5 SMART Goals Examples to Inspire You

SMART goals set you up for success by defining objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and actionable. As an employee, manager or leader it's vital to have targets to strive towards, but sometimes it's difficult to visualize those without clear 5 SMART goals examples for work.

Our Essential Guide to SMART Goals explains the key reasons why it's important to set milestones: SMART goals provoke thoughtful behaviour; they help to guide your focus and sustain your momentum; goals align your actions to the bigger company strategy; and setting goals is essential for autonomous self-leadership.

5 SMART Goals Examples

We've got five examples of vague ideas transformed into clear, achievable targets to get you motivated for success.

Goal idea: Improve employee engagement

Make this more specific goal:

Employee engagement is a broad term, so you should pull out the one question in your employee engagement survey that accurately reflects this sentiment. This could be the overall engagement score or the average answer to, "From 1-5, how engaged do you feel at work?"

Is this measurable?

Once you've defined exactly what you're targeting, establish the baseline and the desired target. In this case it would be the number of employees responding with 4 or 5 to the question, "How engaged do you feel at work?". You want to take this from 65% of the organization to 80%.

Is this achievable?

A challenging goal is a great motivator, but if the target needs to be realistic within the scope of your role, your responsibilities and resources. How are you going to increase engagement with the resources you have? For a big change you can introduce an employee wellness programme with support for mental health, remote working opportunities and a benefits scheme. A smaller action is to roll out a social recognition scheme that will help you progress toward your goal.

Is this relevant to the business?

Goals aligned to the strategic objectives of the overall business are much more likely to be achieved. Improving employee engagement directly impacts productivity, helps retain your best talent and makes you a better business.

When can I achieve this?

Again, be realistic. If your employee engagement survey is run annually, then it's logical to frame this goal within the 12 months of the two surveys you're using to measure your achievement. You can also use regular pulse surveys to track your progress along the way.

TIP: Here's a list of inspiring SMART goal action verbs to get you started.

Goal idea: Make the recruitment process more efficient

Make this more specific:

What are the key blockers that make the current recruitment process inefficient? Narrow the target down to "Increasing the number of open positions filled".

Is this measurable?

Look at the stats for the last recruitment cycle - say you filled 6 out of 10 open positions within three months. That's your baseline, and you want to improve it to 9 out of 10.

Is this achievable?

Perhaps your recruitment takes ages because you need to consult with multiple managers and supervisors to get the job specs. However, your HR Exec is underway creating a comprehensive library of available job descriptions. Automating as much of the recruitment process through more efficient teamwork or candidate management software means you can realistically reduce the time needed to fill available positions.

Is this relevant?

Making the process more efficient reduces overhead, allows for better planning and ensures you're not left with skills gaps and work that has to be picked up by other employees.

When can I achieve this?

Giving yourself a 6-month deadline means you can divide up the work needed to automate the process effectively.

Goal idea: Get more sign-ups

Make this more specific:

Increase inbound leads through the newsletter sign-up by sharing more exciting, long-form content.

Is this measurable?

Define a trackable metric, for instance to increase the number of newsletter sign-ups by 20%.

Is this achievable?

Divide up the new content between your team members so that they have a manageable workload.

Is this relevant?

Definitely! New sign-ups means new sales leads for your team and an overall increased brand awareness.

When can I achieve this?

Define a time frame for the urgency of this task - let's say over the next quarter.

Goal idea: Increase website traffic

Make this more specific:

Take it down from all traffic categories to increasing organic traffic only.

How will this be measured?

Increase your unique site visits by 10% by producing 10 new blog posts per week.

Is this achievable?

Make sure this is a realistic target for the wider team. Reduce the number of new blog posts if necessary.

Is this relevant?

Organic traffic is a key driver of new sales leads for your business.

When can I achieve this?

In the next two months.

Goal idea: Improve the campaign landing page

Make this more specific:

Increase the number of conversions on the campaign landing page.

How will this be measured?

Increase the conversions by 30% through page optimization.

Is this achievable?

Run A/B testing to narrow down which page drives more conversions, then implement.

Is this relevant?

Increased conversions leads to more sign ups and helps define the optimal content and on-page items to be focusing on.

When can I achieve this?

In 30 days.

Now that you're ready to set your own SMART goals, use our SMART goals template to take your ambitions from vague ideas to clear, actionable targets. Remember to regularly track your own progress! You should create a structure for this by setting regular employee-supervisor check-in meetings where you talk openly about the achievements, obstacles and support needed to keep up the momentum. You can even throw in a few motivational quotes to get you inspired.