“Goals affect performance by directing attention, mobilizing effort, increasing persistence, and motivating strategy development”—American Psychological Association
That quote was written in 1981, so it’s not exactly news that “good” goals help organizations thrive.
But the challenge with goal setting comes with:
- Deciding what goals should be
- Ensure individual goals align with company goals
- Delivering goal setting in a digestible and organized way
Unless you overcome these challenges, goals can create confusion. Bad goals send your team in different directions and, ultimately, reduce your company’s competitive edge.
The 8 templates below will help you build an effective internal goal setting process.
Here are the templates we’ll share:
- Yearly Goal Setting Template
- Quarterly Goal Setting Template
- Goal Tracking Template for Managers
- Goal Tracking Template for Team Members
- SMART Goal Setting Template
- Weekly Goal Setting Template
- Business Goal Setting Template
- Employee Goal Setting Template
These are all available in the same spreadsheet (download it here) which we encourage you to rebrand and use as your goal-setting homebase.
8 FREE employee goal-setting templates
For each goal setting template, we’ve explained what it is, how it can be used, and the benefits of using it.
You’ll also find the link to access the template which you can then share with your managers and teams.
1. Yearly goal setting template
A yearly goal setting template helps teams set their priorities for the year ahead.
It’s perfect for managers and team leaders who want to guide their employees towards achieving significant, long-term objectives that align with your organization's vision.
→ You can access and copy our yearly goal setting template here. ←
The first section of the template is a place for the team to set the main objective for the year.
From there, they’ll set quarterly targets and write up the key results for that main objective. Those key results can be owned by individuals on the team or shared between team members.
When filling out this template you should:
- Use quantifiable metrics that can easily be tracked and linked to performance
- Write action focused key results that support the main objective
- Assign an owner for each key result to create a sense of accountability
Top tip: Review and adjust goals quarterly to ensure they remain relevant and achievable as circumstances change throughout the year.
How Mesh.ai makes goal setting and performance tracking easier:
Mesh.ai has an AI coaching feature called Mesh Maven which helps teams write effective, quantifiable goals every single time.
Not only does it analyze the goals written by your people and make suggestions on how to improve, it will write and rewrite the goal for them.
This makes goal setting easier, more reliable, and more effective in the long run.
Plus, employees are reminded by the platform to update their progress so that they and their managers can see what’s on track and what’s not:
To see how Mesh.ai can enable performance in your organization through better goal-setting, get in touch here.
📚You might also like: 13 Best employee goal setting software (That aren't Lattice)
2. Quarterly goal setting template
A quarterly goal setting template is a great tool for managers who want to break down annual objectives into manageable, short-term goals or who prefer shorter goal cycles.
Quarterly goal setting lets teams:
- Maintain focus and momentum
- Have more frequent check-ins and adjustments to strategy
- Align with changing business needs
- Celebrate wins more often, boosting team morale
- Improve accountability with shorter-term deadlines
- Balance long-term vision with short-term execution
At the start of every quarter, your managers can sit down with their teams and set a few goals that will help them improve the performance of the business as a whole.
They should ask themselves, ‘How can we as a function help the business achieve its main objective this quarter?’.
→ You can access and copy our quarterly goal setting template here. ←
When using this template, the first thing you’ll do is set up a core objective or two. Most experts agree that fewer is better because it keeps goals realistic and focused.
Jeff Gothelf, business coach and creator of the OKR Repair Kit course, wrote:
“In all cases err on the side of fewer OKRs. The fewer goals your teams are chasing, the more likely they are to reach them.”
You’ll then set a few key results to support the pursuit of that objective:
You’ll assign owners, deadlines, and have a section to update status.
Managers and teams can review that status in 1:1s to discuss progress, overcome blockers, and get support.
Top tip: Hold a brief weekly team meeting to discuss progress, challenges, and necessary adjustments. This keeps everyone aligned and engaged with the quarterly goals.
How Mesh.ai enhances quarterly goal setting:
While spreadsheets are a good starting point, they have their limitations and often get forgotten, as do the goals that were set in them.
That’s not the case with Mesh.ai, where teams achieve 22% more of their goals compared to legacy goal setting systems.
