Imagine you’re working remotely and your tasks keep coming but there is no discussion regarding their priorities, long-term goals, or, most importantly, the expectations you should meet.

You’re left in a state of confusion, unmotivated, and irrevocably heading towards quiet quitting.

This is a reality for many remote employees, so it’s no wonder they are leaving their positions in search of better opportunities. It begs the question: How many of your former employees have left for the same reason?

ComPsych recently conducted a survey that tells us that 31% of employees highlighted “unclear expectations from supervisors” as the most prominent work-related stressor.

The consequent disengagement as well as a drop in motivation and productivity is inevitable, especially in a remote work environment. According to Gallup, employee disengagement causes a loss of productivity costing around $1.9 trillion annually.

Do you know how much revenue you are losing due to poor goal-setting practices?

This article explains the main way to set clear goals for your remote employees, and how employee monitoring can help you do this.

Why Goal Setting for Remote Employees Is Important

If you don’t communicate clearly with your remote employees, misunderstandings and delays can easily creep up on your team. Clarity is especially important when assigning and organizing work, or else your team may suffer from:

• Burnout: A survey by Monster revealed that 69% of remote employees experienced burnout during the pandemic. This burnout is often linked to poor task organization and unclear priorities.
  
• Lower Quality of Work:  Burnout further leads to a reduction in the quality of work. According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, physicians who suffer from burnout are 2.2 times more likely to make a mistake in providing medical treatment. Other professions are no different.

• Decreased Employee Motivation: According to a survey by Buffer from 2023, 15% of remote workers reported difficulties in communication and collaboration. 11% of respondents stated that their biggest struggle when working remotely is staying motivated. These tend to be interconnected, as a lack of input from their managers and teams can lead to stress and uncertainty.
  
• Reduced Work-Life Balance: 67% of remote workers with poor work-life balance say that some element of work or company culture creates this imbalance. Work organization is an integral part of the company culture, and if it’s off, it can easily lead to late hours, work spilling over into private time, and poor overall employee well-being.

• Missed Deadlines: It is easy to connect the dots and figure out how all these consequences of poor organization and prioritization can lead to reduced employee efficiency and missed deadlines, further affecting project timelines and company goals.

Setting clear goals is vital for the functioning of a remote team since it gives every team member a sense of direction. This enables them to be more independent and productive while working from home. Here are some other major benefits:

Easier Prioritization & Organization of Work

Clear goals help employees prioritize tasks effectively. When you explain what they need to achieve, employees get to properly focus their efforts on the top priorities. With insight into personal, team, and company goals, they are also better prepared to independently make decisions that are aligned with the company’s overall objectives.

Boosted Employee Motivation & Accountability

Challenging but achievable goals engage employees and drive them to maximize their daily efforts. Their sense of accountability also gets a boost when they see how their tasks directly influence major company objectives. This increases their motivation and productivity, ultimately improving overall organizational performance and success.

Upgraded Employee Focus

When you define the goals precisely, your employees can organize their schedules better. This means less multitasking, missed priorities, and procrastination. In other words, they get to leave enough room for deep work on priority tasks. Undisturbed work time means significantly better focus and quickly leads to an uptick in productivity.

What Are S.M.A.R.T. Goals?

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for a goal-setting and objective development framework. The short title stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

This framework is widely accepted due to its straightforward nature and ease of implementation. It is also highly adaptable, making it perfect for improving productivity in different industries and remote teams.

S.M.A.R.T. goals are a goal-setting framework that focuses on creating precise and achievable goals, and clear timelines.

When sticking to this framework, remote teams usually manage to eliminate miscommunication and guesswork. On top of this, S.M.A.R.T. goals make project progress and each person’s contribution transparent for everyone.

Here is an explanation of each of the five criteria that go into the S.M.A.R.T. framework:

Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Smoother Success

Be Specific

When setting goals for your team, strive to be specific and answer all six Wh-questions:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

For example, your goal can be: “I will increase my team’s productivity by reducing the time spent in meetings by 20% over the next three months.” It clearly defines the What, the How, and the When.

Make Them Measurable

To ensure your team is progressing well towards its goals, strive to set goals that are easy to measure and track.

A goal easy to measure would be: “I will increase our sales team’s monthly revenue by 15% over the next quarter by implementing a new customer outreach strategy and providing additional sales training.” This goal clearly defines the expected growth in percentages and the time it will take to complete.

Make Them Achievable

Make sure you double-check if the goals you are setting for your team are realistic. This is where an employee monitoring software can help you. You just need to check the completion time and workload of previous similar projects for a dependable estimation.

If your team’s goals are decided by higher management, make it clear if you think the deadline is too tight or if there are roadblocks that you know will hinder your team’s delivery process.

Keep Them Relevant

Leaders and managers can sometimes get sidetracked when setting goals. To avoid this, always keep in mind the main company objectives. Ask yourself the “why” question—why do you think this specific goal is important for the company?

Make Them Time-Bound

To help the team stay on track, you always need to have a specific deadline for each goal. On one side you will have your client’s requirements, and on the other your team’s capabilities. To set a feasible deadline, find a balance between these two factors.

How to Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Remote Teams?

Here is how you can further facilitate the proper implementation of S.M.A.R.T. goals within your remote workplace:

Implement Employee Tracking Software

S.M.A.R.T. goals heavily rely on hard data. This is why you need reliable software to collect the data that will enable you to track progress on your current goals. Without the right tool, you risk spending too much time and disrupting the workflow to set new goals only to end up again with patchy and equally faulty results.

Powerful employee tracking software is perfect for the job. By tracking time spent on tasks, used resources, and active and idle times, this software can give you all the information you need to properly track your S.M.A.R.T. goals completion.

In addition, the collected data will help you with each new project by offering insight into task completion times, team capacity, etc. 

Focus on Effective Communication

Besides setting up all digital communication channels, remote teammates need to be intentional about sharing all important details. You as a leader need to set an example. Try to consult your teammates before setting the goals. When they are included in the decision-making process, they are more likely to stick to the goals and give their best to fulfill them.

Create Smaller Tasks Within Each Goal

To make each employee’s progress trackable, goals need to be divided into smaller tasks. Also, keep an eye out for any obstacles that your employees are facing and provide corresponding support. Remember, the challenges are also a part of the development process. Encountering, identifying, and resolving them helps your team learn and you polish your goal-setting skills.

Choose the right tools, communicate transparently, and follow a few additional tips we shared here to smoothly implement S.M.A.R.T. goals and make your remote team’s productivity soar.