The OKR structure consists of “Objective” and “Key Results” written beneath it. You can coordinate the objectives and other departments of the organization thanks to OKRs. It is an approach that also emphasizes priorities and makes measurability smoother.
A key performance indicator, or KPI, is a metric that assesses how well an organization,team, person, or project is performing.
It is one of the key methods for determining whether your aims or goals have been attained.
While OKRs are used to create new things, enhance existing ones, or rebuild things, KPIs are utilized for what we refer to as “Business as Usual.”
The KPI helps monitor performance and identify problems and areas for improvement. OKR helps solve problems, improve processes and drive innovation quickly and in an agile manner.
KPI examples
Here are some common examples of KPIs for various industries:
Retail Sector: Revenue per square ft, store sales, sales per employee
HR Department: Turnover rate, employee net promoter score, average hiring time
Sales Department: Customer lifetime value, sales revenue, number of customer visits
Technology Sector: Monthly recurring revenue, customer retention and churn, call resolution time
Health Sector: Patient waiting time, average treatment fee, number of training programs
OKR examples
Here are some examples of OKRs:
Objective: Creating value for all stakeholders by achieving sustainable growth
Objective: To be the most preferred company by employees in our sector
As a result, KPIs and OKRs take entirely different tacks. They are not mutually exclusive. They help a company achieve the best results when used together. If you want to move forward with solid data and confidently walk towards your aligned goals, combine these two methods and make it easier to achieve success.
If you’re looking for examples of OKR for HR department, we can give you some!
From the smallest to the largest companies, human resources has established itself as a crucial department. As organizations in expanding businesses start to go through the growth phase, the necessity for HR departments has started to develop.
The most significant factor that boosts motivation is effective communication between management and employees. The HR department is vital in guaranteeing active and transparent corporate communication, resolving issues, and releasing relevant announcements. Did you know that OKR can be backer for HR department?
Thanks to OKR methodology, HR department can manage these important responsibilities easily. Defining specific, challenging and company-oriented OKRs will ensure your organization to achieve the big picture. But first, you may need some examples of OKR.
Examples of OKR can ease the burden the process of defining OKRs. Through this way, you can understand how proper OKR should be!
Below you can find some examples of OKR:
1st example of OKR
Objective: To establish a sustainable human resources quality standard
KR1: Ensuring 100% completion of leadership trainings for the development of executive assistant managers by the end of the first quarter
KR2: To clarify the actions on corporate perception, training, performance management and rewarding with the senior management by examining the internal customer satisfaction survey in detail until the end of September
KR3: Increasing employee engagement survey results from 78% to 92%
2nd example of OKR
Objective: Increasing employee retention
KR1: Increasing employee satisfaction from 75% to 90%
KR2: Identifying the first 3 problems that cause employee dissatisfaction and sharing them with the senior management with action suggestions until the end of March
KR3: Increasing the percentage of exit interviews from 30% to 50% to get correct feedback
3rd example of OKR
Objective: Ensuring employee satisfaction by increasing the efficiency of the HR department
KR1: Automating normal leave and administrative leave request management and reducing manual processes by 15% until the end of January
KR2: Ensure that all employees complete 90% of their training by the end of the first quarter
KR3: To ensure that all new employees complete the orientation program with 90% success
4th example of OKR
Objective: Starting to use the artificial intelligence supported pre-evaluation platform to increase the efficiency of the recruitment processes for both the candidates and the company.
KR1: To complete the contract processes related to the artificial intelligence platform by 1 January
KR2: Finalizing the criteria required for pre-selection in the system used in the recruitment process by 1 February
KR3: Deciding with the senior management which position the platform will be used for recruitment
Using an effective OKR software in an organization is a great way to ensure company-wide compliance, transparency, and sustainable efficiency. An OKR software allows employees to focus on what matters, and easily see how goals align with their organizational priorities.
With an OKR software platform, everyone sees the essential goals in the organization and can think about how they can contribute to their own goals. It provides healthier dissemination of objectives. Managers and employees can suggest goals to each other using software features.
An OKR software allows goals to be updated according to changing conditions. If you see a risk, it lets you see it on the way, not after the period is completed. Thanks to the OKR software platform, you can establish instant, continuous, and healthy communication. When you use an OKR software that can be shaped according to your organization’s culture, your performance system will help you achieve success by setting accurate and effective goals and increasing communication. Through recording the entire journey, the software platform allows the performance of the employees to be evaluated more equitably.
