5 benefits of working by objectives

This has led to a shift from the concept of man-machine, in which the worker had to perform a defined function, without the need to `think', of the role of people in the current organisational models that combine the person, technology and processes.

Thus, the skills of the workers, understood as their knowledge, their know-how and their proactive attitude towards the task, have become a strategic element for companies to respond to the demands of the markets.

The form of managing these competencies has been of interest in multiple studies about the organisation of work.  One of the methodologies that has proved most effective for this purpose is work by objectives, and the volume of companies that incorporate this formula continues to increase day by day.

The benefits of this methodology are many, significantly greater than the organisation of work by time: When the worker has to stay at his or her job for a certain number of hours and the maximum is set `if I keep to the schedule, I get the work done’, the routine can end up causing a lack of motivation and lower productivity.

How to implement the methodology?

The main difficulties that the company will encounter when working by objectives will be related to the definition of the objectives themselves, the responsibilities of each worker in terms of results and coordination with other workers or other departments.

The advance of technology is helping many of the companies that appear today to have an online format, with geographically distant workers, and these types of companies have developed applications to monitor employees and make deliveries and payments.

Even so, companies that continue to work in a more traditional format, in person and with a set schedule, have also been incorporating specific objectives for tasks and times, observing how this has increased the satisfaction of their workers, as well as their productivity, and today this change is associated with progress and modernity.

Let's see below what benefits the work by objectives brings us:

1.Increased efficiency

The worker feels responsible for his work, has a greater impulse to fulfil his tasks and each objective achieved becomes a reinforcement to continue in his work.

2. Clear delineation of job roles
The differentiation of each employee's functions and responsibilities allows for a transparent observation of their concrete contribution to the company's success, as well as their skills and potential talents.

3. Assessment of the results
This allows concrete evaluation of the achievements, as well as the difficulties found in order to be able to remedy them. The company can measure time, costs and results.

4. Encourages self-monitoring and self-evaluation of workers
The worker has greater freedom to manage himself, which will favour the search for new solutions and better strategies to tackle the task, he will feel a healthy competitiveness to be more and more successful.

5. Improves career advancement opportunities
Achieving results and perceiving that they are valued will help the employee to feel more identified with the company, to feel more motivated to continue their training and to contribute more personal assets to their organization.

Also in personal life

Although the methodology of working by objectives emerged in the area of work organisation with the aim of improving labour productivity, it is easily extrapolated to the area of personal development.

We want to develop fully in all aspects of our lives, personal, family, social and professional, but the level of personal satisfaction will not depend so much on the things we achieve as on the perception of having achieved specific goals and objectives.

To properly program personal objectives and achieve them can make us very happy, in the same way that we can be very depressed even though objectively we have many things and good living conditions, if they are not perceived as an achievement.

Setting achievable personal goals increases motivation and makes us evolve and progress, and if we plan relevant goals, strive to achieve them and know how to value them, the level of satisfaction and well-being will be a regular part of our work.