HR goals: three layers, and why most of them cannot be failed

Open most HR goal lists and you find aspirations: improve engagement, build a strong culture, become a great place to work. Nothing on them can be failed, which is why the same list appears the following year.

This article gives a structure for HR goals in three layers, borrows an existing set of checkable conditions rather than inventing one, and sets out how to write an objective that could actually be missed.

Objectives only work when progress is visible between reviews. See how New Dynamics goals and OKRs keep that in one place.

Three layers

1. The floor. Legal duties. Binary, not aspirational, and reported as done or not done.
2. The conditions. The state of the workplace: workload, autonomy, support, behaviour, role clarity, change. Observable, and largely already written down for you.
3. The few. Two or three things specific to your organisation this year, which is where judgement and argument belong.

Most HR plans collapse the three into one list of twelve items, which guarantees that the floor gets the same attention as the aspiration, and that nothing is prioritised.

The floor

GOV.UK's step-by-step guide to employing staff is effectively the floor written out: check the employment status of the people you take on, make the workplace "safe and accessible", keep "employee information and data safe", "register as an employer and set up PAYE", check "your responsibilities around workplace pensions", and get "Employers' Liability insurance".

None of these belong in a goals document as something to improve. They belong on a checklist with a yes or a no beside each. Our HR compliance post sets out the full sequence and the deadlines.

The useful HR goal at this layer is not "improve compliance". It is something like: every employee has a principal statement issued on or before day one, evidenced, by the end of the first quarter.

The conditions

This is where most HR goals should live, and the work of defining them has already been done. HSE's Management Standards describe six workplace conditions as observable states rather than sentiments.

• Demands. The organisation "provides employees with adequate and achievable demands in relation to the agreed hours of work", and "jobs are designed to be within the capabilities of employees".
• Control. "Employees have control over their pace of work" and "are consulted over their work patterns".
• Support. The organisation has "policies and procedures to adequately support employees", employees "know what support is available and how and when to access it", and they "receive regular and constructive feedback", the Support standard sets these out in full.
• Relationships. The organisation "promotes positive behaviours at work to avoid conflict and ensure fairness", with systems "to enable and encourage employees to report unacceptable behaviour".
• Role. The organisation "provides information to enable employees to understand their role and responsibilities", and ensures "the different requirements it places upon employees are compatible".
• Change. The organisation "provides employees with timely information to enable them to understand the reasons for proposed changes" and "ensures adequate employee consultation on changes".

Each of those can be answered for a named team with a yes, a no, or a specific gap. That is what makes them usable as goals, and it is why our employee experience post treats them as the conditions rather than the survey.

The few

Two or three, chosen because of something true about your organisation this year: a function that cannot recruit, a manager population that has never been trained, a restructure to get through without losing the people you need.

Choosing them is the part that requires judgement, and the part most often skipped by copying a generic list. A useful test: could a similar organisation down the road have written the same three? If yes, you have not chosen yet.

Writing one so it can be failed

The Green Book, HM Treasury's appraisal guidance, requires practitioners to "explain the case for change", "describe the business as usual (BAU)" and "define the SMART objectives". It then gives the sentence that disposes of decorative goals: "an option can only be value for money if it meets the proposal's objectives."

If no realistic outcome would fail to meet your objective, the objective is not doing any work. Four steps:

1. State the current position in observable terms, not as a complaint.
2. State the intended position, with a threshold somebody could measure.
3. Put a date on it, and a named owner rather than a team.
4. Say what you will stop to make room, because HR capacity is the binding constraint in almost every plan.

"Improve manager capability" fails all four. "Every manager has held documented one-to-ones with each of their reports at least quarterly, by the end of the year, owned by the HR business partner for each area" can be missed, which is what makes it useful.

What not to make a goal

• Activities. Running a survey, launching a programme, holding a workshop. These are how, not what.
• Anything you cannot influence. Engagement scores move for reasons outside HR's control, as our HR metrics post covers.
• Numbers with no definition. A turnover target without a stated formula invites the definition to move instead of the number.
• More than five things. A function with twelve priorities has none, and HR functions are usually small.

A worked set for a small organisation

Floor. Every employee has a written statement issued on day one, a right to work check on file, and a pension enrolment recorded. Reported quarterly as done or not done.

Conditions. Every team can say what support is available and how to access it. Every employee has had documented feedback in the last quarter. No employee is carrying two conflicting sets of requirements without that being on somebody's list to resolve.

The few. Fill the two technical roles that have been open since spring. Get every first-line manager through one conversation-practice session. Come out of the office move with no unplanned leavers.

Three layers, seven items, each of which could be missed.

Frequently asked questions

What are HR goals?

The objectives an HR function sets for itself. They work best in three layers: legal duties that are reported as done or not done, workplace conditions expressed as observable states, and two or three objectives specific to the organisation that year.

What are examples of HR goals?

At the floor: written statements issued on day one for every new employee. At the conditions layer: every employee has had documented feedback in the last quarter. At the specific layer: fill named vacancies, or complete a restructure without losing identified people.

How do you write an HR objective?

State the current position observably, state the intended position with a measurable threshold, attach a date and a named owner, and say what will stop to make room. If no realistic outcome would fail the objective, rewrite it.

Should HR goals include engagement scores?

As context rather than as targets. Engagement scores move for reasons outside an HR function's control, and making one a target tends to produce survey management rather than change in the underlying conditions.

How many goals should an HR function have?

Few. A small function with twelve priorities has none. Three layers with two or three items each is usually enough, and the floor items are checks rather than ambitions.

What is the difference between HR goals and HR metrics?

A goal is a stated intention with a threshold, date and owner. A metric is a measure you track. Metrics inform goals and report progress, but a dashboard is not a plan, and most HR metrics need their formula published to mean anything.

Where do the workplace conditions come from?

HSE's Management Standards describe six (demands, control, support, relationships, role and change) as observable states an employer should be achieving. They are public, free, and written in language specific enough to check team by team.

Your next step: sort last year's list

1. Take your current HR goals and sort each into floor, condition or specific.
2. Delete anything that is an activity rather than an outcome.
3. For each survivor, write the threshold, the date and the named owner.
4. Cut the specific layer to three, and write down what you are stopping.

For turning those into objectives people can act on, read and download our OKR guide. The guide is free to read, and the PDF uses our short download form.

Want objectives visible between reviews rather than surfacing at year end? Book a New Dynamics demo and bring last year's list. You can also email contact@new-dynamics.com.