Manage OKRs in Viva Goals

How to manage OKR contribution

The Viva Goals OKR contribution feature gives objective creators and owners flexibility and customizability in specifying weights and measuring progress. Users can now define and control contribution at the parent level.

All the contributions add up to a total of 100 percent, and objective owners/creators can mark a child’s contribution as "fixed." This feature is available only for OKRs that have progress mode set to Updated via roll-up from key results.

Users who have edit permissions for the OKR, including check-in owners, can edit the contributions of child objectives.

You can set or edit your OKRs' contributions from the More actions dropdown list:

1. Select the Manage contributions option.

   Note

   You can also open the Manage contribution modal from the objective quick view by selecting the objective's title and also from the objective's detail view, as depicted in the following two images, respectively.

   The Manage contributions dialog box is displayed.

2. Add or edit the contributions of the children (objectives, key results, or initiatives).

   Note

   You can enable or disable the Newly aligned key results should start contributing by default toggle. By enabling this toggle (which is enabled by default), you'll allow a newly created child to contribute to the parent. This enablement will readjust the contributions you’d have assigned to each child.

3. Select Save to save all the changes.

Key points to note for OKR contribution

• OKR contribution is available only for OKRs that have progress mode set to Updated via roll-up from key results.

• All the contributions will add up to a total of 100 percent. The default contribution is automatically assigned by Viva Goals to all the children equally. For example, if an objective has three key results (children), the default contribution assigned to each child will be 33.33 percent.

• When a child's contribution is edited, the contribution is considered "fixed." If a new child is added or an existing child is removed, the contributions marked as "fixed" don't get adjusted. For example, if an objective has three key results (children), and the contribution of the first key result is edited to be 50, the contributions of the second and third key results will be automatically adjusted to 25 percent each. If a fourth key result is added in the future, only the contribution of the second and third key results will be adjusted.

• To reset all the custom contributions to the default, select the Reset to default option.

How to share OKRs with multiple teams and owners

The Shared OKRs/initiatives feature in Viva Goals is a great method for multiple teams and owners to collaborate on their key initiatives with equal ownership and ensure alignment.

When to create shared OKRs/initiatives

• When an OKR is a key priority for two or more functional teams and the team leads need to have shared accountability as the exact contribution can't be proportioned or separately broken down between them.

• When both the teams are supposed to commonly own and work toward the outcomes, it's good to tag multiple stakeholders and not just a single team/owner as accountable.

Example #1:

OBJECTIVE: Enhance the onboarding strategy.

KEY RESULT: Implement a new program to increase the repeat rate of first-time bookers.

TEAM(S): CRM Team and Marketing Team

OWNER(s): CRM Lead and Marketing lead

Example #2:

OBJECTIVE: Build a world class engineering org.

KR/INITIATIVE: Invest in two training & development sessions and capstone projects for all four engineering teams this quarter

TEAM(S): Engineering Department

OWNER(S): VP of engineering and all engineering managers

The Viva Goals flexible shared OKR models ensure that you don't have to create duplicate and redundant OKRs for every team or individual when they're going to be commonly owned, worded, and measured.

What different types of shared OKRs are possible in Viva Goals?

Shared OKRs	Description
OKRs at an organizational level	These OKRs can have multiple owners.
OKRs at team level	These OKRs can have multiple teams tagged and respective team administrators/members tagged as owners.
OKRs at individual level	These OKRs can have multiple users assigned as owners.

How to enable the shared OKRs feature for your organization

OKR administrators can turn on the "Shared OKRs" feature from the OKR & Initiatives tab in the admin settings.

How to create shared OKRs for multiple teams

1. Log in to Viva Goals and create a new OKR.
2. After you enter the objective/key result and are ready to share it with another team, select Team from the dropdown list under Type.
3. Scroll down or search via the search bar for the team of choice.
4. Select the team and save the objective/key result. You'll start sharing the OKR with that team.

Users can also assign multiple teams to initiatives by implementing this procedure.

How to create shared OKRs with multiple users as owners

1. Log in to Viva Goals, and create a new OKR.
2. After you enter the objective/key result and are ready to share it with another individual, select Owners from dropdown list under Owners. Here, you can assign multiple owners for the OKR.
3. After you select the new owner, save the objective/key result. You'll start sharing the OKR with that individual, and the user who you assigned as the owner will receive an in-app notification of the assignation.

How to assign check-in responsibility for OKRs with multiple owners

If there's just one owner or multiple owners assigned to an OKR and you want a user within the organization to check in and update the progress of the OKR, you can use the "check-in responsibility" feature.

The check-in owner will be able to check in on the OKR (manual check-in) and set up a data link on the OKR (to auto check in).

This user will get the check-in reminders. If there are multiple owners, only the user set as "check-in responsible owner" will get the reminders.

To assign responsibility for check-ins, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Viva Goals and select the + button on the top panel to create a new OKR.
2. After you enter the objective/key result and are ready to share it with another individual, select Owners from the dropdown. Here, you can assign multiple owners for the OKR.
3. Once you assign an owner, select the user who will be responsible for making check-ins from the Who is responsible for making check-ins? dropdown. Once you make the selection, the user will start receiving the check-in reminders.

By default, the owner, or the first owner if there are multiple owners, is set as the person responsible for check-ins.

How to reorder OKRs with drag and drop

To drag and drop an objective, follow these steps:

1. Hover your mouse left of the objective name until you see the icon depicted in the following image:

   

2. Select and hold to grab the objective.

3. Drag it to the desired location and alignment.

To make an objective become a key result, drag the cursor to the + Add key result icon under the objective.

You can as easily drag a key result out from under an objective to make it become an objective itself.

Note

Drag-and-drop functionality is available at the organizational, team, and individual levels.