6 customisable OKR examples for Audit Department
What are Audit Department OKRs?
The Objective and Key Results (OKR) framework is a simple goal-setting methodology that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s. It became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s, and it's now used by teams of all sizes to set and track ambitious goals at scale.
Creating impactful OKRs can be a daunting task, especially for newcomers. Shifting your focus from projects to outcomes is key to successful planning.
We have curated a selection of OKR examples specifically for Audit Department to assist you. Feel free to explore the templates below for inspiration in setting your own goals.
If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read our OKR guide online.
Building your own Audit Department OKRs with AI
While we have some examples available, it's likely that you'll have specific scenarios that aren't covered here. You can use our free AI generator below or our more complete goal-setting system to generate your own OKRs.
Our customisable Audit Department OKRs examples
We've added many examples of Audit Department Objectives and Key Results, but we did not stop there. Understanding the difference between OKRs and projects is important, so we also added examples of strategic initiatives that relate to the OKRs.
Hope you'll find this helpful!
1. OKRs to efficiently meet annual audit plan commitments
- Efficiently meet annual audit plan commitments
- Finalize and implement a resulting action plan from 80% of audits
- Develop action plans based on audit results
- Analyze findings from 80% of completed audits
- Implement devised action plans systematically
- Achieve 100% on-time completion for all scheduled audits
- Regularly monitor audit progress and completion rates
- Create a structured, detailed audit schedule
- Assign and communicate specific deadlines to auditors
- Identify and deliver financial improvements in 2 or more audited areas
- Analyze recent audit reports to identify areas of financial improvements
- Develop feasible strategies to improve audited financial areas
- Implement and track the impact of the improvement strategies
2. OKRs to reduce overall IT expenditure per employee
- Reduce overall IT expenditure per employee
- Decrease hardware renewal cost by 20%
- Identify and eliminate unnecessary hardware assets
- Implement preventative maintenance strategies on existing hardware
- Negotiate better contracts with hardware vendors
- Implement software use audits to identify 15% cost-saving opportunities
- Identify key software used in organization operations
- Analyze audit findings to identify cost-saving opportunities
- Develop and implement a software auditing process
- Achieve a 10% reduction in IT service contractor expenses
- Explore cheaper alternatives or in-house solutions for IT services
- Evaluate current IT service contracts for potential cost-saving opportunities
- Negotify renegotiations or cancellations of costly contracts
3. OKRs to enhance company security standards to safeguard against potential threats
- Enhance company security standards to safeguard against potential threats
- Achieve a 100% completion rate of all recommended security updates and patches
- Conduct routine audits to ensure all devices and systems have the latest security patches
- Provide ongoing training and awareness programs to educate employees on the importance of installing security updates
- Implement an automated system to regularly scan and identify available security updates
- Establish a policy for prompt installation and deployment of all identified security updates
- Implement a comprehensive training program on cybersecurity for all employees
- Create an online platform to provide ongoing access to cybersecurity resources and learning materials
- Schedule regular training sessions to ensure all employees receive cybersecurity education
- Assign qualified trainers to deliver interactive and engaging cybersecurity training sessions
- Develop a customized cybersecurity training curriculum tailored to different employee roles
- Reduce the average response time to security incidents by 20%
- Streamline incident response workflows to remove unnecessary steps and improve efficiency
- Develop a clear escalation process and ensure all stakeholders are aware and trained
- Conduct regular simulations and exercises to enhance incident response readiness and identify areas for improvement
- Implement automated monitoring systems to identify and alert on security incidents promptly
- Increase the frequency of security audits to at least once every quarter
- Assign specific personnel responsible for conducting security audits
- Develop a standardized reporting format for security audit findings and recommendations
- Implement regular communication channels to track and monitor security audit progress
- Review and update security audit checklist to ensure comprehensive coverage
4. OKRs to streamline efficiency and accuracy in the account department
- Streamline efficiency and accuracy in the account department
- Increase auditing process efficiency by 20%
- Develop cohesive team training to improve audit review speed
- Implement automated auditing software to streamline workflow
- Redefine audit protocols to eliminate redundant steps
- Reduce month-end closing cycle time by 30%
- Improve internal communication regarding deadlines
