Most Indian MSME owners who set up a KRA sheet do not abandon it because the idea was wrong. They abandon it because of a small number of avoidable design mistakes that show up in month one and surface as neglect by month three. The free KRA template on this site (available here) was built specifically to avoid these — this article makes that design thinking explicit, so it is useful whether or not that particular template is the one in use.
The death of a KRA sheet is rarely dramatic. A review gets skipped “just this once,” the spreadsheet drifts into a rarely opened folder, and by the next appraisal season nobody can find the current version, let alone the last set of numbers. The five reasons below cover almost every real case seen in practice.
The five reasons KRA sheets get abandoned
No source of data named against each measure. Many templates list a metric such as “customer satisfaction” or “team ownership” without specifying where that number will actually come from. Six months in, nobody can produce it on demand, and a measure with no source is a measure that quietly stops being reviewed rather than one that gets fixed.
Too many metrics. A sheet with fifteen or twenty KRAs per role looks thorough on the day it is designed and is unworkable at review time. Nobody genuinely tracks twenty things every month in a business with no dedicated MIS function; the sheet becomes a form filled in from memory rather than a document backed by real data.
No review cadence. A KRA sheet with no fixed monthly or quarterly review date competes with everything else on a busy owner’s calendar and loses every time. If a review does not have a date attached to it before the cycle starts, it does not happen.
No named ownership. Someone has to own keeping the sheet current — collecting the numbers, scheduling the review, updating it when a role changes. Without one named owner, usually HR or the owner personally in a smaller firm, the sheet has no maintenance and decays the moment its author gets pulled onto something more urgent, which in an MSME is constantly.
Copied from a template with no adaptation. A downloaded template filled in without adjusting the KRAs to the role as it is actually performed in that specific business reads as generic from day one, and both the employee and the manager know it. It gets treated as paperwork rather than a real measurement tool, because it was never made to fit the job in front of them.
How a well-designed template addresses each one
| Mistake | Why it kills the sheet | What a well-designed template does instead |
|---|---|---|
| No source of data | The number can never be produced when the review comes around | Every measure carries a source-of-data column naming the exact register or report it will be read from |
| Too many metrics | Nobody can track fifteen things monthly without a dedicated MIS team | Kept to a practical ceiling — four to five KRAs and eight to ten measures per role |
| No review cadence | Competes with everything else and loses | A fixed monthly or quarterly date set before the first cycle starts, not after |
| No named ownership | The sheet has no maintenance once its author is distracted | One person named against keeping the sheet current, separate from who is being measured |
| Copied with no adaptation | Reads as generic paperwork to the person being measured | Built as a starting structure to be adapted to the role as it is actually performed, not filled in as-is |
Is your KRA sheet at risk
A quick check, since most sheets fail quietly rather than obviously. If three or more of these are true, the sheet is already at risk this quarter, whether or not it looks fine sitting in the folder.
- Nobody can name, without checking, which register or report each number on the sheet comes from.
- The last review happened more than one quarter ago, or has no date fixed for the next one.
- More than ten measures exist across the role’s KRAs.
- No single person is responsible for keeping the sheet updated between reviews.
- The sheet was filled in from a downloaded template without changing anything to match how the role is actually done in this business.
What not to do
Do not download a template and skip the source-of-data column to save time — this is the single most common reason a sheet dies later, and it is also the cheapest one to prevent at the start. Do not try to rescue a struggling KRA sheet by adding more metrics; the fix is almost always fewer measures with a real source behind each one, not broader coverage. Do not assign the review to “whoever has time” — name one person, even if that person is the owner. And do not treat the first quarter’s numbers as final: a KRA set is expected to be tuned once real data starts coming in, and refusing to adjust it is its own way of guaranteeing abandonment.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most common reason a KRA sheet gets abandoned
Missing sources of data. A metric with no named register or report behind it cannot be produced at review time, and once one number cannot be produced, the whole review tends to get skipped rather than partially completed.
How often should a KRA sheet be reviewed
Monthly for roles with fast-moving numbers such as sales, and at minimum quarterly for every other role. The exact frequency matters less than fixing the date in advance, before the first cycle starts.
Who should own updating the KRA sheet
One named person, separate from whoever is being measured. In most MSMEs this is HR or the owner directly; the specific choice matters less than the fact that exactly one person, not a shared responsibility, is accountable for it.
Can a generic downloaded template work without any changes
Rarely for more than one cycle. A template is a starting structure. It needs the KRAs and measures adjusted to match how the role is actually performed in that specific business, or it reads as paperwork to the person being measured and gets treated accordingly.
What should be done if a KRA sheet has already been abandoned
Restart with fewer measures rather than trying to revive the existing sheet as-is. Pick three or four KRAs with a genuine, named data source for each, fix a review date before starting, and name one owner. A smaller sheet that is actually used every quarter is worth more than a comprehensive one nobody opens.
Getting started
The free KRA template on this site includes a source-of-data column against every measure for exactly this reason, with ready sheets already built for an HR and Admin Manager and a Field Sales Executive. If a role-specific starting point would help, the companion guides on KRAs for an HR and Admin Manager and KRAs for a Field Sales Executive apply this same thinking to two roles that are often measured badly, and the KRA vs KPI design guide covers the thinking behind the structure itself. If the whole system — design, weights, a working review cadence, and named ownership — needs to be set up and run properly rather than assembled from a template, get in touch to discuss your scope.
By Dr. Babu Balakrishnan — management consultant and HR practitioner. Discuss your scope.