An OKR software platform is a tool to facilitate your management at the point of making your organization successful and revealing the performance of your employees.
How can you choose the best OKR platform for you?
When looking for an OKR software platform, it’s necessary to find a tool that can be used throughout your organization. A flexible product that can be shaped according to you and an expert team that will enable you to establish the most suitable performance management system are the essential elements for this transformation to be successful.
With the changing world dynamics and traditional goal and performance management platforms, employees become less ambitious and lose their focus. Because priorities change instantly, it can be hard to focus on what matters most to the organization. Since classical performance systems do not provide the opportunity to review goals frequently, reflect on changing points in the system, and communicate about goals, these platforms turn into workloads rather than making an impact.
To eliminate these obstacles and ensure that everyone focuses on priorities in the rapidly changing world dynamics and to seize the opportunities of the future you need a OKR software platform.
What are the benefits of OKR software platform?
“To win in the global marketplace, organizations need to be nimbler than ever before,” says John Doerr in his book, “Measure What Matters.” Have you ever given any thought to how your organization may become more agile? Yes, using OKR technique is essential. That is why we want to concentrate on “how to write OKRs.” Because your well-written OKRs will be your friend as you pursue success.
The definition of “value” is continually changing in today’s world of ever-increasing change and uncertainty, making it essential to set targets flexibly. The “OKR” method allows for the determination of organizationally more focused, better aligned, and continuously updated goals, making it possible to adapt to change much more efficiently.
We are all aware that OKRs are important. What about “how to write OKRs?”
If you made the bold decision to manage your company on OKRs, you should think about how to write OKRs. The OKR formula is explained as follows:
Defined as “Objectives and Key Results,” OKRs are designed to help you answer two different questions:
There is a standard formula for goal setting through OKRs:
I will achieve (objective) measured by (key result)
Now, you know how to write OKRs. Identifying your objectives is the next stage. Become alert! You can also be identified by your goals.
You can make use of this formula when writing OKRs:
Verb + clauses of purpose + what you want to achieve
Setting more specific objectives can help you achieve your OKRs and ensure that you have the time and resources necessary.
Make sure your objective meets the following criteria while formulating it:
It’s possible that the OKRs you created always be successful. This is expected and should occur occasionally. When that occurs, they must be changed or removed.
Yes, it can be a little daunting to start anew. But this is just one step in a longer process. This contributes to OKR’s flexibility. The nature of OKR lends itself to agility.
Objective examples
“Having a fit body next summer.”
“Becoming a profitable business to create value for the shareholders.”
“Making our customers admire our support team.”
“Making a solid entry to the European market.”
“Creating a strong employer brand and being the preferred company.”
You can now begin by outlining three to five sample goals you want to concentrate on throughout the near term. Remember that your objectives should be specific, impact-oriented, and challenging!
Define Key Results
Remember, Key Results must be measurable, and time-bound.
It should be clear whether Key Results are occurring.
You should add Key Results based on the limits set per goal to ensure you get focus and prioritization.
This formula can help while defining your Key Results;
Verb + what you are going to measure + from X to Y
There are two types of the key results;
Metric: (most common) Tracks quantitative results designed to measure success on a goal.
Milestone: It’s used for improvement. In cases where it does not contain numerical expressions, it should be clear, even for someone who is not in that position. Whether it was realized or not should be open to debate.
Now, you know how to write OKRs! Identify your priorities, put them in order and start writing!
Agile is a mindset that has emerged in response to an increasingly complex world where the traditional Waterfall model and other management techniques can no longer cope.
Agile methodology is the ability to change the way for new opportunities and adapt to new conditions.
There is agility in OKR’s DNA. OKR, which is an agile approach, focuses on priorities so that you can create values in a short period.
In today’s digital world, there are tools and techniques to increase business value. Agile methodology is one of the most recognized and accepted opportunities. It helps the team progress step by step.
Agile overcomes the challenges that the traditional waterfall approach faces. Therefore, it reduces the failure percentage.
