Those of you involved in either providing HR courses around performance assessment and/or project planning will almost certainly have had a focus on SMART as a technique or framework. I don’t like SMART because (i) I think the A and R (achievable and realistic) are too much alike and (ii) SMART leaves out an ER = SMARTER.

But does SMART work for you?   Here’s why I prefer SMARTER….

Specific – What exactly do you want to achieve? Why is that of value to the organisation? What is the output required? What end result are you looking for?
Measurable – How will you know that you have been successful? How will you measure success?  Are you going to draw upon key performance indicators? Or service delivery agreements and their expected outputs? What evidence will you be looking at? This might be management data, feedback, records or audit information. Be clear.
Agreed (more appropriate here than Achievable?) – Has the objective been agreed with the individual? How does it relate to business goals?
Realistic – Can the objective be achieved given resources, time available, skill and knowledge of the job holder? What help will the job holder need? From who? What or who is the achievement reliant upon (i.e. dependencies). Is the objective too stretching or too easy? What’s the confidence level of the job holder? 
Time Based – At what point will the overall achievement of the objective be reviewed? When will the completion of the key actions/milestones be reviewed?  Are there operational and financial year timetables which are coterminous or are they closing in different time periods?

and ER?

Equalities – Does the job holder have specific needs or issues which might impact on their delivery of a given number of objectives in a given period? Obviously there will be pro rate adjustments for part timers and job share partners. But going beyond this, do you need to carefully consider making any reasonable adjustments for the job holder. Circumstances might include issues around disability, work-life balance, recent sickness absence or some other matter. Whatever the issue, is your carefully considered response “reasonable, practical and proportionate?” Remember as a manager, you have to have the dual focus on the welfare of the individual and the welfare of the rest of the team.
Reviewed – Are you clear about the formal procedures for the precise number of interim reviews that will be documented and on-going informal opportunities, in between, to either seek your support/advice or make some adjustments because of changed prevailing circumstances?

SMART or SMARTER for you?