- Streamline financial report preparation process
- Automate data collection and entry procedures
- Achieve 99% accuracy in financial reports
- Train staff on precise data input and interpretation techniques
- Utilize advanced financial reporting software for accuracy
- Implement meticulous cross-checking processes for all financial data
5. OKRs to enhance compliance and engagement through sales audit
- Enhance compliance and engagement through sales audit
- Identify and rectify at least 75% of recorded non-compliance issues by week 12
- Devise an effective strategy to rectify issues
- Implement the strategy before week 12
- Review all recorded non-compliance issues
- Conduct and complete 100% sales audit for all departments by week 8
- Evaluate, compile and submit audit findings by week 8
- Determine essential data points required for sales audit by week 2
- Implement a systematic sales audit process starting week 3
- Increase staff engagement in compliance initiatives by 30% through training and communication
- Implement regular communication channels to discuss compliance matters
- Develop a comprehensive compliance training program for all staff members
- Utilize incentives to motivate staff participation in compliance initiatives
6. OKRs to enhance Cybersecurity Regulatory Intelligence
- Enhance Cybersecurity Regulatory Intelligence
- Achieve zero non-compliance issues in all half-yearly cybersecurity audits
- Implement regular cybersecurity training for all staff
- Conduct frequent internal cybersecurity audits
- Establish rigorous cybersecurity protocols company-wide
- Complete certification for 2 new cybersecurity regulatory standards
- Identify two cybersecurity regulatory standards to get certified in
- Complete and submit certification exams successfully
- Schedule and participate in the required training sessions
- Implement one newly-adopted cybersecurity regulation across all digital platforms
- Identify all digital platforms affected by the regulation
- Develop a comprehensive implementation plan
- Implement and monitor the cybersecurity regulation
Audit Department OKR best practices to boost success
Generally speaking, your objectives should be ambitious yet achievable, and your key results should be measurable and time-bound (using the SMART framework can be helpful). It is also recommended to list strategic initiatives under your key results, as it'll help you avoid the common mistake of listing projects in your KRs.
Here are a couple of best practices extracted from our OKR implementation guide 👇
Tip #1: Limit the number of key results
Having too many OKRs is the #1 mistake that teams make when adopting the framework. The problem with tracking too many competing goals is that it will be hard for your team to know what really matters.
We recommend having 3-4 objectives, and 3-4 key results per objective. A platform like Tability can run audits on your data to help you identify the plans that have too many goals.
Tip #2: Commit to weekly OKR check-ins
Setting good goals can be challenging, but without regular check-ins, your team will struggle to make progress. We recommend that you track your OKRs weekly to get the full benefits from the framework.
Being able to see trends for your key results will also keep yourself honest.
Tip #3: No more than 2 yellow statuses in a row
Yes, this is another tip for goal-tracking instead of goal-setting (but you'll get plenty of OKR examples above). But, once you have your goals defined, it will be your ability to keep the right sense of urgency that will make the difference.
As a rule of thumb, it's best to avoid having more than 2 yellow/at risk statuses in a row.
Make a call on the 3rd update. You should be either back on track, or off track. This sounds harsh but it's the best way to signal risks early enough to fix things.
How to turn your Audit Department OKRs in a strategy map
Your quarterly OKRs should be tracked weekly in order to get all the benefits of the OKRs framework. Reviewing progress periodically has several advantages:
- It brings the goals back to the top of the mind
- It will highlight poorly set OKRs
- It will surface execution risks
- It improves transparency and accountability
We recommend using a spreadsheet for your first OKRs cycle. You'll need to get familiar with the scoring and tracking first. Then, you can scale your OKRs process by using a proper OKR-tracking tool for it.
If you're not yet set on a tool, you can check out the 5 best OKR tracking templates guide to find the best way to monitor progress during the quarter.
More Audit Department OKR templates
We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.
OKRs to increase the customer return rate OKRs to implement robust third-party risk management system OKRs to streamline incident response process to reduce time by 15% OKRs to improve Product Stability and Quality OKRs to enhance communication and training for Business-led IT services OKRs to improve mastery of behavioral-driven development (BDD)
OKRs resources
Here are a list of resources to help you adopt the Objectives and Key Results framework.
- To learn: What is the meaning of OKRs
- Blog posts: ODT Blog
- Success metrics: KPIs examples
What's next? Try Tability's goal-setting AI
You can create an iterate on your OKRs using Tability's unique goal-setting AI.
Watch the demo below, then hop on the platform for a free trial.