As a company on an international scale, can you tell us about the significance of next-gen performance management for Insider?
Insider is a rapidly-growing scale-up company. We are currently operating in 26 countries. Moreover, new friends from various nationalities join us every month. The way to ensure that our colleagues from various countries and departments work in collaboration toward a common goal is to have a next-gen performance management system or the OKR system as we apply it.
Each country and department has different dynamics. Thus, teams also need to have various objectives. However, every Insider employee is aware of how these divergent objectives serve Insider’s primary goal. This awareness also boosts transparency and loyalty.
Where do you put OKR in Insider’s ongoing journey to success?
As Insider, we have been using the OKR system for a long time. In the same way as our product management processes, we tried out various designs to create our ideal OKR system and improved it as we discovered new things. We are currently utilizing our OKR system in a way that will provide the most benefit to our organization.
In rapidly-growing companies, the resultant force increases in direct proportion to the fact that employees of all levels are on the same page and same line. With OKR, we can explicitly inform our teams of our goals that change quarterly. As teams, our friends make plans to reach these goals and set their personal KPIs.
Among the most significant characteristics of the OKR system is that it always encourages you to set goals that will consistently advance your business. As Insider, what is significant to us should provide forward-looking success and could be set as a measurable goal. At this stage, we focus on development areas rather than setting an objective such as “maintaining the positive outcome of X”.
Also, we shouldn’t ignore the importance of rituals. Bi-weekly alignment meetings organized within departments and the quarterly assessment meetings we held with our department leaders promote the success of our OKR system. While working on individual projects, our teammates can still be sure that they assist the team’s overall success. By this means, we observe an increased motivation in individual projects.
How does OKR reinforce the team commitment of Insider employees?
In Insider, having a clear view of the goals of various teams and departments holds our teams together. Thus, the relevant team can take the necessary actions and support one another. According to our observations, this method creates a sense of solidarity in departments and enhances teamwork and cooperation among departments. For instance, when our product development/product management teams work in collaboration toward a common goal for a product or a feature for development, they can also communicate with sales teams. They combine forces and strive to deliver products and success of the best quality. Thus, we have a stronger bond among departments, teams, and the entire working environment.