And all because our platform:
- Provides real-time visibility into goal progress for both employees and managers
- Sends automated reminders for progress updates, ensuring consistent tracking
- Offers analytics dashboards to easily spot trends and areas needing attention
- Allows for easy alignment of individual goals with team and company objectives
Can we have one image created that represents all four of those things as pop ups from the platform? Or maybe a short video?
→ Check out Mesh.ai’s goal setting feature. ←
On top of all that, Mesh.ai has a suite of features that supports performance holistically:
- 1:1s where managers can coach their team to achieve the goals they’ve set
- Continuous feedback that can help guide employees to better performance
- 360 reviews that keep performance data unbiased and comprehensive
- Capabilities tracking for employees and managers to understand what ski
3. Goal tracking template for managers
A goal tracking template is great for leaders who want to maintain a clear overview of their team's progress towards objectives. They can use it to quickly see if a goal is on or off track and decide what to do about it.
Goal tracking with this template allows managers to:
- Maintain a bird's-eye view of all team goals
- Identify potential obstacles early
- Provide timely support and resources
- Recognize and celebrate achievements
- Ensure alignment with broader organizational objectives
- Foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement
→ You can access and copy our goal tracking template for managers here. ←
The template includes a place to write your OKRs and as you’ll see below, columns for key results by percentage and by bar.
It also shows the overall progress of the objective and the confidence level that it will be completed by the goal deadline.
When using this template, managers should:
- Have team members regularly update the progress of each goal
- Review the template before one-on-one meetings to discuss progress and offer support
- Share relevant updates with stakeholders to maintain transparency
However, the issue with a template like this is it relies too much on employees remembering to update their goal progress.
This issue is solved when you use a performance enablement platform like Mesh.ai. Rather than leave updates to chance, Mesh.ai guarantees goal check-ins happen by sending regular ‘nudges’ to employees:
Those nudges are delivered on the platform and through a Slack or Microsoft Teams message so that they’re never missed.
But the advanced goal tracking functionality doesn’t stop there. Managers get:
- Real-time goal progress updates from team members
- Automated reminders to check in on goal status
- Visual dashboards to quickly assess overall team performance
- The ability to easily realign goals as priorities shift
Equipped with those features, they can better support their team.
Learn more about the Mesh.ai platform and how it can help managers track and achieve goals by speaking to a member of our team.
4. Goal tracking template for team members
A goal tracking template for team members helps individual employees take ownership of their professional development and stay accountable for their objectives.
Individual goal tracking enables team members to:
- Stay focused on their priorities
- Visualize their progress over time
- Prepare for performance discussions with managers
- Identify and address obstacles proactively
- Celebrate personal wins and milestones
- Align their efforts with team and organizational goals
→ You can access and copy our goal tracking template for team members here. ←
This template is designed to help individuals manage their goals effectively. Here's what you'll find:
- The tasks they need to complete
- The objective those tasks belong to
- The status of their goal
- A progress percentage and bar to show how complete the goal is
- A place to leave comments on challenges, learnings, and achievements
When using this template, team members should update their progress weekly and review that progress before 1:1s with their manager. The notes they make, such as on blockers to progress, can then shape the conversation.
When using this template, you’ll encounter the same issues as when using a goal tracking template for managers—inconsistency and infrequency in updates.
That’s why we recommend implementing a tool like Mesh.ai. Our platform banishes ‘set and forget goals’ for good and turns regular progress updates into a default behavior of your employees.
Book a demo of the platform now to see for yourself.
5. SMART goal setting template
A SMART goal setting template helps managers and their teams create clear, actionable, and effective objectives that drive results.
Every goal set within this SMART framework will be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Using a SMART goal template helps teams:
- Create clear and focused objectives
- Ensure goals are trackable and quantifiable
- Set realistic targets that stretch but don't overwhelm
- Align individual goals with broader organizational aims
- Establish concrete timelines for achievement
- Improve overall goal attainment rates
→ You can access and copy our SMART goal setting template here. ←
The template is like a workbook where your employee will first write down the goal they think they should have. Then they’ll answer a series of questions related to each word of the SMART acronym.
- Specific: What exactly do you want to accomplish?
