The 5 Tenets of Building a Performance-Driven Culture

Performance-driven culture is a key pillar upon which most companies building products and services rely on to outperform the competition. It is characterized by the belief that the organization must create a conducive environment for employees to think creatively and perform at their best.

To that end, the tenets of constructing performance-driven culture are a must-read for businesses aiming for sustainability, growth, and innovation.

• Pay for Performance

Pay for performance refers to an optimal mix of HR processes, which incentivizes the best performance within the organization. The highest performing employees within the company are paid significantly more. These pay packages include special compensation schemes for specific employee groups. Career opportunities are also highlighted for top-performing employees.

Incentivizing employees motivates them to excel, thus driving a performance-driven culture within the organization. It also helps the employees to make granular decisions and own them up as they are self-motivated to perform well.

Besides, such a plan improves employee engagement within the organization. Rather than being focused on promotional opportunities, employees emphasize hitting the performance benchmarks to earn more incentives. This further enhances collaboration, thereby driving overall performance within the company.

• Goal Setting

Performance cannot be measured without setting goals first. Robust goals need to be set by employees at the beginning so that they can work collectively towards a more performance-based culture.

Some of the goals that organizations can help employees adhere to for optimal performance include:

Developing Relevant Skill Set and Expertise

Performance is directly related to the employee’s skill set. The more adept an employee is at their work, the higher their performance quotient. Employees can improve their existing skills in several different ways. They can opt for skill-building workshops, attend training sessions, or simply be given leadership roles within their respective departments. In fact, many organizations offer distance learning programs in collaboration with prestigious universities. Employees can leverage these programs to continue their education while on the job.

Ensuring Optimal Time Management

Effective time management is crucial for employees to ensure optimal productivity and performance. Employees can ensure this by:

• Creating a daily checklist of their tasks and prioritizing them as per deadlines or complexity. 
• Assigning time limits to specific tasks. For example, if the employee faces a creative block, assigning a time limit will prevent them from being stuck in that situation longer than required.

Taking Care of Well-being and Mental Health

A healthy mind and body are crucial to staying focused and performing at optimum levels. Simple measures like taking a 10 to 15 minutes break during working hours for meditation, reading, or exercise can help employees stay productive and alert.

Employees can be facilitated with guidance from professionals specializing in mental health issues, such as counselors and psychologists. Consistent engagement in these sessions can help employees maintain a healthy mind and spirit. 

• Performance Review

Data is critical for ensuring an unbiased performance review of employees. Managers can leverage data from one-on-one meetings, responses to engagement surveys, ratings from talent reviews, and hiring documents. Data can also be sourced from work style tests and feedback from pulse surveys.

Effective performance criteria should be established to define what is meant by “good performance.” Managers should also develop a coaching mentality, enabling employees to focus on growth and performance rather than past mistakes or shortcomings.

• 360-degree Review

A 360-degree review refers to a professional feedback mechanism that leverages peer feedback. This is done to gather multiple perspectives on an employee’s performance, in addition to their manager’s feedback. The 360-degree review needs to be customized according to the organization’s vision, competencies, and culture. In the case of mergers, the review process may also undergo changes.

Moreover, perception gaps should be addressed. For example, does the employee perceive their productivity differently than their peers? Finally, an action plan is critical once the 360-degree review process has been completed. This plan needs to be developed in partnership with the employee and the manager.

• Training and Development Plans

Training and development programs need to be aligned with the organization’s culture. Training plans offer a framework for employees on how their duties and tasks must be completed. It also provides a directive on what managers want from their employees.

The greater the co-creation with employees when developing training plans, the more successful they will be. That said, the training sessions should be concise. Else, they run the risk of losing employee interest. The training and development plans should also be directly related to KPIs and updated according to new organizational policies.

In a Nutshell

Altogether, a performance-driven culture can be achieved by ensuring that employees are at the heart of the growth initiative. Keeping the above tenets in mind will ensure businesses continue producing top-performing employees and driving positive results.

Pierian Services can simplify the process by helping organizations focus on high-value tasks. We take care of everything from payroll management to workforce analytics and reporting, recruitment management, employee lifecycle administration, and more. To know more, connect with us.