The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the lives of many people. Many companies across industries had to adjust their business operations, or worse, stop running altogether. Those who were lucky enough to keep operating had to adapt and work remotely.
Businesses had to create a system, like Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), in just a few days to ensure their operations can keep running. Months have passed, and many companies are slowly getting into the groove of working remotely. However, it’s not without challenges.
Some Issues With Working Remotely
Difficulty in goal-setting and focusing on tasks
Companies had to come up with methods that will help with goal-settings and improvements. Being unable to hold meetings with the team has led to communication issues, and companies needed to resolve them quickly.
Alignment
Another issue companies had to address is alignment. Finding a way to focus on tasks and re-establishing goals were other concerns that many companies needed to figure out how to do remotely.
Transparency with the team is more challenging
Because people are working remotely, companies have difficulty tracking the progress and mistakes for improvements. Micro-managing the employees isn’t the right way to know if they are making any improvements remotely. Companies have to figure out the right systems to use in their workforce to gather and share data. Evaluating their employees’ progress is essential to know whether they’re getting closer to the organisation’s goals.
To make remote work efficient, many companies use the OKR method to their work routine and strategies.
What are OKRs?
Objectives and Key Results is a method that companies use for goal-setting driven by outcomes. That encourages your employees’ accountability as they take steps to achieve your company’s goals through metric indicators.
The great thing about OKR is that it is centred on core values. As they’re working towards reaching their goals, they’re remembering and applying your company’s values and vision.
Here’s why it can help your company with your work-from-home setup:
You connect with your employees more
OKRs is a goal-setting method that will help track the progress of your employees by reviewing the steps they’re taking to achieve individual results. To see their progress, you can hold one-on-one meetings weekly or bi-weekly and ask them which level they’re on.
When you know that everyone is in the loop and are aware of people’s progress, it motivates and encourages them to continue to go up.
Your team will be more aligned
OKRs allows you to focus on your tasks and role in the company. When you apply OKRs to your work environment, your employees will be required to share their monthly goals and inform the team how they can reach them. With that, they will actively work towards their goals with a purpose-oriented mindset.
With these meetings, each team member will know that they’re assigned to particular tasks, which can avoid confusion in the team even if you’re working remotely.
You’ll gain back control
The sudden changes that were caused by the COVID-19 outbreak have caused many companies to lose control over tasks and operations. When you use OKRs, you’ll get back the direction you and your team had before the pandemic.
With OKRs, your team can avoid work environment chaos because they’ll be more aligned and transparent with their progress. It’s because OKRs encourages each member to have accountability with their tasks.
Conclusion
Having to adjust to a new work environment can be difficult at first. You need to find a method that will help your company work efficiently from home. The objective and key results method is an excellent solution for companies who have started to work remotely because of its outcome-driven characteristic. Once you see improvements done by OKRs, you’ll be able to achieve your company’s goals efficiently.
OKRs is a work-from-home method that is growing in popularity in Australia. SKILLFIRE helps educate our clients on the benefits of Objective and Key Results.
We offer boot camps that will help companies set and achieve their goals better even when working remotely. Check our services today!