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25 Examples of Work Objectives

John Spacey, updated on March 04, 2024

Work objectives are targets for the work of an individual or team. These are typically agreed upon with each employee and their manager as part of performance management. The following are illustrative examples of work objectives.

Cost Reduction

Objectives	Reduce IT costs by switching to an open source operating system for desktops. Train staff to use linux.
Targets	Recurring cost savings of $800,000 per annum within 3 years. Train 100% of staff in linux usage within 1 year.

Communication

Objectives	Communicate business plan for the customer data quality initiative to achieve budget approval.
Measurement	Approval of budget, stakeholder feedback

Customer Service

Objectives	Improve service by visiting each table a minimum of 7 times at designated parts of the meal such as after food items are served.
Measurement	Customer satisfaction rate, feedback from customers and restaurant manager
Target	4.0 customer satisfaction rate

Customer Experience

Objectives	Improve the customer experience by allowing customers to prepay for extra luggage before their travel. This will replace the highly unpopular policy of requiring customers to pay for extra seats on the bus if they want to take more than 2 bags.
Measurement	Customer satisfaction Luggage space capacity utilization
Target	Improve customer satisfaction to 3.3/5 from the current ranking of 2.9/5.

Decision Making

Objectives	Chose a location for new restaurant using data driven revenue and cost forecasts.
Measurement	Return on investment

Problem Solving

Objectives	Investigate and address the root cause of slow loading member pages.
Measurement	Averages for page load time, first contentful paint and time to interactive
Targets	Average page load time < 1 second Less than 1% of page load times > 3 seconds

Management

Objectives	Manage the monthly billing process.
Measurement	On time performance Error rate
Targets	100% of bills issued within 3 days of month close. Error rate of less than 0.01%

Leadership

Objectives	Lead a design charrette to produce prototypes for a new helmet.
Measurement	Customer perceptions Safety Rating
Targets	90% of customers prefer the new design to current models. All prototypes achieve a 5-star safety rating from independent labs

Productivity

Objectives	Implement a request form for system access that allows these requests to be fulfilled in minutes without need to contact the requestor.
Target	Reduce time to fulfill system access request to 5 minutes from an hour.

Efficiency

Objectives	Automatically cancel system access when a user hasn't logged in for a year. An initial business case indicates this will save up to $1.2 million per annum in costs related to licenses, service fees and hardware that are charged based on user counts.
Target	Cost savings of up to $1.2 million depending on usage patterns.

Project Management

Objectives	Manage the solar panel phase IV construction project to budget and schedule.
Targets	+/- 5% budget variance +/- %5 schedule variance

Business Analysis

Objectives	Gather requirements for the data center automation project.
Targets	On time delivery of requirements Approval of requirements Feedback from stakeholders

Process Improvement

Objectives	Improve the accident report process by allowing motorists to exchange information for minor accidents with no injuries and file a report at a police station within 48 hours.
Measurement	Cost to police Public awareness rate
Targets	Eliminating police onsite investigations for minor accidents is estimated to save 4.9 million per year. Awareness of the new policy amongst drivers of 70% within first year of introduction.

Sales

Objectives	Close monthly recurring revenue of $0.8 million in Q1
Measurement	MRR Gross Margins

Marketing

Objectives	Generate 900 leads.
Measurement	Reach, conversion rate, qualified leads

Time Management

Objectives	Continually score sales opportunities to prioritize those customers who are most likely to purchase.
Target	Meet revenue target of 1.6 million in Q3. Update each active opportunity monthly with estimates of budget, authority and needs to develop a priority list.

Knowledge

Objectives	Learn to script and code in order to automate work.
Measurement	Attend training Develop at least one script this year that automates an aspect of my work.

Risk Management

Objectives	Audit all inflight projects to identify and manage risks.
Target	Reduce risk exposure by $1 million by canceling projects that are extremely likely to fail to deliver their stated benefits.

Influencing

Objectives	Influence the technical direction of the organization by working with technology leaders to convince them to comply with architectural standards.
Measurement	Compliance rate to priority architectural initiatives such as the current information security policy.

Networking

Objectives	Establish relationships with solar industry insiders, particularly designers and product architects that are leading the future of their product lines.
Measurement	Attend all major green energy conferences. Issue quarterly intelligence bulletins that capture the result of conversations with industry influencers.

Business Capabilities

Objectives	Sponsor a change to the billing system that allows a customer's pricing structure to be frozen such that it doesn't change with general prices.
Measurement	Change implemented by Q4

Events

Objectives	Conduct a strategy session to define team strategy.
Measurement	Completion of strategy, submission of budget, approval of budget, feedback from executives and team

Customer Relationships

Objectives	Contact all my customers within 1 business day of an incident impacting their account to provide them a personal update.
Measurement	Number of customers contacted as entered as activities in the sales system. Cancellation rate for my accounts.

Reporting

Objectives	Develop a dashboard that shows the average speed of the customer website by page. This dashboard will highlight any problems within an hour of occurrence.
Measurement	Completion of dashboard by Q2 Feedback from stakeholders

Goals vs Objectives

Goals are end-results that are relevant to your business in areas such as revenue, cost cutting, productivity gains, competitive advantage and quality. Objectives are meaningful steps on the path to goals. In other words, objectives need not be end-results but are helpful in achieving end-results. For example, if your goal is to close a deal with a customer an objective would be to establish an initial relationship with the customer. Performance can be measured in terms of goals and objectives.

Smart Objectives

Some organizations require that objectives be measurable. Others take this a step further and require that they be SMART or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Overview

Work objectives are agreed between employees and their manager in order to create accountability for work performance. This is a basic element of performance management whereby employees are given targets to meet for a performance period.