Business objectives are critical for reaching goals in large and small businesses alike. They serve as the road map for getting to your ultimate goal or destination. Without clear, concise objectives, you are unlikely to succeed.

Business objectives are a key part of the planning process for any organisation. They describe what a team wants to accomplish in a certain time frame. Business goals and objectives are usually mapped out in a business plan with input from the entire team. Today, we will learn more about some of the most important business objective categories and how you can use them to support a productive, profitable company.

5 Examples of Business Objective Categories

The types of objectives in any organisation are broad and depend on your industry and the mission statement of the company. What are the key ways you envision your company being successful? Think about what is most important to your organisation, your mission and your vision to determine what types of long and short-term business objectives you need. Here are five areas you may be focusing on.

1. Employee Retention

Every smart business leader knows how critical employee retention is. Turnover is extremely expensive, and recruiting and training the best new team members takes a lot of time and money. It's a great idea to plan for ways to retain your best talent, such as having a strong recruiting team.

Dedicated, loyal employees do their best work and help you build a good reputation as you grow. In a world where everyone lives by online reviews, having great reviews from current employees works wonders for recruiting new talent. Poor reviews are often difficult to overcome and can prevent potential candidates from choosing to work at your company.

Here are some great ways to boost employee retention:

• Foster a company culture of openness, transparency and robust communication
• Reward high-performing team members with bonuses, raises, promotions and extra perks
• Invest in the professional development of your employees with continuing education, conferences and webinars
• Include ways for employees to develop rapport with one another outside of the office with yearly summits and recreational activities
• Give team members diversified tasks and cross-departmental projects to keep them from feeling stagnant

A good example of an employee retention business objective would be to 'decrease turnover from 20 percent to 10 percent' or 'experience 10 percent or less turnover in the next 12 months.'

2. Organisational Growth

Any growing business needs to do more than retain employees. They have to continually find the best new talent in order to create the strongest workforce possible. In our competitive landscape, there are plenty of jobs available for talented employees. They won't always come to you.

Wise companies invest in a good recruiting team to draw in the best new employees that will drive the business and new products forward. A good example of an organisational growth business objective could be to 'hire five new employees per quarter' or 'increase our workforce by 25% in the next 12 months.'

3. Existing and New Product Development

Of course, hiring new employees is dependent on increasing revenue – and increasing revenue is dependent on the cash flow of the organisation. To increase revenue, companies must increase sales of their existing products and services and develop new features and product lines for their customers.

Some good examples of sales growth and product development could include:

• We will experience a 20 percent increase in sales every quarter
• We will audit and release new features for three products every month
• We will launch two new product lines for our target audience in the next 12 months
• We will increase cross-selling to existing customers by 25 percent in the next 12 months

4. Customer Satisfaction and Service

Good customer service and customer engagement is the lifeblood of creating a successful company. If you have the best products and services in the world, but your customers don't know how to use them and they don't feel supported, the products and services are useless.

Smart organisations invest in customer satisfaction and engagement teams to make sure their customers feel supported, know how to use the products and find a sufficient amount of value in them. Happy customers also leave positive reviews online and speak positively about your products to their colleagues and friends. Referrals can be a great source of revenue for companies with a great reputation based on customer feedback.

Good examples of customer satisfaction business objectives include:

• We will improve our customer satisfaction rating by 15 percent per quarter
• We will develop three new product training webinars for new customers in the next 12 months
• We will receive 50 new positive online reviews in the next six months

5. Marketing and Online Presence

Smart business owners know how important it is to have a talented marketing team that gives the organisation a strong online presence. Marketing teams create the face and brand of the company through websites, blogs, email campaigns, social media and more. Your marketing efforts help bring in the best qualified leads, which increases your revenue and cash flow on a regular basis.

Good examples of marketing business objectives include:

• We will increase web traffic by 20 percent each quarter through SEO (search engine optimisation)
• We will partner with three influencers or thought leaders to promote our brand
• We will launch one new email campaign per quarter to bring in new qualified leads

Create Meaningful Business Objectives Today

Putting a business plan in place with goals and objectives is key to the health and success of your business. Decide which categories are most critical to your organisation and map out an intentional, thorough plan that matches the vision and mission of your company.

The planning process may seem tedious, but it will pay off when you invest in creating a plan that every team member is committed to. Use these examples to get started on creating the most efficient, relevant business objectives for your organisation today.