Create a Goal
How do I create a new goal?
Purpose: To teach you how employees can add goals in BambooHR® Performance Management.
If you are using the BambooHR mobile app, you can add goals through the app. Click here to learn more!
On the Performance tab, click +New Goal under the Goals subtab.
- Goal Objective: Use this required field to name your goal or come up with a goal objective.
- Due Date: This is a required field. Set a due date for your goal.
- Short Description: Use this space to describe your goal.
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Use Milestones: Toggling on this option will allow you to add milestones for tracking key steps or results toward reaching the goal.
- You can add up to 10 milestones.
- Each milestone can have up to 100 characters. If you need to add more text, you can use the Short Description box.
- Attach File(s): You can upload supporting documents and files to your goal by selecting Choose Files.
- Align with Another Goal: See Align Goals below.
- Share your goal: See Share A Goal below.
The default view of the Goals subtab shows all goals that are in progress. To change the view to completed or closed goals, click on the Status dropdown menu and change your selection.
The Goals subtab organizes all goal cards based on the due date. Each goal card shows the goal name, with whom the goal was shared, the due date, and the progress tracker.
To view more goal details, hover over a goal card and click on the double arrow icon in the top right corner. Upon click, you will be able to view the goal description, progress tracker, due date, milestones (if applicable), comments, and any attachments.
To edit the goal or add/remove attachments, click on the three-dot icon and click Edit from the dropdown menu. If you need to delete a goal, click on the same icon and click Delete. The option of closing a goal is also available in the dropdown menu.
Downloading attachments
To download an attachment, click on the file name to view it. If it is a PDF or .xlsx file, you can simply click the download icon that pops up on the preview screen in the top left corner. To download .jpeg or .png files, right-click and select Save to download the file.
Often, goals are a shared effort. Therefore, sharing your goals in collaboration with coworkers allows you to unify efforts and complete your goals faster and better.
Click Edit from the dropdown menu on a goal card and then click on the people icon ("Share Goal") to share a goal with other employees who also have access to Goals. You can only share a goal with a specific employee,* not a group of employees. Once you share a goal with the employee, they will receive an email notification (see below). Your goal becomes one of their goals and will show up on their Goals tab under Performance. Also, it will show up in their Goals/Training/Benefits widget on Home.
*If you have access to the company directory, you can share a goal with any employee who has access to Goals. If you do not have access to the company directory but have access to other employees through an access level, you can share a goal with any employee you have access to. The employee needs to have access to Goals as well. If you do not have access via the company directory and an access level, you will not have the option to share a goal with the employee.
Once you share a goal with another employee, they will receive all email notifications regarding the goal.
Shared goal
Next to the title of a shared goal, you can see with who the goal is shared. Hover over the image to view the employee's name.
Please note the shared goal will show for each employee with shared access on the Goals Status report.
Notice that the goal is now shared with Ashley and shows up on their Goals tab. When sharing goal, the employee will have the same access to the goal as the employee who created the goal. This access includes the following capabilities:
- View the goal on their Goals tab.
- Edit the goal (name, description, progress tracker, due date, attachments).
- Share the goal or remove others from the goal.
- Delete the goal.
- Close the goal.
There is no concept of a "goal owner," which means anyone with access to a shared goal has equal rights to the goal.
Goal alignment encourages managers and employees to align their goals with organizational objectives. If your team has a unified purpose, you can accomplish better results faster.
When a manager is creating or editing a goal for one of their employees, they will see the option of "Goal Alignment." Clicking Goal Alignment will show all of the manager's goals, and they can pick which of their goals aligns with an employee's goal. Each goal can only align with one other goal.
Only the direct manager or a custom access level user with Edit access to the employee's goals can align a goal. The employee cannot view the Goal Alignment option on their Goals tab until the user with Goal Alignment access aligns the goal. The aligned goal will appear below the name of the employee's goal.
Additionally, the aligned goal will be attached to the employee's goal in the Goals Status report.
Only those with Edit access to Goals can see this alignment option, but the alignment itself (i.e., showing which goal aligns with a particular goal) will show up for anyone with viewing rights to the goal. Also, you can only align an employee's goal with your goal.