Last updated 30 September 2022 ·
Improving productivity is a core business focus – it allows a company to remain competitive and acts as one of the biggest growth enablers. KPIs, Key Performance Indicators and OKRs, Objectives and Key Results are two different but mutually supportive methods of setting and monitoring goals to improve productivity and drive performance. It is possible to develop a structured process to achieve specific productivity goals using KPIs, OKRs and our award-winning 1-3-5® OKR planning process.
What’s the difference?
KPIs are reviewed continuously and often used to determine minimum standards. OKRs tend to be more holistic, providing a highly structured, collaborative goal-setting framework within the organisation. Whereas OKRs are designed to be applied at the organisational, business unit, divisional or team-level objectives, KPIs may also be used within the individual, project, or process-level goals. Read more about the differences between OKRs and KPIs, and discover which is best for your business here.
1-3-5® productivity planning
Our simple yet powerful 1-3-5® OKR planning process involves setting one Vision, supported by three Objectives and five Key Results per Objective. The Vision is essential to provide structure, purpose and direction to the planning process. Objectives are used as the highest-level support to the Vision – meeting all 3 Objectives should mean achieving the Vision. Key Results are lower-level tangible achievements tied together by a single Objective. Key Results are often where KPIs appear within the OKR framework. KPIs can be integrated into the OKR process to support productivity planning. This process helps people to sharpen their focus, work smarter and accelerate their results. Our 1-3-5® OKR software fully supports this process.
Productivity planning in practice
The 1-3-5® OKR software enables you to integrate many critical factors in productivity planning in one place and track progress over time, at the level of the Vision, the Objectives, the Key Results and each intermediate Milestone on the way to achieving a Key Result. This will encourage your team to stay on track and celebrate each small win along the way. It also urges business leaders to share their goals and vision amongst all groups, dramatically improving employee engagement and motivation as everyone knows what they are striving for.
Furthermore, our software allows deadlines to be allocated to each entry and work to be delegated to others enabling accountability for task completion and allowing OKRs to be cascaded throughout seniority levels. The 1-3-5® structure also means that similar tasks naturally fall together under a single Objective, Key Result, or Milestone, minimising context-switching, which would slow the team down. Finally, the 1-3-5® structure built into our platform allows teams to assess productivity directly by tracking their performance against expectations on a day-to-day basis. Key accomplishments are recorded at the close of business. The following morning, the team can quickly review the plan and immediately see the highest priority tasks for the coming day.
Productivity costs
The UK has been experiencing a slowdown in productivity since 2008, and we are falling behind our European neighbours by 20%. Find out how much this reduced productivity could be costing your UK business every year using our Productivity Calculator™ by answering three simple questions. You may be genuinely shocked by the result!
If you’re looking for the best apps to boost your productivity, check out this independent blog citing the Reclaro 1-3-5® OKR software app as one of the best productivity apps to turbocharge your results.
