13 Best Employee Goal Setting Software (That Aren’t Lattice)

In this article:

• 3 Factors to Look For in an Employee Goal Setting Software
• The 13 Best Employee Goal Setting Software (By Use Case)
• FAQs about Employee Goal Setting Software

What to look for in the best employee goal setting software

Most employee goal setting software helps organizations set, track, and manage employee goals. 

But the best ones are complete solutions that also do other performance enablement activities like continuous feedback, 1:1s, performance reviews, and competency tracking.

That’s because goal setting is only one component of performance enablement. 

Studies show that specific and challenging goal setting alone can improve performance by 25%, but it works best when paired with features that: 

• Help identify areas of improvement
• Facilitate collaboration and alignment
• Foster support from managers

CASE STUDY - Goal setting success in the wild:

The trouble is there are dozens of goal setting platforms on the market, and choosing the right one can be overwhelming.

So, what makes the “best” tool?

We asked our expert People Science Team to help answer that question:

Gaurav Chaubey, our Head of People Science here at Mesh.ai, recommends you look for employee goal setting software that has these three core factors:

1. Enables employees to set goals in collaboration with their manager, increasing alignment with business objectives
2. Nudges employees to progress on goals, increasing their success rate and accountability
3. Provides HR and Managers with insights and data on goal progress, helping them identify issues early, keep performance on track, and make tactical decisions

Here are 13 different goal setting software that help with just that.

📚You might also like: 8 Free employee goal setting templates (2024)

The 13 Best employee goal setting software in 2024 - Summary

These are the 13 best employee goal setting software we'll review today:

📚 You may also like: 6 Best SMART goal software for 2024 (Achieve more, faster) 

1. Mesh.ai - Best employee goal setting software for improving people performance

Mesh.ai is a full performance enablement platform proven to help teams achieve 22% more of their goals compared to legacy goal setting systems. 

This improvement doesn’t come from chance, it comes from our holistic approach to performance enablement, where:

• Goals are set in alignment with business objectives
• Managers are turned into coaches who can support employee growth → Check out our 1:1 feature
• Progress is kept on track via regular updates (we’ll even let you know if a goal is at risk) 
• Continuous feedback and reviews are used to reinforce and redirect employee development in pursuit of goals

Essentially, Mesh.ai gives employees an environment where they and their goals thrive. 

And now that we have Maven, our AI coach, employees are better equipped to embody the behaviors of a high performer and drive performance in others.

Mesh Maven: 

• Coaches employee to write better goals
• Encourages frequent performance updates
• Supports more productive check-ins (+1 for manager effectiveness)
• Pushes teammates to give continuous feedback so goals are met faster

You can learn more about goal setting on Mesh.ai here or go ahead and book a personalized demo with our team. 

We’ll talk through your goals as a People team and show you how to get the most out of Mesh.ai as an employee goal setting software and enablement platform.

Before we get into the pros, cons, and reviews, let’s look at how Mesh.ai meets the three factors we outlined earlier. 

→ Factor 1: How Mesh.ai enables employees to set goals in collaboration with their manager

It’s reported that people have a 65% chance of reaching a goal if they have an accountability partner. 

On Mesh.ai, we think the best accountability partner you can have is a supportive manager. That’s why our goal setting feature allows managers and employees to set goals in collaboration.

This ensures the goal is aligned to business objectives and creates a sense of accountability for both.

Without collaboration, the manager may feel disconnected to that employee’s progress on the goal and unsure how to support. So we make it quick and painless to set the goals together.

Mesh.ai also gives managers visibility over progress so that they can address the goal in 1:1s to keep employees on track and support them in overcoming barriers.

→ Factor 2: How Mesh.ai nudges employees to progress on goals

With Mesh.ai, employees are ‘nudged’ to update goals regularly, at a cadence you can customize to your culture. 

See the video below to see how that’s possible:

Nudges are proven to be effective in driving positive behaviors, and we know that weekly goal updates are effective. The Journal of Applied psychology conducted a study that proves presenting weekly progress reports of your goal increases your success rate by 40 percent.

These nudges are even sent to workplace tools Slack and Microsoft Teams to guarantee the notifications are seen and acted upon. 

→ Factor 3: How Mesh.ai provides HR and managers with insights and data on performance

Goals are at the heart of performance. If the right ones are set and they’re regularly achieved, you’re likely to see tangible growth in revenue, customer retention, and other important business metrics.

So tracking the data on goals in progress, goals in danger, and success rates are invaluable tools for both Managers and HR leaders.

Mesh.ai has an analytics dashboard that automatically consolidates performance data from goals, feedback, reviews, 1:1s, and capabilities. People or HR teams can reference that data to inform their strategy while managers can use it to address issues in real-time.

Pros, cons, and user reviews

Pros:

• Fosters alignment and transparency between employees, teams, and the wider organization
• Complete customization and personalization of goal setting framework, deadlines, and check ins
• AI co-pilot, Maven, helps employees write goals and follow through on them 

Cons:

• Requires a shift from traditional performance management to performance enablement that some organizations might struggle with
• Volume of data, insights, and notifications could become overwhelming
• Unable to download documents and data from the platform

User Reviews:

Want to see more? Head to our G2 profile.

