Kra – Importance and meaning

What is KRA?

KRA is the abbreviation used for the Key Responsibility Area or Key Result Area. The meaning of KRA sums up a comprehensive description of the roles and responsibilities of employees at their workplace. They are both qualitative and quantitative and outline the scope of the job in achieving organizational goals.

KRAs summarize the optimum outcomes and results expected out of work dedicated to employees, departments, and complete organization. They offer a sense of direction to employees and help in understanding their roles clearly. 

KRAs focus on how to accomplish-

• Economic growth
• Overall efficiency and productivity
• Customer satisfaction and retention
• Employee engagement
• Brand recognition and recall value
• Edge against competitors

Why are KRAs important?

One of the major roles of KRAs is to summarize the role of an employee in an organization. However, KRAs promote understanding, motivate employees, increase employee engagement, and much more.

1. Performance Review: Appraisals, rewards and recognition, bonuses, and other ways of appreciating employees become indisputably fair and unbiased when KRAs meet with tasks accomplished.
2. Time Management: Deadlines and timelines are part of KRAs and help in managing time, prioritizing tasks, and delivering projects on time.
3. Resource Allocation: Time, budget, assets, etc. are easy to allocate when an organization lists out the roles of each employee and department in the most relevant manner.
4. Employee Experience: Employees feel more valued, motivated, and engaged when their supervisors describe their roles and responsibilities in an organization and help them understand how their work fits in the bigger picture i.e. organizational goals
5. Productivity and Efficiency: When employees know what they are supposed to do and accomplish, they are expected + directed to produce better results with increased productivity.

Pareto Principle: 80% of consequences or effects come from 20% of causes i.e. 80% of the value of work will come from 20% of work done. Therefore, it is important to understand “20% of work” and define KRAs to achieve it.

5 Tips to Remember while setting KRAs

To assign KRAs and make sure they can maximize the efficiency of an organization, you can follow the five simple and easy tips:

1. Personalization as per employees’ roles: Creating the same KRAs for every employee or every department might prove to be a blunder. Remember to personalize KRAs as per employees’ strengths, qualifications, and expert areas. Performance reviews, feedback from colleagues, managers, and most importantly the employees’ say must be considered while setting up their KRAs.
2. Organizational goals and employee aspirations: Focusing on both organization and employees’ growth is necessary for defining and assigning KRAs. Strive for a balance between short-term and long-term goals as well as between career objectives of personnel and the mission of an organization.
3. Methods of performance evaluation: Key performance indicators or measures of evaluation must be clearly defined to employees in advance (both qualitative and quantitative). Try setting evaluation criteria, goal cycles around desired outcomes and on an overall performance basis.
4. Prioritization of KRAs: Multiple responsibilities are assigned to employees for accomplishing multiple goals. While describing KRAs to them, make sure to define the priorities of KRAs as it will help in increasing efficiency, better performance review, and completion of tasks on time.
5. Revision at frequent intervals: KRAs once set must be revised at regular intervals as per the changing needs and priorities of the organization. Rigid and unrealistic KRAs won’t lead businesses anywhere so it is necessary to keep up KRAs with changing times.

KRAs must be SMART

KRA Calculation

KRAs are given weightage as per the priority of tasks or result areas. The total weightage of all the areas must add up to 100%. Additionally, KRA metrics are built with quantifiable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure how the organization progressing towards accomplishing the goals.

3 Things to Know Before Assigning KRAs

For achieving goals in a smooth and channelized manner, assigning KRAs as per the employees’ position in an organization is a must. However, while assigning the KRAs, one should follow three steps:

1. Study the vision and missions of the organization

Vision and mission are defined by every organization at its initial stage. To set KRAs for employees and departments, it is necessary to align them with the mission of an organization. Thereby, supervisors or KRAs’ identifiers must deeply understand the value proposition of their company and frame KRAs accordingly.

2. Collaborate and Communicate

Before deciding KRAs for employees, managers or supervisors should communicate with personnel and request their suggestions. Two-way communication will help in better understanding, strategizing, and implementation of KRAs. This could be the best way to delegate responsibilities as per the strengths and weaknesses of individuals.

3. Define and Establish

Before establishing KRAs, supervisors must have a clear understanding of the purpose of the position, the priority of tasks, and how KRAs align with the organization’s goals. While establishing KRAs, step-by-step methods to approach goals must be taken care of so that employees can effortlessly accomplish their goals without any confusion.

8 Easy Steps to Document and Assign KRAs

KRAs help in achieving structured and targeted approaches, keep employee workforce encouraged and improve the overall efficiency of an organization.