Answer

There are specific criteria that an HCO’s goal-setting process should meet. First, the set goals should motivate the members of the organization. According to Kasych and Vochozka (2019), there should be value in attaining specific goals. The HCO employees should be highly interested in the goal outcomes to put in the necessary effort to achieve them. Second, the goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Next, the goals should be put in writing. Noting down goals ensures that they are tangible and accurate, which also reduces the chances of forgetting them. The individuals responsible for the HCO’s goal-setting process should then develop an action plan. Planning all the stages that lead to the ultimate objective is vital since it helps track progress. Last, the goal setters should stick with their plan. In working towards a goal, reviews are made, and this might change the action steps: therefore, the goal setters should ensure that the value, relevance, and necessity of their plan does not change.

It is vital to measure the criteria used in the HCO’s goal-setting process. The following are ways in which the criteria can be measured. Monitoring performance against goals, using sales figures, customer satisfaction ratings, development and implementation of new strategies, expenses reduction, and production and scrap rates. To add, benchmarking the operations can be challenging on some occasions. The first challenge is data: most data is complex, not readily available, and has no statistical relevance. Second, it is not easy to find value from the obtained results. Attaining the proper steps from the benchmarking process and effectively implementing them is highly challenging. Granularity is the last challenge associated with benchmarking. Mostly, the benchmarking topics are too specific or general, making it difficult to take particular actions towards improvement (Sangwan& Choudhary, 2018).

Apart from the measures, the opportunities for improvement of the HCO’s goal-setting process can be can be identified in the following ways. Developing a continuous process: includes performance planning, performance tracking, getting feedback, and making the necessary changes. Next, documenting all operations can also help improve the process. Also, the HCO’s management should ensure full participation to help eradicate resistance issues. Last, information should be collected from multiple sources to improve objectivity and ensure that all aspects of performance are taken into account.