How OKRs & Goal Settings Boost Employee Performance
There is a saying that “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
This has a deep meaning inside and is quite visible when it comes to the people performance in any company OR as an organization as a whole.
These days, especially post covid the era, when you need to be competitive in all aspects, people performance, agility, and resilience become the driving factors to make the organisation profitable.
OKRs (objectives and key results) help organizations set and track measurable goals. It defines both, the objectives to be achieved and the key results with specific measures which decide step-by-step progress toward the desired goals.
OKRs & Goal Settings help employees feel more supported and inspired to perform highly in their roles even on a day-to-day basis. I believe that once the employee is clear on specific results to be achieved and what is expected from him, it not only boosts productivity, and performance only but it also boosts morale.
There are a few foundational ways that how the employees are getting benefitted thru OKRs and goal-setting exercises in order to enhance their performance:
- It will help to identify challenges and to address inadequate performance by finding out real gaps that exist in the organizational workflow. Then we may provide a better support system for our employees to succeed.
- OKRs can also align goals with appropriate tasks and corresponding timelines. The employee knows that he or she has to accelerate the efforts to get the result within that defined timeline.
- Many Organizations associate OKRs and Goal setting exercises with recognition and reward frameworks. It enhances their commitment toward goals as they feel acknowledged, appreciated, and seen.
- OKRs also help employees to choose the best way to utilize the time and the available resources he or she has.
- Decision-making is one of the major enablers to enhancing performance once you have goals and objectives in place. Each and every decision can be evaluated in order to put you closer to your objectives.
- Other than this, OKRs also not only helps to focus on goals but make the individual accountable for putting this into the main agenda.
- It is also important to note that post covid when most organizations are allowing remote working it becomes more critical to have well-defined goals and objectives considering digital collaboration and their mental health to achieve what is expected from them. OKRs has been establishing all these to align and enhance both the stake holder’s performance.
- Performance can also be monitored thru the company dashboard and you may see how the team is moving toward the goal.
OKRs are easy to implement and simple to use. OKRs, when used by organizations, teams, and individuals, can set challenging and ambitious goals with measurable results. OKRs in the context of goal setting can help track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals. The best part is that nowadays easy-to-use OKR apps are available for all kinds of industries and business models.
To summarize this, OKRs help to enhance individual as well as an organization’s performance thru–
- Periodic Checks to put this on the radar
- Transparent way to provide feedback
- Alignment before moving toward goals
- Execution as per the defined plan
- Review to address the gap
- Recognition to appreciate the effort and boost morale
- Performance-driven culture
But at the same time, adaptability to each and every required change needs to be taken care of. A continual change approach should be adopted in order to make this a success. It creates a performance-driven culture where everyone has a clear well-defined goal and passion to move towards these goals with all their best efforts.
OKRs always push teams and individuals to get outside of their comfort zones and learn from both success and failure as it is rightly said that “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
