There is a principle in psychology called the Hawthorne effect, which comes from the pioneering work on labor productivity conducted at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in 1928. What they found was that when people are clear about a particular number or target, they continually compare themselves against that number and both consciously and unconsciously improve their performance in that area. This process of continuous improvement starts with you and your employees being clear about the number in the first place.
