# From a company objective to an individual one: the OKR cascade

Continuing the Meridian Interiors story from
[Branches, departments, and job positions: a multi-site company](https://docs.blueonehr.com/books/enterprise/page/branches-departments-and-job-positions-a-multi-site-company):
this page follows one objective down from a company-wide goal to a single site engineer, through
the **OKRs** screen (objectives and key results) and, alongside it, **Review cycles**.

*Illustrative demonstration prepared using publicly available company context and synthetic
data. This page does not represent a production deployment, customer endorsement, or use of
real employee data.*

<div class="bon-video">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DVP4NHhfda4" title="From a company objective to an individual one: the OKR cascade" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVP4NHhfda4">From a company objective to an individual one: the OKR cascade</a></p>
</div>

## Five levels, one chain

An objective sits at one of five levels, and a child objective must sit strictly below its parent:
**Company**, **Business unit**, **Function**, **Team** and **Individual**. The **Cascade** tab under
**OKRs** draws the whole chain for the people allowed to see it, with each objective's level, its
status and its progress. An individual objective needs an owner; a business unit, function or team
objective is attached to an org unit.

## Org units: the structure behind the cascade

The **Org units** tab lists the business units, functions and teams the cascade hangs off. Each unit
can be nested under the one above it, mapped to a department, and given a head. Creating or moving
an org unit needs HR authority. For Meridian Interiors the demo uses one of each: a *Project
Delivery* business unit, a *Site Execution* function, and a *Mumbai HQ Fit-out Team*.

## Objective, key result, progress

An objective carries one or more key results (the product also supports KPI and KRA types), each
with a baseline, a target and a current value. A key result's progress is how far the current value
has moved from the baseline toward the target. An objective's own progress is the weighted average
of its key results, and a parent objective rolls up the weighted average of its active children;
draft and pending children are left out until they are approved.

Recording progress is a separate, append-only step: each update stores a value, an optional note and
an evidence reference, and the objective must already be **Active**. In the demo, one engineer's key
result (*fit-out milestones handed over on schedule*, target 8) is recorded at 4, which is 50%, and
the same figure then shows on the team, function, business unit and company objectives above it.

## Approval is maker-checker

A draft objective is submitted for approval through the company's own approval chain. The person
who created an objective, and the person who owns it, cannot approve it: someone else on the chain
does, and only then does it become active. In the demo, the engineer's objective was created by
Sanjay Oberoi, so Sanjay's screen offers no approval action on it, while Devika Rane, a different
person on the chain, approves it.

## Review cycles

**Review cycles** is the neighbouring screen where HR sets up a performance review. A new cycle
starts in the **Draft** phase, and from there HR can open self review or assign employees. The
recording stops at the new draft cycle; it does not follow a cycle through self review, manager
review or any rating.

## What to know

- Branch-level visibility for OKRs is not enabled yet, so every objective in a company is listed
  regardless of branch. The OKRs screens say so directly.
- The older **Performance** objectives and key results screens are a separate module; see
  [How performance works](https://docs.blueonehr.com/books/performance/page/how-performance-works).

## Related reading

- [Branches, departments, and job positions: a multi-site company](https://docs.blueonehr.com/books/enterprise/page/branches-departments-and-job-positions-a-multi-site-company)
- [The connected HR lifecycle](https://docs.blueonehr.com/books/enterprise/page/the-connected-hr-lifecycle)
- [How performance works](https://docs.blueonehr.com/books/performance/page/how-performance-works)