KRAs or Key Result Areas are valuable evaluation and appraisal tools in businesses that organizations in different industries and sectors implement for their growth and development strategies. These business reports are critical to the success of an organization, making them an essential document that organizations consider if they want to yield positive results.
[bb_toc content=”][/bb_toc]
KRA Definition & Meaning
KRA (Key Result Areas) is a document that refers to the general metrics and parameters of a specific role or position in an organization fixed to that specific role.
The KRA outlines the information that individuals see on their job profiles, capturing the duties and responsibilities of a person for a specific job position.
What Is a KRA?
Key result areas (KRAs) broadly represent the job specification for the employee and allow them to have a clearer understanding of their role; they must be well-defined, measurable, and easy to quantify to guarantee that employees align their responsibility with that of the institution. KRAs are broad categories or topics on which the worker must focus throughout the year, with objectives and standards for each KRA that are easily measurable. KRAs differ from one organization to the next and from one job profile to the next, but they generally sum up the job profile with the key impact areas on which the staff must perform.
10 Types of KRA
Employee KRA
An employee KRA contains information about a specific employee role in the organization, defining their job description and profile, with the KRA accurately matching the position with realistic and limited expectations. The employee KRA must have a written account or report that all parties can review, agree on, and sign since it involves the role of an employee in an organization. An employee’s KRA should list their name, department, and supervisor, including a description of their key responsibilities and how they contribute to the company’s strategic goals.
Department KRA
The department KRA applies to a specific organizational department, following the description and role of the specific department in its activities and tasks, affecting the organization. It is a key internal or external area where the company works to create significant positive results to advance toward its development objectives and realize its vision. Department KRAs must be measurable, precise, and detailed. They typically include three to five key result areas and rarely have more than seven.
Sales KRA
KRAs vary from each department, agency, and organization, and the KRAs are specific to the role of the individual or team that manages a specific matter. When it comes to a sales KRA, the metrics focus on a sales manager, department, or staff, and how they can convert revenue or manage tax forms for each product or service. Some examples of the KRAs in a sales KRA include the effective implementation of sales strategies, an increase in the number of prospective customers, and an increase in the profit margin.
Procurement KRA
A purchasing or procurement KRA refers to broad categories of outputs or outcomes for which a process or function is accountable, with an individual or a group in charge of the results of key result areas. Employees can better match their roles with the overarching corporate aim by using the purchasing department’s key result areas. While procurement managers look for methods to make the procurement process more sustainable and streamlined, modern organizations want the procurement function to provide value beyond cost reductions.
Marketing KRA
Marketing KRAs focus on the marketing department, manager, staff, and all other individuals whose roles coincide with the marketing aspects of the organization wherein they are responsible for specific areas in marketing. Marketing KRAs focus on specific job descriptions of staff and individuals in the marketing department by defining what they need to do to accomplish a specific task. Examples of marketing KRAs include handling customs waivers for importing marketing materials, and accomplishing marketing strategies and plan together with their implementation.
Warehouse KRA
A warehouse KRA focuses on measuring and defining the performance of individuals responsible for warehousing duties in an organization, including the warehouse manager and staff. The KRA focuses on the duties and responsibilities of these people, identifying how they must perform specific tasks and activities to benefit the organization. Some examples of the warehouse KRA include acquiring accurate stocks and inventories and delivering precise inventory to revenue ratio to guarantee the company increases its sales without losing supply.
Recruitment KRA
The recruitment KRA covers an aspect of the human resources department focused on recruiting new hires into the organization, starting from interviews, assessments, and onboarding processes. When developing recruitment KRAs for the recruitment team, they must be clear and specific, as they have the authority and responsibility of handling employee careers. Recruitment KRAs include curating lists of potential candidates for a vacant position, following up with applicants, and doing verification procedures and cross-checking.
Project Management KRA
A project management KRA identifies all the responsibilities and tasks of individuals working under the project management department, including its managers and staff members. The KRA must effectively and accurately communicate the specific responsibilities of an individual working in project management to contribute to the project’s success. Project management KRAs include descriptions and duties of individuals, including implementing project plans, managing budget allocations and price quotes, and designating health and safety standards.
SaaS Metrics KRA
SaaS (software as a service) companies, departments, and employees focus on delivering their services over the internet for customers and clients to access worldwide. SaaS metrics KRA define the duties and responsibilities of individuals working in the SaaS industry or department, associating them with the metrics or KPI of an organization. The KRA includes different tasks and activities for each metric in retaining customers, selling more services, and adhering to timeframes or timelines in delivering required services.
Call Center KRA
A call center KRA consists of clear and accurate work descriptions of individuals working under a call center company intending to perform their tasks in line with the organization’s objectives. The document helps employees to classify their roles and responsibilities in performing activities and duties according to the metrics and KPIs of the organization. Some of the descriptions that individuals can see in a call center KRA includes daily and weekly tasks, including answering a specific amount of calls, addressing inquiries positively, and recording calls and conversations completely.
KRA Uses, Purpose, Importance
Every organization and business utilizes KRAs towards the institution’s overall growth and development, making it a fundamental element in daily business operations for many in various industries. With the world market constantly changing and consolidating and competitive businesses between and outside industries challenging one another in productivity, innovation, and value, focusing on exemplary results. As such, it is one of the principal reasons why many industries, organizations, and companies apply KRAs for their management and overall business operations.
Indicates Critical Success Factors in the Company
By using Key Result Areas or KRAs, organizations can track the overall success status of the organization, which is critical for its growth and development. Businesses across different industries that are using KRAs improve their organizational communication across all departments and define ongoing responsibilities from team leaders to the staff. All the various factors enhancing the performance of an organization toward its goals are all defined by the KRA for a stable process of success.
