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A Guide to Using the Goals Module

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This Guide and role list provides a comprehensive overview of the goal management process within the HRplus Goals Module.

 

HR (Human Resources) Department

Responsibilities: 

  • Defining the company's goal-setting process and ensuring alignment with the overall strategy.

  • Configuring goal-related settings in HRplus, including financial year, perspectives, point systems, and linking to appraisals.

  • Managing the "Goal Setting" event and ensuring timely participation from managers and employees.

  • Providing support and guidance to managers and employees throughout the goal-setting and review process.

  • Closing the financial year in HRplus and archiving completed goals.

Managers

Responsibilities:

  • Setting specific and measurable goals for their teams, aligned with company objectives and individual development plans.

  • Cascading goals from the company level down to individual employees, ensuring clarity and alignment.

  • Providing regular feedback and coaching to employees on their progress towards goals.

  • Adjusting goal targets as needed throughout the year to accommodate changing circumstances.

  • Recognizing and rewarding employees for their achievements and goal attainment.

  • Conducting final goal reviews with employees at the end of the performance period.

Employees

Responsibilities:

  • Reviewing and acknowledging their assigned goals.

  • Regularly updating their progress towards goals through progress reports in HRplus.

  • Actively participating in goal review discussions with their managers.

  • Seeking clarification or support from their managers when needed.

Steps Description
Step 1 Set up Goal Parameters (base data that is required by the rest of the module):
  Talent Management>>Goals>>Goal Setup
  Goal Perspectives
  • HRplus uses the Balanced Scorecard approach to performance management. In keeping with this approach, four (4) default perspectives, on which goals are based, are available: 
    1. Financial 
    2. Business 
    3. Customer 
    4. Internal Business Processes.
  • Additional user-defined perspectives can be added with a colour selected for each perspective for ease of display.

How to set up Goal Perspectives

  Financial Year
  • Goals are defined by financial year and as such, the period of the financial year for each company must be defined. 
  • Indicate the status of each financial period:
    • Open or Planning: the year is active and goals can be entered.
    • Closed: the financial year is closed (all goals in this period are Inactive and Archived).

How to set up the Financial Year

  Goal Points
  • For each company, the maximum number of points an employee can receive for a goal.
  • When setting up Goal Standards for the company, the default standard of Fully Meets must be less than or equal to this maximum value.

How to set up Goal Points 

  Appraisal Link Options
  • This option facilitates the linking of the Goals module to the Appraisals module – points rewarded can be transferred to the employee appraisal form. 
  • If the Goals module is not being used, then you do not need to complete this option.

How to set up Appraisal Link Options

  Dependency Types
  • Dependency types are events and/or items that may prevent an employee from achieving the goal e.g. budget constraint, inadequate tools, incomplete training.
  • Five (5) default dependency types are included: 
    1. Budget
    2. Coaching
    3. Economic
    4. Tools
    5. Training

How to set up Goal Dependency Types

  Task Levels (Optional)
  • Task Levels are used for goals that have been defined as Random Challenges or Missions (Goals>>Goal Details>>Goal Type]).
  • For each type of goal, a task level must be selected via Talent Management>>Goals>>Company Goals>>Goal Grid [expand record]>>Tasks.

How to set up Task Levels (Optional)

  Assigned By
  • For each Company, select either Self (logged-on user) or On Behalf (logged-on user acting on behalf of the company) to define who has the responsibility for setting up goals.

How to set up who is Responsible for Assigning a Goal

Step 2 Set Up of the HR Event - Goal Setting:
  Personnel>>Event Reminders>>Master Email Settings
Talent Management>>HR Events>>HR Admins
Talent Management>>HR Events>>Notification
Talent Management>>Manage Events>>Events
User Self Service>>Manager>>Talent>>Goals>>Goal Setup
  Email Notifications
  • Emails to an employee's external email account when the Goals form is issued.

How do I Enable External Email Notifications for Goal Events?

  Goal Setting  
  HR Admins
  • The persons responsible for organizing the Employee Goal Setting event.

How do I set up HR Administrators?

  Goal Notifications
  • These notifications are sent to employees and managers to inform them about upcoming or completed goal events.
  • On logon, employees will receive notifications via Company Notifications or Inbox that goals have been assigned.

How do I set up Status Notifications for the Goals module?

  HR Admin Goal Setting Event
  • The Employee Goals event enables managers and employees to complete their assigned goals. HR or managers are responsible for setting up and managing the event.
  • Managers can view the goals assigned to their employees and manage the process.

As an HR Admin, how do I set up the Goal Setting Event?

Step 3 Manager and HR Led Employee Goal Setting:
  User Self Service>>Manager>>Talent>>Goals>>Goals>>[New Goal]>>Goal Details
 
  Goal Details
  • Goal Details includes basic goal data – name, perspective, year, goal type, weight, due date etc.
  • Goals should be set up by hierarchy:
    1. Company
    2. Division
    3. Department
    4. Section
    5. Employee
  • Company goals must be created first but can be linked to lower-level goals.
  • Division, Department, Section, Employee goals must be linked to higher-level goals.

How to set up Goal Details 

  Assignment Details
  • Assignee (Assigned To) and Assigner (Assigned By) of the goal.
  • These employees are filtered by company or any other hierarchical level.
  • Each goal is assigned to a single employee.
  • On logon, employees will receive notifications via Company Notifications or Inbox that goals have been assigned.
  • Managers can view the goals assigned to their employees and manage the process via User Self Service>>Manager>>Talent.
  • For the most part, the Goal screens are the same for HR, Manager and Employee with minor variations due to the status of each (e.g. an employee cannot enter Dependencies or change Targets, Progress Reports are only entered by employees, managers can manage the goal setting event and can view goals for only their direct reports etc.

How to set up Assignment Details

  Target Details
  • Goal Targets are defined, in units, for each quarter. The system calculates the total Target based on the calculation type (Sum or Average) defined. 
  • Results and Points fields are also included to be updated as the goal is processed.

How to set up Assignment Details 

  Goal Standards
  • Define Points for the default Goal Standards of:
    1. Far Exceeds
    2. Exceeds
    3. Meets Fully
    4. Meets Minimum
    5. Unacceptable


How to set up Goal Standards

  Competencies
  • User-defined Competencies and Competency Levels, required to complete the selected goals are defined.

How to set Competencies required to achieve a Goal

  My Goals
  • All goals assigned to the employee will be displayed.

How can I view Goals assigned to me?

  Adjust Targets
  • Ideally, targets should not be changed on impulse. As such, you cannot override the original targets but you can adjust them. Adjustments to the targets are entered via new records – new quarterly amounts that are used to change the targets
  • The system recalculates the total Target and displays the new most current value.
  • The original targets will not be displayed as they are constantly being changed.
  • For example, if you wish to change an existing target of 20,000 to 15,000, then enter a -5000 value in the respective quarter. 

How to Adjust a Goal Target 

  Goal Costs
  • User-defined items of cost (Advertising, Market Research, Proposal Writing etc.) are defined.
  • No actual cost values are entered.

How to set up Goal Costs?

  Tasks and Linked Costs
  • User-defined Tasks, with start and due dates, required to complete the selected goals are set up.
  • Each Task is linked to a Cost item (previously defined).
  • The Actual and Budgeted Costs for the selected task are then entered. The system updates the Costs with these values – so that the actual and budgeted costs for items of cost are displayed side by side.
  • The system also calculates the percentage of the Budget used based on the Actual cost and displays this value. 

How to set up Tasks and linked costs to achieve a Goal

  Dependencies
  • User-defined Dependencies (events, items, things that may hinder the achievement of the goal) are defined.
  • A Start date and date by which the issue should be resolved Date, as well as the person responsible for resolving and the person who actually resolved the issue are also defined.
  • Any rewards to be attained for the resolution of the issue are also entered.
  • The resolution of dependencies, like Feedback and Coaching, may involve an ongoing conversation until the issue is resolved.
  • HR is responsible for entering dependencies. 

