What does it take to be a successful manager? Well, for starters, giving your team everything they need to achieve their goals.
The first thing they need is a clear, measurable, and actionable objective to work towards. In other words, their key result areas (KRAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Let’s explore the what, why, and how of KRAs in this blog post.
How to Create Key Result Areas (with Templates)
- What are Key Result Areas?
- Understanding Key Result Areas
- Impact of KRAs on Business Success
- Key Result Areas for Different Departments and Positions
- 1. KRAs and KPIs for sales representatives and sales executives
- 2. KRAs and KPIs for marketing managers and marketing management
- 3. KRAs and KPIs for internal auditors and audit department
- 4. KRAs and KPIs for operations managers
- 5. KRAs and KPIs for project managers and strategic planning teams
- 6. KRAs and KPIs for HR managers and human resources management
- 7. KRAs and KPIs for product managers and business analysts
- 8. KRAs and KPIs for customer service representatives focusing on customer success and engagement
- 9. KRAs and KPIs for finance and legal departments
- 10. KRAs and KPIs for IT and system administrators
- 11. KRAs and KPIs for procurement managers
- 12. KRAs and KPIs for organizational leaders
- 13. KRAs and KPIs for executive assistants
- 14. KRAs and KPIs for payroll managers
- 15. KRAs and KPIs for finance managers
- Establishing Key Result Areas for Employees
- Establishing KRAs for Yourself
- Setting Up and Tracking KRAs
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat are Key Result Areas?
Key Result Areas, or KRAs, are quantifiable, time-bound, measurable objectives for an employee, team, or organization. They outline what an employee needs to accomplish in a given time frame to be considered a good performer.
How are KRAs different from KPIs?
KRA is an area of outcome that the employee owns. KPIs are aspects within each KRA that an employee works to improve.
For example, the KRA of a customer success manager would be ‘expanding share of wallet from each customer by 20% before end of the year.’ Progress on this KRA can be measured by KPIs, such as:
- Increase in revenue from each customer month on month
- Upsells made to every customer per year
- Sales expanded to new departments within each customer account
Summarize this article for me pleaseUnderstanding Key Result Areas
The practice of Key Result Areas today has evolved as a combination of various frameworks, including OKR (Objectives and Key Results), management by objectives, balanced scorecards, and SMART goals. Various organizations adapt KRAs based on their needs and situations.
Before we get into a framework for what KRAs you should set, let’s see the differences between related concepts, such as a goal, objective, key performance area (KPA), key result area (KRA), objective and key result (OKR), and key performance indicator (KPI).
| Goals | Objectives | KPA | KRA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Definition | Broad statements of what the organization/ individual wants to achieve | Specific, measurable targets that help achieve goals | Broad areas of responsibility | Tasks and activities to be fulfilled to achieve their goals |
| Purpose | Provide the long-term vision and outlook of the organization | Provide milestones on the journey to achieve the goal | Describe areas of accountability for an individual or a team | Break down goals and objectives into everyday activities |
| Example | Become a $1B enterprise by 2030 | Increase revenue by 20% YoY | Advertising and channel collaborations | Lead generation, Conversion, Brand awareness |
For a deeper look into these terms, here’s more on KPIs vs metrics and OKRs vs KPIs.
Summarize this article for me pleaseImpact of KRAs on Business Success
A good goal-setting and accomplishment model is fundamental to the success of a business. The KRA model is a great framework for this purpose. Here’s why.
Organizational alignment: KRAs align the organizational goals and objectives to the everyday activities of each employee. It shows the designer how the little button or banner they design impacts the larger business.
Clarity: KRAs help people understand their jobs, duties and tasks better. This helps them prioritize the right tasks and minimize distractions.
Direction: KRAs give each team member a clear direction to their job, which is in alignment with the organization’s journey. It helps them recalibrate their efforts, in case of a long break or a failed initiative.
Productivity: When teams know their KRAs, they focus their efforts on improving productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of work.
