Setting SMART Goals for Employees

Setting SMART goals for employees is a reliable way to increase employee motivation and productivity. SMART goals add clarity and focus to projects, plans, and organizational objectives, making achieving them a more streamlined and efficient process. SMART goals are especially beneficial for organizational L&D, making it more intentional and impactful. This article will give you all the information you might need for effectively setting SMART goals for employees, and go over their benefits specifically for L&D.

SMART is an acronym that defines a systematic way of setting goals. Each letter in the SMART acronym refers to a specific characteristic of the goal that increases its precision and efficacy. For that reason, SMART goals are more likely to be achieved and can be adjusted with greater ease, should the need arise.

Here’s what each alphabet in a SMART goal stands for:

S – Specific

SMART goals are specific and clearly defined. They answer questions like who, what, where, which, or why. They set a precise objective, eliminating all ambiguity.

M – Measurable

The second characteristic of SMART goals is that they are measurable. Smart goals establish a certain level that must be reached in order to consider the goals achieved. These could be quantitative or qualitative metrics such as percentages, revenues, ratings, appraisals, feedback, etc.

A – Achievable

SMART goals are also achievable. In other words, they are realistic, manageable, and involve a healthy level of challenge. Achievable goals increase people’s motivation to achieve them.

R – Relevant

Additionally, SMART goals are relevant to the overall objective a goal is trying to achieve. They are well-aligned and take you one step closer in the desired direction.

T – Time-Bound

Lastly, SMART goals are time-bound, giving them a clear timeline within which they need to be achieved. This ensures that the goals stay on track and don’t get overtaken by other tasks.

To set effective SMART goals for employees, you will need to consider the following questions:

1. What do you seek to achieve or do? (Specificity)
2. What is the metric with which the goal’s achievement will be measured? (Measurable)
3. Is the goal realistic given your current capabilities and resources? (Achievable)
4. How does the goal align with your larger objective? (Relevant)
5. By when do you need to achieve the goal? (Time-bound)

Once you have answered these questions, you will have the components for your SMART goal. Then, you can frame it. For example, “increase SUV car sales by 5% by the end of Q2.”

While SMART goals can be used for projects, deliverables, etc., they are also an excellent tool for organizational L&D. Smart goals lend greater focus to organizational L&D and ensure that employee development takes place within reasonable time-frames and in a meaningful way.

SMART goals can be used in organizational L&D for the following:

• Building learning paths
• Putting together learning programs that are aligned with organizational objectives
• Setting precise and measurable learning objectives for learning programs
• Designing meaningful learning activities
• Designing meaningful assessments that accurately gauge the level of learning that has taken place

As is evident, one of the most significant advantages of SMART goals in L&D is their synergy with the instructional design triad of learning objectives, learning activities, and assessments.

Given the synergy between SMART goals and organizational L&D, setting goals following this systematic acronym has many benefits for corporate learning. Let us look at some of them:

SMART goals create alignment between training initiatives and business objectives. They make it easy to define what training will be needed to fulfill broader organizational goals. They also enable identifying whether a training’s outcomes will be relevant to the business objectives they are tied to.

With SMART goals in place, you can then define the behaviors, knowledge, and competencies required to meet these goals. Having this information makes it easier to build assessments for training initiatives, ensuring that all assessment activities evaluate learning outcomes that will lead to tangible change and growth.

SMART goals also facilitate the creation of well-paced and sufficiently detailed training programs. With such goals, you can evaluate a training program’s content load and learning hours in such a way that it imparts all needed information within a reasonable timeline.

Lastly, SMART goals give you a clear picture of the resources needed to execute training programs. With them, you can increase the efficiency of your L&D budget, as well as plan out learning initiatives to yield the maximum ROI. At the same time, SMART goals allow you to accurately gauge and plan for the physical and human resources required to execute organizational training programs successfully.