The Benefits of OKRs for Talent Acquisition
OKRs are…
If you don’t know what OKRs are, read Measure What Matters, by John Doerr, it might just change your life. In the meantime, here is a quick timeline to how OKRs became one of the most important strategy execution and management tools…
In the 1950’s, Management Consultant thought leader, Peter Drucker, championed MBO (management by outcome). In the 1970s in Intel founder, Andy Grove, developed MBO into OKRs and made Intel the most successful chip manufacturer. John Doerr, who joined Intel in the 70s and became a student of Grove, later brought OKRs to Google (during his interview in 1999!) and from then, OKRs became valued and recognised as best in class.
The benefits of OKRs for Talent Acquisition
Talent Acquisition (TA) is not just about getting people through the front door. In fact, there is nothing more influential for a business than building the teams that build, produce, support and sell. Nothing. How you do it, really, really matters. The implementation of OKRs can allow you to stretch far beyond any typical TA measurement of success. In my case, when implementing OKRs for the TA team, we have gone far beyond being a Business Partner, but rather have become a ‘part of the team’ and a key strategic tenet to the organisation’s success. I have developed several bespoke TA strategies, implemented a new collaborative hiring model. Over the course of a couple of years, have gone from bootstrapping to transforming the TA team into a Lean and Agile machine that gets global recognition at all levels of the business. OKRs got us there.
Traditionally, organisations develop their mission/vision/values, often as a one time exercise. From there they develop annual operating plans with performance plans set at the beginning of a calendar year. Such plans are often forgotten (when you are in the trenches for example), until mid-year, or end of year performance reviews.
OKRs augment that cycle. They allow you to radically focus on the execution of your annual strategy. They allow you to focus on what matters, to set shared goals, and to know quantitatively when you have delivered those objectives.
You can move from measuring time to fill metrics around hiring female talent from competitors, for example, to something far more lofty such as developing an entirely new channel(s) to talent with a clearly measurable return. No more ‘borrowing from Peter to pay Paul’.
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All too often, organisations struggle to connect individual contributors to the company mission. They often fail to truly connect employees to the annual plan too… Afterall, if we only review the journey once or twice per year… out of sight, out of mind. OKRs offer a unique opportunity to have people at every level involved in delivery against shared strategic objectives that directly impact those annual plans and therefore the mission. This has a huge effect on engagement, commercial acumen, communication and delivery of results that matter. Top down or bottom up, OKRs allow you to connect the dots. For a long time, HR and TA have struggled to define their benefit to an organisation beyond transactions. OKRs allow you to truly prioritise and measure the things that matter most. Your value is quantitative, transformative, transparent and verifiable! What TA organisation doesn’t want that?
By default, OKRs allow you to set a lofty, ambitious stretch goals. This is your future state and it has a number that proves you have achieved it. That goal… well that is up to you. How ambitious are you? What are your BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals)? For me, it was about redefining talent acquisition, delivery of bespoke strategies in very difficult times (Great resignation etc!) and crafting the best TA team in the world. We aren’t finished, and we never will be, but we are well on our way thanks to OKRs.
In fact, and this might be controversial… I augmented the OKRs methodology with Lean and Agile practices to make them work for our organisation. But that, is the subject of another post. Oh, and I fixed the great resignation too, thanks OKRs! Again, the subject of another post!
Conclusion…
The opportunity for you to change and transform both the way you work and your future state is always there. It will be a stretch but it is achievable. This is the power of OKRs. Talent Acquisition organisations around the world can benefit. It is hard, but it is worth doing and it can be fun too!
P.S. I am hiring at the moment, where you can be involved in OKR research, design, implementation and delivery. Reach out to hear more about OKRs in #TA!
Hiring @ EHS international
2yI enjoyed reading this, thank you for the refresher Padraig Carroll
Senior Talent Acquisition Partner | Chapter Lead | DEI Champ | Brand Ambassador | Mental Health Advocate | Verizon #hiring
2yGreat post Padraig Carroll. Before I joined Verizon, I had an idea of what OKR’s were all about but didn’t really understand them. Fast forward a year, and not only do I know what OKR’s are all about, but I am involved in utilising them to set and achieve our ambitious goals. They have an extremely positive impact on my role on the Talent Acquisition team. OKR’s are as you rightly say “The opportunity for you to change and transform both the way you work and your future state is always there. It will be a stretch but it is achievable. This is the power of OKRs.” I couldn't agree more, even if I tried Padraig. I would like to add, OKR’s allow me to stretch myself, learning whilst focusing on achieving both personal and team goals. This year has been an incredible year, we have achieved so much as a team. I am looking forward to closing out Q4, and to kicking off the new year after the Christmas break with a laser focus on what is going to be an fantastic year for me personally and for the TA team, leveraging the power of OKR’s. Thank you for your leadership and of course introducing me to the wonderful world of OKR’s. #okrs #talentacquisition #lean #agile #team #goals #2023goals #vteam
Leader / Collaboration Champion / Strategy Nerd
2yGreat article on a key tool for operational success! A
Senior Talent Acquisition, EMEA at Verizon #hiring
2yThanks for introducing me to OKRs Padraig Carroll! I’d encourage my connection in TA to read this article about the benefits of OKRs and hopefully you’d find this as insightful and useful as I did 😊. #okr #lean #recruitment #talentacquisition