The magic word OKR and its importance post Covid-19

In all sectors of businesses, COVID-19 continues to put immense pressure. We all now came to know that there are no quick fixes for businesses seeking to manage their way through a pandemic. However, proper tools and strategies can make a business stronger and more resilient.

Agile management systems may already be in place for businesses that have survived the pandemic. But for many others, the pandemic has forced them to urgently look at their organizational structures and processes. In the coming years, we believe that the OKR system can save many businesses.

Establishing OKRs has become an essential way for any business to achieve its objectives post COVID-19. Curious about what an OKR is? Almost every popular company doing it, from Google and LinkedIn to Netflix and Spotify!

Let’s take a look at what OKR is, its importance, and much more.

What is OKR?

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. The Objectives tend to be the desired outcome that you want, and the Key Results are the measurable ways to reach them.

Why businesses need OKR

Studies have already shown that companies that use OKR tend to have a more effective workforce. OKR addresses many organizational concerns such as the following:

• Awareness – Since OKRs are public, there is a sense of awareness and transparency on what people are actually working on. The awareness of everyone’s OKR in the structural levels of an organization makes it easier for employees to align themselves with the OKRs. This also helps in reminding employees of the vision, mission, and other ideals of a company.
• Communication – The communication is very much open to everyone to contribute to the dialogues in achieving common goals.
• Interpersonal – As everyone has to communicate and work with other people to achieve the key results, OKR becomes an interpersonal mechanism.
• Accountability – The regular review in OKRs make sure that everyone is accountable for the objectives they set. The regular implementation of OKRs ensures that everyone is reminded of the long- and short-term vision of a company. These clarify any confusion in an organization.

OKRs help businesses become:

• More transparent
• Better aligned across teams and functions
• Less focused on meetings
• More focused on outcomes vs output
• More efficient and collaborative

Companies that use OKRs

Before we look at who all use OKR, let’s check a bit about history.

Peter Drucker developed a goal-setting strategy called MBO (Management By Objectives) in 1954. In the 1970s, Andrew Grove, an Intel employee, took the best practices of Management By Objectives and created the OKR model — which inspired one of his engineers, John Doerr, to take it further. In 1999 when VC John Doerr introduced them to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Company OKRs originally arrived at Google. Since then, they have been used by Google – and it seems like Google has done very well with success since the 1990s.

For a glance at how the business manages the OKR processes, Google Ventures Startup Lab’s Rick Klau explains what objectives look like and how Google thinks about setting and monitoring them.

Google is one of the big-name that’s been using OKRs. Companies that have used OKRs successfully at one point or another, or still doing it to this day, including Twitter, Intel, Sears, LinkedIn, Oracle, and Zynga.

Qualities of OKR

OKR has many distinct proactive qualities that guarantee the transformation of any organization. Hence it is used by many businesses around the globe.

The company is encouraged to share its objectives with the employees and the employees from the bottom are empowered to align their actions to the objectives of the company. OKRs provide organizations with clarity so they can focus their resources.

The performances are always ensured to be measurable. Regular assessments and check-ins foster a culture of accountability. People’s emphasis on outcomes rather than tasks is encouraged. This means they are trained to know the difference between providing results rather than just doing things blindly. The establishment of OKR is a way of using an organization’s collective knowledge.

Let’s sum up

While OKRs are predominantly used at organizations they can also be incorporated at a personal level. The method not only promotes individual development but also enables people to take risks and carry out tasks in a fixed period of time. OKRs clearly help to think of out-of-box options so that employees and even at an organization’s level are courageous about any issues.

It is evident that OKRs implemented with the right technology, in an enabling environment will be a great way to flourish in the post-COVID-19 environment. OKRs will allow businesses to differentiate themselves from the market with a vigorous & focused team.

As the business environment is rapidly changing, OKRs are the perfect way to inspire your people to push their limits and develop organizational agility. However, it’s of utmost importance to recognize your change advocates who can accelerate OKR adoption in your organization. Your first course of action could be to plan, adapt, and fine-tune the adoption process.

Thankfully with SkizzleHR, this becomes easy. A single unified HCM software solution allows for seamless data flow across the employee lifecycle. Being agile & highly configurable, it drives higher user adoption. Complete with irresistible features like talent search, assign goals, performance monitor, and continuous feedback, OKRs on SkizzleHR pack a punch!

0