According to the statistics about Agile methodology, many Fortune 500 companies embraced the Agile approach. Besides world-leading tech companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Cisco, from finance to manufacturing, Agile can be involved in many industries. The agile approach brings together cooperation, quick action, and feedback culture.
It is the solution for organizations to meet their needs in the digital world.
By involving the customers in the development process, Agile focuses on ensuring the business value.
Involving customers in all phases of product development will help stay in tune with customer requirements. By doing this, you spend less time on customer revisions.
Agile methodology provides stakeholders/customers with every step of the development process and tracking work progress.
Agile methodology, unlike the waterfall model, allows for change.
Agile methodology keeps customers in the cycle and makes changes based on feedback.
Before the pandemic, 93% of business units that fully adopted Agile models outperformed non-adopted businesses. – McKinsey & Company, 2020
The numbers show 60% to 90% failure rates in strategy execution. The gap between an organizational vision and its success requires a complementary approach to align teams and individuals towards the same goal.
Agile processes for project management represent team-level tools and working methods embraced. On the other hand, OKRs represent the value results we aim to achieve and set our direction. The coexistence of the two philosophies allows for aligning the business with the company’s mission, increasing employee engagement and a greater focus on goals.
In our article “Benefits of using OKR methodology” we have explained the advantages of OKRs for companies. The basis of OKR methodology can be easily understood, but it can be more meaningful and effective when you have a deeper and broader understanding of the underlying philosophy. Therefore, for companies that will get familiar with OKR system for the first time, the transition to the next generation performance management with OKR means a serious cultural transformation.
Having someone who will guide you to the ideal performance management solutions for your organization in OKR applications and approaches that your company will experience for the first time, and who will make it easier for you to get used to this method by training your employees at all levels, will enable you to progress faster on your journey to success. We call such people OKR coaches, and the scope of all the services they provide is OKR coaching.
So, you realize that you need an OKR coach, but don’t know how to find such a professional. Here are the key qualities that OKR coaches should have:
When integrating OKR methodology, each company needs to take different steps. Therefore, only an OKR coach who analyzes the needs of an organization and employees can build the right integration. For this, OKR coaches must have detailed information about current company culture. They can ask questions to identify the obstacles that your organization faces on the way to success, evaluate the existing data on employee commitment and employee motivation, and try to understand the level of interaction between a manager and employees or just among employees. At this stage, an OKR coach has many ways to interact and many questions to ask. We can say that the person who finds the answers to the question of what things should change together with members of a company and puts them into practice is an OKR coach.
An OKR coach plays a critical role in ensuring that all employees write OKRs that best fit their abilities and job descriptions, and that will contribute to each other and to the main goals of the company. However, before proceeding with OKR writing, a coach must first make sure that the Objectives and Key Results methodology is properly understood. The better a coach explains how both employees and managers will achieve effective results using this methodology, the better team members will understand what they are supposed do and why. They will perceive themselves as a part of the big picture by seeing that the OKR system is a set of applications increasing the value of employees. Therefore, the first step towards increasing transparency, setting and aligning the right objectives and ultimately increasing efficiency is OKR trainings tailored to the needs of companies. At this stage, coaches can benefit from exemplary OKRs and success stories by following various industries. They can talk about basic mistakes which should not be made while setting goals or moving towards them.
A coach can also train someone in-house to be an OKR ambassador. OKR ambassadors, who have gained a sufficient level of knowledge and skillset in terms of methodology, can help grow OKR experts within a company while an OKR coach continues to provide support from outside the company. Thus, the performance management system is better supported, a company becomes more agile, and the overall success reinforces.
You should work with an OKR coach who is familiar with a company’s current strategies and is aware of the satisfaction level of both managers and employees with these strategies. However, an OKR coach who has reviewed your current position against your organization’s vision, alignment of goals and current success criteria can be of great benefit. It is extremely necessary for an OKR coach, who will meet with managers first, to ask what they think about current goals, to discuss the alignment of individual and team goals with the main objectives of a company, for improvements.
An OKR coach is not a person who determines the objectives. While employees set their own goals, a coach observes whether they understand the methodology and their success in putting them into practice and guides them with OKR know-how.
The employees of a company may be at a level that is currently considered successful in terms of performance evaluations, but there are many things OKR coaches can do in such a situation. The OKR coaching service, which will both motivate employees and guide them to perform better by making them leave their comfort zones, should include coaches who constantly think about contributions that can be made for the future, discover new growth paths for a company and point them out.
