How Should Weighing KRAs for Finance Managers Reflect Their Real Work Challenges?

Hi,

Can anyone help me understand the KRA and the weights to be given for finance people?

The key point is that jobs in finance are often seen as routine and may not be considered as key areas. The weights assigned to various jobs are sometimes based on how superiors perceive them rather than the actual involvement level of the delivery manager.

When deliveries are completed according to agreed norms, the rating typically falls at 3 on a scale of 0-5, where 0 is low, 3 is acceptable, and 5 is exceptional.

Does achieving all goals without fail and without any compliance issues warrant a 5 rating?

One specific scenario involves managing the salaries of 550 employees with no junior support, where only data entry processing is outsourced. The company is not on an integrated database, and there are 10 offices to collect information from. The manager is expected to ensure 100% compliance regarding timely payments and taxation of various reimbursements, which are not processed through payroll but at different locations and reported at various intervals on demand.

I am seeking your suggestion on how much weight should be given to this task for a manager out of a total weight of 100.

I am looking forward to your kind suggestions and advice.

Thanks,

Pankaj

Pankaj,

In developing Key Result Areas with clients in various industries, I've discovered over the years that there are some significant issues with recognition factors, specifically inherent to finance and marketing.

You've obviously recognized this, and that's what led to the posting.

Let me just say first, that your single manager you've identified is expected to carry out all the various functions across several venues; does the company expect that he will complete all these functions without any issue, little help, and with no errors or omissions? If so, that expectation level should - in my estimation - equal a 2.5 out of 5... and in no case more than a 3. A 5 out of 5 in evaluative circles would mean that the employee extends his sphere of influence and decision-making, as well as actions, significantly beyond expectations. Rarely should a level of 5 out of 5 be expected.

Now to the key point at hand. You've asked a much more significant question in your posting. What value of 100 should significant responsibility carry? In this case, it should most likely represent 80% of the 100% total of the KRA. It all goes back to the analysis completed of the roles, however. What value does management attach to Finance? What percentage of the rating is finance offered as one of the Key Result Areas of the business? Depending on the business, it may be significant or it may be lesser.

As I mentioned, marketing is the same issue. Marketing, like finance, may or may not offer immediately measurable and attainable results. Where performance perceptions interfere with KRA execution, the process must be kept pure for evaluative purposes. To not do so brings the process under scrutiny by those being evaluated.

Let me know if I can help further.

Alan

Dear Alan,

Thank you for your valuable input. In the current situation, the level of delivery for this position is as follows: 3 for unsupervised work, 4 with little supervision, and 5 with no supervision. The position is at the Manager level.

Another point that requires more focus is that the database is not integrated. All inputs for payroll need to be collected from various locations in different formats, such as printed documents, Excel files, emails, or over the phone.

Thank you again,
Pankaj