Objectives and key results or OKRs are popular goal-setting frameworks used by organizations to achieve their goals. OKRs help different team members focus on a core area where they need to put their efforts. Each OKR helps create opportunities to move towards a goal.
OKRs can be a great tool for creating an environment where employees work with purpose.
In this OKR series, we’ve already talked about the basics of OKRs, the best tips to set OKRs, OKR examples for project management, and OKR examples for marketing. As a further continuation of this OKR series, today we are going to talk about OKR examples for finance.
OKR examples and templates can come in handy when setting up OKRs for your organization. These can be a great source of inspiration.
Before moving on to OKR examples and OKR templates for finance, let’s first discuss the advantages offered by OKRs for finance firms.
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Why choose OKRs for finance?
OKRs can help finance organizations achieve the following benefits –
1. Setting ambitious goals
OKRs do not involve setting easily achievable targets. OKRs are not expected to have 100% accomplishment rates. Unlike traditional goal-setting frameworks like the management-by-objectives method, OKRs encourage employees to aim for ambitious goals.
OKRs entail setting up bold objectives with an expected achievement of a minimum 60%. In this case, even though teams and individuals do not achieve all of their goals, a 60% achievement results in significant performance boosts.
2. Regular performance review
OKRs compel organizations to review their progress on a regular basis as opposed to only annual reviews. There aren’t any annual objectives but OKRs are assessed and updated on a quarterly basis.
Some organizations may even decide to review their OKRs at the end of each month. Considering the fast pace with which the corporate world moves, it makes sense to have OKRs reviewed regularly.
3. Focus on quantitative results
OKRs are purely quantitative. With most other objective-setting frameworks, the focus is on the end goal. However, that’s not the case with OKRs.
OKRs explain what actions an employee needs to take so as to achieve the set goal. The ‘KR’ segment in the OKR framework focuses on a detailed process, formulating quantitative results that describe success.
In this way, OKRs help provide clarity on what success truly looks like. It also highlights the initiatives that need to be undertaken to achieve it.
4. Using a bottom-up approach
Unlike traditional processes that have always used a top-down approach, the OKR framework uses a bottom-up approach.
In a top-down approach, a company owner sets objectives for team managers, and the managers then set goals for their team members.
However, in OKRs, the individuals are at liberty to design their own objectives. The sole condition is that these objectives should align with the objectives of the company.
Since everyone is involved in this objective-setting process, they are more committed and generally assume greater ownership of overall objectives and goals.
Creating OKRs for finance
Before using OKRs, your organization should have a clear understanding of the problem that needs to be solved. There should also be one individual tasked with overseeing the implementation and monitoring of OKRs. This person would be responsible for ensuring that everyone using OKRs receives ongoing guidance for the same.
When creating OKRs for finance companies, one can go with the following formula –
We will___(Objective)___as measured by__(these Key Results)__.
This formula can be customized to fit the needs of any organization, industry, or department. OKRs work the same for setting goals throughout different company levels.
In terms of setting Objectives, it’s important to keep them –
- Clear
- Actionable
- Time-bound
- Ambitious and inspirational
- Concrete
- Not fuzzy
For Key Results, the goal is to determine whether an objective has succeeded or not. They are measurable, time-bound, and quantifiable. Therefore, it’s easy for the team to measure progress.
While creating OKRs, it’s suggested to keep the process collaborative. Companies can organize brainstorming sessions to engage the entire team while giving them a level of ownership for the entire process. It also helps drive accountability.
The end goal is to create a process where teams are empowered to create their own OKRs.
OKRs examples and templates for finance
Here a few examples of OKRs for finance. You can also use these as OKR templates to further create your specific OKRs. So, feel free to copy and modify them as needed.
OKR example 1 –
Objective:
• To make our annual budgeting process more efficient.
Key results:
• 5 department heads to be reviewed and trained on the new approach.
• Before the end of the third quarter, go over each department’s budget proposals.
• Obtain signatures from all leads on the final budget.
OKR example 2 –
Objective:
• Enhance our financial reporting process
Key results:
• There are five new hires in the Financial Department.
• 50% of your books should be moved to QuickBooks’ cloud-based version.
• Within two weeks of the end of the quarter, complete 100 percent of our financials.
OKR example 3 –
Objective:
• Pass the external audit with a good performance.
Key results:
• Reduce the number of audit findings to no more than five.
• 100% of customer and vendor contracts should be stored in Dropbox repositories.
• Audit time to be cut in half, from six to four weeks.
OKR example 4 –
Objective:
• Enhance our information technology and infrastructure.
Key results:
• Reduce the downtime of your systems from 3 to 0.1 percent.
• Reduce the time it takes to back up data to the cloud by 6 hours.
• 15 percent increase in internal IT satisfaction.
OKR example 5 –
Objective:
• For the following four quarters, have a reliable turnover prediction.
Key results:
• Organize a weekly forecast meeting with all project managers as a key result.
• Have an excel-based project tracking tool for all projects that were started or completed this quarter.
• After a two-day boot camp on better forecasting, all project managers to be on the same level of understanding.
OKR example 6 –
Objective:
• For the next two quarters, have a solid pricing strategy in place for all new items.
Key results:
• We now have a better understanding of the pricing strategies of the five most important direct competitors.
• We have a graphical representation of the entire KPI report.
• We have detailed knowledge of the price tactics used in the last three years for the five most popular products.
Conclusion
It’s difficult to get OKR execution right on the first day itself. So, the goal should be to achieve incremental improvement of OKRs.
With enough effort put into creating OKRs, your entire organization can benefit from a sense of direction and focus. We hope the OKR examples and OKR templates for finance that we shared in this article will help you create good OKRs of your own.
In case you need help searching for the right OKR software for your business, check out this list.
