Putting your employees on a trajectory for success involves strategic decision-making about how to best direct them as part of a team. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is the perfect goal-setting framework to assign objectives and expected results that align with your organisational goals. 70% of employees state that their sense of purpose is defined by work, this represents the fact that employees have an emotional connection with their workplace and are willing to contribute to shared goals when working as a team or alone.
Defining the right number of company OKRs however, can sometimes be a challenge for some organisations that are new to them, or aren’t yet in an OKR rhythm.
In this article we explore goal setting and how many OKRs is the right amount for your organisation. A quality set of OKRs should include enough scope to push employees to achieve more while accounting for their realistic capacity and limits. – Setting too many OKRs for an organisation can lead to underperformance across the board, with team members stretching themselves or missing certain tasks from their workload due to increased pressure. It’s important to be realistic about the number of OKRs your teams can cope with in order to still perform at their best.
The question about the correct number of OKRs to set isn’t so clear-cut and will depend on a few factors.
- Size of the company
- Complexity of the organisation, how many different functions/divisions
- Number of employees and available resources
- Existing and target performance
Organisations should also consider the type of cycle they choose to adopt when they come to their goal setting process. We recommend cycles that are either quarterly or annually, with a maximum of 5 OKRs being suitable. Again, this will depend on the resources available in your organisation. 53% of employees on average say they feel overworked.
Setting too many OKRs adds pressure and extra expectations that can lead to overstretched workers. It is important that when setting OKRs, you build OKR squads and define roles for each person or team.
Having OKR squads ensures a shared understanding of the OKR needing to be achieved. It’s key to ensure all parties in the OKR Squad is involved at each step of the way. Although getting the magic number of OKRs spot-on requires some planning, the benefits of these performance-enhancing measures are plentiful. When aware of the benefits, you will quickly realise how setting too many goals can undo the structure that OKRs implement.
The main benefits of goal setting are:
Alignment with company goals Staff members who feel closely aligned to their company’s goals will have a better quality employee experience. Goal setting and using the OKR framework is a proven way of achieving this, as the organisation’s incentives can create the framework assigned to each target. Understanding how you as an employee contributes to the wider organisational goals is motivating and gives your employees a better sense of purpose.
Increased focus
OKRs give employees clear targets, allowing them to work through everyday tasks knowing their key focus; this improves motivation and output levels, as well as improving the prevalence that an OKR has within the company’s culture.
Cross-functional collaboration
Another benefit is that entire organisations can start working together more closely and reduxe silos. OKRs are known for being able to foster a collaborative culture as they clarify responsibilities in a way that relates to the bigger picture. They can also be measured and reported throughout the review period, feeding into various team activities. The larger the organisation you tend to see more siloed working; OKRs can help break down these silos and encourage more collaborative working and idea sharing. The benefit of this is that transparency is created, which is a clear link between company culture and performance.
Accountability
Last but not least is encouraging employee accountability. Establishing OKRs ensures employee are aware of what their actions are, with agreed responsibility attached. It gives employees a focus, and as an OKR squad it gives them a team that they are accountable to on a regular basis.
Are OKRs suitable for all organisations?
Absolutely yes! Although OKRs can be used universally, how they are defined should be adapted depending on business size. As OKRs are a team task and not something people are solely responsible for, other factors such as wider stakeholder structure, budgets and business contributing factors also impact the suitability of goals. Trying to implement an OKR structure that is not right for the size of a company can lead to resources becoming stretched and efficiency levels dropped. It’s important to get clear on resource, committment and time when choosing to adopt the OKR framework.
A goal-setting checklist
Keep it simple
Less is more, especially when setting objectives. Being concise and to the point will give employees a clear direction with more chance of success.
Be transparent
OKRs should be available for all eyes across a business to encourage collaboration and resource sharing. Transparency should also be applied to the rationale behind an objective, as employees must know all the details to tackle their assigned duties. Don’t use OKRs for business as usual (BAU) OKRs should push a business and its employees. You shouldn’t set OKRs for day-to-day busuiness as usual, this isn’t motivating and isn’t going to move the needle on the strategic business goals.
Set stretch goals
Even if an OKR is not completely met, that is ok, as long as progress has been made. Setting stretch goals is the best thing to do to ensure progress and create an active culture that constantly strives for more.
In summary
Setting too many OKRs at the top level can lead to underperformance and decreased employee wellbeing. However, with some strategic planning and insights from experts, OKRs can lead to success for all organisations. By approaching OKRs from a team collaboration point of view with company size and structure in mind, the process should achieve desired results every time.
At There Be Giants, we’ve helped organisations from all sectors and sizes create impactful OKRs that drive real business success. Trying to set and manage OKRs internally without the help of external experts can be tough. By working with OKR professionals, your business will benefit from proven experience and perspective. Speak to our expert team to take your goal-setting to new highs.