How To Build a High-Performance Culture

Last week, we hosted our inaugural live HR Insights dinner event, featuring a panel of experts who shared their perspectives on building a high-performance culture. A special thanks to René Jansen (Lepaya), Marieke Pepers (Nmbrs), and Barbra Gago (Pando) for their valuable insights. Here are some of the key takeaways from our discussion that could be beneficial, regardless of where you are in your journey.

Define High Performance and Align It with Company Goals

Marieke, who has been instrumental in transitioning to a managerless company, emphasised the need to clearly define what high performance means within your organisation. Understanding your goals and how to achieve them is crucial. Aligning your organisational structure and benefits—such as implementing a four-day work week—with these definitions will help drive your business objectives forward.
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Build a Solid Foundation of Levels and Systems

For early-stage companies, it's essential to define job levels and create scalable systems before diving into performance management. Barbra highlighted that skipping this step often leads to misaligned expectations and outcomes, as employees are left to fill in the gaps.

Start Now

René pointed out that there will always be reasons to delay or avoid establishing a performance culture. However, the best time to act was yesterday; the second-best time is now. The longer you wait to enhance your culture and steer it toward high performance, the greater the impact of inaction will be.

Ensure HR Has a Seat in the C-Suite

Leadership can be a barrier to cultivating a high-performance culture. Marieke stressed that if your company prioritises people, then people should be represented at the highest level. Reporting to roles like the CFO or Chief Legal Officer may not fully support this priority. Having a dedicated HR leader in the C-suite will amplify the effectiveness of any cultural changes you implement.

Focus on "The How" and "The What"

Performance encompasses both “the what” (e.g., goals, OKRs) and “the how” (e.g., values, competencies). Align with your leadership team to determine the appropriate balance between these elements and build your framework accordingly. Ensure that your framework leaves no room for toxic behaviour.

AI Will Not Replace Humans.

With AI on everyone’s mind, the technology’s potential to replace managerial tasks—or even managers themselves—was a hot topic. Barbra suggested that AI could indeed handle many managerial responsibilities, while René argued that human aspects are not easily replicated. Marieke van Iperen (Settly) raised concerns about diversity and inclusion issues that could arise from AI’s "black box" nature.

There were many more insights shared during the dinner that we haven’t covered here.

Interested in joining one of our future HR Insights events? Register now at hrinsights.nl.