Employee satisfaction: Measurable, fixed, time-bound targets are far more likely to be met, resulting in a sense of accomplishment and engagement
Data-driven decision-making: KRAs give everyone a clear focus for their efforts. So, decisions are made in pursuit of that KRA, enabled by data. For example, you might choose to invest in a specific channel based on its performance and ROI.
Accountability: When everyone has well-defined KRAs, they are accountable for outcomes in their area of work. This limits blame games and empowers teams to make better decisions.
As a corollary, not identifying and setting the right KRAs can have disastrous consequences, such as the following.
- Individuals do their own thing as there is no alignment with organizational goals
- Scattered efforts hinder collective work and compounding results
- Teams focus on non-essential activity, wasting time and budget
- Poor time management from not understanding priorities
- Inability to measure performance, causing the organization to shoot in the dark
- No one takes accountability for their work, feeling dependent on someone else, and therefore demotivated
With the meaning, purpose, consequences, and pay-offs discussed, let’s see some real-world examples of KRAs for various teams.
Summarize this article for me pleaseKey Result Areas for Different Departments and Positions
Let’s take the example of a scaling startup. Their overarching goal might be to go IPO within the next year. The key result areas for the various departments might be as follows.
- Sales: Increase revenue by 20% YoY to demonstrate exponential growth
- Marketing: Build a recognizable and investable brand
- Finance: Be 100% compliant with all relevant regulations in the US
- Human resources: Build a reputed employer brand to attract top talent
From this, you can derive performance indicators that drive success in KRAs. Here’s how.
1. KRAs and KPIs for sales representatives and sales executives
The biggest result a sales team can produce is, obviously, revenue. However,But setting revenue goals alone can be overwhelming. The following KRAs and KPIs can help.
Sales KRAs
- Identify new opportunities in the small and medium business (SMB) market in North Carolina worth $100K or more
- Increase share of wallet for existing enterprise customers
- Increase channel sales by 25%
Corresponding KPIs for the above KRAs can be:
- No. of new contracts signed in the prescribed market
- Value of products/services upsold to existing customers
- No. of new channel partners signed on or revenue from new channel collaborations
2. KRAs and KPIs for marketing managers and marketing management
Marketing teams are a critical part of an organization’s growth engine. They create awareness, engagement, interest, and enable the sales teams to close faster. So, marketing OKRs, KRAs and KPIs need deeper thought. Some examples are as follows.
Marketing KRAs
- Increase brand visibility
- Improve conversion rates across channels
- Increase lead generation
- Increase in organic web traffic
- Increase in social media following and engagement
- Demand generation through events (measured by number of sign-ups)
- Increase in lead-to-sale conversion rate on paid marketing campaigns
- Increase in lead volume at lower cost-per-lead
3. KRAs and KPIs for internal auditors and audit department
Even though audits are regular activities with a clear structure, it helps to have KRAs and KPIs to ensure effectiveness.
KRAs
- 100% audit coverage within deadline
- 10% improvement in audit efficiency over last year
- Audit impact on risk mitigation
KPIs
- % of audit plan completed
- Ratio of actual to budgeted audit hours, audit delays, staff utilization and cost per audit hour
- Ratio of accepted to implemented recommendations, savings generated, improvement in risk management
4. KRAs and KPIs for operations managers
Operations teams plan, manage, and optimize the work done—be it commercial construction or software development. Their KRAs and KPIs are:
KRAs
- Ensure timely project delivery
- Ensure 90% utilization of all available resources
- Limit cost overruns to a maximum of 5% to ensure profitability
- Improve customer satisfaction
KPIs
- % of milestones delivered on or before time
- % of hours worked and billed by each resource vs. total available hours
- % of cost overrun
- Improvement in CSAT score or reduction in returns/rework
5. KRAs and KPIs for project managers and strategic planning teams
Organizations often set goals and KRAs for the execution team. For example, software developers or DevOps managers will have KRAs. However, the project management team itself might not have objectives except “deliver the project.” This is a mistake.
