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Creating SMART training goals is an essential step in the training and development cycle, yet many organizations neglect it or shove it down their list of priorities.
Here’s why. Training managers either consider it unimportant or find the process daunting.
The SMART goal framework improves the effectiveness of your employee training and development programs. Not only does it provide a clear roadmap for managers and companies, but it also aligns your training efforts with your business goals.
In this article, we’ll explain what a training goal is, the importance of training goals and how you set SMART training goals that drive meaningful improvements in employee performance and contribute to your organization's long-term success.
Let’s get into it!
Training or learning goals are measurable outcomes that learners are expected to achieve through a course or ongoing training and development programs. These goals may vary depending on the organization, department, job role and individual employee.
Setting SMART training goals helps organizations measure the impact of their training programs and their return on investment. And when training objectives are well-defined, employees understand what is expected of them and can better focus their efforts on acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviors.
Establishing clear training goals is essential for effective employee development. It enables organizations to target specific areas for improvement and measure progress toward those objectives.
Here are other key reasons why training goals are crucial for employee development.
Clear training goals improve strategic alignment between training and the overall business strategy. It helps companies identify the skill sets, competencies and outcomes required to achieve business objectives or targets.
When skill gaps are identified during goal setting, training can be tailored to address these specific needs. The result is that employees have the right skills and tools to drive business success.
Well-defined training objectives help employees understand what they need to learn and why. This clarity empowers employees to:
Without SMART goals, companies won’t know if their investment in corporate training is paying off. Clear training goals enable organizations to assess employee progress and evaluate the effectiveness of training programs.
By referring back to set objectives, companies can easily measure whether employees have acquired the intended knowledge, skills and expertise. These assessments also provide valuable insights for improving future training initiatives and resource allocation.
Established training goals encourage accountability among stakeholders—employees, managers and training providers.
Everyone involved in the training process knows the expected outcomes, creating a sense of responsibility to ensure that goals are met and progress is made.
Creating well-defined goals and objectives can simplify content creation and make training more effective. Think of it as a compass that provides clear direction during the planning, execution and evaluation stages of any training program. By setting goals, companies will have a clear picture of these things:
The training and delivery method that will be most effective
There are several types of employee training programs designed to help employees improve performance and productivity, so we’ll look at the training goals you can set for some of these programs.
1. Product and Service Knowledge: This type of training is focused on educating employees about the company's products and services, including their features, benefits and applications.
The goal is to ensure that employees have a deep understanding of what they are selling or supporting, which can help them provide better customer service and make informed sales pitches.
2. Technical Skills or Competence: This type of training is designed to teach employees the technical skills they need to perform their jobs effectively. This may include training on software, hardware, equipment, or other tools and technologies used in the workplace.
The goal of technical skills training is to equip employees with the necessary technical skills to perform their job tasks efficiently and accurately.
3. Soft Skills Development: Soft skills are non-technical skills that are essential for success in the workplace, such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, time management and leadership.
This type of training aims to develop these skills in employees, enabling them to interact more effectively with colleagues, customers and clients.
4. Leadership and Management: This type of training is designed for managers and supervisors, focusing on developing their leadership and management skills.
Examples of employee training topics for this category may include effective communication, decision-making, delegation, performance management and strategic planning.
The goal is to equip leaders with the skills needed to motivate and guide their teams, drive business results and build a positive organizational culture. Another key goal of leadership training is to groom top talents for succession planning.
5. Cross-Training: Cross-training involves training employees in multiple roles or functions within the organization.
This approach helps employees develop a broader range of skills, making them more versatile and able to adapt to changing business needs. It also helps to increase employee flexibility and availability, as they can fill in for colleagues in different roles when needed.
Cross-training lets everyone better understand how the company operates on all levels. The ultimate goal is to enhance overall organizational efficiency and productivity.
Remember, these are just a few examples of employee training goals that organizations may pursue. The specific objectives will depend on the organization's strategy, industry, size, skill gaps and many other factors.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set training goals for your team
Every training program has a purpose. Before getting to the point where you’re setting SMART training goals for employees, you must first do these things at a high level:
For example, at the top level, the purpose or goal of sales training is to nurture leads and close more deals. Similarly, a high-level goal for customer service training is to equip employees with skills to provide rave-worthy customer experiences.
