Aligning personal goals and business goals is crucial to motivating employees and increasing productivity. While some businesses may have trouble with this alignment, it is not impossible to find common ground between your business and employee needs.

The following are the top three methods to align these goals for mutual success:

1. Provide Clear Goals for Success - It is important to make goals transparent so that each team member understands what is expected of them and how their work fits into the overall objectives of the company. Make sure that your employees know how they are being evaluated and what they can do to achieve success.

One way that we do this at Northwest Accountancy is to provide job descriptions outlining what each person does and how it fits into the business.  We have regular check-ins to make sure everything is going smoothly, as well as more formal performance reviews.

2. Offer Opportunities for Growth - If employees feel like they can't grow within the company, they will start looking elsewhere for jobs. Provide training opportunities to help them develop new skills, or offer new projects that allow them to utilize their strengths in new ways. This will give your employees a greater sense of purpose because they know that their hard work will be rewarded by advancement opportunities down the road.

We know that having happy staff is the key to having a happy business.  There's always lots to learn in tax, with changes being made frequently by the government and the Australian Taxation Office to satisfy our professional learning obligations.  From a human development point of view, our group training sessions cover everything from technical information, to how we service our clients, to time management to discussions about the values that we have, to self-awareness and personality assessments.

3. Encourage Collaboration - When people work together towards a common goal, they are more likely to succeed than if they were operating on their own. Encourage collaboration among departments so that everyone feels like they are contributing toward something bigger than themselves. This will help create a positive environment where everyone is focused on achieving their goals together rather than competing against each other.

We use Slack for internal communications that are not client related, and specifically have a #helpdesk channel.  This is the spot to shout for help - where anyone who is available can contribute.  It's great to be able to help, and knowing that you don't need to wait for one person to be in the office before you can move forward means that work is completed quicker too.  Our whole business meets every Wednesday for a full team meeting, where we share the results of how the business is going as well as brainstorm how to improve in certain areas.

Employees working together to achieve their goals will lead to a more productive and happier workforce. With this focused effort, they will be able to reach and exceed their goals, which creates a win-win situation for your business.