The Goals feature in the Performance module helps organizations turn company priorities into clear objectives for teams and individual employees.
You can use Goals to:
define organization-wide objectives,
set goals for teams or groups,
assign individual goals,
create private development goals,
connect related goals into a shared hierarchy,
track progress and identify goals that may be at risk.
For example, imagine a company that manufactures and sells screws.
Its main company objective may be to increase annual sales by 15%. The Sales team can support this objective by increasing sales to existing customers, while individual sales representatives can have their own goals related to the number of orders they generate.
This way, employees can clearly see how their work contributes to a broader company objective.
Goal types
When creating a goal, select one of four goal types.
🏢 Company
Company goals represent objectives for the whole organization.
They are:
visible to everyone,
intended for organization-wide priorities,
created only by administrators.
For example: Increase annual sales by 15%.
This goal describes what the whole company wants to achieve.
👥 Group
Group goals represent objectives shared by a team or another group of employees.
They are visible to everyone.
For example, the Sales team may have the following goal:
Increase sales to existing customers by 10%.
This goal supports the broader company objective of increasing total annual sales.
Another group could support the same company goal in a different way. For example, the Production team could have a goal to:
Reduce production delays by 20%.
👤 Individual
Individual goals belong to a specific employee. They are also visible to everyone.
For example, a salesperson may have the following goal:
Generate 50 repeat orders from existing customers this quarter.
This individual goal can support the Sales team's goal of increasing sales to existing customers.
An employee working in production could instead have a goal such as:
Reduce the average machine setup time from 40 to 30 minutes.
Individual goals make it easier to translate team objectives into specific responsibilities.
🌱 Development
Development goals are intended for an employee's personal or professional growth.
Unlike the other goal types, they are private and visible only to:
the goal owner,
their manager.
For example:
Complete an advanced negotiation course by the end of Q2.
or:
Learn how to operate the new production machine independently.
Development goals focus on building skills rather than directly contributing to the public company goal hierarchy.
Where can I find Goals?
Go to: Performance → Goals
Two views are available in the menu:
My – goals assigned to you.
All – goals you can access based on your permissions and position in the organizational structure.
Goal visibility depends on the user’s role. Employees can access their own goals, managers can review the goals of their direct reports, and administrators can access all goals.
How to create a goal
To create a new goal:
Go to Performance → Goals.
Click + Add goal.
Select the goal type:
Company,
Group,
Individual,
Development.
Enter the goal details.
If the goal supports another objective, select its Parent goal.
Click Activate goal to start tracking it immediately or Save as draft to finish it later.
Depending on the selected goal type, you can provide:
Goal – the name of the objective,
Description – additional context or expected outcome,
Owner – the person responsible for the goal,
Deadline – the planned completion date,
Parent goal – a higher-level goal supported by this goal.
Draft and active goals
A goal saved as a Draft is not yet an active employee goal.
You can prepare its content in advance and activate it after the details have been agreed upon. Once activated, its status changes from Draft to Active.
The creation of the draft and its subsequent activation are both recorded in the goal’s history.
How Parent goals work
Company, Group, and Individual goals can be connected to each other.
When one goal supports another goal, the higher-level objective becomes its Parent goal.
You can create goals one by one and connect them while filling in the goal form.
For example, imagine a company that wants to increase annual sales.
First, an administrator creates a Company goal:
Increase annual sales by 15%
Next, a Group goal is created for the Sales team:
Increase sales to existing customers by 10%
While creating this goal, Increase annual sales by 15% can be selected as the Parent goal.
Finally, an Individual goal can be created for a salesperson:
Generate 50 repeat orders from existing customers this quarter
Its Parent goal can be set to:
Increase sales to existing customers by 10%
As a result, the goals form a clear hierarchy:
Increase annual sales by 15%
└── Increase sales to existing customers by 10%
└── Generate 50 repeat orders from existing customers this quarter
This helps employees understand not only what they are responsible for, but also how their work contributes to broader company objectives.
A goal hierarchy can contain up to 5 levels.
Which goals can be connected?
You can connect:
Company goals,
Group goals,
Individual goals.
These goal types can be used as Parent goals or supporting goals.
Development goals remain separate because they are private and visible only to the employee and their manager.
Using the Cascade view
The Cascade view lets you see connected goals as a hierarchy instead of a flat list.
For example, instead of seeing these goals separately:
Increase annual sales by 15%
Increase sales to existing customers by 10%
Generate 50 repeat orders from existing customers this quarter
You can immediately see how they are connected:
Increase annual sales by 15%
└── Increase sales to existing customers by 10%
└── Generate 50 repeat orders from existing customers this quarter
The Cascade view makes it easier to understand:
which goals support a company objective,
how team goals contribute to broader priorities,
which individual goals support a team goal,
how different levels of goals are connected.
You can switch between Table and Cascade at any time.
How to update goal progress
Progress can be updated throughout the goal’s lifecycle.
Open the selected goal and click Check-in. The Update goal panel allows you to:
change progress from 0% to 100%,
add a comment explaining the update,
change the goal’s risk status,
close the goal once work on it has ended.
Regular check-ins give both the employee and their manager an up-to-date view of the goal and make it easier to identify delays or blockers early.
Marking a goal as At risk
An active goal can have one of the following risk statuses:
No risks
At risk
Use At risk when an issue may affect the goal’s deadline or make it difficult to achieve.
For example:
an external blocker has appeared,
the project is delayed,
the employee needs additional resources,
the conditions or priorities related to the goal have changed.
Marking a goal as At risk helps the manager notice the issue and respond before the deadline. Changes between No risks and At risk are also recorded in the goal’s history.
How to close a goal
Once work on a goal has ended:
Open the goal.
Click Check-in.
Change its status from Active to Closed.
Select the appropriate result:
Achieved
Partially achieved
Not achieved
Canceled
Save the update.
These results provide more context than progress alone and explain how the goal ended.
When should I use Canceled?
Use Canceled when the goal is no longer relevant for reasons outside the employee’s control.
For example, the related project may have been stopped or the company’s priorities may have changed. Canceling the goal distinguishes this situation from a goal the employee was expected to complete but did not achieve.
Goal update history
Every goal has a history of its updates.
In Goal preview, switch to the history view to check:
when the goal was created,
who created or updated it,
when a draft was activated,
how its progress changed,
when it was marked as At risk,
when it was closed and which result was selected,
comments added during individual check-ins.
Calamari preserves these changes so that later reviews can consider not only the final result, but also how the goal progressed over time.
Searching and filtering goals
When you have many goals, use search and filters to narrow down the list.
You can filter goals using criteria such as:
goal type,
owner,
team,
deadline,
status,
author,
risk,
result.
For example, you can display only:
Company goals,
goals owned by a specific employee,
goals assigned to a particular team,
goals marked as At risk,
active goals,
drafts,
closed goals.
This makes it easier to focus on goals relevant to a specific employee, team, or review period.