October 17th, 2025 – SkillCycle
While employee engagement is a critical driver of business success, it is not the sole responsibility of leaders, managers, or HR. To reach your employee engagement goals, you need contributions from everyone, especially your staff. Framing clear employee engagement goals and objectives helps employees see how their daily work connects to the bigger picture.
Employees who commit to doing their best work and improving performance are often the missing link when companies evaluate what drives engagement. This is where employee engagement SMART goals help. Give people specific and measurable targets tied to team outcomes, and share a few employee engagement SMART goals examples so they know what good looks like.
“As an employee, I want to feel like I am invested in the process because change or impact will come from my contribution,” says Andrew Hibschman, VP of Customer Success at SkillCycle. “As an employer, I would want to know that my staff feel a part of things and that their feedback matters.”
Exploring every avenue to boost engagement across your workforce pays off. Companies with high engagement levels enjoy 23% higher profitability, 81% less absenteeism, and 10% higher customer loyalty, according to Gallup. Set clear employee engagement goals, align them with business outcomes, and provide simple employee engagement SMART goals examples to model. Then track progress and celebrate wins.
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment people feel to their work and workplace, which shows up as discretionary effort, persistence, and pride. In practice, engaged employees care about the mission, know what is expected, and choose to go the extra mile. Gallup defines and measures engagement through a composite of work experiences such as role clarity, recognition, development, and connection to purpose.
Why it matters in 2025: engagement is a business driver, not a feel-good metric. Gallup’s large-scale analyses link higher engagement to 23% higher profitability, 10% higher customer loyalty, and as much as 81% less absenteeism for highly engaged teams. These effects compound across retention, quality, and safety, which is why engagement belongs on every executive dashboard.
Where engagement stands today: in 2024 global engagement slipped to 21%, down from 23% in 2023. In the United States it fell to 31% in 2024, a 10-year low. If you had heard “about 31%” as the current figure, that number reflects the U.S. specifically, while the global rate is lower.
What great looks like: best-practice organizations routinely reach engagement levels near 70% among employees and managers, and they report stronger collaboration and performance as a result. This shows what is possible when leadership, manager habits, and systems align.
Building a culture where employees are supported in their growth and given opportunities to learn and improve is incredibly important, but isn’t a standalone solution.
“It has to be a two-way street, because if an employee doesn’t feel like they’re a part of their performance management process or growth process, why would they care?” says Hibschman.
Great performance takes effort from everyone involved. It’s important for organizations to support employees in career and skill development, but it’s also vital for individuals to demonstrate drive and take responsibility, according to HR Magazine.
Instead of viewing engagement as something a company can provide, looking at how you can create environments that support and welcome higher engagement levels from your teams is more helpful. Employees who say they have a positive experience at work show 16 times the engagement levels of workers who report having a negative experience at work, according to McKinsey.
Within these healthy structures, employees are encouraged to commit to their own growth, set meaningful goals, and contribute to achieving them. Managers and teams can work together to be clear about needs, obstacles, and enabling success.
Employees have choices in how they show up at work; in some areas, their thoughts and behaviors will drive specific outcomes. Involving your employees in open discussions about career pathways and how their work contributes to company success can help influence their choices.
“Ultimately, what matters in engagement is that employees who feel they have a stake in the outcome care more about that outcome,” says Hibschman. “And they care more about their input into reaching it.”
When employees see that their work helps drive company growth, which in turn results in investments in their development, their willingness to commit to that cycle can increase faster.
Looking for employee engagement ideas that will help empower your staff to engage more fully at work? Try building these practices into your company culture.
Ideally, you’ll implement strategies and routines that empower your employees and allow them the autonomy to choose how they approach situations. This gives your team members the opportunity to clarify relevant goals, understand why their work matters, and invest in positive outcomes.
Set employee engagement goals that are specific, measurable, and tied to the business. Write them as employee engagement SMART goals so everyone knows the target and the timeline. Use these goal areas with clear actions and simple metrics. They double as employee engagement goals and objectives you can roll into your operating plan, with plenty of employee engagement SMART goals examples baked in.
Aligned with company goals
Clarify how each role supports strategic priorities, then communicate progress openly. Publish a one-page plan that maps team work to company outcomes and review it monthly.
Try this SMART goal: “By Q2, 100% of teams link quarterly goals to two company priorities and report progress in a shared dashboard.”
Track: goal alignment completion, visibility of updates, manager 1:1 cadence.
Increase productivity
Remove friction from workflows and give people the tools to do deep work. Standardize handoffs, shorten approval paths, and fix slow processes.
Try this SMART goal: “Lift revenue per employee by 5% in six months by automating two manual steps in our sales-to-finance process.”
Track: revenue per employee, cycle time, rework rate.
Motivation and morale
Connect work to purpose, recognise progress in public, and build social bonds on and across teams. Small, frequent recognition beats rare, large awards.
Try this SMART goal: “Every manager gives two specific recognitions per person per month for the next quarter.”