The next step is to identify skill or performance gaps within your organization. This process is called skill gap analysis or training need analysis.
Conducting a skill gap analysis is necessary to identify areas where employees or departments need improvement so that training goals can be set specifically to close those gaps.
Here’s how to conduct a skill gap analysis:
Training programs can be considered effective if the benefits to the employee and organization far outweigh the cost of implementing them. One way to assess the potential drawbacks and gains of the training is by conducting a cost-benefit analysis. This analysis gives you an insight into whether or not the benefits of the training are greater than the problems caused by the gaps.
Here’s a simple way to do a cost-benefit analysis.
Based on the analysis, make an informed decision on whether to proceed with the training program. If the net benefit is positive and the ROI is acceptable, the training might be worth pursuing.
SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound goals. The SMART goal framework enables you to set training goals that are clear, meaningful and attainable. It also makes it easy to measure progress toward achieving your goals.
Here are steps to follow when setting SMART goals:
1. Specific: Make sure your goal is clearly defined and easy to understand and communicate.
Example: Let’s say you’re setting goals for sales team training. A specific goal would be: By the end of the next quarter, we aim to increase the average number of weekly sales calls made by each sales representative by 20%.
2. Measurable: Determine how you'll quantify and measure each goal as your team members progress. This may include metrics, statistics, amounts or numbers.
Example: Currently, the average sales representative makes 15 weekly sales calls. The goal is to increase this number to 18 weekly sales calls per representative by the end of the next quarter.
3. Achievable: Your goals should be realistic and attainable, considering available resources, constraints and challenges.
Example: This goal is achievable because we have identified several strategies to help our sales representatives make more calls, such as:
4. Relevant: The goal should be relevant or align with the overall objectives and purpose of the organization or individual.
Example: Increasing the number of sales calls aligns with our company's overall revenue growth goals and supports our mission of expanding our customer base.
5. Time-bound: There should be a specified deadline for achieving the goal.
Example: The goal is specific to the next quarter, which provides a clear timeline for achieving the objective. Regular progress updates will be provided to ensure everyone stays on track.
Read this article to learn more about how to set SMART goals.
Goal setting can be a time-consuming process, but using goal-setting worksheets or templates makes the process simple and seamless. These templates provide a framework for you to document all of the important action steps, including owners, timelines and due dates.
Another benefit of using goal-setting worksheets is that they help you track your team's progress towards achieving their goals. The best part is that it makes everyone on your team focused and accountable, increasing your chances of crushing your goals.
Visme has a massive library of customizable goal-setting worksheets and templates you can use. You can share it online with your team members and have them fill it out or download and print it out for them to complete.
What’s more? You can make your worksheet interactive and engaging by adding popups, hover effects, text animations and hotspots.
Goal-setting should be a collaborative activity.
Collaboration gives your team a sense of community, camaraderie and purpose as they work together to achieve set goals. Moreover, they are more likely to be motivated and accountable for hitting those goals.
With Visme, team collaboration is a breeze. Team members can leave comments on the goal-setting worksheet, draw annotations and reply to comments in real-time or on their own time.
Watch this video to see how the collaboration feature works in Visme.
Once you've set goals with your team, make them visible. For example, you can use a vision board so your team can always refer back to it and stay focused on achieving the goal.
Many people use a physical whiteboard with sticky notes as their vision board. But the thing is, traditional whiteboards can be limiting in terms of space, size, legibility and longevity. That’s why we recommend using a digital and interactive whiteboard tool like Visme.
Along with the extensive library of customizable goal-setting templates in whiteboard formats, you’ll find everything you need in an intuitive whiteboard tool, such as:
Hear what one of our clients has to say about our tool.
“With the current number of active users, coupled with the usability of the platform, we are able to create 3x more social media content and other collaborative projects using Visme than if we were to continue funneling the work to a single graphic designer.” - Nicole Thompson & Nikki Costlow, Lincoln Learning Solution. Read the full case study.
Now you’ve set SMART goals for employee training and made them visible to everyone on the team.
Great job! But your job isn’t finished.
Once they’ve been implemented, the next important step is to evaluate the progress of your training. This will give you valuable insights into what's working and what isn't. Armed with this knowledge, you can make the necessary improvements to make the training program more effective.
