“Alignment” is a hot topic in management circles for years, especially because of its importance to the running of an organisation. Alignment involves setting goals, strategies and processes that will support the achievement of an organisation’s mission, vision and values. Without good alignment to strategy, every bit of forward motion is a struggle. With everyone working together towards the same objectives, your company can execute strategy faster and with more flexibility. Essentially, alignment of goals strengthens your leadership, creates organisational agility and improved productivity and results.

However … alignment is easier said than done as it involves a lot of effort and coordination and it is complex, especially in this constant changing environment.


CHALLENGES
Faced with a dynamic environment of fierce competition, shrinking budgets, skills shortages, and heavy price pressures, businesses must do more with less and execute on strategy with razor-sharp focus or be left behind.

While we all know that goals and goal alignment are important – in a lot of organisations, these are just not getting executed the way it should be. There are often cases where goal alignment practices, such as talent management, are used to a point, but there is a big breakdown when it comes to execution. The effort just does not seem to stick or management may not be using it for some reason (e.g. it is too hard, it is time consuming, they do not know how to use them, there are more pressing issues to deal with, etc.). For instance in the area of talent management, has job analysis and assessment validation been completed to help enhance the predictive power of selection tools so that the right people are recruited to advance with the organisation way into the future? Are roles, specially the critical ones, clearly defined in the organisation? Or are the training employees are sent to, aligned to their roles and will help them reach their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?

Technology – Friend or foe?
Although technology is a huge assistance in the process of alignment, communication and talent management, some of the initial challenges faced will be that there are a lot of products and systems in the market to choose from and that there is also the perceived risk of letting go of legacy systems. In addition, there is also a need to align the different systems within the organisation as it is likely that each department or division may have their own system. Moreover, how often do we hear problems of systems that are not “talking” to each other; there is duplication of data; information are not consistent; there is huge set up costs; the systems no longer meet the current or future requirements of the organisation and so on.

Some other issues that may crop up include not having a technical / IT person from the start in the sourcing of vendors and products, thus, the internal IT limitations, requirements and support are not ironed out in the beginning. The project may by poorly scoped that it opens the door for misinterpretation and work falling between the cracks. The project may be spearheaded by just one department without the full buy-in from other internal stakeholders. There may be poorly drafted agreements with the third party vendor that are inflexible or inhibit change, or unreasonable vendors who are unwilling to make adjustments when circumstances call for them. There may also be changes in management that create uncertainty about the tenor of, and outlook for, the relationship with the vendor and/or IT project. Expectations may be poorly set that may lead to misunderstandings, disappointment and immediate misalignment. And finally of course, poor project and stakeholder management throughout the project implementation.


ALIGNMENT THROUGH PEOPLE
Organisations that survive in turbulent times tend to have established talent management systems for aligning their people and teams to the essential objectives of the organisation, providing continuous feedback about alignment with those objectives, and adjusting them accordingly. A study from The Hackett Group found that companies with more mature talent management capabilities reap strong bottom line benefits, including earnings that are about 20 % higher than typical Global 1000 companies. These same talent management leaders outperformed their average counterparts across a bunch of other efficiency and effectiveness metrics. Leaders demonstrated better ability to increase overall employee engagement, faster recruiting cycle time, and a tighter link between talent management and business strategy.

In other words, high performing organisations know why they exist and what they are trying to accomplish. Their mission and goals are threaded into their work from organisational level strategy down through teams and to individuals, with the means to measure performance at all these levels. People work best when they understand what their organisation is trying to accomplish, and how their role contributes to those goals. When people understand how the work they do contributes to the goals of the organisation, they can monitor and control their individual paths of success within it. This is the foundation of clear accountability and provides greater clarity and confidence in which efforts and successes will be rewarded. 

Hence, it is essential for learning initiatives, including assessment and evaluation, to align with the strategic goals of the organisation. Just as assessment is critical to the learning process of individuals, evaluation is critical to organisational learning and continuous improvement. A systemic approach to learning provides a lens to focus the organisation on its goals and allows it and the individuals within to learn continuously and adjust performance as needed.

ALIGNMENT THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Goal alignment can be used to communicate expectations, document progress, and identify employee development needs. By ensuring that your employees understand what your organisation is trying to achieve, and how his or her role – and performance – contributes to the organisation’s core mission, you can focus their efforts on your company’s mission critical goals and make strategic decisions rapidly.

Goal alignment is primarily a people and process issue, however, the implementation of measurements and visibility can be well supported by technology. Technology also helps in the speed of information and communication. For instance, in most paper-based Performance Appraisal systems, employee goal plans and reviews usually get filed away somewhere, never to be seen again. But with a good technological system, you can incorporate your existing Performance Appraisal process online as it captures the training and developmental needs for each employee. It helps you to determine competency gaps and pinpoint any missing organisational skills. You can also consolidate all employees’ needs for the year for better budget and scheduling management. There are many software products that will help streamline business processes and manage your business operations and risks. 

All in all, alignment of business goals to strategies and processes that will support the achievement of an organisation’s mission, vision and values is no easy task as you need to be focusing on both business results and people. Goal alignment is a powerful management tool that not only clarifies job roles for individual employees, but one that also demonstrates to employees their ongoing value to your organisation. When you engage employees with their work through goal alignment, they become more committed to your company and achieve higher levels of job performance. You need commitment, time, information, support and the tools to do so. Find a cost effective and efficient technological system and create a good vendor partnership, it makes the journey to alignment much easier.

Article also found here: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140707011333-5398941-alignment?trk=mp-reader-card

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