9 Real-Life Performance Goals Examples (for 2025)
Employees who set performance goals are 14 times more likely to be inspired at work and are often more engaged and motivated. How can you help your organization’s workforce to set performance goals to sustain continued engagement and motivation?
Setting performance goals not only improves performance and commitment at work but also helps staff align with the wider organizational goals. Research has found that setting challenging but achievable goals leads to a 90% increase in performance. However, 31% of employees claim their manager hasn’t helped them set such goals.
This article will look at the importance of performance goals, HR’s role in helping employees set them, and different types and examples to help you guide performance goal-setting in the workplace.
Contents
What are performance goals?
Why are performance goals important?
HR’s role in setting performance goals
Types of performance goals
Performance goals vs. development goals
9 real-world performance goals examples
What are performance goals?
Work performance goals—also known as performance objectives—are specific, measurable targets employees aim to achieve within a set timeline. These goals relate to the core responsibilities of each employee’s role and aim to increase their efficiency, productivity, and expertise.
A performance goal helps employees align their individual efforts with company objectives in order to drive both forward. Ideally, the employee would experience professional growth and receive promotions, while the company would enjoy greater profits and other positive business outcomes.
Why are performance goals important?
Performance goals are important for driving performance and shaping the desired organizational culture. When defining what employees need to achieve, you should also consider how they should achieve those outcomes. This is a powerful tool for driving the right behaviors in your organization.
Here’s why performance goals matter:
- Greater productivity and accountability: Locke’s goal-setting theory shows that setting goals can increase productivity. When employees are held accountable for meeting specific goals within a set timeframe, they’re likely to be more productive and effective in their roles, as they have something concrete to work toward.
- Increased employee engagement, motivation, and satisfaction: When employees have clear goals to aspire to, they tend to be more motivated at work, which, in turn, helps boost employee engagement.
- More comprehensive performance reviews: Goal-based performance evaluation gives employees clarity on where they are, what they must do to progress, how to achieve this, and the timeline for it. This leads to more comprehensive and informative performance reviews that benefit both employees and employers.
- Clearer progress measurement: Clear performance goals make it easier to track and measure employees’ performance, detect skills gaps, offer suggestions for improvement, recognize and reward achievements, and foster continuous development.
- Minimized misalignment risk: Employee performance goals help align individual targets with company objectives. This can prevent mismatched priorities that could result in employee dissatisfaction and negative business outcomes.
One of the most underrated ways in which performance goals enhance employee engagement is by creating transparency. They remove ambiguity about what’s expected from employees, how this will be measured, and how outcomes are rewarded. This clarifies the give-and-take relationship between employees and the organization.
HR’s role in setting performance goals
Let’s take a look at HR’s responsibilities in the context of helping employees set performance goals:
- Guide managers in setting clear, attainable, and relevant goals: HR assists managers by outlining what SMART goals may look like for each role. Consider creating a document or handbook detailing important performance goals for managers.
- Ensure fair, consistent evaluation processes: HR must make sure the evaluation process is fair for all employees and consistent across departments and roles. Creating an evaluation template for managers and employees to fill in and track their progress can help achieve this.
- Train employees on goal-setting: HR can offer training to explain SMART goals and how goal-setting can help them perform better and progress at work.
- Hold leadership accountable: HR must hold leaders accountable for their roles in performance management in order to drive organizational performance and set the tone for the company’s culture.
- Establish a regular goal-setting and evaluation cycle: This cycle should align with the business rhythm and help shape performance management practices and processes.
Types of performance goals
The following types of performance goals differ based on whom they’re meant for, as well as their key purpose. They include:
- Performance goals for leadership: These goals aim to improve strategic direction, decision-making, and employee engagement at the leadership level. (e.g., lead a new department successfully).
- Performance goals for managers: These help managers manage their employees more effectively and increase productivity, effectiveness, and engagement at the managerial level (e.g., increasing employee retention by 10%).
- Performance goals for employees: Future goals are set during a performance review (typically once or twice a year) between an employee and their manager. They help employees perform better while meeting organizational goals (e.g., increase sales in the next quarter by 25%).
- Performance goals for teams: This is a common practice in organizations that have a strong collaborative function or regularly create team-based assignments (e.g., increase project completion efficiency by 15% over the next quarter).
- Performance evaluation goals: These goals involve evaluating an employee’s performance and documenting the level of skill, knowledge, and achievement the employee has attained.
- Individual performance goals: Employees set these goals to help them learn new skills, progress in their careers, and improve their productivity and motivation (e.g., getting promoted to Marketing Manager within 2 years).
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Performance goals vs. development goals
Performance goals are strongly linked to organizational goals and outcomes, while development goals are linked to individual goals and outcomes. The latter can be related to either an employee’s role or their career aspirations.
The table below explains the main differences between performance goals and development goals:
Function and focus
Achieve specific objectives tied to job responsibilities and company targets.
Improve an individual’s skills, knowledge, and competencies for future career growth.
Purpose
Improve employee productivity and effectiveness while achieving organizational goals.
Help each individual reach their highest potential in their career.
Desired outcomes
Improve employees’ skills, knowledge, productivity, effectiveness, motivation, and engagement, which contributes to greater business success.
Nurture employees, make them feel valued, and create a culture of growth.
How to set them
Align individual performance goals with the key responsibilities. Make sure they are challenging but achievable.
Discuss with the employee which areas they’d most like to develop their skills and knowledge in. This will help them progress at work and achieve their wider career goals.
Timeframe
Set deadlines for achieving these goals. Break them into smaller goals to make the process more manageable.
Set a deadline for completing a specific area of development.
Example
Complete and pass all 12 onboarding training modules, and have a solid understanding of the key responsibilities of your role by the end of your first month.
Attend two industry events over the next six months to remain up to date with emerging trends in graphic design.
9 real-world performance goals examples
What does setting these goals look like in practice? Let’s explore some real-life examples of performance goals at global companies.
Example 1: Amazon
Amazon’s performance management system focuses on data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement. Its key goals include driving results, optimizing processes, and aligning individual contributions with broader business objectives.
The company evaluates employee performance in areas like sales, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency using metrics and KPIs. More specifically, it uses an annual ‘stack ranking’ system that compares and ranks employees against one another, fostering a highly competitive environment.
Additionally, Amazon promotes ongoing feedback through regular manager-employee discussions throughout the year. The company offers training programs to enhance skills and rewards high performers with bonuses, promotions, and public acknowledgment.
Example 2: Apple
Apple employees create individual development plans (IDPs) related to their career goals and the steps they must take to achieve them. The company’s top-level goals are filtered down into ‘cascading goals’ that ensure department and employee goals align with Apple’s vision. As such, the company regularly monitors these goals and adjusts them when needed.
The company supports work performance goals with weekly feedback sessions (including one-on-ones, team discussions, informal check-ins, and 360-degree feedback). These sessions offer a comprehensive picture of each employee’s performance, progress, and potential. They also outline areas for improvement while building a culture of openness, collaboration, and accountability.
Example 3: Google
Each quarter, Google sets four to six OKRs to give itself focus and encourage teamwork. Every employee has a mid-year check-in and year-end review, which combine to form their annual performance review.
This incorporates the employee’s self-assessment (where they evaluate themselves on set criteria and highlight their accomplishments), 360-degree feedback from peers, and a manager rating. The two main focus areas for employee performance are attained results (hard skills) and displayed behaviors (soft skills).
Employees also have monthly performance check-ins with their managers, focusing on coaching, development, and personal issues (if applicable). Additionally, the company uses the Googlegeist to get employees to rate their managers and life at Google, which helps leadership understand what works and what doesn’t.
Example 4: IBM
IBM employees sit down with managers to set SMART goals and discuss their progress at regular check-ins. This allows managers to adjust goals whenever necessary instead of only after a formal review. Employees who struggle to meet their goals are placed on performance improvement plans (PIPs) to prevent them from being left behind.
By creating a culture of growth and development, employees are more engaged and motivated, and individual performance aligns with wider company objectives to create a significant impact.
Example 5: Microsoft
Microsoft builds a performance journal for each employee to help track current projects, achievements, and goals and collect 360-degree feedback. This helps employees take charge of their own development and offers a detailed overview of their performance.
The company encourages employees to set short- and long-term goals not just at formal reviews but throughout the year to support themselves in their current projects and future career aspirations. Additionally, it facilitates ongoing dialog between employees and managers so they can modify performance goals if needed and recognize and reward achievements promptly.
Example 6: Nestlé
Nestle’s company-wide strategic objectives inform individual employee goals to align individual and organizational performance. It also fosters a culture of feedback between employees and managers and uses 360-degree feedback to track and measure performance.
It prioritizes employee development through formal training programs, coaching and mentoring, and online learning platforms and recognizes and rewards high performers.
Example 7: Adobe
Adobe has scrapped annual performance assessments in favor of a less structured approach it calls ‘Check-in’. The company believes quick feedback that gives employees greater awareness of their current performance and how they can progress helps employees perform at their best.
At Check-in meetings, employees and managers discuss what’s going well, areas for improvement, and what they must do to advance professionally while maximizing business impact. Every employee can access a digital space to document their goals and growth with their manager.
HR tip
Consider using performance review software to help employees and managers organize and track performance goals. This creates a single, central place where goals can be clearly defined, tracked, reviewed, and assigned to the relevant individuals and teams.
Example 8: Netflix
Like Adobe, Netflix eliminated performance appraisals in favor of a 360-degree evaluation system. The streaming giant facilitates transparency among employees by having their peers sign off on feedback and conducting certain 360-degree appraisals face-to-face.
Another unique aspect of Netflix’s performance evaluation system is its ‘stop, start or continue’ process. The company encourages employees to state what their peers should stop, start, or continue doing at work to thrive.
Example 9: Uber
Uber’s approach to performance management uses a T3 B3 (top three, bottom three) system focused on development instead of past behavior. This system requires employees to list their three greatest strengths and three greatest weaknesses.
Employees then use this information to set individual performance goals that they enter into a shared system everyone at Uber can access. Employees regularly receive both formal and informal feedback meant as positive reinforcement or constructive advice. This approach aims to help create a more collaborative culture where employees value what their peers have to say.
To sum up
Implementing performance goals can benefit both employees and the organization. Clear, specific targets align employee goals with company objectives, which may foster a stronger sense of purpose in employees.
For HR, this involves more than helping individuals and teams set goals—you must create an environment that actively supports growth. Real-time feedback, regular check-ins, and collaborative performance tracking tools show employees their efforts’ tangible impact. They also create a workplace that encourages engagement, transparency, and mutual success.
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