Track: recognition frequency, eNPS, participation in team rituals.
Reduce absenteeism
Spot patterns in unplanned absences and address root causes such as scheduling, workload, or health. Offer flexible options where possible.
Try this SMART goal: “Cut unscheduled absence days by 15% in four months through shift flexibility and proactive workload reviews.”
Track: absence rate, schedule swap success, overtime hours.
Enhance well-being
Make well-being a normal part of operations. Blend emotional, mental, and financial support into everyday practices and manager habits.
Try this SMART goal: “Reach 60% participation in mental health and financial wellness sessions within three months.”
Track: program utilization, burnout signals, benefits engagement.
Improve retention
Analyze turnover drivers by role and tenure, then act on the top three issues. Invest in growth pathways and competitive pay where it matters most.
Try this SMART goal: “Reduce regrettable turnover in senior engineers from 14% to 10% over six months through career tracks and targeted coaching.”
Track: regrettable turnover, internal mobility, offer acceptance.
Improve workplace safety
Treat safety like quality. Run regular audits, fix hazards quickly, and refresh training with real scenarios.
Try this SMART goal: “Reduce recordable incidents by 25% in two quarters through monthly audits and hands-on refreshers.”
Track: incident rate, time to corrective action, training completion.
Increase customer satisfaction
Tie employee experience to customer outcomes. Use CSAT or NPS to find friction points and empower teams to fix them.
Try this SMART goal: “Lift CSAT by 4 points in 90 days by resolving the top three repeat issues identified in customer feedback.”
Track: CSAT/NPS, first contact resolution, escalation rate.
Build a positive company culture
Promote diversity, inclusion, and values alignment with everyday practices, not slogans. Set clear expectations for behavior and follow through.
Try this SMART goal: “All teams run a monthly values check where they review one decision for alignment and share a 3-line summary.”
Track: inclusion survey items, representation by level, policy follow-through.
Improving performance can take a combination of learning, practicing new skills, consistent feedback, and commitment from team members to apply what they’re learning.
“Performance management should always be done for employees, not to them,” says Hibschman. “Companies need to take steps to loop employees into the process, which then improves their input — and the outcome.”
There will always be an element of managing performance that requires reciprocal effort from employees in order to create healthy cycles of learning, actionable feedback, and applying that feedback to work responsibilities.
“Companies should be asking what employees need for growth and acting on that feedback,” says Hibschman. “The output of a good performance review should be meaningful, actionable data that lets the whole organization and everyone in it improve.”
If you’d like to see better company performance, it may be time to evaluate the employee engagement ideas you’ve been testing. Getting buy-in from your team is a necessary element to support your organization’s ability to grow and reach desired outcomes.
SMART means specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Using SMART turns broad intentions into employee engagement goals and objectives you can track and deliver. Frame each as a single sentence, name the owner, define the data source, and set a review date. Use clear employee engagement SMART goals so teams know exactly what good looks like.
How to apply SMART
Employee engagement SMART goals examples
Pro tips
Use this approach to set focused employee engagement goals, keep teams aligned, and make progress visible throughout 2025.
Discovering what drives employee engagement and improved performance in your company is essential, but how can you tell if you’re on the right track? Look for signs that open communication is well-nurtured between managers and employees, with healthy doses of both recognition and difficult conversations.
“You’ll be able to measure success by how often individual contributors go to their managers with challenges,” says Hibschman. “Do they feel comfortable seeking support or sharing struggles or failures? Employees who feel supported want to get help to perform their best.”
Another clear sign that your employees are invested in their development and performance is measuring their use of your resources. If you provide access to coaching or learning modules or other ways for employees to overcome challenges, which are widely used by your team, it’s a good sign that your staff members are invested in improving their performance.
The final indicator of healthy participation from all parties is the existence and ongoing development of a continual feedback culture. Growth happens when leaders, managers, and employees regularly discuss how work is progressing and what else might be needed to achieve their goals.
SkillCycle can support both you and your employees to boost engagement. Book a demo to learn more today.
Real-time feedback. Annual surveys are too slow. Short, frequent pulses and always-on comments surface issues early and let teams act while the context is fresh. Use a monthly pulse plus a visible “you said, we did” loop.
Personalised communication. One size fits no one. Tailor updates by role, location, and tenure so messages land and drive action. Segment your comms calendar and test formats.
Smarter metrics. Fewer, better indicators beat dashboard sprawl. Pair one input metric with one business outcome and review monthly so leaders can act.
Micro-recognition. Small, specific thank-yous build momentum. Aim for two specific recognitions per person per month and track it in your HRIS.
Structured flexibility. Hybrid is sticking in many markets and it improves retention when done well. Randomized trials and large-scale studies show hybrid schedules cut resignations by about 33% without hurting performance. Write team-level agreements and measure outcomes, not office days.
Manager enablement. Most organizations still have not trained managers for distributed work or modern coaching. Provide short, recurring practice sessions and clear norms for meetings, 1:1s, and goal reviews.
