90% of all businesses fail to achieve strategic goals, and one of the biggest reasons for this failure is the lack of effective goal setting.
Effective goal setting requires not just creating goals but also an ability to track and measure success while allowing enough room to pivot when needed.
Employee goal setting templates help you kick ambiguity to the curb so you’re creating goals that are clear, achievable, realistic, and measurable. These templates are pre-built structured frameworks that include all the elements you need to build smart goals. They’re also easy to use in that all you need to do is customize the templates to your needs and populate your information.
In this article, we’ll cover 13 expert-recommended employee goal-setting templates to align your teams for maximum success.
Review the content for each in detail before you choose the template that’s best suited for your needs. The right template will turn your business into a lean, mean, efficient machine.
Page Contents (Click To Jump)
How We Chose the Best Employee Goal Setting Templates
At SnackNation, we believe that collaboration and transparency are two key components of the modern workplace experience. Our teams harness the power of the best online collaboration tools to help increase productivity and efficiency. It’s the same thought process that goes into creating helpful template guides like these.
Why trust us? The SnackNation team has been testing and reviewing thousands of templates for more than a decade. We know what professionals expect in terms of efficiency and productivity.
Our selection process: We’ve hand-picked the employee goal-setting templates included in this article using the following criteria:
- Can be shared with the team – Cut out the silos and bring people together on the same page.
- User-friendly interface – No more spending hours just trying to figure out the system and throwing your hands up in despair.
- Visually Appealing – Easy to understand and make sense of.
- Customizable – Change the templates to your exact need.
- Great for collaboration – Collaboration features make it easy for your teams to communicate effectively with one another.
- Save Time – Pre-built templates help you cut down on the time required to build a template from scratch.
- Value added – Bonus features that give you more than just goal-setting skills.
Pro-Tip: Use “Command + D” to bookmark this list – we update it often with the latest and most useful employee goal setting templates!
Best Employee Goal Setting Templates
We’ve handpicked 13 of the best employee goal setting templates, so you don’t have to!
Let’s get started…
1. New Hires Goal Setting Template by ClickUp
🏅Best For: Effective goal setting for new hires so they can hit the ground running and generate impact.
It’s a structured, smart goal setting template that enables you to very clearly define roles and responsibilities for new hires, develop measurable goals that align with the company’s big-picture vision, track progress, and share constructive feedback in an ongoing manner. It’s best for intermediate users with some familiarity with ClickUp.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: It’s feature-rich, easily customizable, and ready-to-use. It’s also one of the several free goal-setting templates shared in this list.
✅ Pros:
- Purpose-built template designed to help you set up clear goals for your new hires so they understand the parameters against which they’re being measured.
- Comes with collaboration features, so there’s transparency and consistent communication with your employees to keep them motivated and engaged.
- The dashboard feature enables you to monitor the progress of your new hires and provide real-time feedback.
❌ Cons:
- Stand-alone template is usable only within the ClickUp software environment.
Meanwhile, try these tools to set up effective goals for teams:
2. Business Goals Template by Wrike
🏅Best For: Translating big-picture company goals into OKRs and actionable steps across all levels, and measuring and tracking progress.
This business goals template is ideal for larger companies that may struggle to filter down overarching objectives into more simplistic and measurable goals for teams. It then helps project owners convert the goals to OKRs or Objectives and Key Results that team members can readily understand and work toward.
Finally, you can use this template to review/measure progress and refine goals with the necessary adjustments as needed.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: We like how you can align individual goals with overall objectives and make the desired outcome (or outcomes) crystal clear for all levels of employees.
✅ Pros:
- Easy to organize both company goals and OKRs into pre-built folders and projects for easy retrieval and assignment.
- Tracking options for multiple teams with custom dashboards and the ability to convert the data into reports that can be shared with stakeholders.
- Ensure tasks are easy to identify through the use of color-coded calendars.
❌ Cons:
- This template best suits larger teams or teams with complex goals.
3. Smart Goals Template by Miro
🏅Best For: Creating a simplistic goal planning template that is based on the SMART framework (to be covered in more detail next).
The SMART goal-setting framework is one of the most popular methods to set achievable goals. The core premise is that your goals should be Specific (S), Measurable (M), Attainable (A), Realistic (A), and Time-Bound (T). So, instead of creating a random vague goal like “increase monthly sales,” the goal can be reframed to “Achieve a 5% increase in monthly sales by August 30th.”
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: If you struggle with setting SMART goals, you’ll find this template super-useful. Think of it as a SMART goal setting worksheet that you can rinse and repeat whenever you want online.
✅ Pros:
- It’s designed like a visual board with sticky notes, making it easy to not just set goals but also ‘see’ them as you map them.
- Simple and easy framework for just one task, which is creating SMART goals. It’s not cluttered with unnecessary extras.
- Ideal for people who are new to the goal setting process and may benefit from training wheels to get started.
❌ Cons:
- It’s a standalone SMART goals template meant only for defining realistic and achievable goals with no additional features or extras.
Looking for effective templates to manage teams? Your search stops here with these templates:
4. Action Plan Templates by Smartsheet
🏅Best For: Developing action plans from scratch for multiple case scenarios – business, project, and work. There’s even a ‘simple’ version if you don’t need all the bells and whistles.
This selection of editable action plan templates is suited for project-based action plans, business-based action plans, and work-based plans. A ‘simple’ action plan template has been added for people who prefer a more simplistic version of the same templates.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: Goals work only if they’re supplemented by a solid action plan. These templates will help you seal the deal!
👉 Try This Smartsheet Template
✅ Pros:
- Helps create systematic action steps to take you from the inception of a goal to goal achievement.
- Templates can be downloaded in three convenient formats – Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, or natively on SmartSheet.
- Color-coded for greater visibility and transparency.
❌ Cons:
- The templates are ideal for most case scenarios.
Check out these resources for more action plan templates designed to move you from idea to execution:
5. OKRs & Milestones (2024 and Beyond) by Notion
🏅Best For: Developing OKRS (Objectives and Key Results) and milestones and tracking them effectively.
A clean black and white OKR and milestones template that delivers on the essentials. Use this template to set goals for three months at a time, track progress, and congratulate yourself on the back for wins along the way.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: It’s a simple, fuss-free template to plan goals for three months at a time.
✅ Pros:
- Can plan 30-day goals and three-month goals at a time.
- Includes Key Results for marking checkpoints and Milestones for celebratory achievements.
- Incorporates a visual black-and-white interface that’s clean, uncluttered, and easy to decipher.
❌ Cons:
- The template is free, but you do need to create a Notion account.
6. Goal Tracker Template by monday.com
🏅Best For: Breaking down, tracking, and achieving goals in a structured manner.
The Goal Tracker template makes it easy for you to define goals, break them down into actionable steps or milestones, assign responsible persons, prioritize tasks, and visualize progress through various views like Timeline, Gantt, and customizable view. Also included are features like item updates and checklists to help you extract the maximum value from the template.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: It provides a comprehensive yet intuitive visual interface to set, break down, and track goals from start to finish.
👉 Try This monday.com Template
✅ Pros:
- Supports the breaking down of large goals into manageable steps and milestones for better execution.
- Multiple views to visualize goals and measure progress, such as Timeline, and Gantt views.
- Feature-rich – supports progress tracking, prioritization, and collaboration through features like progress columns, status labels, and item updates.
❌ Cons:
- Project managers may prefer an all-in-one system as opposed to a standalone template.
7. Workplace Goal Setting Template by ClickUp
🏅Best For: Developing SMART goals, assigning and tracking them.
This template provides an extensive framework to define goals in line with the SMART goal-setting criteria. Use the template to break the goals down further into actionable tasks, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress through custom views, and fields. Also included are guideposts and best practices for goal-setting success.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: It provides a visual, comprehensive, yet intuitive method to set, break down, and track goals from start to finish.
✅ Pros:
- It’s based on the SMART goals framework, which ensures your goals are strategic and achievable while ensuring alignment with organizational objectives.
- Helps assign accountabilities to team members, which you can then progress-track effectively.
- Provides multiple perspectives and views to give you a holistic means to analyze goals.
❌ Cons:
- Needs to be used within the ClickUp framework.
8. SMART Goals Template by monday.com
🏅Best For: Setting and tracking well-defined goals.
The template provides a structured framework with dedicated columns to create and document SMART goals together with action items, owners, and progress tracking.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: We love how this template supports a comprehensive and structured approach to goal-setting while fostering an environment of teamwork and collaboration.
👉 Try This monday.com Template
✅ Pros:
- The template helps you set up goals aligned with the SMART criteria – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound
- It helps you assign accountability for goals and action items while fostering collaboration.
- Visually track progress through the use of Gantt charts, status labels, and progress columns.
❌ Cons:
- Needs to be used within the monday.com platform.
Want to become a master of productivity? Don’t miss these resources:
9. Goal Setting & Tracking by Notion
🏅Best For: People who want a simple template to set goals, track them, and celebrate achievements.
This template has six boards – goal setting, task list, goal tracker, brag book, and reflections. Set up goals, split the goals into smaller task lists, and assign timeframes for tracking purposes. Use the brag book to record all your wins, recommendations, and customer or client love. Record flashes of insight or inspiration on the reflections board.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: We love the unique extras in the form of ‘brag book’ and ‘reflections’.
✅ Pros:
- Includes six separate yet interconnected boards that you can navigate with a few clicks.
- Easy to understand and use as the sections are labeled clearly. Also, easy to navigate.
- Guideposts are provided in each section to help you make the best use of the tool.
❌ Cons:
- Needs to be used within the Notion framework.
10. Employee Goals Template by Smartsheet
🏅Best For: Editable PDF framework for setting employee goals.
A straightforward goal-setting worksheet template, which includes fields for goals, benchmarks, and an evaluation plan. You’ll be able to set up strategic action steps for the goal and elaborate on the date of implementing the goal, responsible persons, due date, resources required, potential hazards, and desired outcome.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: Because it’s an editable PDF document, it’s the easiest template to use on this list.
👉 Try This Smartsheet Template
✅ Pros:
- Tabular PDF goal-setting worksheet with customizable fields
- Easy to record online. Alternatively, print off and hand-write.
- Contains fields designed to support a well-planned goal-setting framework.
❌ Cons:
- As it’s a PDF template, it’s not easy to integrate with other resources or systems.
11. Goal Setting Template by Miro
🏅Best For: Defining, articulating, and tracking goals.
The template provides a structure consisting of fields, such as goals, your ‘why’, action/steps, date started, deadline, blockers, and notes to help you accurately capture goals, a timeline for execution, challenges, and everything else you need to record.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: It’s a visual and collaborative approach to goal setting, which is both structured and flexible.
✅ Pros:
- Clear, easy-to-understand visual format composed of the fields mentioned earlier.
- Customizable and expandable to accommodate multiple goals.
- Supports team collaboration via the shared visual board interface.
❌ Cons:
- If you’re already using other systems or tools, you may find it counterintuitive to use a separate form just for goal setting.
12. OKR Template by Wrike
🏅Best For: Implementing OKR (Objectives and Key Results) frameworks for individuals, teams, and the company as a whole.
The OKR template is a pre-built template that helps organizations create OKRs that are clear and well-defined, and track their progress at three levels – individual, team, and company. It helps establish a structured framework for strategic planning, goal tracking, and progress monitoring.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: It’s a pre-built and easy-to-use template that supports a strategic goal-setting process while aligning individuals, teams, and the company.
✅ Pros:
- The template provides a structured framework for clearly defining OKRs, using them to align with company goals, and finally, reporting your results.
- Gain complete visibility into the progress of OKRs through the dashboards and progress charts available with the template.
- Includes shared spaces like folders, facilitating ease of collaboration within teams.
❌ Cons:
- Needs familiarity with the Wrike platform.
Looking for more OKR tools? Check out these resources to boost your project management skills:
13. Employee Performance Goal-Setting Template by ClickUp
🏅Best For: Streamlining the process of goal setting based on SMART criteria for your employees.
These templates make the process of setting personalized and achievable goals for your employees easy and seamless. You can also set milestones, track progress, and share feedback on an ongoing basis, so everyone’s on the same page in terms of expectations.
❤️ Why we love this employee goal setting template: We love how easy it is to set up and run this feature-rich and fully customizable template.
✅ Pros:
- It’s a smart goal-setting worksheet template that’s feature-rich, versatile, customizable, and free. You can get started in as little as seconds.