Here are some examples of KRAs and KPIs for project management teams.
KRAs
- Achieve 100% resource utilization of contractors
- Ensure 100% of acceptance criteria are met before user acceptance testing (UAT)
- Improve forecasting for upcoming sprints/projects
- % of hours worked/billed by each resource vs. total available hours
- No. of rejections reported by the client for not meeting pre-defined acceptance criteria
- Variance in actuals vs. projections on key metrics such as cost, utilization, cycle time, and churn rate
6. KRAs and KPIs for HR managers and human resources management
What do human resources managers really do? Let’s see a few aspects of the department’s role.
KRAs
- Hire for all open roles and backfills within 45 days of a request from the hiring manager
- Improve diversity of top management with 50% representation for women and other marginalized groups
- Upskill 30% of the workforce on using AI technologies for their job roles
KPIs
- % of roles for which time-to-fill was greater than 45 days
- Hire candidates from diverse backgrounds for leadership roles or promote internally
- % of employees who demonstrated upskilling in AI based on workshops and post-assessment.
7. KRAs and KPIs for product managers and business analysts
A product manager’s job is critical yet qualitative. They conduct research, set priorities, own the vision, and work with external stakeholders at a conceptual level. So, setting KRAs can be tricky. Here’s a starting point you can work from.
KRAs
- Improve user onboarding
- Develop a new product vision in line with Generative AI
- Launch with 95% of target features before Q2
- Improve profit from customers by 12%
Product management KPIs and metrics
- Reduce time-to-onboard to less than 24 hours or improve trial-to-sale by 20%
- Interview 25 prospects and customers to identify needs/gaps
- % of features in the launched product and variance in data of launch
- % of new users who adopt new features
Bonus: Read more about product OKRs for inspiration to set KPIs
8. KRAs and KPIs for customer service representatives focusing on customer success and engagement
Customer success is more than just the NPS score. Modern businesses measure customer satisfaction across dimensions.
KRAs
- Reduce the percentage of detractors by 10% quarter on quarter
- Resolve customer complaints within SLA, with 90% of incidents getting 5-star feedback
- Reach resolution in first interaction in 40% of cases
KPIs
- Net promoter score
- % of complaints resolved within SLA and % of resolutions with 5-star rating
- % of issues resolved on the first interaction with the customer
9. KRAs and KPIs for finance and legal departments
Even though legal teams work on strategic activities like risk mitigation, compliance, and contract management, their KRAs can still follow aspects of cost, efficiency, and effectiveness. Here’s how.
KRAs
- Reduce time taken to sign new vendor contract by 20%
- Reduce cost of vendor audits by 50% with automation
- Minimize litigation costs by 80% with tighter contracts and enforcement mechanisms
KPIs
- Time taken to process each new vendor contract
- % reduction in the cost of vendor audits
- % reduction in litigations, hours, and costs
10. KRAs and KPIs for IT and system administrators
In this case, we’re considering IT as teams that manage and maintain systems (and not software engineering teams). The customers of IT and system administrators are often internal.
KRAs
- Resolve P1 issues within 60 minutes
- Maintain 99.99% system uptime
- Ensure network and application security
KPIs
- % of P1 issues resolved under 60 minutes
- System uptime across applications, networks, and user accounts or mean time to recover (MTTR)
- No. of VAPT performed or no. of vulnerabilities discovered
11. KRAs and KPIs for procurement managers
Procurement is often seen as the team that buys the best product at the lowest price. While this is true, their key result areas span much more than that.
KRAs
- Ensure 98% supply chain continuity
- Ensure 100% vendor compliance with all regulatory requirements
- Improve vendor satisfaction
- Increase on-time-in-full (OTIF) delivery
KPIs
- No. of production delays as a result of delays in material procurement
- % of vendors who haven’t completed compliance audits
- NPS score across vendors
- % of deliveries that were either not on time or in full
12. KRAs and KPIs for organizational leaders
Goal-setting begins at the top. In fact, every team member’s goals are a part of the larger department’s goals, which the leader is responsible for. This means that the marketing leader’s KRAs would be a collection of their team’s.
