Developing SMART- agreements

Interactive tool for developing SMART-aagreements

Netherlands_flag[1]This tool guides you in the development of SMART agreements. The starting points are the job elements, result areas or tasks. You may find these in your job profile.

This tool will ask you questions and finally your answers will be put together in an overview that can be copied into a Word document.

Fill in:

Step 1

What are the main tasks or result areas in this function?

{{task_list}} {{buttons}}

Tips:

  • Use the job profile or job description.
  • Limit the number of tasks or result areas. Cluster if necessary.

Step 2

What requirements can be set for task {{task}}?

Task {{task_number}}: {{task}}

{{task_requirements}} {{buttons}}

To develop the requirements, you may ask yourself the following questions:

  • When is this task performed well or successfully?
  • How can one tell that it has been done well?
  • The answers may be results or working behavior (i.e. how the employee acts).
  • If it is still difficult to determine when the task is done well, you may ask what the consequences are if the task is done poorly. Thus, these consequences have to be avoided.
  • If it is still difficult, you may ask this question: If you compare a successful employee with an unsuccessful employee, how do they differ in result or working behavior?

Tips:

  • The requirements don’t have to be SMART at the very beginning. The next step will help you to fine tune them.
  • The requirements can be phrased as results, working behavior and even knowledge or skills. You decide what is most relevant.
  • Refer to existing working instructions, manuals or procedures.
  • Tips for agreements on results (output):
    • Is the employee sufficiently able to influence the result?
    • Beware of perverse incentives.
    • Beware of meaningless but easy-to-measure standards.
  • Tips for agreements on the “how” (throughput, working behavior):
    • Only apply these kinds of agreements when they make more sense than agreements on results.
    • Carefully consider how the performance on these agreements will be visible.

Step 3

Check if the requirements are sufficiently SMART (Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic, Time bound).

  • If you still read verbs, can you describe the results of these activities?
  • Vague terms like quickly, good etc. should be made more specific.

Continuously ask yourself: How will you know that this requirement has been satisfied?

Task {{task_number}}: {{task}}

{{task_requirements}} {{buttons}}
  • How is this going to be followed up on? How will the assessor get the information needed to be able to assess this? By observation, informers, reports?
  • Tip: prevent extra bureaucracy. Are these requirements essential?
  • Can an employee really influence these results? Are there any perverse incentives?

Result

Congratulations! You have gone through the entire process. Below you will find the results, clearly presented. The text can be copied and pasted into a Word document.

{{results}} {{buttons}}