9 Tips for Setting Better Workplace Goals and Milestones
Nov. 24 2023, Published 4:55 p.m. ET
Targets in the workplace are effective for increasing productivity and ensuring everyone on the team is working toward the same goals. However, if your goals and milestones aren't consistent or if they're set ineffectively, they aren't going to work the way you hope.
How can you set more effective targets in your workplace?
The Value of Workplace Targets
Targets come in many forms. There are goals, which typically define high-level objectives that reflect what you want to achieve in a certain area. There are benchmarks, which serve as points of comparison to help you determine how your efforts are stacking up against those of competitors or peers. There are also milestones, which help provide structure to a bigger project, indicating major phase completions or steps taken on a specific journey.
No matter what, workplace targets typically attempt to provide some combination of the following:
- Direction. First, these targets provide direction. Without targets, employees may be confused about what they're trying to achieve or how they're supposed to achieve it. With the right targets in place, even in a total vacuum, employees will have some idea of what they're supposed to do.
- Motivation. Targets can also provide motivation. If you're supposed to work to close 30 sales in a given month, and you've only closed 28, you'll be inspired to try and pick up the remaining 2 (at minimum) in the days that remain. When set properly, workplace targets have the potential to improve productivity.
- Collaboration. Some targets also inspire collaboration. If everyone in a given team or department is trying to achieve the same objective, they'll be much more likely to work together and coordinate efforts to achieve those targets.
- Evaluation. Finally, targets provide a basis for evaluation. At the end of a project, or a given period of time, leaders can compare actual performance to previously set workplace targets and determine whether efforts can be considered successful. If targets are consistently achieved or missed, it can provide vital information for planning future phases and projects.
How to Set More Effective Targets in the Workplace
These are some of the best ways to set more effective targets in the workplace.
- Use all the data and context you have. Gather as much data and context as you can when setting targets. Too often, business leaders set targets somewhat arbitrarily, picking a number at random or using only instinct. But it's much more effective if you use previously established information and contextual considerations to ground your focal points. As a simple example, basketball teams typically score around 110 points per game, with plenty of room for variability; we can see that it would be unreasonable to set a goal of scoring 1,000 points per game, and setting the goal of scoring only 10 points per game isn't going to be motivating.
- Challenge, but don’t overwhelm. Ultimately, you want to find a balance between challenge and approachability. If the target is too ambitious, it's going to have counterproductive effects. But if the target doesn't challenge anybody, it might as well not exist. You want your employees to stretch just a little further than they would otherwise.
- Be specific. SMART criteria are still a gold standard for setting targets. The “S” stands for specific. Your goals and targets should be as specific as possible, including all relevant context so employees know exactly what they're supposed to achieve.
- Make it measurable. The “M” stands for measurable. If you have no way of establishing whether or not your target was achieved, the target is of little to no use. You need to be able to establish, definitively and objectively, how employees performed.
- Make it achievable. The “A” stands for achievable. The goal can't be so lofty that no one can reach it. Even if employees don't detect this right away, they'll figure it out eventually and become demotivated.
- Consider relevance. The “R” stands for relevance. The target needs to be meaningful in some key way. How does achieving this target help your business become more profitable or successful in the long run?
- Set a deadline. The “T” stands for time-bound. In other words, your targets need to have some kind of deadline or time-related guidance in place. Are employees meant to achieve this in a day or over the course of the next year?
- Talk it out. Most of the time, it's unwise to set targets in a total vacuum. It's much better to talk to your employees to gauge their sentiments and ground your expectations; targets set collaboratively tend to be much more realistic.
- Get feedback. It’s hard to overstate the value of honest employee feedback in establishing better, more motivating targets. After an evaluation period, use surveys and interviews to learn how your employees feel and improve your approach.
With more effective targets in place, your employees will be more focused, more motivated, more capable of collaborating, and acutely aware of their own performance. Setting targets that meet all these goals isn't necessarily easy, but it is important if you want your company to thrive.