6 OKR examples for Hiring

What are Hiring OKRs?

The Objective and Key Results (OKR) framework is a simple goal-setting methodology that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s. It became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s, and it's now used by teams of all sizes to set and track ambitious goals at scale.

Formulating strong OKRs can be a complex endeavor, particularly for first-timers. Prioritizing outcomes over projects is crucial when developing your plans.

We've tailored a list of OKRs examples for Hiring to help you. You can look at any of the templates below to get some inspiration for your own goals.

If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read more about the OKR meaning online.

Best practices for managing your Hiring OKRs

Generally speaking, your objectives should be ambitious yet achievable, and your key results should be measurable and time-bound (using the SMART framework can be helpful). It is also recommended to list strategic initiatives under your key results, as it'll help you avoid the common mistake of listing projects in your KRs.

Here are a couple of best practices extracted from our OKR implementation guide 👇

Tip #1: Limit the number of key results

The #1 role of OKRs is to help you and your team focus on what really matters. Business-as-usual activities will still be happening, but you do not need to track your entire roadmap in the OKRs.

We recommend having 3-4 objectives, and 3-4 key results per objective. A platform like Tability can run audits on your data to help you identify the plans that have too many goals.

Tability's audit dashboard will highlight opportunities to improve OKRs

Tip #2: Commit to the weekly check-ins

Don't fall into the set-and-forget trap. It is important to adopt a weekly check-in process to get the full value of your OKRs and make your strategy agile – otherwise this is nothing more than a reporting exercise.

Being able to see trends for your key results will also keep yourself honest.

Tability's check-ins will save you hours and increase transparency

Tip #3: No more than 2 yellow statuses in a row

Yes, this is another tip for goal-tracking instead of goal-setting (but you'll get plenty of OKR examples below). But, once you have your goals defined, it will be your ability to keep the right sense of urgency that will make the difference.

As a rule of thumb, it's best to avoid having more than 2 yellow/at risk statuses in a row.

Make a call on the 3rd update. You should be either back on track, or off track. This sounds harsh but it's the best way to signal risks early enough to fix things.

Building your own Hiring OKRs with AI

While we have some examples below, it's likely that you'll have specific scenarios that aren't covered here. There are 2 options available to you.

Use our free OKRs generator
Use Tability, a complete platform to set and track OKRs and initiatives
including a GPT-4 powered goal generator

Best way to track your Hiring OKRs

Quarterly OKRs should have weekly updates to get all the benefits from the framework. Reviewing progress periodically has several advantages:

It brings the goals back to the top of the mind
It will highlight poorly set OKRs
It will surface execution risks
It improves transparency and accountability

Most teams should start with a spreadsheet if they're using OKRs for the first time. Then, once you get comfortable you can graduate to a proper OKRs-tracking tool.

Tability's Strategy Map makes it easy to see all your org's OKRs

If you're not yet set on a tool, you can check out the 5 best OKR tracking templates guide to find the best way to monitor progress during the quarter.

Hiring OKRs templates

We've covered most of the things that you need to know about setting good OKRs and tracking them effectively. It's now time to give you a series of templates that you can use for inspiration!

You will find in the next section many different Hiring Objectives and Key Results. We've included strategic initiatives in our templates to give you a better idea of the different between the key results (how we measure progress), and the initiatives (what we do to achieve the results).

Hope you'll find this helpful!

OKRs to streamline and optimize global hiring processes

Streamline and optimize global hiring processes
Increase quality of candidates pool by 40% using new sourcing strategies
Utilize social media platforms for job position advertising
Partner with reputable recruitment agencies for quality sourcing
Implement thorough pre-screening processes for potential candidates
Reduce average hiring process time from vacancy to offer by 30%
Implement pre-screening tests and assessments
Improve coordination among hiring team members
Streamline the interview process by using automation tools
Boost acceptance rate of job offers by 20% with competitive compensation packages
Develop superior, attractive compensation policies
Market competitive benefits to potential hires
Research industry standards for compensation packages

Track these OKRs

OKRs to streamline the company's recruitment process

Streamline the company's recruitment process
Increase new hire retention rate by 10% through improved onboarding processes
Develop a comprehensive and engaging employee onboarding program
Provide mentorship opportunities for new employees
Implement regular check-ins with new hires
Reduce hiring process time by 30% while maintaining quality of hires
Implement an efficient applicant tracking system
Streamline the interview and selection process
Conduct timely background and reference checks
Implement a standardized interviewing system across all departments
Develop a standard interview protocol for all departments
Train hiring managers on the new interview system
Monitor and adjust the system based on feedback

recruitment-efficiency employee-retention recruitment-manager hiring-manager human-resources departmental-hiring-teams

Track these OKRs

OKRs to scale the team by hiring and onboarding key talent to support business expansion

Expand the business by scaling the team with quality personnel
Hire and onboard 3 experienced sales executives
Enhance team diversity by 20% via targeted recruitment strategy
Reduce time-to-fill open positions by 50% through process improvement
Recruit and integrate 2 seasoned marketing specialists

hiring onboarding hr-manager talent-acquisition-specialist operations business-development

Track these OKRs

OKRs to build an efficient hiring pipeline

Improve the employee onboarding process
Reduce the average lead to hire period from 40 to 25 days
30 interviews with recent hires to gather feedback on the onboarding
90% of offers are accepted

hr human-resources hiring

Track these OKRs

OKRs to optimize talent acquisition and management processes

Optimize talent acquisition and management processes
Implement a new recruitment technology to automate 50% of administrative tasks
Evaluate different recruitment technologies and choose one that suits requirements
Monitor and evaluate the impact and progress after implementation
Train the recruitment team to utilize the chosen software efficiently
Cut down time to hire by 30% and improve hiring efficiency
Implement a structured interview process to streamline candidate evaluation
Utilize an Applicant Tracking System to manage applications more efficiently
Enhance job descriptions for clarity, reducing irrelevant applications
Increase hiring manager satisfaction by 40% through improved recruitment quality
Develop ongoing training opportunities for enhancing recruiters' interviewing skills
Regularly gather feedback from hiring managers to assess recruitment effectiveness
Implement improved screening tools for identifying top-tier pool of candidates

talent-acquisition recruitment-efficiency recruitment-manager hiring-manager recruitment-team hiring-team

Track these OKRs

OKRs to promote cultural humility for diverse, healthy team building

Promote cultural humility for diverse, healthy team building
Increase overall diversity rate in new hires by 25%
Collaborate with diverse professional and student organizations
Implement a diversity-focused recruitment strategy
Provide unconscious bias training to hiring managers
Achieve 90% positive feedback on diversity and inclusion efforts from employee surveys
Develop and promote a workplace inclusion policy
Implement diversity and inclusion training for all staff members
Regularly solicit employee feedback on inclusion efforts
Implement a cultural humility workshop for 80% of team leaders
Schedule workshop for 80% of team leaders
Ensure effective post-workshop follow-up activities
Identify suitable cultural humility workshop providers

team-diversity cultural-humility hiring-managers team-leaders human-resource-team leadership-team

Track these OKRs

More Hiring OKR templates

We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.

OKRs resources

Here are a list of resources to help you adopt the Objectives and Key Results framework.

To learn: Complete 2024 OKR cheat sheet
Blog posts: ODT Blog
Success metrics: KPIs examples