Betterworks OKRs and cascading goal architecture
The OKR module is Betterworks' foundation.
The OKR module is Betterworks' foundation. Objectives are created at the company, business unit, department, team, and individual levels with explicit parent-child relationships that form a cascading alignment tree. The alignment visualization shows how every goal in the organization connects to strategic priorities, from the CEO's annual objectives to an individual contributor's quarterly key results.
Key results support multiple measurement types and can be updated manually through the interface, through manager check-ins, or automatically via integrations with business intelligence and CRM systems. The OKR cycle management tools support quarterly, semi-annual, or annual goal-setting cadences with automated rollover and archiving.
Alignment tree and strategic visibility
The alignment tree provides a navigable visualization of goal relationships across the organization. Clicking any objective reveals its parent objectives (what it supports) and child objectives (what supports it). Leadership can see at a glance which strategic priorities have strong cascading alignment and which are disconnected from the organization's work.
Key result measurement and automated tracking
Key results support numeric, percentage, currency, and binary measurement types. Progress can be updated manually or connected to external data sources — Salesforce for revenue goals, Jira for engineering metrics, Google Analytics for marketing objectives. Automated tracking reduces the admin burden of manual progress updates and provides real-time accuracy.
Betterworks continuous feedback and recognition
The continuous feedback framework supports three types of feedback: recognition (public praise), developmental feedback (private, growth-oriented), and requested feedback (solicited from specific colleagues).
The continuous feedback framework supports three types of feedback: recognition (public praise), developmental feedback (private, growth-oriented), and requested feedback (solicited from specific colleagues). All feedback types are captured in the employee's profile and are accessible during performance review cycles, creating a longitudinal record of contributions and development areas.
The recognition component includes value-tagging, where kudos are linked to company values, and a public feed that makes recognition visible across the team or organization. The developmental feedback component is private by default and visible only to the recipient and their manager, protecting psychological safety while still creating documentation.
Feedback request workflows
Employees can request feedback from any colleague at any time — after a project, presentation, or collaboration. Requests include context prompts that help the feedback provider focus their response. Requested feedback is stored in the employee's profile and surfaces during review cycles, ensuring that peer perspectives inform evaluations beyond the direct manager's view.
Recognition and value alignment
Public recognition messages are tagged with company values, creating data on which values are most actively reinforced through peer behavior. Recognition analytics show distribution patterns — which teams give and receive the most recognition, which values are most cited, and whether recognition is concentrated among a few individuals or distributed broadly.
Betterworks check-ins and structured 1:1 conversations
The check-in module provides configurable conversation templates for regular manager-employee meetings.
The check-in module provides configurable conversation templates for regular manager-employee meetings. Templates include sections for OKR progress review, recent feedback discussion, development planning, engagement topics, and blockers. HR admins configure default templates by manager level or department, ensuring baseline conversation quality across the organization.
Check-in data is stored persistently and feeds into performance reviews. Managers who conduct regular check-ins have documented evidence of ongoing conversations, coaching commitments, and development support — which reduces the 'I did not know about that issue' problem that surfaces during formal reviews.
Check-in template design and customization
HR admins create check-in templates with required and optional sections. Required sections ensure that critical topics (OKR progress, recent feedback) are addressed in every conversation. Optional sections let managers and employees add context-specific topics. Templates can vary by manager level — executive check-ins might emphasize strategic alignment while frontline manager check-ins focus on team health and individual development.
Check-in analytics and manager accountability
The analytics dashboard tracks check-in completion rates by manager, department, and business unit. Leadership can see which managers are conducting regular conversations and which are not. Completion rates correlate with engagement outcomes and performance review quality, creating a data-driven argument for management accountability.
Betterworks performance reviews and calibration
The performance review module supports configurable review cycles with self-assessments, manager evaluations, peer reviews, and upward feedback.
The performance review module supports configurable review cycles with self-assessments, manager evaluations, peer reviews, and upward feedback. Reviews can incorporate OKR completion data, check-in history, and continuous feedback automatically, creating a comprehensive evaluation that draws on the full year's data rather than recency-biased recall.
The calibration engine is the enterprise differentiator. It presents performance rating distributions across managers and departments in a matrix format, enabling leadership teams to identify and correct scoring inconsistencies. Calibration sessions are documented within the platform, with rationale notes for every adjustment.
Data-informed review composition
Performance reviews automatically pull in relevant data from other Betterworks modules — OKR completion rates, check-in frequency and notes, continuous feedback received, and recognition history. This pre-populated data reduces the evaluation burden on managers and ensures that reviews reflect the full performance period rather than the most recent events.
Multi-level calibration workflows
Calibration supports multiple levels — manager-level calibration within teams, director-level calibration across teams, and VP-level calibration across departments. Each level refines the rating distribution before it reaches the final stage. The multi-level approach is designed for organizations with complex hierarchies where single-level calibration is insufficient.
Betterworks analytics and performance insights
The analytics platform provides dashboards covering OKR health (completion rates, alignment depth, update frequency), performance management adoption (check-in completion, review completion, feedback volume), and outcome analysis (correlation between goal achievement and performance ratings, recognition patterns, engagement indicators)..
The analytics platform provides dashboards covering OKR health (completion rates, alignment depth, update frequency), performance management adoption (check-in completion, review completion, feedback volume), and outcome analysis (correlation between goal achievement and performance ratings, recognition patterns, engagement indicators).
Custom report building supports drill-down by any organizational dimension — business unit, department, team, location, job level. Data export capabilities support integration with enterprise people analytics platforms like Visier or custom BI environments. The analytics layer is designed for HR leaders and people analytics teams, not for individual employees.
OKR health and alignment analytics
The OKR dashboard shows goal completion rates, alignment depth (how many levels of the organization have cascading goals), and update frequency (how often employees update their key results). These metrics indicate whether the OKR practice is active and producing meaningful data, or whether goals have been set and forgotten.
Performance management adoption metrics
Adoption dashboards track check-in completion rates, review cycle participation, feedback volume, and recognition frequency across the organization. These metrics help HR leaders identify which parts of the organization are engaging with the performance management process and where additional enablement or accountability is needed.
Betterworks integrations and enterprise ecosystem connectivity
Betterworks integrates with enterprise HCM platforms — Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR — for user provisioning, organizational structure sync, and performance data exchange.
Betterworks integrates with enterprise HCM platforms — Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR — for user provisioning, organizational structure sync, and performance data exchange. Productivity integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Jira. SSO support covers Okta, Azure AD, OneLogin, and SAML-based providers.
The integration architecture supports bi-directional data flow for enterprise use cases. Performance ratings from Betterworks can flow back to Workday for compensation decisions. Goal data can sync with project management tools to connect strategic objectives to operational execution.
HCM and HRIS integration for organizational data
The HRIS integration syncs employee data, reporting relationships, department structures, cost centers, and employment status into Betterworks automatically. Organizational changes propagate within the sync cycle (typically daily), keeping goal cascading, review populations, and analytics current without manual intervention.
Productivity tool integration for workflow embedding
The Slack and Teams integrations deliver check-in reminders, feedback notifications, and OKR update prompts within the messaging tools employees use daily. Goal progress can be updated from Slack without opening the Betterworks interface. Jira integration connects engineering sprint work to individual OKRs, providing automated progress tracking for technical teams.