- Measurable: How will you know when you've reached your goal?
- Achievable: Is this goal realistic given your resources and constraints?
- Relevant: How does this goal align with broader objectives?
- Time-bound: When do you want to accomplish this goal?
Once they’ve answered every question, they’ll rewrite the goal into one concise SMART goal.
Top tip: Make sure your employees sit down and review this with their managers before finalizing their goals. It may even be worthwhile for them to do this together in a workshop session for team and company alignment.
While this free employee goal setting template provides a solid foundation for SMART goals, Mesh.ai takes it to the next level. You’ll have:
- The ability to customize the platform to a SMART framework
- AI-powered goal writing assistance to ensure all goals meet SMART criteria
- Automated alignment checking to verify goals support broader objectives
- Progress tracking features that make measuring advancement simple
- Regular reminders to update and review goals, keeping them relevant
And before you know it, setting SMART goals is embedded into your culture and your People team can analyze the impact those SMART goals have had on individual, team, and organizational performance.
Learn more by visiting our Goal management page.
📖 Read more: 6 Best SMART goal software for 2024 (Achieve more, faster)
6. Weekly goal setting template
A weekly goal setting template is for the manager who likes for their team to set micro goals. This short-term approach helps break larger objectives into manageable tasks, ensuring steady advancement towards broader goals.
Weekly goal setting can help your teams:
- Maintain daily focus and productivity
- Quickly adapt to changing priorities
- Celebrate frequent small wins, boosting morale
- Identify and address obstacles promptly
- Improve time management skills
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement
→ You can access and copy our weekly goal setting template here. ←
Similarly to the SMART goal template, this one will ask the employee a series of questions.
These questions will help each employee determine what their focus should be on that week, how they’ll know if they’ve achieved it, what they’ll need to complete it, what challenges they may face, and a deadline for the related tasks.
When using this template, we recommend employees:
- Be realistic about what can be accomplished in a week
- Include both routine tasks and progress on longer-term projects
- Review and update the document daily to stay on track
Top tip: Have managers start each week with a quick team huddle to share priorities and identify areas for collaboration or support.
They can also use this time to challenge the priorities of team members who’s weekly goals don’t contribute to broader quarterly or annual objectives.
Don’t forget you can use Mesh.ai to set up coaching conversations between managers and employees using the 1:1 feature. In those calls they can review weekly goals and make sure they’re aligned and realistic while also identifying areas where the employee may need more support.
7. Business goal setting template
A business goal setting template gives your leadership team the tool they need to chart a strategic course for their organization's growth and success. Rather than move blindly, they can use this template to write OKRs that will then trickle down to the OKRs of each function.
Effective business goal setting allows organizations to:
- Align all departments towards common objectives
- Prioritize resources and investments
- Measure overall company performance
- Adapt quickly to market changes
- Motivate employees with a clear vision
- Facilitate strategic decision-making
→ You can access and copy our business goal setting template here. ←
The template comes with a place to write up to 5 annual company goals and objectives, action plans for each objective, the status of that objective, the problems they’re facing currently preventing those goals from becoming reality, and potential issues they may face.
When using this template:
- Ensure all goals support the overall company vision
- Make objectives specific and measurable where possible
- Consult department heads to understand what types of goals will most positively impact the business
- Communicate goals clearly to all employees
Top tip: Host quarterly all-hands meetings to review progress on business goals and celebrate achievements, fostering a sense of shared purpose across the organization.
You could use Mesh.ai here to set company level objectives that seamlessly cascade to departmental and individual objectives. There’s even a way to auto-align the goals your employees set with the prioritized objectives of the business.
Plus you won’t have to fiddle around in a Google sheet to create analytics as the Mesh.ai platform will pull the data for you.
See for yourself by booking a demo with Mesh.ai today.
8. Employee goal setting template
This employee goal setting template helps employees set clear, achievable objectives focused on driving their individual performance.
But it’s not just about goal setting, it also has a focus on building out an action plan and preparing for potential roadblocks.
