Strategic Goals
This article covers meaning, importance & example of Strategic Goals from HRM perspective.
What is Strategic Goals?
Strategic goals are defined as the objectives which the firm/enterprise/organization aims to achieve over a stipulated period of the strategic plan (yearly, biyearly plan etc.). It is based on the company’s mission and vision reflecting the way forward to achieve both in a planned manner. After setting the goal one analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (basically a SWOT analysis) so that going forward effective steps can be taken. It requires a high degree of analytical as well as logical skills. As shown in the picture below the goal setting is a step in strategic planning which follows the strategic framework definition.
Importance of Strategic Goals
Strategic Goals are a very important part of strategic planning which involves a step by step approach to talking a problem effectively and efficiently. It is the most important part of any process as without a proper strategy any organization can’t prosper.
When talking about strategic goal the question which comes to our mind is that are these goals different from the objectives?
Objectives are basically a kind of goals only but on a smaller scale which contribute towards achieving a bigger goal (goals which aren’t very specific in nature), also called “goal enablers” because they contribute towards achieving our goal. Strategic goal should reflect the following:
- Vision and mission
- Give an insight into externalities of business (environmental scanning).
- An insight into the internal ground realities of business (internal scanning).
- Should reflect the SWOT analysis of business.
Alignment of strategic goal with the strategic plan is the need of the hour without which nothing fruitful can be achieved.
Elements of a Strategic Goal
A good strategic goal should have the following features or elements:
(a) It should be measurable so that it’s success can be tracked at any point of time and henceforth operational and other planning can be done accordingly.
(b) The goals should reflect the analytical and logical planning which has been done as a part of the plan; it involves a thorough understanding of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of business.
(c) The goal should play an important and crucial role in the success of the organization.
(d) Being specific in nature is the prima facia requirement of a strategic goal, as if you have a clear idea of your goal then only you can proceed further.
Usually in any business plan the number of strategic goals is restricted to 6-8 as if the number is more the organization will not be able to focus well on them.
Example of Strategic Goals
Let us take example of HR department of a company. Some of the strategic goals for them can be reduction in attrition rates, improvement in employee satisfaction ratings, faster onboarding times for new employees.
Hence, this concludes the definition of Strategic Goals along with its overview.
Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over 1800 business concepts from 5 categories.
Continue Reading:
