Organizational Missions, Objectives and Metrics

Whether you are an HR metrics veteran or are just beginning to implement individual and company-wide performance initiatives, the most important thing to keep in mind is first, creating mission and objectives and second, building your measurement strategy on the framework laid out by the mission and objectives.

The broader scope of company-wide mission and objectives serves to unify employees in different departments as they work toward a similar goal under the umbrella of the corporate mission. With a mission to meet, objectives begin to become apparent and can then be broken down into departmental objectives as individual employees work together to accomplish the mission.

For example, if the mountain climbers’ mission includes hanggliding back down the mountain once they reach the half-way marker, they need to check their maps against the terrain, dig up rocks to avoid crashing, and possibly create a makeshift runway to land on, all before they begin their climb to the summit. The climbers need to work together as one cohesive unit, each one thoroughly examining their designated section of terrain to see if it correlates with the mapped route and make corrections or find alternate routes where necessary.

While the mission is essential, one without specific, measurable objectives is simply empty words on paper. If the climbers did not determine their objectives, how do they get to each marker along the way and complete the tasks necessary to reach those markers? Most likely, they end up wasting valuable resources determining their course of action on the spot. Revisiting the mission and objectives as a routine part of regular meetings helps to ensure resiliency and interdepartmental communication. In another example, although a ship’s captain may have a destination in mind, he also needs to know how to route the ship around brewing storms while still making time. Without following the ship’s log to help check off daily maintenance tasks he would waste valuable time and resources.