OKR is by nature a people-oriented approach. OKR coaches should also be those who can provide critical employee-based support, as they will meet with employees after managers. A coach needs to take action by clarifying how employees feel about the transition to OKR system, what aspects they have difficulty with in getting used to the new methodology, what are the main factors that confuse them while determining their OKRs. Since OKR methodology is not a self-working system once the OKRs are determined, it is not possible to be successful if the employees are not fruitfully adapted. Likewise, we can say that it works the same way for managers. An OKR coach also monitors managers’ use of the methodology, and if there are situations that prevent the active use of OKR, they take action to identify and resolve them.
The role of feedback and feedforward concepts cannot be overemphasized in new generation performance systems. Therefore, the adoption of the feedback culture by a company is an important task of a coach in the implementation of people-oriented performance management. OKR coaching provides support for the proper implementation of check-in processes, where new goals are determined by considering where you are on the journey to success, how many of the goals set at the beginning of the quarter have been achieved, and what revisions are required. In addition, when a certain OKR project is completed, the coaches, who prepare recommendations for companies by determining how the process goes, will bring multiple benefits to your organization.
Twiser’s 360-degree OKR coaching solutions will create rapid growth of your organization. Our OKR coaching service, which determines the new vision of your company together with you and establishes your own OKR system, will transform your performance management system with a completely different approach, practice, and dialogue.
Contact us so that we can achieve your goals together with impressive results.
OKRs are a methodology that generates ways that allow the entire company to focus and work on the same great goals. So how is this focus achieved? With alignment! Alignment is one of the main concepts and sources of success of OKR. But in order to achieve complete alignment in an organization, a really rigorous and regular work is required. Because alignment is not a phenomenon that is set when OKRs are first determined and can just leave it, it requires constant control.
Think of your organization as a means of transportation that wants to get to a certain point. If all the crew moves as if they are going to move to the same point and do their job; if they move the vehicle in a consistent direction with each other, it can reach the destination. Similarly, OKRs are a mechanism that ensures that everyone goes in the same direction to the same goal, the only goal that is most important to them all. An attempt by a single person or group to go in the opposite direction can sink the entire ship. In the business world, unfortunately, it can destroy an organization.
You are at the beginning of the path and you will determine your OKRs. How can you be sure that they will be aligned? If you are at the beginning of the year or you are just switching to the OKR method, you can look in detail in parallel with the context of OKRs and the context of the company’s strategy. Do you have departmental OKRs that support the company’s main OKRs? Do the OKRs of this department coincide with the OKRs on a team basis and on an individual basis? What is the OKR of managers in this sense? They must all be related to each other. If so, we can say that your OKRs are aligned.
To determine this context, you can create strategic discussions accompanied by a transparent, fair communication environment. People at the executive level should confirm that the OKRs fully reflect the company’s priorities, and departmental OKRs are also specific to these departments and are determined in the most appropriate way to the company’s main goals. After going through such an approval process, we can put OKRs into practice.
Do you have any idea how your route changed after determining your OKRs? Are there points where people or teams fall behind, situations where they deviate from their OKRs, or OKRs that have been abandoned? What, if any, are the reasons for this deviation? If you set a goal of not giving up at least 80% of OKRs at the beginning of the semester, knowing where you are in such a goal brings alignment. For example, if you find that 30% of OKRs have been abandoned, you may find that you need to work on realignment. Therefore, to check the alignment, determine a measurable connection path.
We can say that the fresh blood of OKRs is the check-in period. It is very useful for the organization to discuss whether your OKRs are still aligned during these periods. The types of check-ins can be different in different ways and can be customized in such a way as to bring the most benefit to the organization. Meetings where team members share status updates can be considered one of them. In these meetings, which can be held weekly or fortnightly, the team comes together and evaluates the situation. In the middle of the semester, managers can give OKR coaching to the employee and have a longer strategic conversation at a higher level. He can talk about whether the direction that the team is following on the success map aligns with the general course of the company. As another type of check-in, the executive team should also inform the employees about whether the company priorities previously determined are still valid.
