Setting the right goals and following through on them can be challenging — especially if you don’t know what objectives to focus on or how to get employees and leaders to collaborate effectively. 

That’s where the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology can help you align teams across your organization and improve engagement and productivity. This approach increases transparency around your company’s strategic direction, allowing you to focus on what individuals and teams can do to push the needle forward. 

Getting started from scratch can be overwhelming. That’s why, in this article, you’ll read more about:

• What OKRs are
• How to set OKRs
• OKR examples for every department
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What are OKRs? 

OKRs is a management and goal-setting system that stands for objectives and key results. It enables organizations to break down ambitious goals into bite-sized, manageable, and measurable tasks, which should be tracked in predefined cycles (i.e., monthly, quarterly, or whatever suits your company).

This method is a great way to increase productivity and focus, improve transparency, and align companies around common goals. That’s because it requires employees to write down their objectives, share them with their departments, and hold each other (and management) accountable for progress.

‍When done right, an organization’s OKRs help individuals understand the why behind company decisions. This creates alignment and makes your people feel involved and engaged in the organization’s broader vision.
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💡 Want to learn more about OKRs and their role in employee engagement? 

Check out our guide “What are OKRs? Explanation, examples, and how to set them.”

🤫 It includes a free, downloadable OKR template to help get you started.

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How to set OKRs

The first step in determining your objectives and key results is defining your long-term business priorities. To do that, use your organization’s strategic vision as a benchmark. 

For example, if your long-term vision is to have meaningful relationships with your clients, your priority could be building systems and operations dedicated to improving client satisfaction. 

Then, translate your priorities into objectives and break them down by department. Engage in conversation with each department leader and work together on understanding how they can push the overall vision forward.  

Finally, choose three to five objectives per department, set a timeframe, define key results, assign ownership, and track progress.
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💡 Looking for an in-depth, step-by-step guide to help you set your OKRs?

Check out our playbook on how to set and implement OKRs.

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Other best practices to remember when setting OKRs include:

• Be ambitious, but not unrealistic. Don’t be afraid to aim high with your OKRs.
• Keep it simple. Try not to set too many objectives, so your team stays focused.
• Make your key results measurable. Objectives can be aspirational, but your key results should be precise and quantifiable. 
• Don’t feel like you have to achieve a 100% completion rate. Reaching 60-80% is the sweet spot for OKRs. 
• Celebrate success. Praising your team for their achievements, regardless of their scope, is a great way to keep everyone engaged and motivated.
• Keep open lines of communication and foster a feedback culture. Hear your people out to ensure the established OKRs make sense in practice and are a good use of everyone’s time. 
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💪 Drive alignment and motivate your team with Leapsome!

Our goals and OKR management tool empowers you to easily create, track, and collaborate on objectives at all levels.  

👉 Learn more

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OKR examples for every department

Setting up your OKRs can be an intimidating task. That’s why we’ve put together a list of 25 OKR examples, divided by department, to help you get your creative juices flowing and take your first steps. Just remember that these examples aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather inspiration for your unique company and objectives.
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Overall company strategy OKRs

Company-wide OKRs align entire organizations so they can collaboratively tackle high-priority challenges. And remember, these objectives will determine individual department OKRs. That’s why you need to be crystal clear on your company’s strategic business goals and values at the outset.   

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Objective 1: Become more profitable by reducing operating costs and increasing revenue

Key result 1: We have identified [x] areas of unnecessary expenses to cut.

Key result 2: We have reduced our quarterly late payment fees down to US$[x] 

Key result 3: Win 10 new clients with [x] Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

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Objective 2: Make the company a great place to work

‍Key result 1: The average score on our sentiment survey is 8.8

‍Key result 2: Achieve quarterly retention rate of 98%

‍Key result 3: Host the first monthly game night with 20 attendees

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Objective 3: Turn company clients into advocates

‍Key result 1: Our customer satisfaction score on surveys increased to 9.7

‍Key result 2: Reduce customer churn rate by 10%

‍Key result 3: Clients rate the helpfulness of 1:1 check-ins as "very helpful" 9 times out of 10

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Objective 4: Successfully enter the european market

‍Key result 1: The average score for our DACH managers' onboarding survey is 9.7

‍Key result 2: Our European market entry is covered in [x] amount of news outlets.