As we’ve discussed plenty above, in this section, we focus exclusively on their leadership role.
KRAs
- Set clear roles, responsibilities, and goals for each team member
- Review team performance regularly and offer feedback
- Enable collaboration and innovation within the team
KPIs
- % of team members who have received and understood their KRAs and KPIs
- No. of 1-to-1s conducted and corresponding improvement in team performance
- No. of innovative solutions to problems within the organization
13. KRAs and KPIs for executive assistants
Executive assistants help leaders do their jobs better. In this role, they are both enablers and gatekeepers. So, their KRAs and KPIs would be:
KRAs
- Maintain the executive’s schedule as per their preference to optimize efficiency
- Create preparatory dockets for 100% executive meetings 24 hours ahead of time
- Reply to all executive emails within 2 hours
KPIs
- % of meetings delayed or canceled due to scheduling errors
- % of meetings for which the prep docket was available
- Average response time for emails
14. KRAs and KPIs for payroll managers
Payroll teams are responsible for one of the biggest expenses in any organization, to say nothing of the various employee benefits involved.
KRAs
- Process payroll every alternate Thursday 100% of the time
- Minimize errors in processing payroll to less than 2% of items
- Ensuring benefits and investments are paid within the deadline
KPIs
- No. of delayed salary payments
- % of errors in payroll processing
- % of delayed benefits/investment payments
15. KRAs and KPIs for finance managers
The finance team holds fort on all money matters in a business. They ensure that inflow and outflow are managed in the interest of the company’s financial strengths. Their KRAs include:
KRAs
- Maximize return on existing cash reserves
- Maintain a cash flow positive stance throughout the year
- Ensure 90% budget adherence
- Ensure 100% regulatory compliance
- % return on investment of cash reserves
- % of days when the business was cash flow negative
- % of budget overruns
- Amount of fines/penalties paid due to non-compliance
Bonus: See more OKR examples to guide your KRA setting process.
While the above are the most commonly used key result areas and key performance indicators, they are only examples. Based on your organization, goals, industry, geography, team size, etc., you might need different KRAs. Let’s look at how you can design your own KRAs.
Summarize this article for me pleaseEstablishing Key Result Areas for Employees
While shortlisting key result areas for your team, a good practice is to use the Pareto principle, which states that approximately 80% of outcomes result from 20% of causes. In this context, 20% of an employee’s KRA will contribute to 80% of results. So, begin there.
1. Prioritize areas of work
Every employee might be working on a number of things. For instance, within the marketing team, the content marketer might also be managing social media and the email channel, each of which performs differently.
- Make a list of everything that your teams are working on (don’t mind however small)
- Include their corresponding outcomes (for instance, email marketing might be generating most leads)
- Prioritize the 20% that offers 80% of outcomes
2. Define KRAs
Speak with the employee for a clear understanding of their current role. They know best what works and what doesn’t. So, let them lead the conversation. Along side, also speak to your peers and mentors to understand the market standards to identify key result areas in these roles.
Based on these inputs, shortlist the KRAs each employee wants to take responsibility for. Make sure it is no more than 3-5 KRAs.
3. Establish KPIs
For each KRA, set 1-3 KPIs. Remember that performance indicators must be:
- SMART, i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely
- Clearly understood by the team member (for example, if you’re using ‘social media engagement’ as a KPI, broadly define if that means likes, comments, reposts, shares or all of the above)
- Making progress each week/month/quarter (don’t set KPIs that can only be measured after the year is complete)
4. Review and adapt
While typically KRAs are set for the year, it is important to review and adjust them regularly. The market could have evolved, a big competitor launch might have shaken you up, you might have lost a number of employees, anything could happen.