How about creatively studying the goals of different departments and creating various business associations? As a matter of fact, such an approach also results in better alignment. Study the goals of different departments at the beginning of the semester. Which of them can you create business associations between? Teamwork and team spirit are one of the highlights of OKR. If you can create such cooperation opportunities, you will ignite the passion for unity of purpose. And this means more motivation, greater achievements. Thus, each department completes its own OKR and supports each other.
Managers or team leaders should weigh whether OKRs are still effective according to the results they encounter compared to the goals during check-in periods. Is the employee still sure about his OKR, is there a point that he does not understand about the goal? Has it fallen to a point far from its destination? Does the OKR need to be revised, so what kind of revision is needed? All this should be talked about transparently.
In addition, except for doing fine tuning for existing OKR’s, the priority ranking between OKRs can also be changed during these check-in periods. It is also important not to be afraid to give up if there is a goal that does not work. According to the answers to such questions, a clear decision can be made whether to continue moving along the same route or change the route in mutual communication.
In summary, determining the OKR is a very important part of the OKR methodology, but it is necessary to control it throughout all periods to maintain alignment. If you can integrate this approach and the practices we are talking about into your organization’s performance management system, it will be quite easy for you to achieve alignment and find your alignment again with agile improvements even if you go off course.
If you need support in aligning your goals, Twiser is with you.
You can take advantage of our special OKR coaching and consulting services immediately.
Request a demo and we’ll reach you as soon as possible.
You have decided to dive into the OKR world. Well, where should you start from? What should you consider or what kind of questions do you need to ask yourself? In this guide, we have included the types of OKRs and questions that will help you to set up the right OKR ground.
Setting an objective with OKRs has three parts in the context of an organizational chart.
The executive team firstly determines the vision of the company. Later on, they decide on the main priorities associated with the vision. These priorities shed light on what is important for the company in that period, what must be achieved, and how to achieve this success. A company OKR can be something that seems extremely challenging to reach, aiming to be inspiring, and can be spread over a relatively wider period. On the other hand, there must be OKRs, which specify the objectives that must be reached within a particular period. After the determination of Company OKRs, it will be time to divide them into meaningful subsets and parts.
Team OKRs are determined in alignment with the Company OKRs according to the competency and job description of each department. These OKRs can be determined by the team leaders and one of the executive team discussing the objectives together. It is recommended to consider for what common purposes different departments can work together while creating Team OKRs.
At this stage, the team leader interviews individual team members one by one, and individual OKRs are determined with the absolute participation of each employee and in a transparent, motivating communication environment. In this process, you can benefit from criteria such as the duties of individuals, deadline ranges of OKRs, the number of employees required to achieve an objective, and performance evaluations. OKRs, which will push the employee out of his or her comfort zone but do not seem impossible to achieve, can be determined by listening to the opinions of employees. You need to ensure that the employee has an idea about the main priorities of the company. Thus, team members can easily see the fruits of their hard work more clearly in the bigger picture.
All OKRs in three groups must be measurable, observable, clear, and aligned. Well, how can you make sure your OKRs are as well-defined as possible before embarking on your journey to success or during an interim evaluation period? We have shared five of these questions you can consider for this purpose.
If achieved, why is the potential outcome of the objective more meaningful than the current situation? To what extent does it make a difference? Is the effort you have to give for this worth the result? If you work on an objective that requires creativity, make sure that you know the ways to boost your team’s creativity. If your objective is something that you have never tried before and provides your insight into the company, you can think of what kind of research you can do for your objective.
Uncertainty will prevent you from taking action. Therefore, you need to make sure that you set objectives that are defined as clearly as possible and will not create questions marks in the minds of your employees. Your objective must serve common purposes with others but also it must be easily distinguishable from them.
OKRs should not be full of long sentences. Make sure that you express the objective and key outcomes in as few words as possible while determining an OKR. If you cannot shorten your objective, ask yourself, “what do I want to achieve primarily with this objective”, “what elements I cannot remove”. Your objective will be hidden where you put emphasis. Expressing your objective as simply as you can help you to stay focused throughout the process.
Think about the definition of your company culture and words you often use when describing your company. Later on, compare your objectives with these. Is there any mismatch? If so, what do you think the problem could be? You can improve your objectives or abandon them. If you have noticed an element in your company culture that you need to improve, you can also evaluate it.
