6 OKR examples for Academic Staff

What are Academic Staff 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.

Creating impactful OKRs can be a daunting task, especially for newcomers. Shifting your focus from projects to outcomes is key to successful planning.

We have curated a selection of OKR examples specifically for Academic Staff to assist you. Feel free to explore the templates below for inspiration in setting your own goals.

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

The best tools for writing perfect Academic Staff OKRs

Here are 2 tools that can help you draft your OKRs in no time.

Tability AI: to generate OKRs based on a prompt

Tability AI allows you to describe your goals in a prompt, and generate a fully editable OKR template in seconds.

• 1. Create a Tability account
• 2. Click on the Generate goals using AI
• 3. Describe your goals in a prompt
• 4. Get your fully editable OKR template
• 5. Publish to start tracking progress and get automated OKR dashboards

Watch the video below to see it in action 👇

Tability Feedback: to improve existing OKRs

You can use Tability's AI feedback to improve your OKRs if you already have existing goals.

• 1. Create your Tability account
• 2. Add your existing OKRs (you can import them from a spreadsheet)
• 3. Click on Generate analysis
• 4. Review the suggestions and decide to accept or dismiss them
• 5. Publish to start tracking progress and get automated OKR dashboards

Tability will scan your OKRs and offer different suggestions to improve them. This can range from a small rewrite of a statement to make it clearer to a complete rewrite of the entire OKR.

Academic Staff OKRs examples

You'll find below a list of Objectives and Key Results templates for Academic Staff. We also included strategic projects for each template to make it easier to understand the difference between key results and projects.

Hope you'll find this helpful!

OKRs to enhance teaching efficiency for effective learning outcomes

OKRs to boost student homework completion rates

OKRs to enhance academic performance for better grades

OKRs to enhance adherence to academic standards and protocols

OKRs to achieve a pass grade above 70 in all subjects

OKRs to achieve excellence in academics

Academic Staff OKR best practices

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

Focus can only be achieve by limiting the number of competing priorities. It is crucial that you take the time to identify where you need to move the needle, and avoid adding business-as-usual activities to your 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.

Tip #2: Commit to weekly OKR check-ins

Having good goals is only half the effort. You'll get significant more value from your OKRs if you commit to a weekly check-in process.

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

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 above). 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.

Save hours with automated Academic Staff OKR dashboards

OKRs without regular progress updates are just KPIs. You'll need to update progress on your OKRs every week to get the full 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, you can move to Tability to save time with automated OKR dashboards, data connectors, and actionable insights.

How to get Tability dashboards:

• 1. Create a Tability account
• 2. Use the importers to add your OKRs (works with any spreadsheet or doc)
• 3. Publish your OKR plan

That's it! Tability will instantly get access to 10+ dashboards to monitor progress, visualise trends, and identify risks early.

More Academic Staff OKR templates

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

• OKRs to enhance customer satisfaction in Japan with top-tier appearance solutions
  customer-satisfactionjapanese-marketmarketing-strategistcustomer-service-training-specialistmarketing-teamcustomer-service-team
• OKRs to transform boutique agency into a comprehensive 360-degree marketing agency
  integrated-marketing-solutionsclient-focused-strategiescustomer-support-representativebusiness-development-officercustomer-support-teambusiness-development-team
• OKRs to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of customer service
  customer-satisfactionstaff-trainingcustomer-service-representativecustomer-service-training-coordinatorcustomer-service-teamtraining-development-team
• OKRs to implement AI to enhance customer service experience
  artificial-intelligencecustomer-servicecustomer-service-managerai-specialistcustomer-service-teamtechnical-team
• OKRs to increase Maternity to Pediatrics patient transition rate
  patient-transitiondropout-reductionpediatric-staffmaternity-staffpediatrics-departmentmaternity-department
• OKRs to establish a go-to platform for leadership and niche hiring
  leadership-hiringpartnershiphr-managerspartnership-developershuman-resource-teamstrategic-partnership-team