‍Key result 3: Win five new European clients in Q4

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HR OKR examples

The human resources (HR) department’s objectives and key results should focus on enhancing the employee experience and talent recruitment strategies. When done effectively, these initiatives will support company goals by increasing productivity, improving customer retention rates, and optimizing processes.   

Here are some HR OKR examples to get you started:

Objective 1: Our employees are engaged and see themselves working at [company] in the future

‍Key result 1: Our average pulse surveys score increased to 9.7

‍Key result 2: 90% participation rate in weekly manager:direct report 1:1 meetings, by the end of the quarter

Key result 3: We have [x] amount of praise messages on our new praise wall

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Objective 2: Improve company culture and team spirit

‍Key result 1: 80% participation in our employee engagement survey

‍Key result 2: remote employees feel engaged as indicated by an average score of 9.5 on a sentiment survey

‍Key result 3: 85% of the company take part in a company-wide team event

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Objective 3: Our Leadership is growing and developing their professional skills 

‍Key result 1: Increase the number of leadership development opportunities provided to our team by 20%

‍Key result 2: 35% increase in Leadership participation in mentoring & coaching sessions 

‍Key result 3: Achieve a satisfaction score of at least 7 out of 10 in the post-implementation survey that will be conducted with leaders to assess the effectiveness of the training program

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Objective 4: Create an environment that promotes productivity

‍Key result 1: Our evaluation of employee performance at the beginning and end of the quarter indicates a [x] increase in productivity

‍Key result 2: Our psychological safety survey has an average score of 9.8  

‍Key result 3: We've achieved a X% increased in employee survey scores related to work environment

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Marketing OKR examples

By defining objectives and key results, marketing teams can identify the metrics that matter and shift their focus to campaigns that deliver the highest possible return on investment (ROI). For example, testing brand awareness key results will help your employees decide which strategy to invest in (for example, paid advertising or leveraging user-generated content).

Here are some examples of marketing OKRs:

Objective 1: Our brand is widely recognizable and well-known to our ideal customer base

‍Key result 1: Drive 2,000 new unique website visitors in Q2 

‍Key result 2: Promoted by 10 key industry influencers on LinkedIn

‍Key result 3: We have increased our Linkedin follower count to [x]

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Objective 2: We have a clearly defined ideal customer profile (ICP) and are set up to market to this population 

‍Key result 1: Every marketing team member can successfully name our buying personas and identify three of their pain points 

‍Key result 2: [x] percent of sale-qualified prospects found us through organic search

‍Key result 3: we have increased lead conversion by [x] percent

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Objective 3: We are enabling insightful collaboration between Sales and Marketing

‍Key result 1: 8/10 meeting rating for our joint marketing/sales team meeting
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‍Key result 2: 80% adoption rate from both teams for our tracking system to measure marketing-generated leads that convert to sales opportunities

‍Key result 3: 75% adoption rate from sales for new sales enablement content, by the end of the quarter.

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Sales OKR examples

Implementing and tracking OKRs can help your sales team become more outcome-focused (e.g., deals closed) as opposed to output-focused (e.g., calls made). This creates alignment and transparency and increases engagement by demonstrating how effective sales initiatives are in advancing company goals.  

Let’s look at some examples of sales team OKRs:

Objective 1: Successfully expand our Sales revenue in a global market 

‍Key result 1: We have reached 80% successful predictability in our forecasting

‍Key result 2: 98% of AE's feel they have all the resources they need to close a deal 

Key result 3: Upsell products and services to 15% of current clients

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Objective 2: The Sales team is educated on Sales methodology and can execute these strategies with prospects

‍Key result 1: 95% of AE's can show a successful attempt of multi-threading in a deal

‍Key result 2: All Sales team members have passed their annual sales training workshop

Key result 3: The Sales team has an average of X% achievement on their personal development goals

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Objective 3: Our win rate is consistent and predictable

‍Key result 1: [x]% of deals moved to the stage “negotiating” end up as “closed won”

‍Key result 2: we have increased conversion of MQL to SQL by [x]%

Key result 3: AE's have an average target achievement of [x]%

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Objective 4: We have successfully attracted new talent while retaining our core team

‍Key result 1: We have a retention rate of 95% within the Sales team

‍Key result 2: 100% of new AEs pass their Sales Readiness within three months

Key result 3: 100% of salaries within the sales team are in the 75th percentile for similar roles at similar companies in the same area

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Engineering OKR examples

OKRs reduce siloed work and help engineering teams keep sight of their overall focus. This method also creates department-wide awareness about each team’s current tasks, functions, and progress. 

