SMART Goals
A guide for Employees and Supervisors
What are SMART Goals?
- Statements of the important results you are working to accomplish.
- Designed in a way to foster clear and mutual understanding of what constitutes expected levels of performance and successful professional development.
Why use SMART Goals?
While not required, it can be helpful to use the SMART criteria as a guideline when formulating your goals as it can ensure you reflect on important aspects of your chosen goal, such as timeline, requirements and outcomes.
What Are the SMART criteria?
| S | Specific | What will be accomplished? What actions will you take? How will you take those actions? When thinking about your goal, consider the five “w” questions: who, what when, where, why. |
| M | Measurable |
How will you measure the goal (numeric or descriptive)? How will you know when the result has been achieved? If using data, what data will measure the goal? |
| A | Achievable |
Is the goal doable? Do you have the necessary skills and resources? |
| R | Relevant | How does the goal align with broader goals for your department or the institution? Why is the result important? |
| T | Time-Bound | What is the time frame for accomplishing the goal? |
Examples of SMART goals:
SMART Goals can be used for many types of goals: project goals, program/department goals, operational goals, learning/professional development goals, etc. At times, you may find that a goal fits multiple categories. For instance, a project to improve your office's outreach strategy, as shown in example A, may be both an operational and a project goal.
Example A: Operational Goal
Non-SMART Goal Description – I want to improve my office's outreach approach.
SMART Goal Description: My department has seen an increase in student questions over the last 18 months, and we want to create a marketing strategy to better highlight our department’s offerings and help students better understand the information they need. In the next six months, I will work with my supervisor to create two physical handouts using Adobe that will be provided to each student who comes to our office as well as an electronic handout and designated email templates to better streamline our information output. We will measure the success of the marketing strategy by reviewing the number of student inquiries pre- and- post implementation and by talking to students and my colleagues about any differences in their experiences getting and sharing information they need.
Example B: Development Goal
Non-SMART Goal Description: I want to learn how to use AI.
SMART Goal Description: I want to continue to learn how AI can improve my skills and help me in my career. To do this, I will:
- Take the CIC AI Ready Course offered through HWS in 2025.
- Use the InfoReady learning platform’s AI courses to gain more insight into AI.
- Identify two ways I can incorporate AI into my daily work.
- This will be a continual learning experience, but I plan on watching or completing one training video a month for the next eight months to better understand how to implement AI into my work.
Ready to Write Your Goals?
Use our SMART Goals template to help guide your thoughts.
Want help writing your SMART goals or want to explore other goal setting frameworks?
Email hr@hws.edu – we would be happy to help you formulate your goals!