Your employees will work hard throughout the year to achieve the set objectives. Finding objectives that are interesting, logical, worth the effort, and exciting, may not be an easy task all the time but they guarantee the results.
We have all the answers to all your questions regarding the integration of new generation performance management into your company! Request demo now!
You need to work on your OKRs, which is a next-generation performance management method, regularly to successfully integrate them into your organizational operations. Discussing them, measuring their progress, and learning the up-to-date OKR ideas of your teams in various periods will provide significant benefits. The main purpose of these mid-term assessments, which we call check-in, is exactly this! As you can hold check-in meetings in quarters of the year, you can also hold short check-in meetings on a weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly basis.
Let’s assume that you hold frequent check-in meetings that take about 15-20 minutes. In these meetings, you can witness the progression of your team OKRs, review the results, and set new priorities for your OKRs in the next term by learning from various results.
You may have set your objectives recently or you may already be checking the status of OKRs frequently in the digital environment. However, there is still a need for check-in meetings. Check-in meetings help you to align the objectives and focus employees on the objectives. These were our OKRs, we are at this point right now, well, what is our next plan? Here, you will be sure of the answer to this question.
If you are the team leader, review each of the team objectives and make sure you know the latest developments in key results. Such a review will provide you with various insights. Let us provide some examples: You may check whether the priority plan developed in the previous check-in meeting has been followed or not. You will decide whether you are satisfied with the current progress reached in your team OKRs. If you have delayed OKRs, you may think of their causes and prepare some suggestions to present them to the team. These elements will be decisive especially when determining your new priority list. We recommend everyone to take notes to discuss in the meeting. Also, if there will be any organizational change in your company that will affect your team goals, according to its importance, you can mention it briefly at the check-in meeting to discuss it in detail in the future.
If you are an employee, you can think of whether there is an important note you would like to talk about the recent status of your OKRs. If there is any OKR that causes a problem for you, check-in meetings are the best platforms to discuss and assess these. You may also want to complete an OKR just because it was successful, in this case, you can inform your team leader to complete the objective. You can review what you have learned during the process. If you have a new OKR idea, you can make a pre-preparation to express why it is important. If you believe that you need to gain a new competence, you can offer solutions with its reasons.
You did your preparation as a team manager, but the moderation of your check-in meeting is as important as your preparation. Let’s check what you can pay attention to:
Determine the general framework and time for the topics in advance. If you often hold check-in meetings, on average, 15-20 minutes will be enough. After you make sure that you have covered every important topic, if you believe your team lost their focus or discussed too many details, you can end the meeting. If necessary, you can hold another short meeting with the relevant people to discuss the other topics.
Take notes or assign someone to take notes. Thus, you will be sure that no great idea or learned lesson will be missed. It will be beneficial for everyone to remember these notes before the next meeting.
Do not do all the talking. Due to their nature, check-in meetings are far from being one-sided. Make sure that every member expresses his or her opinion. A different point of view and experiences can have a completely different influence on assessment meetings and the course of the OKRs.
Notice those who are not satisfied with their OKRs. If you notice an employee who is having problems with his OKRs or not paying enough attention, talk about the underlying cause of this problem during or after the check-in meeting. Make sure that the conversation will be constructive and does not hurt the self-confidence of the other party.
Encourage your team. If you are sharing new priorities for the new period, there may be employees in the team feeling they are pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone. Encourage them to be creative. You are the only one that should know your team best, if you do not know what will make them inspired, you may have to work on this problem.
There are many checkpoints that can make you feel more confident that the check-in meeting was efficient. You can assess the situation by providing answers to the following questions.
Of course, switching to a new system requires a period of getting used to it. If you are new to the OKR method and your key results are numerically behind your objectives, you should focus on what you have learned instead of letting numbers demotivate you. Of course, we all strive to achieve those results, and this is why we have determined our OKRs but there will be trial and error processes during the integration. It is all up to you to try OKR and turn it into a learning practice to recognize OKR as a culture. In addition to the above-mentioned questions, what about assessing the following questions?
Discussing such questions together will improve your OKR competency and create an investment in your future success.
As Twiser, we will be glad to offer you guidance on your adaptation to the OKR method and your mid-term assessment meetings. We are ready to develop special solutions for your company with our OKR coaches and advisors by examining your performance management and goals. You can contact us right now to request a demo.