Mesh.ai costs

Our pricing is designed to meet and scale to your organization’s employee goal setting and performance enablement needs. 

That’s why there’s more than one package to choose from: Base, Premium, and Enterprise.

• Foundations: $4 per user, per month
• Growth: $8 per user, per month
• Excellence: $12 per user, per month

You can see what features are included in each:

→ Want a tool where employee feedback is meaningful, effective, and continuous? Get in touch with us for a demo of the product. ←

2. emPerform - Best employee goal setting software for development plans

emPerform is an employee goal setting platform that employees can use to set goals and build out a development plan to build the capabilities needed to achieve that goal in the first place. 

First, you set a new goal in the platform which you need to align to a company objective (there’s a drop down of objectives the business has set). Then you can head to the development plan part of the platform and add the goal to your development plan.

This creates continuity between performance and development for your people. 

The emPerform platform also comes with features like 360 reviews, feedback, compensation management, surveys and succession planning.

Pricing: emPerform does not list their pricing publicly.

3. Quantum Workplace - Best employee goal setting software with a goal generator

Quantum Workplace is an employee goal setting software with a unique goal generation feature for the times when you don’t know what goal to set.

The generator asks you a question and then based on your answer, comes up with an objective and key results.

We love how this helps employees write structured goals that are specific and measurable. 

It’s something we do at Mesh too through our AI coach, Maven who can rewrite goals for employees to ensure they are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time bound.

Quantum comes with other performance management features such as feedback, 1:1s, succession planning, and recognition. 

Pricing: Quantum Workplace doesn’t list pricing publicly. 

4. GoalsOnTrack - Best employee goal setting software for visualizing success

GoalsOnTrack is an employee goal setting software that allows you to set SMART goals, update progress, and build action plans.

It even has a section where employees can create a vision board. On their board, they can upload pictures and music to create an animated slideshow for a visualization practice.

This visualization practice helps set the tone for an employee to go and achieve the goal they’ve set and is similar to meditation. 

We think this feature is unique and fun, adding an element to goal setting most other platforms don’t have. 

GoalsOnTrack also comes with templates and worksheets to help employees set goals that are challenging and relevant. 

Pricing: $40 per month to start for Teams

5. Zensai - Best employee goal setting software for Microsoft Teams users

Zensai is an employee goal setting software that caters specifically to organizations who use Microsoft Teams.

The platform was formed when LMS365 acquired Weekly10 in 2024. You’ll find the software offers learning, engagement, and performance features through their solutions:

• Learn365
• Perform365 (this is where you’ll find goal setting)
• Engage365

Goals can be set publicly, privately, and even as a team, allowing employees to progress personally and professionally and creating a culture of continuous improvement in your organization.

And thanks to its integration with Microsoft, your employees get notifications sent to their Teams App whenever it’s time to update a goal or check in with their manager.

Pricing: Zensai does not list its pricing publicly. It does make clear that you can purchase each of the three solutions (Learn365, Perform365, Engage365) on their own or as a bundle. 

6. Goalscape - Best employee goal setting software for visual oversight

Goalscape is an employee goal setting software that takes goal setting and makes it a visual delight. 

The platform  helps individuals and teams visualize their objectives in an interactive circular format, making it easy to understand priorities and how they’ve progressed.

In the image above, you can see the main goal in the center, with sub-goals and actions in the two outer circles. The size of the segment also reflects its importance. So if one sub goal is larger than another, achieving it will have a bigger impact on the success of the overall goal. 

When an employee hovers over the goals and actions, the side panel provides additional context. 

We love how interactive and visual Goalscape is but wouldn’t use the tool on its own to boost performance because it lacks some of the features that support goal achievement such as 1:1s with managers, capability tracking, and feedback. 

Pricing: Goalscape comes with a free trial followed by a ‘Pro’ account for $8.25 per user/per month. They also offer an enterprise package that starts at $2,148 per year. 

7. Hive - Best employee goal getting software with project management features

Hive is an employee goal setting software where employees can give purpose to their projects and manage the tasks that make their goals reality.

It’s really a project management platform with goal setting functionality built-in.

You can even pull lin data from other software to help track progress on the goals you’ve set as a team or as an individual.

Plus the platform will let you know when a goal is falling off track with its color coded system.

The only thing that’s missing with this employee goal setting software are the performance enablement features you’d get with a solution like Mesh.

Pricing: Hive offers three pricing tiers:

• Starter: $5 per user, per month
• Teams: $12 per user, per month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

They also have a free limited plan for up to 10 members.

8. PerformYard - Best employee goal setting software for connecting goals to reviews

PerformYard is an employee goal setting software and performance management platform where managers can loop goals directly into the review process. 

When completing formal periodic reviews, the manager will be asked a series of questions and there will come a time where they can select goals that the employee worked on during that period. They’ll then be able to give goal specific feedback.

We like how this helps keep data top of mind during the review process which can often be riddled with bias. 

When a manager sees the goal, they’ll be able to fairly reflect on the employee’s performance and what happened in pursuit of that goal. 

