The Importance of OKR Within Recruitment

Recruitment is a pretty complex field to get involved in. There are all sorts of challenges that you are bound to face along the way. After all, finding a potential employee to put forth to a client isn’t as simple as browsing a few CVs and selecting one to put in for an interview. You have to bear in mind exactly what the client is looking for. You need to ensure that potential candidates meet qualifications and have relevant and sufficient experience. You need to meet them to determine whether they will fit in with the work culture of the company who are hiring. You have to prepare these people for their interview and guide them in the right direction. So, it’s not all too surprising that you’re going to have to implement an OKR system. 

What is OKR?

Let’s start out by establishing what OKR actually is. “OKR” stands for “Objectives and Key Results”. It is an extremely popular management strategy that sets goals for individuals working within organisations. OKRs tend to be used with the aims of connecting company, team, and personal goals to measurable results. They encourage all team members (including team leaders) to work together in the same direction to a set goal. Generally speaking, OKRs are implemented through specialist software.

Defining Your Objectives

If you decide to implement OKR into your recruitment process, you need to clearly define your OKR objectives. This will allow everyone involved to know exactly what is expected of them. As long as everyone knows where they are heading, they will generally be able to come up with a clear vision of how to get there. Of course, there are general objectives that pretty much every business wants to meet. Every business wants to maximise profits. Every business wants to create a good reputation for itself. Every business wants to establish itself as a leading figure in its field. But for OKR to work effectively, you need to set out more specific objectives. In regards to recruitment, good OKRs could pertain to:

• The number of candidates sourced in a given time period

• The number of candidates reached out to and contacted in a given time period

• The number of candidates participating in on-site interviews

• Number of offers made to candidates

• Number of offers accepted or declined by candidates

For more information on how to define your objectives in OKR, take a look at heartpace.com.

Structuring OKRs

Once you know what you want your OKRs to achieve, it’s time to structure them. OKR structure tends to be pretty straightforward. You need an objective and then you need results. Each objective that you set should be ambitious but achievable. Unachievable objectives will simply result in participants feeling dejected and as if their efforts are pointless - they won’t put all too much effort in. However, objectives that are overly simple aren’t going to inspire anyone. Ambitious but achievable really is the way to get results! Objectives should also be time bound - set a date that they should be achieved by. In regards to results, they should be quantifiable. This will help to ensure that results can be lauded as a success or noted down as a failure and area that needs to be improved.

Remember that OKRs Can Be Changed

Don’t be too strict or rigid with your OKRs. Remember that circumstances and goals can change as the recruitment process progresses. Changes can make existing OKRs too simple or unachievable. There’s no point with sticking with the same old OKRs if the goalposts have been moved. So, review OKRs regularly and ensure that they are still appropriate for the work or project at hand.

Use OKR Software

OKR software can simplify the process of setting, tracking, and monitoring your OKRs. It allows everyone involved in the recruitment process to clearly see how things are coming along and how they are performing. If people can see that they are falling behind, they are likely to actively become more productive in order to catch up. If someone is overly achieving, it will allow management figures to take note and show them due appraisal - perhaps even offering rewards to ensure that the individual feels appreciated and continues their hard work. Using software encourages transparency and visibility in the entire OKR software, ensuring everyone knows where they’re at and how they’re performing.

While you might not have considered OKR before, or you might not have realized its importance and potential, hopefully, the above information has helped to exemplify this to you!