4 Examples of Employee Engagement Goals and How to Achieve Them

The truth is, your employees want to enjoy what they do and where they work. They want to be respected and recognized as a valuable asset to your company. Employees that feel valued and respected are going to be far more engaged in their work and their workplace. With employee engagement dipping in the United States, it’s time to start considering why that is.

Focusing on engagement and setting employee engagement goals can help you gain insight into what motivates your employees, and what makes them want to go that extra mile. After all, companies with a highly engaged workforce were 24% more profitable in 2024.

To build a more engaged workplace, you need to set employee engagement goals as your starting point. It may seem like a lot of work, but the improved employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity is well worth it.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to set employee engagement goals and objectives while showing you examples to inspire you.

Let’s dive in.

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Setting employee engagement SMART goals

Using the SMART framework when setting any goal is best practice and it’s no different for engagement goals. This framework makes sure the goals are clear, helps you focus your efforts, and keeps them aligned with broader company objectives.

Here’s how to use each component to set employee engagement SMART goals:

• Specific: Clearly define every aspect of the goal to prevent any ambiguity. For example, instead of “improve employee engagement,” dig down deeper to a specific component of that goal such as “increase participation in feedback surveys.”
• Measurable: Include quantifiable metrics to help you track progress. Continuing the previous example, “increase participation in feedback surveys by X%.”
• Achievable: Do your research into external benchmarks and internal data to gauge what’s a reasonable goal. Based on your findings, you may determine a 20% increase in feedback survey participation is achievable.
• Relevant: Make sure your employee engagement goals align with broader organizational priorities. For example, if leadership participation is important to your company, your goal would read more like “increase management and senior leadership participation in feedback surveys by 20%.”
• Time-bound: Finally, create a deadline to meet this goal to keep you and your team accountable. Your completed employee engagement SMART goals should look something like this: “increase management and senior leadership participation in feedback surveys by 20% by the end of Q3.”

Using this framework gives your employee engagement goals structure, focus, and makes sure they’re reasonable and impactful.

Factors to consider when setting employee engagement goals 

Employee satisfaction and engagement are vague terms with many contributing factors and employee engagement goals need to reflect those factors. Every company is unique, so look into things like company priorities, employee needs, flexibility, etc.

Before you start implementing employee engagement ideas, have conversations with employees, managers, support staff, and other stakeholders to shape your engagement goals.

Here are a few factors to consider when building your employee engagement objectives:

Alignment with organizational objectives 

Employee engagement goals should support the larger priorities and vision of the entire organization. Tying your employee engagement objectives to strategic priorities, like improving employee retention and closing skill gaps, makes sure everyone across the organization is on the same page and working towards the same things. 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when thinking through your employee engagement goals:

• What are the company’s goals?
• How does employee engagement factor into those goals?
• How can I set employee engagement SMART goals that work towards each company goal?

Understanding employee needs

Creating employee engagement goals without understanding your employees’ needs will not only come off as disingenuous, but will make the goals hard to achieve.

A great way to gain insight into employee needs is through surveys, focus groups, and employee interviews. These channels can help you uncover specific challenges, preferences, and employee motivations.

💡Need some inspiration? Here are examples of employee engagement survey questions to get you started.

Goal flexibility and customization

There are so many different roles, teams, and functions in every organization and not every goal applies to everyone. For example, if employee retention is one of your engagement goals, the retention factors for the engineering team vs. the marketing team will probably look very different.

Engagement goals should be flexible enough to customize to different roles, functions, and team cultures to make sure all employees benefit from your efforts to improve engagement.

Measuring success

While you’re brainstorming your employee engagement goals and objectives, think about what success looks like and how it can be measured. Before finalizing the goal, figure out how you’re going to get those numbers to track success. Metrics could be participation rates, employee satisfaction scores, new hire retention rates, etc. and found through surveys, Zoom meeting attendance, mentorship program participation, etc.

💡Explore more ideas to learn how to measure employee engagement

Leadership support and internal communication

Engagement efforts thrive when leaders practice what they preach. If employees see leaders are stressed, unfocused, or don’t really seem to care, they’re not going to care either—ultimately harming overall employee engagement. Leaders need to be advocates and encourage engagement while consistently communicating and celebrating engagement goals.

Technology

Technology can help in many aspects of employee engagement goals. Tools like performance management software, mentoring platforms, human resources information systems (HRIS), or even productivity tools that make it easier for employees to do their jobs can help you with measurement, facilitating employee engagement activities, or actively contributing to employee satisfaction.

Equity and inclusion

Making sure all employees, regardless of background or role, have equal opportunities to participate and contribute in the workplace is key to consistent engagement across the board. So, it would stand that employee engagement goals need to keep your company’s DEI initiatives in mind.

Incentives and rewards

Offering both monetary and non monetary incentives and rewards can boost employee morale and improve employee engagement. While formulating your goals, think about what kinds of behavior you’d like to reward and how you might do it.

Consider designing recognition programs around employees:

• Meeting or exceeding quality or quantity metrics 
• Solving work challenges or improving business performance 
• Mastering a new work procedure
• Demonstrating company core values 

Employee engagement goals examples

Now that we’ve explored how to set employee engagement SMART goals and key factors to consider while you’re creating them, let’s get into some practical applications.