PerformYard also has standard goal setting functionality such as tracking progress, goal cascading, and analysis.

Pricing: You can access PerformYard for $5-10 per person/month. You also have the option to ‘add on’ their engagement features for an extra $1-3 per person/month.

9. Perdoo - Best employee goal setting software for visualizing your strategy

Perdoo is an employee goal setting software that helps teams visualize their strategy by mapping their goals out into a wireframe like the one you see below:

Each team has an area where they can set goals and get an overview of what the team’s trying to achieve while managers can see the goals of each direct report. 

This visibility and unique visualization of the organization’s goal hierarchy helps give clarity over the strategy and make adjustments if needed.

Pricing: You can get started on Perdoo for free with a minimum of 5 users. 

From there, paid plans are $7.20 per user, per month (Premium plan) or $8.80  per user, per month (Supreme plan). These prices are based on a 100 person account. Price per user fluctuates based on the number of users.

10. Trakstar - Best employee goal setting software for breaking goals into milestones

Trakstar is an employee goal setting software for employees who want to break their goals into bitesize milestones. 

This process makes challenging goals less intimidating and more likely to be achieved as employees can focus on one step at a time. 

The platform also helps employees track and adjust the goals they’ve set. So if the goal is falling by the wayside, they’ll be able to see that in the platform and either ramp up progress toward it or alter the goal if it was unrealistic to begin with. 

Pricing: Trakstar does not publicly share its pricing. 

11. Synergita - Best employee goal setting software for mobile app access

Synergita is an employee goal setting software that comes with a mobile app, making it easy for employees to use no matter where they are.  

Through the app employees are able to update goals, managers are able to check progress, and everyone can give feedback to their colleagues. 

We think this is a great way to lower the barrier to giving feedback and staying on track with performance. 

Their goal setting feature is in addition to other traditional performance management features such as review processes and performance analytics. 

Pricing: They offer two platform options: Perform at $4 Per User/Month and Perform Plus at $7 Per User/Month.

12. ClickUp - Best employee goal setting software for changing ‘Targets’

ClickUp is an employee goal setting software built-in to a wider project management software. Users are able to track projects, set goals, write up meeting agendas, and more in one place.

This variety of function might be overwhelming for some, and it might mean that some of its performance features aren’t built out as they would be on a dedicated tool like Mesh, but they are there for use. 

What’s special about ClickUp is that you can set different ‘targets’ for goals, whether that is a monetary target, a task target, a true/false target, or numerical target.

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Pricing: ClickUp offers three pricing tiers:

• Unlimited: $7 per user, per month
• Business: $12 per user, per month
• Enterprise: Custom 

13. Goals.com - Best employee goal setting software for sales teams

Goals.com is an employee goal setting software and CRM for ambitious sales teams where everyday they receive an email summarizing their performance in relation to the goals they’ve set. 

It also lets sales leads track commission, recognize high performers, and chat with their team right from the app.

They can also set contests to drive a bit of healthy competition while trying to meet their goals.

We know that the pressure on sales to perform is always high and love that Goals.com tackles this head on. 

Pricing: $39 per month, per user

Employee goal setting software - FAQs

Have more questions about employee goal setting software? We answered them below:

Can goal-setting software adapt to various goal-setting frameworks (e.g., SMART, CLEAR)?

Yes, most goal-setting software is designed to be flexible and can adapt to various frameworks such as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) and CLEAR (Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, Refinable). 

These tools often come with customizable templates and fields, allowing you to tailor the goal-setting process to your preferred methodology. 

This adaptability helps ensure that your team can set and track goals in a way that aligns with your organizational strategies and ensures consistent and effective goal management.

What are effective strategies for setting realistic team goals?

Effective strategies for setting realistic team goals include involving the entire team in the goal-setting process to ensure buy-in and commitment. 

Start by defining clear, measurable objectives that align with the broader organizational goals. Break down larger goals into smaller, achievable tasks to maintain motivation and progress. 

Regularly review and adjust goals as needed, keeping them flexible to accommodate changes. Use data and past performance as a basis for setting achievable targets, and ensure that resources and support are available to meet these goals.

What are the best practices for ensuring successful implementation?

To ensure successful implementation of goal-setting software, begin with thorough planning and clear communication about the purpose and benefits of the tool. 

Provide comprehensive training for all users to ensure they understand how to use the software effectively. Set up a pilot program to identify and resolve any issues before full deployment. Establish clear processes for setting, tracking, and reviewing goals. 

Regularly solicit feedback from users to make improvements. Ensure ongoing support and resources are available to maintain engagement and address any technical issues promptly.

What are the common pitfalls to avoid when selecting goal-setting software?

Common pitfalls to avoid when selecting goal-setting software include choosing a tool that is overly complex or lacks user-friendliness, which can lead to poor adoption rates. 

Avoid selecting software that doesn’t integrate well with your existing systems, as this can create data silos and inefficiencies. Ensure the software is customizable to fit your organization’s specific goal-setting frameworks and processes. Don’t overlook the importance of vendor support and training. 

Finally, avoid making a decision based solely on cost; the cheapest option may not always meet your organization’s needs.