During 1-on-1s, speak to team members to know if the KRAs are still SMART. Else, get smart about it.
Summarize this article for me pleaseEstablishing KRAs for Yourself
As a freelancer, consultant, or independent contributor, you might often come across situations where you need to set your own KRAs. The above process holds good. However, the following questions might help guide the process more effectively.
Here are a list of questions that can help you get started:
- Why was I hired? What am I expected to accomplish in my role?
- If I am not in this role, what would the company lose?
- How does my role help the company achieve long-term success?
- What activities do I need to complete, and how do they contribute to company goals?
- How do I know if I’m doing a good job?
- What is the company’s ROI of my compensation?
Need more help? No sweat. Try the free ClickUp OKR Framework template as a starting point. Customize it to your needs and set your KRAs faster!
Summarize this article for me pleaseSetting Up and Tracking KRAs
If you’ve read this far, you’ve completed the hard part of identifying KRAs and setting corresponding KPIs. Now, it’s time to build a system for performance management.
You could use a document or a spreadsheet, but there is only so much they can do. This is where a project management platform like ClickUp can help. Here’s how.
Publish your KRAs
If you set your goals on a spreadsheet and put them away, you’re likely to forget all about them in no time. So, publish them in a place that’s visible and accessible to everyone on the team.
ClickUp Goals can be used to set targets as numerical values (e.g., 300 leads), monetary value (e.g., $100,000 in revenue), true/false (e.g., 100% adherence to SLA), or tasks (no. of tasks completed).
You can organize targets in folders, add clear descriptions, and automatically track progress based on various inputs, making ClickUp great for KPI reporting.
Need more help visualizing progress and gaining clarity about your work tasks? Try ClickUp’s SMART goals template to organize tasks better and identify potential roadblocks so you can take preemptive action.
Organize them into shorter milestones
KRAs and KPIs are meant to be time-bound. Add start dates and target end dates to every activity within your KRA. Use ClickUp Milestones to group a related set of KPIs together.
Set up a Gantt chart view to see overlapping activities and track progress in real-time.
Break down KRAs and KPIs into tasks
Performance indicators are ultimately tasks that need to be completed. Use ClickUp Tasks to set up all the activities and work you need to perform to achieve your KRAs. Set custom statuses to track progress through the task’s lifecycle. You can also add custom fields on ClickUp to capture various kinds of data.
For example, if the revenue goal has been set at $80M for the quarter and the average deal size is $40,000, the sales team must close 2,000 deals. You can set this up as task targets (2,000 tasks to be completed) or monetary targets ($ value as a custom field in each task) to automatically track progress.
Monitor performance
How well am I doing? Team members and managers want this information to be easily available and not wade through their inboxes or multiple chat windows. Create a real-time dashboard for measuring progress.
The fully customizable ClickUp Dashboards help track all your metrics in one place, whether it is employee productivity, workforce allocation, or asset utilization.
Review and discuss
The last, yet most important part, of achieving KRAs is reviewing performance and discussing it regularly. Of course, managers always do it with their team members. But it’s also important for department heads to do this with their peers.
For example, the sales head and marketing head could look at their dashboards to identify gaps or conversion loopholes. Document these conversations for later reference.
With ClickUp Docs, you can collaboratively document in real-time, even if you’re not physically together. You can also create tasks within the doc and assign it to users for their action!
Summarize this article for me pleaseEnsure Project Success With ClickUp
A successful manager knows the destination and how to get their team there. KRAs and KPIs are nifty tools for managers of all kinds. Whether you’re a marketing head or engineering project manager, KRAs and KPIs give direction, clarity, and purpose. They help you define what success looks like and track your journey there.
If KRAs and KPIs are so important, why then should you relegate them to spreadsheets you never see or, at best, update manually when time permits?
Leverage an all-in-one project management tool like ClickUp to set KRAs, track goals, build reports, and achieve success.
See for yourself. Try ClickUp for free today!
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