Here are some SMART goals for employee engagement examples and ideas to achieve them:

1. Improve new employee retention

Focusing on employee retention strategies as part of your employee engagement goals is a great start. New hires can be especially prone to leaving, so making sure you explore and address high new hire turnover rate is key.

Here’s your SMART goal statement:

• Increase new hire retention rates by 15% in the next 12 months measured by quarterly retention reports.

Here are activity ideas to improve employee retention and engagement:

• Onboarding programs: Review and adjust your onboarding processes to make sure your new hires are supported and connected from day one. This could look like adding a more structured onboarding timeline or including an onboarding buddy program.
• Career development opportunities: Provide clear, defined career pathways, corporate mentorship programs, etc. from the start and make sure they’re easily accessible so new employees are more likely to participate.
• Recognize and reward: Create avenues for recognition, praise, and rewards that celebrate individual and team achievements. Try a program like a rising star award that recognizes new employees that go out of their way to help others, receive praise from a client, etc.

These programs go a long way to helping new employees feel seen, supported, and invested in.

2. Improve employee mental and physical wellbeing

Employee wellbeing is necessary for mental stamina and a positive attitude during work hours. But, as necessary as it is, only about 30 percent of employers actively promote health and wellbeing.

Here’s your SMART goal statement:

• By the end of Q4 2025, implement improvements to existing wellness programs that will improve employee wellbeing by 18%, as measured by quarterly feedback surveys relating to mental and physical wellbeing and wellness activity participation rates.

Here are some activity ideas:

• Health and wellness programs for things like smoking cessation, stress management, etc.
• Health services and digital therapeutics such as mental health counseling and nutritional assistance
• Improve benefits to lower costs for prescriptions or other medical services
• Wellness stipends for things like ergonomic chairs or workout equipment
• Offer flextime and other flexible working arrangements to improve work-life balance

Make sure to promote! Regularly communicating these changes will help with participation and feedback rates.

3. Boost employee satisfaction

Employee engagement and satisfaction goes hand-in-hand with performance and productivity. Some of your employee engagement objectives should focus on these aspects.

Here’s your SMART goal statement:

• By the end of Q2 2026, improve employee satisfaction scores by 50% and improve employee performance by 21% through employee experience improvement, as measured by surveys and performance review scores.

Here are a few ways to work towards this goal:

• Internal communication: Clear and consistent communication about the goings on in your company help employees feel more connected to your company. Whether it’s a monthly newsletter, regular updates on company performance, or internal program promotion, employees want to be in the know.
• Employee digital experience: The digital employee experience is a key player in satisfaction, engagement, performance, and productivity. 49% of US employees are willing to leave their job over bad tech. So upgrading tech and automation capabilities are a great way to improve satisfaction and productivity.
• Continuous formal and informal learning: Growth opportunities are a big deal when it comes to employee satisfaction. Offering both formal (classroom training, tuition reimbursement, etc.) and informal (peer learning, a job shadowing program, etc.) opportunities is a great step to motivate your employees.

4. Foster inclusion and belonging

Creating a company culture where everyone is on equal footing paves the way for more engagement, especially from underrepresented groups. Increasing engagement shouldn’t be the only goal here—your ultimate goal should be building a space where all voices are valued and everyone has access to the same resources.

Here’s your SMART goal statement:

• By the end of Q2 2026, employee satisfaction scores about inclusion and belonging by 65% and improve knowledge around bias and discrimination by 90%, as measured by employee feedback surveys and training attendance rates.

Here are a few ways to reach these goals:

• Review policies: Making sure your workplace policies are inclusive and considerate of different races, cultures, and religions is a great start. For example, a designated area or time for those who pray during the work day.
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Incentivize the creation of and support different types of ERGs that provide safe spaces for those with shared backgrounds, races, religions, etc. and encourage them to host events, talks, and generally share with the rest of the company.
• Celebrate diversity: Your culture committee can work with different groups to celebrate cultural holidays or traditions so the rest of your company can learn and celebrate too.

Real employee engagement goals examples

Here are some real-world employee engagement goal examples at work:

• Microsoft’s commitment to flexible work: In a time of return-to-office mandates, Microsoft listened to its employees and still maintains 50%-100% remote flexibility for most employees with encouragement to new hires to negotiate schedules. Work-life balance leads to happier, more engaged employees.
• Zappos’s rewards going above and beyond: Done a good deed or helped out another teammate? Online retailer Zappos wants to reward those employees. They issue “Zollars” that employees can spend on company swag and other neat things in the company store. Employees want to be recognized for the hard work they do and for going above and beyond.
• Mastercard encourages internal growth: Hoping to fill more roles and encourage learning and development amongst their staff, Mastercard launched their Internal Talent Marketplace. This talent marketplace matches employees with opportunities for promotion, lateral movement, and skill-building opportunities based on interests and goals. Opportunities for learning and development make employees want to stay and grow with your company.

Reach your employee engagement goals

When it comes down to it, employee engagement is the glue that holds a company together. It contributes to every single aspect of company success—from productivity and profits, to retention and culture.

No matter what your engagement goals are, Together can help you organize and take the next steps to achieving them. Our resource archives are full of many helpful articles on employee engagement. But, if you want to take a deeper dive, one of our experts can show you how Together’s suite of mentorship and employee engagement tools can help.

‍Book a demo of Together to get personalized guidance to reach your employee engagement goals.