How to set Goal Dependencies

  Linked Goals  
Step 4 Feedback Loop and Goal Progress:
  Progress Report

Home>>My Performance>>My Goals>>[Select Goal]>>[+]>>Progress Report>>[New Progress Report]

User Self Service>>Manager>>Talent>>Goals>>Goals>>[Select Goal]>>[+]>>Progress Reports

  • Progress Reports are submitted by the employee to whom the goal has been assigned. 
  • Each Progress Report includes Results (units) and the option to update files in support of the results.
  • Based on the Results, the system updates the goal’s bar chart to show Target % and Results %.
  • Targets/Results can also be shown inversely – to cater for low targets (errors, attendance, punctuality) – the colours of the bar chart will change (green for low targets as opposed to red for normal targets).
  • A Progress Graph is also available.
  • The attributes of the goal are updated and displayed graphically via bar charts and colour-coded for ease of display: 
    1. Target 
    2. Results 
    3. Actual and Budgeted Costs 
    4. Percentage of Budget Used 
    5. Calculation Used (Sum or Average) 
    6. Weight
  • The Total Targets and Total Results for goals of a specific type (Financial, Customer, Business etc.) are also calculated and displayed – each type in a different colour.

How to enter a Progress Report

How the Progress Report updates the Target

  Feedback and Coaching

User Self Service>>Manager>>Talent>>Goals>>Goals>>[Select Goal]>>[+]>>Feedback and Coaching>>[Send Feedback]

  • This involves an ongoing conversation between the Assignee (employee) and the Assigner (usually the employee’s manager).
  • The conversation entails entering Topics, providing feedback and receiving coaching. The conversation may go back and forth until the goal/topic is resolved/achieved. 

How to provide Feedback and Coaching as a Manager

  Adjust Targets

User Self Service>>Manager>>Talent>>Goals>>Goals>>[Select Goal]>>[+]>>Adjustable Targets

  • Ideally, targets should not be changed on impulse. As such, you cannot override the original targets but you can adjust them. Adjustments to the targets are entered via new records – new quarterly amounts that are used to change the targets
  • The system recalculates the total Target and displays the new most current value.
  • The original targets will not be displayed as they are constantly being changed.
  • For example, if you wish to change an existing target of 20,000 to 15,000, then enter a -5000 value in the respective quarter. 

How to Adjust a Goal Target  

  Rewards

User Self Service>>Manager>>Talent>>Goals>>Goals>>[Select Goal]>>[+]>>Rewards>>[New Reward]

  • Three (3) default Reward Types are available: Points, Badges, Other.
  • If Points are rewarded, then the Goal Standard and corresponding Points that the employee has achieved will be selected. These Points may or may not be transferred to the employee’s Appraisal form depending on your selection in Step 1 - Appraisal Link Options.
  • If Other is selected then enter any user-defined description.
  • Badges (Guru, Expert, Professional) - currently not available

How to Reward Points for Targets achieved

Step 5 Viewing Goal Results:
 

 

Talent Management>>Goals>>Employee Goals>>Goal Grid
Talent Management>>Goals>>Employee Goals>>Goal Chart

  Goal Grid
  • You can view the results/status of the goal at any time via the Goal Grid

How to view a goal using the Goal Grid

  Goal Chart
  • The Goal Chart allows you to view the company goals graphically. The goals are categorized and displayed via pie charts. You can drill down to view goal details.

How to view a goal using the Goal Chart

Step 6 Close/Archive Goals: 
  Talent Management>>Goals>>Goal Setup>>Financial Year
  Close/Archive Goals
  • Once goals have been completed, they may be closed off/archived. 
  • Goals are not closed individually – the financial year must be closed by setting the Status to Closed.
  • You can view-only archived goals via the Search option.
  • Prior to archiving goals, the next financial year must be created.
  • All goals that are checked as Repeatable will be duplicated in the new financial year. You may edit these goals if you wish.

How to Close or Archive a Goal

  Duplicate Goals
  • Goals may be duplicated via the following:
    1. Goal Setting event
    2. Repeatable Goals (see Close/Archive Goals)
    Goal Setting
  • Indicate the Company and Year and the system will display the relevant employees with a Create Goals button next to each. 
  • A 2-step wizard will be displayed when the Create Goalsbutton is clicked. The first step is checking the type of goals you wish to duplicate: 
    • Company
    • Division
    • Department
    • Section
    • Employee 
    • Job Goals
  • The second step is checking each individual goal you wish to duplicate.
  • The system will duplicate all checked goals and display them via the Goal Grid for the respective company. 

How to Duplicate a Goal

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