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By Jo Geraghty
“High-performance workplace culture” is one of those phrases that seems straightforward. Isn’t it just “a business culture where people perform at a high level”?
When we start to break that idea down, though, it becomes more complex. How do we define “high” performance? Is it about results, consistency, brilliance or sustainability? And what creates that performance? Motivation, reward, happiness, purpose, support?
To us, a High Performance Culture isn’t a happy accident. It takes work, thought, consideration and empathy. It takes dedication, motivation and purpose. And it’s absolutely worth the journey.
High Performance Cultures aren’t simply results-driven, hard-nosed and profit-focused. They are people-driven and values-driven. Profit and great results are what happens when you create a culture of motivated, supported teams who understand their roles.
A High Performance Culture isn’t a list of tasks to put in place, although it will eventually lead to tasks being handled better. It begins at a deeper level: a shared set of goals, underpinned by clear expectations that may vary from company to company, and even from team to team.
“The difference between an organic culture that just develops over time and a High Performance Culture,” explains Emma Haslam, one of Culture Consultancy’s directors, “is first off, a focus on continuous improvement of mindset, behaviours, and perspectives and habits. Then the second part is around outcomes and results – what you’re looking to achieve. The ‘from’ and the ‘to.’ What do outstanding results look like? Not just from a business perspective, but also from a people perspective.”
High performance means a team working at their best and at their most satisfied. A high performance team culture means each member understands their mission and their part in it. They know their job, and they know why they’re doing it. Everyone is pulling in the same direction, and they know why that is the direction to pull in. They share the same values.
It is not about driving people beyond their limits. It is about creating the conditions where every part of the organisation is well aligned, well supported and able to perform effectively over time.
High Performance Cultures make businesses more profitable. The outcomes of a High Performance Culture, including employee satisfaction, lower turnover, psychological safety and resilience against changing circumstances, benefit the bottom line as well as creating a community of people who get more out of their work.
In a High Performance Culture, team members are well-equipped and motivated to perform their roles. Tasks are completed at the right time, problems are identified and fixed, and employee hours are used efficiently. In an inefficient culture, work that is late or poor quality often takes more time to correct and may be passed up to senior team members to fix. The organisation ends up paying for the same task twice.
Engaged employees also perform better. Research commissioned by Marks & Spencer found that stores where employees felt more engaged delivered, on average, £62 million more in sales annually. Gallup found that businesses with the highest employee engagement scores were 18% more productive than those with the lowest scores.
Poor company culture can also be expensive when it comes to staff turnover. Research from Robert Walters found that over half of millennials cited company culture as a source of disappointment in a new job, with 25% saying they would leave an organisation to seek a more fulfilling role.
A 2022 study by Reed.co.uk revealed that 25% of British workers were considering leaving their job within the year. Many of the reasons were linked to culture: toxic workplace culture, poor management, feeling undervalued and lack of career progression. These are all issues that a High Performance Culture can address.
Culture Consultancy’s Jo Geraghty says,
“the relationship between employer and employee has fundamentally and irreversibly shifted. The days of ‘carrot and stick’ are long gone. Today’s workforce wants to be treated like ‘grown-ups’. They want an employee value proposition that clearly articulates the cultural and behavioural contract between both parties.”
Younger people are actively looking for exciting and rewarding workplace cultures. Research commissioned in 2022 by HR software company Breathe found that 86% of 18 to 34-year-olds cited company culture as a top priority in job searching. Clear communication, psychological safety and protection against burnout all ranked highly in their decisions. More than half said they would be less likely, or would never apply for, a role that did not mention company culture.
There is never a bad time for a business to ensure it has a productive workplace culture, but it becomes particularly important when times are tough. Economic downturns, rising inflation, recession and cost-of-living pressures affect all organisations. Traditionally, savings are made by cutting headcount, benefits or office costs. These may reduce immediate costs, but they do not necessarily build long-term performance.
Changes to company culture, although harder to bring about and sustain, can pay off significantly through greater efficiency, engagement and resilience. A High Performance Culture future-proofs an organisation by creating a team that feels invested and satisfied, rather than undervalued and under threat.
Companies that focus only on spending cuts risk creating poor company cultures, which in turn perform poorly. What may appear to be “soft” or “fluffy” expenses, such as training, development and employee engagement, are often essential components of a high performance culture.
As Emma says, “If you just focus on the hard cost-cutting measures, not on the culture, you’re going to have a very specific culture that only a very small proportion of people will want to work for. You run the risk of things like groupthink bias; not delivering your client needs, because maybe your clients are more diverse. The impact is quite severe if you just focus on the business metrics.”
In an era where sites like Glassdoor give employees a platform to share public feedback, poor handling of company culture can also affect the quality of candidates likely to apply for future roles.
There are dozens of factors that can define or contribute to a high performance workplace culture. Ultimately, though, they ladder up into a handful of key themes. Each one supports the others.
Members of a team should know the direction the company is heading in and feel invested in that mission. They need to believe in the purpose, understand the journey and know their role within it.
In a High Performance Culture, the team shares the values and aims of the organisation. This creates a shared vocabulary, reduces confusion and provides the foundation on which everything else is built.
In a High Performance Culture, team members need to feel comfortable in their roles and in the organisation as a whole. A strong culture is one that practises radical candour.
Colleagues should feel able to speak up when they need to, without being judged for their views. Mistakes should be treated as opportunities to learn, rather than reasons to blame or punish. Crucially, radical candour is not about consensus. Disagreements are natural and can be useful in finding the right path.
When psychological safety is taken seriously, disagreement becomes a positive force rather than the basis of destructive conflict.
Building diversity and an inclusive environment into a business is the right thing to do. It also supports the shared values and open communication needed for a High Performance Culture.
The business case is clear too. Diverse teams are better placed to drive creativity, innovation and profitability because they bring different perspectives and ways of thinking. They also better reflect a diverse marketplace.
Inclusion and diversity are also vital for attracting and retaining the right people. A 2017 study by Hays found that 77% of employees believe diversity and inclusion programmes are important to recruitment and retention.
Team members need to feel that they can grow within their roles, rather than becoming boxed in. A growth mindset means being open to new skills, new approaches and new opportunities.
In a High Performance Culture, people are more willing to take calculated risks, adapt to changing needs and spot opportunities to prove themselves.
Team members thrive when they feel empowered and trusted.
Empowerment gives employees confidence and self-worth, but it also improves productivity. When people are able to solve problems and make decisions within their area, their time is used more effectively.
Delegating and empowering team members to make relevant decisions is a better use of paid hours. Low empowerment, meanwhile, can lead to a workforce that is reluctant to go the extra mile.
However, empowerment does not mean leaving people alone. In a High Performance Culture, people feel trusted and supported by managers and colleagues.
For a High Performance Culture to take root, it cannot be blocked by toxic behaviours. Employees need to feel safe from unexpected changes of direction and well briefed when change does occur.
Pushing employees to work longer hours to maximise productivity creates a pressured and uncomfortable environment. Gossip, bullying, poor transparency and unclear progression all contribute to a toxic atmosphere. