goal tracker app
guide

Get More Done with this Employee Goal Setting Software

Hubstaff is a different kind of employee goal-setting software.

It helps you increase efficiency, build better work habits, and reach your goals by showing you how much time you spend on specific tasks. Hubstaff also enables employees to work any way they want to without disrupting administrative processes.

But before trying Hubstaff or other goal setting apps, it’s important to first understand what you want to achieve by setting and tracking your smart goals.

What is the difference between goals and objectives?

Goals are broad statements that reflect what your business will look like if given enough time and resources. They can be becoming more profitable, raising your community profile, or anything else you want to accomplish with your business in the longer term.

They can also be more people-centric goals like eliminating overtime, making more time for focused work, or limiting work to a specific number of hours per week.

Objectives are the specific actions with tangible, measurable steps you and your team need to take to achieve a goal. For example, an objective that contributes toward more focus time would be using an app that tracks how much time you spend on meetings so you can cut down on them and use those hours on more meaningful work instead.

Breaking down achievable goals into simpler objectives helps in managing tasks and eliminating bad habits. Things like to-do lists, goal-setting apps, or even a habit tracker can help. It’s that simple.

What makes goal setting so important?

Let's say you've set your goals and now have a laser focus on the direction you want to take your business. With employee goal-setting software, you can create structured outlines and watch your team progress toward those goals.

They can also help you identify productive habits and distracting activities while motivating team members with incentives.

A business will often have multiple goals with overlapping objectives. Goal-setting apps are essential when combatting redundancy. Tracking even the most routine tasks can help everyone develop better habits while staying on track to reach those big-picture goals.

How to set goals

Coming up with goals is the easy part. Everyone wants to be more productive, profitable, and influential. The actual work lies in setting your sights on something attainable and developing a plan to make that goal a reality.

To do this, you can follow the well-known practice of setting SMART goals.

How to set SMART goals

Specific

Your goal shouldn’t be a complex idea. Instead, try something simple like: “I want to minimize admin time by spending less time on payroll.”

Measurable

How will you know you have succeeded in your goals? There must be a measure you can use to see when you’ve hit your mark. Using the example above about reducing admin time, you can simply measure time with a time tracking tool

Attainable

What is a realistic goal based on your performance? How significant are the improvements you anticipate? 

Relevant

Why does this goal matter to you or the company? What is the benefit of achieving this goal?

Time-Bound

Most teams don’t achieve goals overnight. How much time do you expect to take to accomplish your goal? For example, if you want to become more productive, it can take weeks or months to see whether you’re honing in on your goal. Give it time.

SMART goalsSMART objectives

Long-term

Short-term

Primary goal

Smaller steps to meet the goal

Collective effort by the whole team

Divided into less complex tasks for smaller groups of people

Follows a general strategy

More tactical, on-the-fly adjustments

Employee goal-setting software lets you build your dreams on a foundation of success by determining reasonable goals, building good habits, and moving toward loftier targets from there.

Defining your goal is crucial if you want to accomplish it. Increasing profits or becoming more efficient with time management are common targets, but:

  • How do you know when you’ve met them? 

  • At what point will you be satisfied with your company’s use of time and resources? 

  • How much growth is attainable?

Goals require these targets in order to create something you can reasonably achieve. With a goal in mind, you can then develop objectives to guide everyone in the right direction.

Setting goals requires an understanding of your time and resources

Recognize what’s important to you so you can develop realistic goals with defined targets. Breaking these goals down into digestible tasks and projects creates a roadmap to guide everyone toward a greater, final result. This is where Hubstaff’s employee goal-setting features can help.

How to track goals and productivity

Hubstaff provides a simple way to manage teams and help employees prioritize the right tasks. It also offers a suite of features, including user-friendly time tracking, productivity analytics, work breaks, and time-off requests.

Review over 18 detailed time reports to uncover efficiency roadblocks in your organization and then boost productivity by adding personal goals and daily reminders. Hubstaff helps your team develop new habits that keep everyone focused and efficient.

time reporting

Improve productivity by helping team members understand how they handle specific tasks. Employees can see an overview of their workweek with activity rates and hours tracked. They’ll also see how their activity compares to previous weeks, giving them better insight into how they meet their objectives.

Apps and urls report

Hubstaff also gives you tools for automating routine management work, like creating invoices and paying team members. With this type of work off of your plate, you can focus more on your high-priority goals instead of wasting time in messy spreadsheets.

Once you understand how your team works, building healthy habits and providing stronger leadership coaching is much easier. 

Sign up for Hubstaff to access our free goal tracker app instantly. Upgrading to premium plans unlocks more powerful features like automatic payroll, advanced reporting, client invoicing, project budgets, and more.

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Mental health matters

Activity scores, app and URL usage data, and workforce analytics are important tools to have at your disposal, but they can’t replace good management. If teams aren’t achieving goals, don’t sleep on the mental component. 

Improve employee experience for your team with 1:1s, surveys, and other tools to gauge burnout and create better work-life balance. The results will soon follow. 

If you're looking for a tool to help you get started gauging your employees' mental health, we've got you covered there, too. You can use the Achievements feature to incentivize your team to set personal goals.

Hubstaff achievements

With Achievements, your team can set goals for activity, tasks completed, and time worked. They’ll receive badges when they’ve met these goals. Achieving goals on a daily or weekly basis? You’ll start to earn a streak.

hubstaff efficiency badges

Tip: Accolades like performance badges are great, but sometimes they can indicate burnout. Use these badges to reward hardworking employees, but don’t forget to schedule regular check-ins.

Tips for making the most out of your goal-setting software

Many employee goal-setting apps that are available today offer free and premium versions. You could even choose a fun app that offers in-game rewards around keeping and evolving good or bad habits.

What sets Hubstaff apart is that it gives you in-depth and cohesive metrics you can’t find with other software. Hubstaff’s key features assist with goal setting and tracking, workflow optimization, and employee experience. It works on desktop and mobile devices.

Hubstaff goals and habit tracking

Set goals with a broad intent in mind, but ensure they are achievable. This will help break goals down into objectives or tasks. Then, assign these tasks to your team and access helpful workforce insights with Hubstaff.

Tips for freelancers

You don’t have to run a large company to accomplish all your goals with Hubstaff. Goal-setting apps are also useful for smaller businesses and monitoring progress with client work while keeping track of billing.

Freelancers should check out the free plan, create their profile, and add tasks to their dashboard. Over time, they will better understand how to achieve their goals and improve their success rates.

Tips for teams

Hubstaff helps keep everyone on the same page. It's almost like a personal productivity coach for your team. Use data visualization in your dashboard, like time-consuming activities, and compare them with your team's output to determine where they're excelling or needing help.

Achievements badges provide motivation and stoke friendly competition within your team as they progress toward completing tasks. Set reminders for your team that you’re nearing a goal or that a task deadline is approaching.

Hubstaff tips for teams

Frequently asked questions

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Set goals for your team, track productivity, and use benchmarks to achieve objectives. Free for 14 days. No credit card required.

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