Oracle Goal Management: Interview Questions with Answers

Oracle Goal Management Interview Questions

Here, we are sharing some common interview questions on the Oracle Goal Management topic. These questions are designed to help you test and enhance your knowledge.

If you want to dive deeper and further strengthen your understanding of Oracle Goal Management, we highly recommend exploring our articles on this subject.

Basic Questions

1. What is Oracle Goal Management?
   Oracle Goal Management is a module within Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud that helps organizations set, track, and manage employee goals. It ensures that individual efforts align with broader organizational objectives. Employees and managers can create, share, assign, and monitor goals, fostering a culture of accountability and performance improvement.
2. What are the two types of goals in Oracle Goal Management?
   • Performance Goals: These focus on an employee’s job-related objectives, directly linked to their performance evaluations. Examples include increasing sales revenue or completing a project.
   • Development Goals: These aim at personal and professional growth, such as skill development or achieving a certification. They help employees improve over time.
3. What is a Goal Plan?
   A Goal Plan acts as a container to hold multiple goals assigned to an employee. It is typically tied to a specific review period and helps organize and evaluate goals systematically. Managers can use goal plans to group goals and align them with business objectives.
4. How does a review period impact goal management?
   A review period defines the timeframe for achieving specific goals, such as quarterly or yearly. It ensures that goals are aligned with performance cycles, making it easier for employees and managers to track progress and measure outcomes during evaluations.
5. What is the difference between sharing a goal and assigning a goal?
   • Sharing a Goal: Shared goals are visible in the Explore tab and are optional for employees to add to their goal plans.
   • Assigning a Goal: Assigned goals are directly added to the employee’s goal plan and become mandatory for completion.

Configuration Questions

6. What are profile options, and why are they important in Goal Management?
   Profile options in Oracle Goal Management are configuration settings that control specific functionalities. For example, enabling tasks within goals or requiring manager approval for goal changes. They allow organizations to tailor the system to meet their unique needs.
7. What is the significance of Goal Weights?
   Goal weights represent the relative importance of each goal within a plan. For example, a critical goal may carry a 50% weight, while secondary goals may have lower weights. Ensuring all weights add up to 100% is essential for balanced performance evaluation.
8. What are lookups in Oracle Goal Management?
   Lookups are configurable lists used to customize options in Oracle Goal Management. For instance, defining specific Goal Categories (e.g., Customer Excellence) or Goal Task Types (e.g., Coaching, Mentoring). They ensure that the terminology and structure align with organizational requirements.

Functionality Questions

9. What is Goal Alignment?
   Goal alignment ensures that individual goals support broader team, departmental, or organizational objectives. This feature helps connect an employee’s work with the company’s strategic priorities, fostering collaboration and shared accountability.
10. How can managers assign goals to their team?
    Managers can use the Assign Goal option to add goals directly to their team members’ goal plans. They can choose specific groups like Direct Reports or Dotted Line Reports and set permissions, such as allowing employees to edit the goal definition.
11. What actions can employees take on their goals?
    Employees can:

• View their assigned goals in the Goals Center.
• Update progress to reflect their achievements.
• Align their goals with shared organizational goals.
• Mark tasks within goals as completed.
• Add goals from the Explore tab to their plans.

Advanced Questions

12. What is a Performance Document Type in Goal Management?
    Performance Document Types link goals in Goal Management to Performance Management. This allows goals assigned to employees to be evaluated during the performance review process, ensuring a seamless connection between goal tracking and performance appraisals.
13. How does Oracle Goal Management handle notifications?
    Notifications in Oracle Goal Management alert employees and managers about updates, approvals, or deadlines. For example, a notification may inform a manager when a goal is marked as complete or remind employees of upcoming deadlines.
14. What is the difference between primary and standard goal plans?

• Standard Goal Plans: These are linked to a specific review period and are commonly used for regular goal tracking.
• Primary Goal Plans: These are not tied to any review period and provide a broader, ongoing mechanism for managing goals.

15. How can organizations restrict goal visibility?
    Organizations can use eligibility profiles to define who can access or be assigned a specific goal. For instance, a goal can be restricted to employees in the Sales department or those belonging to a particular job family.

Scenario-Based Questions

16. How would you assign a goal to all employees in the Sales department?

• Create a new goal plan.
• Add the goal to the plan.
• Assign an eligibility profile targeting employees in the Sales department.
• Run the goal assignment process.

17. What would you do if the goal weights don’t add up to 100%?
    Use the Edit Weight option to adjust the weights of all goals in the plan, ensuring the total reaches 100%. This resolves the warning message.
18. How do you track the status of a goal?
    Goal status (e.g., Not Started, In Progress, Completed) can be tracked and updated using the Update Progress option in the goal plan. The status changes automatically based on progress updates.