Here are some engineering OKR examples to inspire you:

Objective 1: We are delivering a high-quality product to our customers 

Key Result 1: Improved product quality according to key metrics by 10%

Key Result 2: X% fewer bug reports by users

Key Result 3: Increase average pieces of customer feedback per customer by X%

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Objective 2: We are on track to effectively eliminate technical debt

Key Result 1: Decrease the average number of high-priority technical debt items by at least X%

Key Result 2: Increase the code coverage of unit tests to X% for critical and high-impact modules within the next quarter.

Key Result 3: 90% adoption rate from team to tracking and measuring technical debt

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Objective 3: Boost career development for the engineering team

‍Key result 1: Increase promotion rate to 20% by Q4

‍Key result 2: 100% of our engineering team have regular 1:1 meetings to discuss career advancement opportunities  

‍Key result 3: 90% of the team have completed a job-related external workshop or training

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Revenue operations OKR examples

Revenue operations (RevOps) professionals focus on how all company departments work together to increase revenue and drive business growth. That’s why the success of revenue operations OKRs depends on the collaboration of employees and leaders across organizations.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Objective 1: Drive alignment between customer service, marketing, and sales departments

Key result 1: Perceived alignment between key stakeholders and rev ops team members is increased by X%

Key result 2: We have reduced the number of help questions in our Slack channel by X%

Key result 3: We have [x] instances of cross-department peers praising each other

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Objective 2: Establish a partner program to drive revenue

Key result 1: Recruited 8 new partners 

Key result 2: Our partner section on the website generates [x] amount of traffic

Key result 3: we have signed [x] partner contracts  

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Objective 3: We have streamlined our customer acquisition process

Key result 1: [x] amount of our marketing budget is allocated to our customer base's preferred sales channels

Key result 2: We have shortened our average sales cycle by 1 month

‍Key result 3: We have gotten [x] referrals from our existing custom rbase (incentivized or organic)

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Customer service OKR examples

The customer service team is responsible for ensuring your customers are satisfied with your products or services and equipped with what they need to make the most out of their experience. Since this team’s performance relies heavily on the changing wants and needs of customers, it’s important to be willing to adjust OKRs — track progress frequently and change course when necessary.

Here are some examples to consider:

Objective 1: Our customers are engaged with the product and don’t feel inclined to churn

‍Key result 1: Increase customer referrals by X%

‍Key result 2: 100% of our customer success team have completed a churn prevention training 

Key result 3: Reduce churn rate by 2.5%

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Objective 2: Our customer support process is scalable and efficient

Key result 1: Top 5 repetitive task for CSMs have been automated

Key result 2: Achieve a X% decrease in average response time to customer inquiries within three months of implementing the new customer support software.

Key result 3: We have improved the perceived helpfulness of our content by X%

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Objective 3: Improve customer trust

Key result 1: increased engagement in our Slack customer community by [x]%

Key result 2: customer satisfaction score with their CSM is at 9.5

Key result 3: we have collected [x] amount of customer feedback

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Objective 4: Deliver white-glove service to customers

Key result 1: 100% of CS managers have completed a product-upskilling workshop

Key result 2: Achieve an 80% rating on customer satisfaction surveys 

Key result 3: CSM's have an average score of 3.5 out of 5 on their performance reviews

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Use Leapsome to track & collaborate on company OKRs

Setting and keeping track of company and department OKRs is essential to drive alignment and transparency across your organization. It can also improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention rates. However, converting your goals into tangible results can be challenging. 

With Leapsome, you can seamlessly integrate goals into your daily workflows, so they never get lost in the shuffle. Our all-in-one people enablement solution includes OKR tools to keep your goals front and center, providing you with progress updates, visual analytics dashboards, and check-in reminders. 

And finally, by integrating your OKRs with 1:1 and team meetings and performance reviews, you’ll build a culture of continuous feedback and development that boosts engagement and drives success. That way, you can equip your company for long-term growth and success.
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💥 Spend less time planning your goals and more time meeting them

Leapsome empowers leaders to align their companies behind big-picture objectives and easily track progress.

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