SMART goals are a great way to improve business results in all areas of the organization including recruiting. Taking it one step further, setting SMART recruiting goals that align with your overarching organizational goals will not only improve the quality of your new hires, it will ensure that new employees are aligned with the company’s driving mission. Leverage these strategies to start using SMART goals to improve your hiring process – and your business.
What Are SMART Goals?
SMART is an acronym that stands for “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.” Each component works together to make a goal more likely to achieve. Using a SMART goal-setting process for recruiting, you can keep hiring teams on the same page and align recruiting with larger team and organizational goals. For example:
- Specific: Defines the precise attributes you need in a new hire.
- Measurable: KPIs to determine how effective recruiting efforts are.
- Achievable: Realistic goals that work with your available resources.
- Relevant: Ensures recruiting goals directly correspond to short– and long-term company goals.
- Time-bound: Deadlines that allow you to track milestones and completion.
SMART Goals in Practice
What, exactly, does this look like in practice? Let’s say your company needs to hire a new graphic designer for your marketing team. Your SMART goal might look something like this: “Our specific goal is to hire a new graphic designer with at least three years of experience, a college degree and familiarity with social media and online marketing. This new hire will support our organizational goal of increasing social media engagement and growing online sales by 10% over the next year.”
Broken down into SMART segments, the goal might look like this:
- Specific: Hire an experienced graphic designer with a degree and experience in digital marketing.
- Measurable: By focusing on these specific social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter), we want to increase engagement and grow online sales by 10% over the next year.
- Achievable: The budget for salary and benefits for this role is $55,000.
- Relevant: The organization wants to grow our online presence and build online sales. This new employee will support that goal.
- Time-bound: To have a new hire in place in 45 days, onboarded in 90 days and results measured within one year.
As you can see, breaking a hiring goal down keeps focus on the ways the new employee will help the company achieve its goals and reduces the likelihood of making a poor hiring choice.
For more tips on setting SMART recruiting goals or achieving your organizational goals through staffing, contact the expert recruiters at Employment Professionals Canada today.