Keeps Team Members Focused and Accountable
Management, including team leaders and project managers, together with its employees, has a limited time to finish all their assigned tasks, with the KRA guaranteeing that everyone utilizes their time effectively. It guarantees that all members of an organization fulfill their duties in different areas of responsibility to produce the most returns on their investment or ROI. By performing their duties and being accountable for the activities and tasks that they do daily, they can focus more on accomplishing their assignments.
Leads to Unified Direction Toward Key Drivers of Success
By using a KRA, the process fortifies and strengthens the overall company structure while defining the company’s future targets for a unified direction toward success. It helps teams to focus on the results and operational objectives to bring those results to reality through similar initiatives. When setting the key drivers towards success measurements, the KRA must be measurable, under their direct control, and essential to sustainable business growth.
Increases New Hires and Talent Retention
When it comes to the HR department, using a KRA helps the process of increasing new hires and employment and retaining existing talent in the organization. It also enables the HR staff to develop learning and training programs to guarantee that the workforce shows an improvement in their performance and techniques. Generating the KRA helps the HR team to determine the best way the administration of learning timeframes for their employees to fully understand their potential.
Defines Team Roles and Goals
A KRA’s goal is to define and measure the critical growth areas of a corporation, aligning with its goals and strategic vision. An agency, institution, or business can have numerous employees and departments, but it cannot function effectively without a singular, shared, and defined objective it must follow. Using the KRA simplifies the identification of team roles and responsibilities and the link of these activities to achieve organizational goals to increase productivity, revenue, and sales.
What’s In a KRA? Parts?
Employee Name
The KRA contains the employee’s name that the KRA covers to guarantee that the document refers to a specific individual.
Department
The KRA also identifies the employee’s specific department, stating whether they are from the sales, marketing, finance, or engineering departments.
Supervisor
Under the supervisor category, the organization indicates the name of the employee’s supervisor or department head directly under their jurisdiction.
Role Description
The role description section lists and describes an employee’s role and responsibilities, including their most relevant duties and tasks.
How the Role Fits Company Goals
After defining the roles and responsibilities of the individual, the next section states how their position matches an organization’s strategic objectives.
Performance Expectations
The section lists and identifies what an organization expects out of a person’s performance in their work environment.
Performance Metrics
The performance metrics detail the metrics that a company uses to measure and assess the quality of work in the listed areas.
How To Design a KRA?
1. Determine the KRA Size
2. Specify the Purpose of Creating the KRA
3. Select the KRA Templates
4. Provide a Broad Definition of the Job Profile
5. Fit the KRA into the Job Position
6. Develop SMART KRA
7. Designate a Limited and Realistic Number
KRA Vs. KPI
KRA is a business document that is qualitative and subjective, acting as a tool to specify company areas that are beneficial to obtaining high quality and value for the organization.
On the other hand, KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are more quantitative and measurable business documents evaluating the overall performance of a product, service, or business in the global marketplace.
What’s the Difference Between a KRA, OKR & Feedback?
KRAs are clear, specific, and measurable, enabling organizations to have a clear data assessment of the results, gauging if companies achieve them and how well an entity achieves them.
OKRs, or Objective and Key Results, represent a strategic framework containing a simplistic approach using specific measurements in tracking the achievement of a goal.
Feedback, on the other hand, contains information valuable to make vital company decisions and clarifies expectations, regardless if an individual receives a positive or negative impression.
KRA Sizes
Many companies and organizations use KRA as a part of their business strategy to increase performance, increase revenue, and enhance productivity for overall company growth. Industries applying the presence of a KRA in respective plans follow compliance standards like KRA sizes equating to a letter, legal, and A4-sized document.
- Letter (8.5 x 11 inches)
- Legal (8.5 x 14 inches)
- A4 (8.3 × 11.7 inches)
KRA Ideas & Examples
KRAs are flexible documents that target specific people in different departments and industries, utilizing the document in every aspect and area of an organization. As such, various KRA ideas are prevalent in industries and departments, including sales, marketing, human resources, production, and customer services, among others.
- KRA Ideas and Examples
- Logistics KRA Ideas and Examples
- HR KRA Ideas and Examples
- Ecommerce KRA Ideas and Examples
- Insurance KRA Ideas and Examples
- Healthcare KRA Ideas and Examples
- Social Media KRA Ideas and Examples
- SEO KRA Ideas and Examples
- Email Marketing KRA Ideas and Examples
- Maintenance KRA Ideas and Examples
- Library KRA Ideas and Examples
FAQs
What should be filled in a key result area?
When completing a key result area document, it must incorporate the employee’s name, department, supervisor’s name, role description, and how the role fits with company goals, performance expectations, and metrics.
What is a KRA in a business plan?
A KRA in a business plan refers to a strategy that influences internal and external factors to achieve positive results together with its strategic goals.
How do companies write KRA?
Companies write KRAs by specifying the individual’s name, department, supervisor, job description, their role relating to company objectives, performance expectations, and metrics.
What is the main function of key result areas?
The primary function of key result areas helps workers to better understand their roles and responsibilities.
Who prepares the KRA?
It is the responsibility of the HR head to develop a KRA.
What is the key result area vision statement?
The vision statement for a KRA defines the goals of an organization and how employees contribute to achieving these goals toward the company’s success.
How important is KRA in assessing managerial effectiveness?
KRAs enable managerial effectiveness assessment by gauging how managers fulfill their tasks and duties.
What does a key result area (KRA) indicate?
The KRA contains information about an organization’s structural and strategic goals to guide individuals to perform their jobs effectively.
Why do you need key result areas?
Organizations need key result areas to aid organizations in measuring and tracking employee progress aligned with organizational goals.
What is KRA in the performance management system?
KRAs refer to the outcome and outputs of different employees with different roles affecting an institution.