This employee goal setting template helps your employees:
- Focus their efforts on high-impact activities
- Track personal growth and development
- Prepare for performance reviews with concrete achievements
- Align their work with broader team and company objectives
- Increase job satisfaction through clear purpose and direction
- Identify areas for skill development and learning
→ You can access and copy our employee goal setting template here. ←
The template has a place for your people to write:
- Their goals
- The outcomes they expect from those goals
- Their action plan to achieve them
- Start and end dates
- Resources they’ll require to be successful (such as budget or support from another team member)
- Roadblocks they expect to encounter which could delay or stop progress
- A plan to overcome those roadblocks
We think it’s so important to have those last two as part of the template because it makes your employees think proactively about challenges and how they’ll overcome them.
Did you know that with Mesh.ai your employees are able to set performance and development goals linked to business critical competencies such as collaboration and accountability?
This helps them hone in on skills they lack or which need further development. As they track the development of those skills, they’ll be better equipped to achieve team OKRs in the future.
3 Challenges in goal setting and how to overcome them [expert tips]
We’ve already given you eight ready-to-use goal setting templates (and shown where Mesh.ai can serve you better).
Now we want to make sure you know the three most common pitfalls of employee goal setting and how to avoid them.
Goals, goals, too many goals
Setting too many goals can leave your team overwhelmed and unfocused, and yet it's a pitfall we see teams fall into time and time again.
And before they know it, the deadline has passed and nothing tangible was achieved.
The last thing you want is for your team to do the same.
Expert Tip: Embrace the power of focus. Limit your team to 3-5 key goals per quarter. This allows for concentrated effort and increases the likelihood of meaningful progress. As management guru Peter Drucker said, "If you have more than five goals, you have none."
Quote from The Five Most Important Questions You will Ever Ask About Your Organization by Peter Drucker
The goldilocks dilemma
Like Goldilocks looking for the perfect bed, finding the right balance in goal difficulty can be tricky. Too easy, and they don’t move the needle on business performance; too hard, and they can demoralize your team.
Expert Tip: Aim for goals that push your team but remain within the realm of possibility. Google's famous OKR system suggests that achieving 60-70% of an ambitious goal is ideal. But we think a higher success rate is better for morale. Goals, after all, should be attainable.
Struggling in your siloed approach
Lacking alignment between teams can lead to conflicting priorities and wasted efforts. It's like a rowing team where each member is paddling in a different direction—lots of effort, but little progress.
Expert Tip: Hold interdepartmental meetings to discuss and align goals. And use a platform like Mesh.ai that helps map how individual and team goals contribute to overarching company objectives. This ensures everyone is rowing in the same direction, amplifying collective impact.
→ Book a demo now to see for yourself. ←
Employee goal setting template - FAQs
Have more questions about employee goal setting templates? We answered them below.
Why is it important for employees to set goals?
Effective goal setting helps employees maintain focus, feel engaged with their work, and become aligned to the objectives of the business.
It also provides organizations a way to track and measure the impact of employee performance over time which they can use to make talent decisions.
Goal setting is also part of a wider performance enablement initiative that supports employee growth and improves the performance of the wider organization.
Learn more about performance enablement here.
What are the 4 four general types of employee goals?
Employee goals typically fit within these four categories:
- Performance Goals: Focused on improving job-specific metrics or outcomes
- Development Goals: Aimed at learning new skills or enhancing existing ones
- Problem-solving Goals: Designed to address specific challenges or issues
- Innovation Goals: Geared towards creating new ideas, processes, or products
What are the 7 C's of goal-setting?
The 7 C's of goal-setting are a framework meant to increase the efficacy of goals.
Those C’s are:
- Clear: Goals should be unambiguous and easy to understand
- Concise: Keep goals brief and to the point
- Challenging: Goals should stretch capabilities without being unrealistic
- Commitment: Ensure buy-in from all involved parties
- Controllable: Focus on factors within one's influence
- Continuous: Goals should be part of an ongoing process, not a one-time event
- Communicable: Goals should be easily shared and discussed with others
What are the 5 steps of a goal setting plan?
- Assessment: Reflect on current performance, strengths, and areas for improvement
- Formulation: Create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals
- Planning: Develop specific strategies and steps to achieve each goal
- Implementation: Put the plan into action, tracking progress along the way
- Review: Regularly evaluate progress, celebrate successes, and modify goals as needed