In the latter part of this article, we’ll explain in detail how to monitor and evaluate training goals. Keep reading!
Now you know how the SMART framework works. Let’s show you five training goal examples from different roles and industries that align with that framework.
Made with Visme Presentation Maker
Made with Visme Presentation Maker
Made with Visme Presentation Maker
Made with Visme Presentation Maker
Made with Visme Presentation Maker
Made with Visme Presentation Maker
Goal-setting comes with its fair share of problems. Let's discuss the top three challenges managers or trainers may experience when setting or achieving their training objectives. We'll also show you how you can navigate these challenges.
Time management is a severe constraint for both employees and managers. Employees may struggle to dedicate time to attend training sessions, especially if they have heavy workloads or tight deadlines.
Managers or companies, on the other hand, may also be hesitant to allocate time for training. The fear is that it will take away from productive work hours.
Creating an employee training plan helps you develop a blueprint for effective employee training programs. Here’s an employee training template to help you create one right away.
Provide training sessions in formats that can be accessed anytime and from any location. Also, keep them short so employees can consume them quickly without taking too much time off work.
Flexible learning methods like e-learning, webinars, mobile training, video and blended learning enable employees to complete training at their own pace and availability. Additionally, microlearning and interactive learning strategies can help keep your training materials short and impactful.
Another way to save time is by taking advantage of employee training methods that allow employees to learn on the job, such as:
Also, encourage managers to incorporate training into daily meetings or team huddles. For example, dedicate 15 minutes of each team meeting to discussing a relevant training topic or have a quick refresher on a specific skill.
The video below will teach you how to create training videos that employees will love.
This is a great way to reiterate that training is essential. When you make participation and completion a key component of employee performance evaluation, employees are more likely to prioritize it.
Resistance to change is another phenomenon that may hamper your ability to achieve tracking goals. This resistance can manifest in various ways, such as a lack of commitment to set goals, a lack of engagement during training sessions or pushback against new ideas or methods.
Implementing this systematic approach will help your team step outside of their comfort zone and adjust to change. Here’s an article that explains everything you need to know about the change management process.
Furthermore, a change management plan like the one below can serve as a roadmap for implementing and managing change in your company.
Ask employees for input on what kind of training they think would be helpful and involve them in the process of identifying areas for improvement. This helps build ownership and buy-in, increasing employees' likelihood of embracing new ideas and approaches.
Explain how new skills or knowledge will benefit both the individual and the organization. That way, employees can quickly see the value of adapting to new practices.
Give employees plenty of opportunities to practice new skills and apply new knowledge in their roles. This can include simulations, case studies or project-based learning. Creating a 30-60-90 day plan can help you define objectives or tasks that employees should accomplish during the first 30, 60 and 90 days of their new job.
Another challenge with achieving training goals is the lack of budget or resources to provide extensive training programs. This could limit the scope of training that can be offered or make it difficult to bring in qualified trainers.
Utilize free or low-cost online tools and platforms to execute training programs. These tools can reduce costs associated with travel, venue rental and instructor fees. This can include video conferencing software, learning management systems (LMS) and visual content creation platforms like Visme.
The beautiful thing about Visme is that you don’t need to break the bank. You don’t even have to be an expert to get the hang of it.
The software has an intuitive editor, a wide assortment of exciting features and a rich library of templates to get you started.
You’ll find various training materials in different formats, including videos, presentations, infographics, training manuals, job aids, checklists and more.
With Visme, you can download your training materials in JPG, PNG PDF, MP4, PPTX, GIFs and LMS-ready formats like HTML5, SCORM, xAPI,
Identify subject matter experts within the organization who can deliver training sessions or create training content. Not only does this save on trainer fees, but it also promotes knowledge sharing and cultivates a culture of continuous learning.
SMART training goals set your employees and organization up for success. In this article, we’ve explained the process of setting SMART training goals that align with your overall business objectives.
Now it’s time to get to work. Visme has a complete suite of tools to level up your company’s training programs.
Visme has thousands of goal-setting worksheets and templates for creating stunning interactive training materials, including videos, presentations, infographics, whiteboards, onboarding materials, courses, manuals and more.
The intuitive editor is easy to use and has cutting-edge features for creating captivating interactive training and development materials.
Contact our sales team now and take the first step towards more efficient, productive training and development efforts.
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