Multichannel communication. Meet employees where they are. Combine email, chat, intranet, and short video to increase reach and recall.
Employee-generated content. Let teams showcase wins, lessons, and customer stories. It increases relevance and trust while reinforcing culture.
Integrated well-being. Treat mental, emotional, and financial support as part of operations. Offer manager training on workload and recognition, plus access to resources, and track utilization trends.
Microlearning. Bite-size learning tied to current goals sticks better. Use 5–10 minute modules and nudge people right before the task that needs the skill.
AI-powered personalisation. AI can summarize signals, suggest next actions, and tailor learning paths. Adoption is already mainstream, with 75% of global knowledge workers using AI at work. Publish clear guardrails and use AI to save time while managers keep the conversation human.
Acting on feedback. Listening only matters if it changes something. Set action thresholds for key items and publish quick updates so people see progress.
Smaller strategic events. Short, focused meetups beat large generic town halls for problem solving. Use them to align on priorities and remove blockers.
Embedded culture messaging. Reinforce values in routines like stand-ups, retros, and 1:1s so culture is practiced daily, not presented annually.
Peer-led recognition. Recognition that flows sideways, not only top-down, spreads faster and feels more authentic. Add peer badges or shout-outs to your toolkit.
Hybrid work momentum. Over half of remote-capable U.S. employees are now hybrid, and flexible models continue to outperform rigid office-only approaches on retention. Use role-based flexibility and team agreements to balance focus time with collaboration.
How to leverage these trends this quarter
This keeps engagement work focused, measurable, and aligned with outcomes leaders care about.
Hybrid and remote teams face three engagement blockers that do not fix themselves: digital fatigue, time zone fairness, and inclusion at a distance. Here is how to tackle each one with practical steps.
1) Digital fatigue
Back-to-back video calls drain energy and attention. Research from Stanford identifies specific drivers of “Zoom fatigue,” such as intense eye contact and reduced mobility, and offers simple fixes like hiding self-view, scheduling camera-optional meetings, and taking movement breaks. Pair these with fewer, shorter meetings and clear agendas so screen time serves a purpose.
Companies that reduce meeting load see tangible gains. Studies show productivity can jump when teams cut meeting time and adopt meeting-free blocks during the week. Try one or two no-meeting afternoons and a standard 15-minute cap for status updates.
Keep an eye on after-hours creep. New analyses find late-night meetings and messages are rising, creating an “infinite workday.” Protect recovery by setting quiet hours in your tools and routing non-urgent updates to async channels.
2) Time zone fairness
When teams span continents, overlap is scarce. Treat synchronous time as precious and move the rest to async. Use shared docs and task boards for updates, and record short video briefs so people can respond when online. Rotate meeting times for truly global sessions so no single region carries the burden, and publish decisions in writing. Field reports and research on global collaboration show that blending limited live meetings with strong asynchronous practices improves speed and inclusivity.
3) Building inclusion remotely
Belonging does not happen by accident in distributed teams. Identity-based leadership behaviors, such as clarifying shared purpose and recognizing contributions publicly, help remote employees feel connected. Add lightweight rituals: weekly wins in a shared channel, structured 1:1s, and rotating facilitation so more voices are heard. Measure inclusion with a short pulse and follow with visible actions.
What to do this quarter
These habits reduce fatigue, make collaboration fair across time zones, and strengthen inclusion, which keeps hybrid and remote engagement high without burning people out.
Employee engagement is not a side project. It is the way work gets better, week by week. When you define engagement clearly, set SMART goals, and align every action to business outcomes, you turn good intentions into results people can feel. Keep your focus tight, listen often, act visibly, and give managers simple habits they can repeat. Do this consistently and you will see higher energy, stronger retention, better customer outcomes, and a healthier culture across hybrid and on-site teams.
A practical set includes purpose and alignment, manager enablement, growth and recognition, flexible work with fair norms, and integrated well-being. Add two foundations that make everything work: clean data and clear communication. Together, these pillars support focused goals, faster decisions, and a culture people want to be part of.
SMART goals turn broad ideas into actions people can own. By making goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound, teams know exactly what to do, how success will be judged, and when progress will be reviewed. That clarity reduces friction, speeds decisions, and builds confidence as wins stack up.
Role clarity, manager habits, and fair flexibility matter most. Teams thrive when expectations are explicit, 1:1s happen on a steady cadence, and norms for time zones and response times are respected. Reduce digital fatigue with fewer, shorter meetings and lean on asynchronous updates so focus time is protected.
Hold weekly 1:1s that cover priorities, blockers, and development. Give two specific recognition moments per person per month. Set one to three clear goals for the next sprint and review them openly. Trim nonessential meetings and publish decisions in writing. These small moves compound into better momentum and morale.
Use them as a simple checklist:
Blend leading and lagging indicators. Use short pulse surveys and open-text sentiment for fast signals, then connect them to outcomes like retention in critical roles, time to productivity, customer ratings, and absence trends. Review monthly, share a brief update on what changed, and retire any metric that does not guide a decision.
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