3 OKR examples for Departmental Teams
What are Departmental Teams 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.
Crafting effective OKRs can be challenging, particularly for beginners. Emphasizing outcomes rather than projects should be the core of your planning.
We have a collection of OKRs examples for Departmental Teams to give you some inspiration. You can use any of the templates below as a starting point for your OKRs.
If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read more about the OKR meaning online.
Best practices for managing your Departmental Teams OKRs
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
The #1 role of OKRs is to help you and your team focus on what really matters. Business-as-usual activities will still be happening, but you do not need to track your entire roadmap in the OKRs.
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 the weekly check-ins
Don't fall into the set-and-forget trap. It is important to adopt a weekly check-in process to get the full value of your OKRs and make your strategy agile – otherwise this is nothing more than a reporting exercise.
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 below). 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.
Building your own Departmental Teams OKRs with AI
While we have some examples below, it's likely that you'll have specific scenarios that aren't covered here. There are 2 options available to you.
- Use our free OKRs generator
- Use Tability, a complete platform to set and track OKRs and initiatives
- including a GPT-4 powered goal generator
Best way to track your Departmental Teams OKRs
Quarterly OKRs should have weekly updates to get all the benefits from the 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
Spreadsheets are enough to get started. Then, once you need to scale you can use a proper OKR platform to make things easier.
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.
Departmental Teams OKRs templates
We've covered most of the things that you need to know about setting good OKRs and tracking them effectively. It's now time to give you a series of templates that you can use for inspiration!
You'll find below a list of Objectives and Key Results templates for Departmental Teams. We also included strategic projects for each template to make it easier to understand the difference between key results and projects.
Hope you'll find this helpful!
OKRs to establish Conditions for Fast Decision-Making Processes
- Establish Conditions for Fast Decision-Making Processes
- Implement a decision-making framework in at least 3 departments
- Identify 3 departments for framework installation
- Develop a suitable decision-making framework
- Train department heads on the new framework
- Decrease average decision-making time by 20%
- Implement streamlined decision-making procedures
- Conduct training sessions on efficient decision making
- Adopt computerized decision support systems
- Train 75% of team leaders on the new decision-making framework
- Identify team leaders needing training on the new framework
- Conduct and monitor training to ensure 75% participation
- Develop a flexible schedule for training sessions
OKRs to enhance inter-departmental collaboration for effective social media operations
- Enhance inter-departmental collaboration for effective social media operations
- Pioneer a shared, online document housing all social media initiatives and updates
- Create structure for social media initiatives document
- Identify suitable online platform for shared document storage
- Update document regularly with initiatives and updates
- Implement weekly cross-departmental meetings focused on social media strategy by month-end
- Create a recurring weekly meeting schedule
- Outline the meeting agenda focusing on social media
- Identify key representatives from each department
- Increase shared social media projects between departments by 20%
- Implement regular shared social media project progress reports across departments
- Develop a centralized social media project management tool for all departments
- Initiate weekly interdepartmental brainstorming sessions on social media projects
OKRs to streamline the company's recruitment process
- Streamline the company's recruitment process
- Increase new hire retention rate by 10% through improved onboarding processes
- Develop a comprehensive and engaging employee onboarding program
- Provide mentorship opportunities for new employees
- Implement regular check-ins with new hires
- Reduce hiring process time by 30% while maintaining quality of hires
- Implement an efficient applicant tracking system
- Streamline the interview and selection process
- Conduct timely background and reference checks
- Implement a standardized interviewing system across all departments
- Develop a standard interview protocol for all departments
- Train hiring managers on the new interview system
- Monitor and adjust the system based on feedback
More Departmental Teams OKR templates
We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.
OKRs to improve Advisory NPS through baseline measurement and analysis OKRs to develop core skills for beginner business analyst OKRs to improve leadership skills OKRs to enhance productivity with increased automation and streamlined administration OKRs to prepare a successful product launch OKRs to establish a substantial presence on YouTube
OKRs resources
Here are a list of resources to help you adopt the Objectives and Key Results framework.
- To learn: Complete 2024 OKR cheat sheet
- Blog posts: ODT Blog
- Success metrics: KPIs examples