- Custom setup for status, field, and views.
- Comes with well-thought-out collaboration features, such as comments, attachments, and notifications, to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
❌ Cons:
- Project Managers may prefer an all-in-one solution.
Check out these resources designed to help Project Management professionals excel at work:
Benefits of Employee Goal Setting Templates
👍 Benefit 1: Pre-built and structured
The templates provide a structured framework to set and achieve goals effectively. The framework helps you identify clear and achievable project goals (both short-term and long-term goals), record key milestones, assign tasks, set deadlines, and determine how the performance to achieve desired outcomes will be measured.
Having a framework like this serves as an aid to project management for the business and professional development for the employees. They also help save time and reduce effort.
👍 Benefit 2: Simply customize and populate
The templates are pre-made with guidelines, so project managers only need to populate the blank spaces with the required information.
The templates are typically customizable and feature-rich, depending on the specific template, so you can even use them for project management purposes to set key goals, assign deliverables, and measure success.
👍 Benefit 3: Facilities a streamlined goal-setting framework
Templates help streamline the process of SMART goal setting. They support the breaking down of large complex goals into specific action steps. They facilitate ease of documentation and record-keeping.
Templates help in prioritizing and allocating tasks while promoting accountability through clear designation of deliverables. They’re also available in different styles and formats to suit specific requirements.
Tips on How to Use Employee Goal Setting Templates
✅ Tip 1: Align Goals with Organizational Objectives
Set up and articulate employee goals that are aligned with organizational objectives. It helps employees understand how their role contributes to the whole and can motivate them to achieve their individual goals.
✅ Tip 2: Use the SMART goal framework
The SMART goal framework comprises the elements – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It’s a popular methodology for individuals, teams, and companies to set realistic and practical goals that can be achieved in a time-bound fashion.
✅ Tip 3: Review and adjust goals
The best goals are adaptable over time based on the current trends. Adjust goals based on changes in business interests or goal-specific challenges. See goal-setting as a malleable process that pivots in line with the company’s best interests.
Tip! The employee goal-setting templates in this article already incorporate one or more of these elements, to help you save time, and get more done!
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Employee Goal Setting Templates
❗️ Mistake 1: Unrealistic or non-specific goals
The lack of realism and specificity in goals can make it hard for employees to understand what they’re working toward and how to actually make it happen. It can quickly lead to demoralization and a dip in the levels of team motivation. Effective goal-setting doesn’t have to be hard. Follow the SMART framework to set goals that are realistic, measurable, and achievable.
❗️ Mistake 2: Neglecting employee input
It’s important to see team members as collaborative partners in the goal setting process. Factor in their existing workload, level of expertise, and individual perspectives before finalizing goals. Otherwise, employees will feel unheard. Having their buy-in increases the chances of them approaching their tasks wholeheartedly and with enthusiasm.
❗️ Mistake 3: Lack of regular goal reviews and adjustments
Goals can quickly become irrelevant or outdated when not adjusted to meet changing circumstances or shifting priorities. Incorporate a structured process for regular check-ins and use these check-ins to track progress, identify challenges, and update goals. Also, walk the talk in terms of encouraging an environment of continuous improvement.
People Also Ask These Questions About Employee Goal Setting Templates
Q: What is an employee goal setting template?
- A: Employee goal-setting templates are structured and pre-built frameworks that enable team leaders to establish clear and measurable goals aligned with organizational objectives. The structure helps foster SMART goal-setting, accountability, and progress tracking.It’s important to select the right employee goal setting template for your needs to achieve performance and development outcomes, promote consistency, and ensure alignment across all levels of the organization.
Q: What elements are typically included in an employee goal setting template?
- A: Employee goal-setting templates typically include employee identifying information, SMART goal statements, goal-tracking measures, deadlines, responsible persons, resource needs, space for feedback, and ongoing reviews.These elements enable clear communication, alignment, quantifiable progress evaluation, and continuous improvement toward individual and organizational objectives.
Q: Can an employee goal setting template be customized?
- A: Most of the goal-setting templates we’ve shared in this article are customizable, while all are editable. We’ve specifically included templates with customization features to make it easy for you to adapt the templates to your specific needs and requirements.
