Are the goals set during the first quarter still relevant?  

If your answer is no, then you need a powerful goal-setting method to redirect your entire organization toward new goals.   

The goal-setting method should be agile enough to change goals according to business needs and environment and also help companies to focus the efforts of their talents toward a common business goal.   

In this new remote working era, where employees are far away from one another, there are more chances of getting disengaged and eventually resign. Companies cannot afford to lose their high performers and also the high-potential employees in this difficult period. To steer clear of it, organizations should adopt an effective performance management system that would manage employee performance and a robust goal-setting framework to engage them and show them their contribution to the overall business objective.  

As the title of the blog suggests, the effective goal-setting method is none other than Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).  

“OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth, many times over,” says Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google. Objectives and Key Results have not only helped Google, but also LinkedIn, Twitter, Intel. Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel is the one who came up with this framework as he was not satisfied with the earlier goal-setting frameworks leveraged in the organization. John Doerr, who worked in the team headed by Andy Grove, became the evangelist of OKRs and introduced it to many global companies like Google.  

What are the Objectives and Key Results?  

Many goal-setting methods help in fixing the destination but hardly provides any solution to measure the progress but Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are an exception.  

Objectives are where you want to go as a company.  

Key Results help in measuring the progress toward the goals set by the organization.  

The objectives should be 1 to 3, as more the objectives more the oblivious and indifferent we become to the objectives. The objectives should be inspiring and challenging. If the target is easily attained, then the objectives were not challenging enough for the workforce and they would lose interest soon. Set stretch goals and motivate the workforce to attain it. Appreciate the employees even if they attain 0.7 on a scale of 0 to 1, as it means that they have tried harder.   

For each objective, there has to be a minimum of three key results and a maximum of 5. The key results should be numerically defined. If not, it becomes an eternal task. Deadlines when set taking the inputs of employees can become a motivating factor to the employees in performing the tasks successfully.    

Here is an example of how to set an OKR for a digital marketing team.  

Objective. Increase brand recognition by 2021.  

Key Results.   

1. Begin a podcast before the end of next month and invite speakers [from your field]  

1. Get 10 features in the magazines that are in your field.  

1. Conduct 5 webinars on topics relevant to your field before the end of 2020.  

1. Increase email signups by 20% in the next two months. (By December 31, 2020)  

Why Do You Need OKRs?  

When employees’ performance is focused and higher, the business growth and performance go up. Objectives and Key Results provide various benefits that can help you grow your business even in this pandemic situation.   

Focus on What Really Matters  

With Objectives and Key Results, you can decide on what really matters to your growth and your company’s development. As you identify the objective, you can break it down into workable chunks and achieve the targets, which means that there are no unattainable goals if proper planning and effort happen. You can achieve even your stretch goals with OKRs.   

Progress is Measurable  

OKRs provide you a clear vision and direction to your destination by giving you insights on how the goal can be achieved through key results. With these key results, the management can learn about the progress of employees toward success. With continuous check-ins, the managers can also guide the employees if they go off the track and help the team members in achieving the key results.  

Accountability Enhances Employee Experience  

Responsibility teaches the most needed lessons to everyone and also help in more learning. OKRs make employees feel responsible for their own goals. This also makes the employees feel the trust that the company has in them. When the employees have the burden of responsibility, they give their best to fulfill the requirements and achieve the targets. This approach also engages them and enhances the employee experience in the organization.  

Alignment is Easier  

The employees can easily align their goals with the common growth goals of the organization. Once the top management sets its goals and communicates them with its departments and business units, every subunit to every individual will set their own goals that align with the overall business objective. The higher-ups should ensure that everyone has set goals vertically and horizontally in alignment with one another and also the business goal. If it is not aligned, the managers can help the employees revise their targets.  

Transparency Becomes the Culture  

OKRs promote a transparent and open culture, where every employee knows about the goals of his/her peers. This helps in avoiding the duplication of goals. Besides that, transparent OKRs foster collaboration among teams and allow team members to decide their priorities. Transparency brings in healthy competition and employees can always feel connected with one another especially in this remote working age. The positives of transparency help in increasing the productivity of the teams, which in turn will positively impact the performance of the organization.   

Autonomy Fuels Innovation  

Micromanagement has become an obsolete method of managing employee performance, and also it disengages employees. Millennials especially dislike micromanagement as they have grown up in an environment of freedom given by technology. The talent market has also become huge, where employers are keenly looking for high performers and ready to take them to their respective companies. Do you want to lose your employees to them? If no, then give your employees autonomy and freedom at work. But don’t worry, you will reap more benefits in that.  

One of the benefits being innovation. To remain competitive in this business environment, innovation is the key. Innovation comes with freedom. When employees are given autonomy in trying new things and experimenting in their projects, their minds come up with innovative ideas. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) provide that innovative space to the employees. The managers’ guidance is necessary for analyzing and approving an innovative idea. If it is approved and implemented successfully, it will have a great effect on business performance.  

Thus, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are pivotal to improve your business performance and employee productivity, which is crucial in these uncertain times.