OKRs have become an increasingly popular management technique since they were invented by Intel in the late ‘90s, and today they are used by companies all over the world.
OKRs are short-term goals that are set out at the beginning of each quarter, and they focus on quantifiable objectives (OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results).
One of the most popular uses of OKRs today is to improve employee performance through increased accountability, and it’s not difficult to see why these goals work so well.
Helping you define your purpose
The first step to creating measurable goals is clarifying what your purpose is. A good leader knows where they’re going and how they plan to get there—so determine why you want to use a goal-oriented approach and focus on that reason. If you know exactly why you want to use OKRs, it will be easier for you to remember them during decision-making. Just thinking about your reasons can help put you in a stronger mindset that will lead to better results over time.
Helping you focus on priorities
OKR method helps you keep your focus on key priorities by identifying goals, setting specific objectives and measuring performance.
In fact, it’s one of those tools that, once adopted can help boost an organisation’s overall efficiency.
Driving alignment throughout your organisation: One major advantage with OKR software is its ability to drive cross-departmental alignment.
With a well-designed approach, teams across every level can develop their own key results (aka KPIs) and align in pursuit of company goals.
Promoting collaboration through increased communication: A big benefit to using an okr management system is helping spread information and engage teammates in real time.
Regularly align staff and develop their skills
Objectives and Key Results (OKR) software like Huminos can also be used to increase employee alignment. Frequently, companies will write down their values on a wall or a poster and expect staff to remember them—if they can find them in between trips to meet with vendors, respond to client emails, or complete projects.
OKR management works because it creates consistency in how leadership communicates expectations for all employees: each month, you set goals for each objective and create clear KPI’s that your team needs to deliver on.
Every time you send out a company-wide email about new office furniture, Aha! makes sure every single person understands what good looks like from both an individual contributor standpoint as well as from an organisational perspective.
Make sure you measure the right metrics
Organisations often measure themselves based on an array of goals.
These could be anything from how many leads a salesperson brings in or how many new followers a company gets on social media, to how much revenue or new business is coming in.
While these are great yardsticks to track, they’re typically not always beneficial because they don’t lead to long-term growth and success.
That’s why organisations should use something called objective key result (OKR) software when setting goals with employees.
With OKR software, businesses can set short-term goals that motivate and help increase employee productivity—and it doesn’t even have to be focused on revenue!
Track regular progress towards goals.
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. As you can tell from its name, it’s a system that allows companies to set goals while also ensuring they’re achieved by helping everyone understand how their efforts play into those objectives.
It accomplishes these things using metrics that are regularly reviewed in order to make adjustments as needed and help keep employees on task.
This is an incredibly effective way to increase productivity, performance, company morale and bottom-line growth.
Align goals with mission.: If a company is going to be successful in leveraging OKR management software, then it needs to have clear goals and corresponding mission statements in place before implementation can begin.
Achieve, measure and take accountability for the goals
OKR software is a perfect fit for companies that have already formalized their objectives and measures, but are struggling to actually achieve them.
It’s possible to try and measure your success in many different ways, but OKR software allows you to combine all those metrics into one goal.
And because each objective has a set timeframe with regular checkpoints, you can adjust your goals or take accountability for where things are going wrong (or right!).
This can be particularly useful when you have multiple teams working toward one goal; each department can share what they’re doing with everyone else involved so everyone is on track to achieving their objectives at any given time.
Using the OKR software which suits your business
Here are a few important things you need to look for when choosing an Okr management software: Familiarity.
The interface should look familiar, so you don’t have to waste time learning how to use it.
When creating your objectives, these tools typically allow you to insert specific time frames and goals or KPIs (key performance indicators). Make sure it is easy to accomplish all of your work within those parameters.
Flexibility. Some people prefer less structured goal-setting and tracking methods while others like a detailed approach.
You should be able to choose between some sort of visual representation, text descriptions or both when using any Okr software on your team.