19 Examples of Work Goals

Work goals are targets that an individual sets for their work. These are typically set on an annual basis as part of performance management. Work goals are usually designed to align to those of your manager, team and organization. Many organizations also require that they be smart meaning that they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Goals are often broken down to lower level objectives that are meaningful steps on the path to each goal. The following are illustrative examples.

Revenue

Goal	Increase revenue by 20% on a year-over-year basis for Q4.
Objectives	Increase targeted advertising spend by 10%. Increase conversion rate to 2.3%.
Measurements	Revenue, conversion rate

Productivity

Goal	Increase throughput of change requests by 15%.
Objectives	Implement change request tool to quickly evaluate and prioritize change requests. Identify quick wins each month to increase productivity.
Target Date	End of Q2
Measurements	Total story points implemented in a month.

Efficiency

Goal	Reduce herbicide use by 20% without impacting yield.
Objectives	Experiment with companion plantings that may allow herbicides to be reduced or eliminated. Identify techniques that work and scale to the entire farm.
Target Date	A 20% decrease for the 2029 Spring-Summer season.
Measurements	Yield per hectare, pounds of herbicide per hectare per month

Work Quality

Goal	Improve the quality of project documentation.
Objectives	Develop templates that improve common project documentation such as change requests and requirements. Work diligently to improve documentation and communication. Ask stakeholders for feedback.
Measurements	Feedback from stakeholders

Customer Satisfaction

Goal	Improve customer satisfaction by 12%.
Objectives	Identify ways to improve customer satisfaction with front desk services and implement. Increase the number of free room upgrades by making use of unused inventory of suites and premium rooms. Train staff to quickly identify and service special needs such as guests with young children.
Target date	Improvement each quarter with 12% improvement by Q4.
Measurements	Customer satisfaction as measured at the front desk.

Cost Reduction

Goal	Reduce IT opex by 1.2 million per annum.
Objectives	Perform a review of legacy systems. Identify systems that can be retired and prioritize those that will reduce recurring costs. Sponsor projects to retire systems including elements such as process changes and data migration. Cancel license and support agreements related to retired systems.
Target date	Implement changes this year to reduce opex for next year's budget.
Measurements	Opex cost reduction

Management

Goal	Manage the service provisioning process.
Objectives	Deliver quality services to customers within the agreed upon timeframe.
Measurements	Customer satisfaction, on time delivery rate, first month service incidents
Targets	90% customer satisfaction 99% on time delivery rate 0 first month service incidents

Process Improvements

Goal	Improve the turnaround time for the month end billing cycle to issue bills within 3 days of month end.
Objectives	Implement system and process improvements to generate bills within 12 hours. This allows the cycle to repeat if there are quality control problems.
Measurements	Billing cycle turnaround time, bills sent within 3 days of month end, cash conversion cycle

Automation

Goal	Increase customer satisfaction for guests with children.
Objectives	Automatically book customers into a child friendly room if they indicate they are traveling with young children. This is currently a manual process that is often applied inconsistently.
Measurements	Customer satisfaction for customers with children.

Customer Experience

Goal	Improve customer satisfaction with their dining experience by 33%.
Objectives	Phase out unpopular service practices to improve service quality. Partner with regular customers to identify improvements and gain feedback on new practices.
Measurements	Customer perceptions of dining experience as measured by a survey before and after improvements.

Internal Controls

Goal	Implement segregation of duties for hiring and negotiating salary.
Objectives	Implement an internal control that prevents hiring managers from setting salary too high or too low based on factors such as their friendship with a candidate or biases against them.
Measurements	Achieve 100% compliance with this control for all new hires from Q2 onwards.

Time Management

Goal	Improve work quality and throughput
Objectives	Work from home to focus on coding for several days each week as meeting schedule allows.
Measurements	Increase the number of story points completed in a month and reduce defect rate. Baseline: 90 story points a month and a defect rate of 3.2 per thousand lines of code.

Leadership

Goal	Demonstrate leadership to help new front desk staff improve their customer service abilities.
Objectives	Serve as an example by achieving a high customer satisfaction rate and dealing with difficult service scenarios in a professional manner. Coach junior members of the front desk team to help them improve their customer satisfaction and productivity rates.
Measurements	Customer satisfaction rate Recognition such as positive feedback from customers and managers. Feedback from front desk manager, shift managers and junior staff.

Influencing

Goal	Achieve high stakeholder approval rates.
Objectives	Communicate strategy, initiatives, approaches and successes to executives and stakeholders to achieve cooperation and approvals.
Measurements	Stakeholder feedback, budget approvals
Targets	Achieve 10% budget growth by showing the value of our work, strategy and plans. Achieve the support of key stakeholders as indicated by artifacts such as approvals of deliverables and positive feedback.

Networking

Goal	Increase product knowledge to improve customer pitches and close more deals.
Objectives	Develop relationships with technology people in the investment banking industry. Connect with technology teams in our organization. Network at conferences to meet the people leading the direction of banking technology.
Targets	Attend at least one industry conference and gain contacts in the industry. Improve win rate to 34% Close monthly recurring revenue of $1.2 million in Q1.

Communication

Goal	Improve pitches to clients.
Objectives	Take training in public speaking and visual communication. Improve visuals for client presentations. Gain experience in public speaking to improve style and delivery.
Measurements	Client feedback, deliverable acceptance rate

Business Capabilities

Goal	Measure and approve margins for all sales proposals and negotiated deals.
Objectives	Develop a tool that is able to cost all possible service configurations to produce a gross margin estimate for proposals and deals. Push teams to negotiate higher margins and approve all deals based on factors such as revenue, customer wallet and gross margins.
Measurements	Improve gross margins to 33%

Risk Management

Goal	Evaluate the health of systems and applications to identify and manage risks.
Objectives	Evaluate the health of all systems to identify opportunities to reduce risks related to business disruption and increasing operational costs. Develop and implement a risk management plan to reduce risk exposure.
Measurements	Reduce IT risk exposure by 1.2 million.

Knowledge

Goal	Document the quote-to-cash process.
Objectives	Develop a process map, gap analysis and set of recommendations for improving the quote-to-cash process.
Target date	January 14, 2031
Measurements	On time delivery, stakeholder feedback

Summary

Work goals are objectives for the performance and work outcomes of an individual. These are traditionally designed to be SMART, or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. This is not without challenge as some organizations will allow for open-ended goals that aren't specific and stretch goals that aren't easily achievable.