult choices need to be made by organizations doing project based work. Work management tools should facilitate the evaluation of potential projects to help make those decisions based upon something more than whether or not a project is a good project. In today's economy the decision must be based upon whether or not the project is the best project, or will provide the most value. And doing that requires decisions based upon predetermined metrics that include: 

1. Alignment to strategy and vision 

2. An understanding of the potential risks along with any risk mitigation plans 

3. The rewards of the potential project 

4. The costs, including the opportunity cost of not doing a project 

5. The resource requirements 

How does your organization evaluate potential projects for execution? Does your project management software help facilitate those decisions?