Experiences with OKR in HR
Jonathan Abplanalp, Co-Creator of the OKR Circle and Personnel & Organizational Developer at PostFinance AG - “OKRs are more than a process - it is about working on culture and mindset.”
Since when has Jonathan been working with OKR?
Jonathan conducted initial experiments with OKRs at PostFinance in 2018 as part of an initiative for organizational development. In February 2019, they started with five HR teams, and currently, the fifth iteration is in progress. The OKR process was temporally aligned with a Big-Room-Planning for innovation.
Why is PostFinance currently working with OKRs?
Experimenting with new methods in the areas of agility and self-organization is very important. HR also has the role of setting trends regarding New Work within the company. Innovation and intrapreneurship are promoted, and the big picture is kept in mind when implementing the vision and strategy.
What roles do the 3 HR teams at PostFinance work with?
Roles are distinguished between the OKR Master and the OKR Champion, and individuals are selected using a consent-based process. The Master is the process owner, and each team has one Champion who supports the content of the OKRs. These roles are not filled by supervisors and rotate annually.
What tool do the 3 teams use?
The OKRs are managed in the already-used Confluence platform as a simple table. An overview page contains the Moals (=Mid-Term-Goals), Objectives, Key Results, and the degree of fulfillment. Interestingly, a fulfillment rate of 90%-100% is considered exceeded, and even 90% is rated as very good.
What learnings has PostFinance made with OKR?
OKRs have promoted purposefulness, focus, motivation, and cross-team collaboration at PostFinance. It has become evident that it is not as easy as it sounds. The old wisdom “Less is more” has proven true again regarding the number of objectives per team.
OKRs are more than a process - it is about working on culture and mindset. All participants are required to actively contribute. The inputs from the book “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr have once again proven to be very valuable.