How To Automate Goal Check-ins In Microsoft Teams?

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Goal check-ins help align your team with company objectives, encourage accountability, and provide consistent clarity across your workforce. However, running them manually can eat into time that's better spent elsewhere.

Microsoft Teams doesn't offer a native solution for this. To build a consistent check-in cadence, you need a third-party performance management app from the Teams App Store.

Below is a step-by-step guide to doing exactly that with Teamflect. Prefer to see it in action first? Jump to the video walkthrough.

Why Employee Check-ins Are Essential for Goal Tracking

Setting goals is straightforward. Keeping employees consistently aligned to those goals, week after week, is where most organizations struggle. Without a structured employee check-in cadence built into how teams actually work, goals become static documents rather than living commitments.

The data is clear on this gap. Gallup research found that fewer than half of employees strongly agree they know what is expected of them at work down from 61% in 2015. Separately, employees who can link their individual goals to organizational objectives are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged. The common thread in both findings: the absence of regular, structured check-in conversations between managers and employees.

McKinsey's research on goal-setting reinforces this: ongoing check-ins help drive performance, development, and connection but only when they are embedded into the flow of work rather than scheduled as stand-alone events. Of companies that manage performance effectively, 62% revisit goals regularly throughout the year. The rest set goals in January and revisit them in December.

For organizations running on Microsoft Teams, this creates a concrete opportunity. Rather than relying on managers to manually chase progress updates, employee check-ins for goal tracking can be automated directly inside Teams removing friction, improving frequency, and keeping accountability visible to both sides of the conversation.

Step 1: Using an OKR Application for Microsoft Teams

Teamflect is available in Microsoft Teams App store

To begin, navigate to the "Add Apps" section in Microsoft Teams and download Teamflect, the premier all-in-one performance management solution tailored for Teams.

Teamflect offers full functionality free for up to 10 users across its available pricing plans.

On your homepage, you'll find a comprehensive collection of all your existing data within the app. Teamflect facilitates the seamless integration of your organizational chart and related company information by automatically pulling data from Entra ID.

Inside Teamflect, you're able to reach your goals module front and center of the menu bar on the left-hand side. Additionally, you'll be able to reach your goals inside our other modules, especially inside meetings when you're presenting goals.

Step 2: Setting Goals & Automating Goal Check-ins

Once you've opened up Teamflect, simply go to the goals module where you will be met with a dashboard that allows you to view all of your existing goals, as well as switch to your teams' goals with various filtering options according to department or goal type.

On the top right-hand side corner, you'll also see a new goal button where you can start setting up your goals.

There are 4 types of goals you can set in Teamflect

After you click on "new goal", you'll be met with a pop-up that allows you to detail what type of goal you're setting, for whom, regarding what details, and how you wish to measure the progress of this objective.

Additionally, you also have the ability to tie your new goal to a parent goal in case it is related to other objectives. You may also adjust a time frame for this goal in whichever way that applies to your circumstances.

As a manager, you can also automate how often goal check-in reminders are sent to your team. This way, you can digitize how often you wish for the goals to be reminded to your workforce and allow yourself to focus on other priorities because Teamflect will look after your goal progression.

"Teamflect is really well integrated into our existing processes. We can bring goals directly into meetings, link them to agenda items, and have strategy conversations seamlessly inside Teams."
— Rachel Irvine-Marshall – Executive General Manager - Read the full story

Step 3: Goal Owners Receive Check-in Cards

After you've set your goal check-ins, the goal owner will periodically receive the check-in right inside their Teams chat without ever having to jump in the app thanks to Teamflect's seamless integration and can keep track of their overall progress, as well as make the necessary adjustment inside this interactive chat.