Goal Setting Template

Help your team achieve their goals with this employee goal setting template. Use it as part of your annual appraisals or one-to-one meetings to structure and clarify their objectives, whether that’s training for skills gaps or long-term career aspirations. 

Download your free goal setting template today. 

Align and empower your team with goals

Setting a goal is about finding direction and purpose, and this can have so many benefits for employees in the workplace. It helps define career paths, increase engagement and improve job satisfaction. 

It also helps to align your team with the wider goals of the business, whether that’s adding new skills and accreditations to the workforce or putting people on a path to leadership. Setting goals can empower your team, and this template helps to organise and track their progress.  

Why Goal Setting Matters in the Workplace

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘fail to plan and you plan to fail’. This very much applies in the workplace. Having no goals in mind for your team can easily make them feel like their future is elsewhere. If you’re not investing time in setting objectives and planning the future of your employees, they won’t feel they’re being valued. 

• Structured goals. Every day involves some kind of goal setting, whether it’s getting a piece of work sent to a client or meeting a daily performance target. But these kinds of goals don’t fit together to create a grander structure. It’s important to think of the career trajectory with targets around skills, greater responsibilities, or formal promotions, providing something to work towards and mark long-term progress. 
• Employee engagement. Where do your staff members see themselves in one, five and ten years from now? Aligning any future goals with their ambitions can help them think about their long-term career with your company, which is fantastic for employee engagement and retention. These conversations can also lead to greater learning and development opportunities. If you’d like to go deeper into these career discussions, download our Professional Development Plan template.
• Productivity. Nothing affects productivity more than job satisfaction, and one of the most important elements of job satisfaction is feeling like your role is moving your career forward. Having goals means an employee knows what they’re working towards, and that’s hopefully advancement, a bigger salary and a desire to stay part of your business. 
• Aligning with the business strategy. It’s hard to truly feel part of a business if you don’t feel like you’re contributing to its journey. Employees should be aware of the wider business strategy and see their own goals as part of achieving it. Gaining new skills, accreditations or meeting new compliance all advance the business, so make sure they’re aligned with the business’s strategy. 

What’s inside this template

Our free downloadable template includes everything managers need to successfully set goals with their team members. It’s completely customisable with an easy-to-use format, and makes use of the tried and tested SMART system. 

SMART goals were invented in 1981 by George T. Doran, a consultant and former Director of Corporate Planning for the Washington Water Power Company. In his paper, ‘There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives’ he writes about establishing a simple and easy framework that could cut through the masses of information for leaders around goal setting.

“How do you write meaningful objectives?’- that is, frame a statement of results to be achieved. Managers are confused by all the verbal from seminars, books, magazines, consultants, and so on. Let me suggest therefore, that when it comes to writing effective objectives, corporate officers, managers, and supervisors just have to think of the acronym SMART.”

For the uninitiated, SMART stands for;

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable (the word Assignable is also sometimes used)
• Realistic
• Timely (the term Time-Related or Time-Bound is also sometimes used)

Who is this template for?

Setting goals is a collaboration between managers and employees, and that’s how we’ve designed this template. This process should always start by sitting down together to review and discuss before filling out the template. 

HR managers

HR departments need an arsenal of tools and resources available to support managers and leadership in their duties, and this employee goal setting template can be part of it. Keep alongside our other resources such as our performance review template to provide a full suite of employee performance documentation.   

Team leaders

Make it easier for managers and team leaders to perform their one-to-ones and annual appraisals with this template. Having a goal setting template ready to go means there’s a structure to follow, and a structure that can be repeated across the team to get the most effective results. 

Business owners

Set your managers and team leaders up for success by adapting our template to align with your business goals. You can adapt the language and format to ensure your teams are creating objectives that fit into the context of the wider company and its ethos. 

How to use the template effectively

Put this template into action in your own business by following these simple steps. 

Step 1: Set clear, measurable, SMART goals

Remember the SMART framework for setting your goals, ensuring you create attainable outcomes and realistic timeframes.

The goal itself should be simple and clear, even if the journey to get there is complex. It can also be worth breaking down the end goal into milestones so it doesn’t feel quite so overwhelming. Completing training modules or researching topics can be checked off along the way to help emphasise that feeling of progress, even if they’re only a small part of the bigger picture.  

Step 2: Align goals with team and wider business objectives

The goals of the business affect the goals of your team, and so the objectives you set should all align with these wider aims. This will likely involve things like accreditations and compliance needs, whereas individuals may have differing trajectories around promotions or skill areas. 

Keep the wider business objectives in mind and create consistency across your team, bringing them all along on the journey. 

Step 3: Review and update goals regularly

It’s no use setting up a bunch of well-thought-out goals if you don’t look at them again until the next annual review. Design your employee’s objectives with milestones and check-ins along the way. This will allow you to see if they’re making enough progress or if the direction needs to be altered. 

Don’t be afraid of tweaking and updating goals, either. Anything can change along the way, so objectives may also need to change to keep the team on the path to career progression and job satisfaction.  

Real-world examples of goal setting

Take a look at these examples to get an idea of real-world employee goals, from annual appraisals to professional development goals. The goals you set with your team will likely look very different and be specific to your business, these examples should hopefully give you some inspiration.  

Annual goal examples

Setting goals as part of an annual appraisal should generally cover long-term goals to achieve by the next review. This can include things like promotions, attending events and developing management skills. 

• ‘Take on more responsibility by mentoring a new starter, helping them to understand the business and how the company works.’ 
• ‘Attend at least 2 industry events over the next year and present my experience and findings back to the team.’ 
• ‘Spend time with a senior leader to develop management skills and work towards a promotion.’  

Performance and development goal examples

Professional development goals are focused on acquiring new skills and achieving accreditations. Naturally, these will be specific to your industry, but these more generic questions give you an idea of what to think about. 

• ‘Complete a course in HR grievance procedure management within the next 3 months.’
• ‘Develop public speaking skills by giving a presentation at the weekly office TED talk.’ 
• ‘Achieve a Google Developers Certification within the next 6 months.’   

Download the template now

What are you waiting for? New goals await. Download the goal setting template and get started on the future of your business via your biggest asset: your team. 

How Employment Hero can support with Goal Setting

Looking for more assistance with performance management? Here’s a handpicked selection of helpful resources.

Performance review template

We’ve created these performance review templates for managers, to help guide conversations with your direct reports. Our comprehensive performance review guide might also help.

One-on-one meeting template

Regular one-on-one (1:1) meetings between managers and employees are crucial for ensuring that employees feel valued and supported at work. Use this 1:1 template to get started.

Performance improvement plan template

Motivate employees to get back on track if their performance takes a turn for the worse with this performance improvement plan template.

Employee coaching plan template

Receiving coaching at work can help employees tackle unique challenges, spark new ideas, build confidence, and keep their skills relevant.

Read more: Professional development plan for HR managersrs