All roles in a department share similar KRAs. The whole point of cutting departments is to group talent by the kind of goals they chase. So most roles in a department focus on very similar result areas.
Assume five levels of hierarchy in a department and write KRAs for each role at each level. If you assign each role five KRAs by ideal standards, you'll find about three of them common between any two levels. Aggregate it and you land at roughly 13 unique KRAs that every role across five levels is eventually working on.
Role-level KRAs restrict target setting. In a dynamic business, you want supervisors free to point their talent gun in the direction the business needs. Imagine an argument every time a different target gets set. Keeping a common KRA set for the department keeps conflict to a minimum — and lets you move fast, which in the AI era is the whole point.
You train people for future roles. If there's a 60% KRA overlap between two levels, then about 40% is unique. Expose all staff to the department's KRAs and let supervisors pick across the set when setting targets, and you start training people for larger roles. The chance to do it on the ground is your best bet for preparing talent for the future.
In short: if you want effective performance management and talent development, set KRAs only at the department level. Then let supervisors set targets by picking from the department KRAs as business needs demand. More flexibility, less friction, and talent groomed for what's next.
plugHR has departments and their KRAs already defined — create an account and start assigning targets. Your performance system gets set up in a day. Talk to plugHR.
Originally published on the plugHR blog.