How do I explain that to them – most won’t understand how a business objective relates to their job?

First, look at what you have to work with. If it is only a short mission statement, you may still have to do the above research to help you clarify exactly what the company is trying to achieve. If the mission statement is detailed, that may be enough to work from.

Second, look at your department in relation to the corporate objectives. You may not have much or any input on some objectives, whilst others may be almost totally your department’s responsibility to achieve. List the outcomes to which your department contributes.

Third, break down these overall departmental goals so you can identify what each individual in your department contributes. At this point it may be interesting to examine what else they do and ask yourself why they do things that do not contribute to the company objectives. There may be a very good answer, but, if there isn’t, you might want to question the need to continue carrying out tasks that don’t have an identifiable purpose.