SMART goals examples for employees

Successful goal setting gives your team members clarity and direction, and turns aspirations into actionable steps that drive personal growth and business success. But the opposite is also true — setting the wrong goals (or failing to set any at all) can really impact your team’s morale. 

That’s where a framework like SMART goals comes in.

SMART goals aren’t just a box-ticking exercise — they’re a way to keep everyone at your small business aligned, motivated, and moving forward with purpose.

But many startup and small business owners have never set goals for employees before, especially in the context of performance management. So as someone whose job it is to develop a team and ensure that everyone has the right goals to perform at their best and stay motivated, I’ve written this blog to help you. 

When team members set SMART goals, it’s like giving their ambitions a roadmap: helping them to be clear, focused, and ready to deliver results. So let’s take a look at how they work.

What are SMART goals?

SMART goals are objectives created around the acronym SMART: 

• Specific - they’re clearly defined
• Measurable - they’re quantifiable
• Achievable - they’re realistic
• Relevant - they make sense and have purpose
• Time-bound - they have a timeframe for delivery.

SMART goals are simple but highly effective, and are widely used for goal setting by businesses of all sizes right across the world. We have a free SMART goals template that you’re welcome to use.

Why are SMART goals useful for small businesses?

SMART goals are especially useful for small businesses because they give you and your employees a tried and tested way of setting targeted objectives. 

SMART goals are a framework to help identify strengths, track progress, and make improvements — and they can be applied to individual team members and to your business as a whole. 

Examples of SMART goals for employees

To help you understand how they work in practice, here are some examples of SMART goals for employees. Though they all have a different aim, all of these examples are SMART goals:

• Attend a different networking event every three months and make three new business connections at each event.
• Increase organic website traffic by 20% by the end of Quarter 3.
• Provide DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) training to all employees by the end of the year, ensuring 100% attendance. 
• Obtain a Level 3 CIPD Qualification within the next 12 months, achieving a pass rate of 90%. 

To help it easier for you to put SMART goals in place across your small business, here are some more examples:

Example of SMART goals for employee engagement

You can tailor your SMART goals to certain job roles or areas of your business. For example, if you want to see an increase in employee engagement, one of your goals might be:

• Hold a team-building activity every month to encourage cross-team collaboration and increase quarterly engagement survey scores by 30%. 

Examples of SMART goals for finance employees 

Due to the nature of the job, SMART goals are great for anyone working in accounts. Here are some examples of SMART goals for finance employees:

• Achieve a qualification in Advanced Tax Accounting within the next 12 months.
• Reduce operational costs by 10% within this financial year.
• Improve financial forecasting and reporting by implementing new accounting software by the end of Quarter 3. 

SMART goals for remote employees examples

Remote and hybrid working is here to stay, so you should take this into account when setting SMART goals. Some SMART goals for remote employees examples are:

• Complete a fully remote team project by the end of Quarter 2, making use of collaboration and communication software for both delivery and reporting. 
• Create a framework for holding effective online 1 to 1s and share with the senior leadership team for feedback within the next six weeks. 

SMART goals for new employees examples 

SMART goals can be applied right from when a new team member starts. They are likely to be fairly basic, but introducing SMART goals during onboarding is a great way to make them part of business as usual. And you’ll have a foundation to build SMART goals into their career progression framework. 

Here are some SMART goals for new employees examples: 

• Create your employee profile by the end of day one, and ensure all onboarding documents are uploaded to Charlie by the end of the first week. 
• To better understand workflows and cross-company collaboration, attend one meeting a week with a different team for the first month. 

Good examples of SMART goals for employees: how we do it at Charlie

Examples of SMART goals for employees are great for getting your head around the concept of employee objectives, but finding the right framework for your business is how you’ll really make goal setting stick. 

At Charlie, for example, we use the Worthy goals framework instead of SMART:

“I think often we really overcomplicate goal setting. We introduce too much nuance and steps/stages — ultimately, if you can't explain to me what's most important in a few words then your goal is not clear. So my advice is to try and reduce what you're focusing on to the things that are most important and drive the most leverage. Often that's growth.” - Ben Gateley, CEO of CharlieHR

A Worthy goal is one that encompasses three different dimensions. It must be:

• Thrilling - is it exciting and interesting?!
• Important - does it have an impact?
• Daunting - is it challenging?

If the goal ticks all three boxes then it’s a great goal, i.e. it’s Worthy. 

Shaping a Worthy goal

Once we’ve categorised a goal as Worthy, we shape it so it’s as effective as possible. You are welcome to copy these same steps:

1. Write a first draft of your Worthy goal

For example: To work with People Managers and Team Leads to share resources that will support high performance at Charlie.

2. Get your goal ready for action

Add a verb to your goal so that it's action-based: To build a resource bank for People Managers and Team Leads that will support high performance at Charlie.

3. The Voting Test

Add a score of 0 - 7 across the three foundations of a Worthy Goal: Important, Daunting and Thrilling. An overall score of 18 suggests a strong goal. If the goal falls below 18, work with your team to revise the goal to hit that benchmark. 

4. Now make the goal as specific as possible

Add a word or a phrase that tightens the power and the focus of the goal. 

The example goal To build a resource bank for People Managers and Team Leads that will support high performance at Charlie might change to To build an empowering learning platform for Managers at Charlie.

5. Time to commit

The goal should now be in good shape. It might not be perfect, but it can always be fine-tuned. 

Our top tips for Worthy goal setting

One of our goals at Charlie is to share our learning and expertise to help other small businesses flourish. So here are my top takeaway tips:

• Anchor your Worthy goals to your company, function and team
• Be patient - focus on the process of goal creation, not the outcome, and try not to skip any of the steps above
• Great managers set their own Worthy goals and then support direct reports to set theirs - get really comfortable with the process so you can coach your team more effectively.

Ultimately, and as Ben says above, when it comes to goals — SMART, Worthy or otherwise — try and reduce what you're focusing on to the things that are most important. 

And if you’re in need of more support, Charlie’s performance management feature includes goal setting to make the process even easier.