Taking financial goal setting to the work place

This was not going to be an ordinary get together but a merry-go-round visit for his workmates to undertake a goal-setting exercise meant to motivate staff.

Prior to this, Douglas who works in a local commercial bank as a sales executive, dreaded the goal setting visit as an embarrassing exercise, considering the size of his house which was near a slum area.

To control his fears, he deferred the visit for several weeks to prepare himself and during this time, he participated by attending other goal setting exercises hosted by colleagues.

His source of fear came down to how he presented himself; his dressing, his attitude at work and his income.

When his hosting day reached, Douglas could not bear the shame and opted to borrow some furniture, electronics and other wares from his neighbours to furnish his house before his workmates arrived.

The team of 20 which included managers wouldn’t fit in his single-room which was not spacious.

But there was little he could do other than facing the shame as they squeezed in.

In previous visits to his colleagues’ houses, Douglas’ had learnt that his living condition was relatively pathetic and was not in tandem to the bounty salary he had been taking home for the last six months of employment.

During such visits, the host would be assisted in his financial goal setting, starting from where he lives and extending to his other financial goals.

The moral of the exercise was to encourage the development of personal goals by inspiring the drive to attain the company’s targets.

Personal visits

Through personal visits, workmates would get a clear picture of the individual and this would help them intervene in helping formulate the relevant goals.

For instance in the case of Douglas’, they would begin from the need to move to a bigger house in a safer neighbourhood, the need to buy proper furniture and other household appliances before extending to other long term personal goals such as buying a car or even a plot for property development.

The nature of goals would vary from individual to individual depending on their level of progress and needs.

All these goals would then be translated into money in order to ascertain how much one would be required to achieve in the short term, the medium term goals and the long term.

For instance, if it requires Sh50,000 for Douglas’ to relocate to a bigger and safer residential estate and to furnish his room, the amount would then be broken down into monthly savings.

If this was to be done in three months, he would be required to put aside Sh17,000 every month in order to attain the target.

As part of the goal setting exercise, this would then be translated into monthly sales in a bid to earn at least an equivalent amount of commission to support the goals.

Later on, after an agreed period of say three to six months, the group would then begin another round up of visits to assess the achievements based on the personal goals set during previous visits.

Goal setting in the work place is a revolutionary exercise that has worked magic in various developed countries across the globe.

While every staff member has targets assigned by the company’s management, lack of interconnection between the company’s targets and personal goals has led to low productivity of staff and the loss of drive.

As a result, many employees report to the office, carry out their routine duties and rush home at the end of the day only to wait for payday to reach to get their dues.

Because of this, the drive for many employees in firms where there is no personal goal setting exercise is often the salary that comes to the bank accounts at the end of the month.

Conducting goals setting visits also has the impact of moral persuasion among staff members to inculcate good spending habits which improve living standards.

It could help unravel reckless employees who do not make good use of their earnings.

In firms where this is absent, employees only turn out to be bright and presentable at their work places but back at their homes the opposite is true.

In addition, there are many cases where an employee in management dies and colleagues who turn up to give their condolences to the family members get astonished to find out that his residence or the living standard of the family is pitiable.

With the personal goal setting exercise, individual employees can be motivated to work hard towards their personal targets to avoid being considered failures when the next round of visits kick in.

As they strive towards achieving their goals at the work place, employees find themselves attaining far beyond the company targets.

A happier employee at home would automatically give their best at work.

Opiyo is a personal financial consultant.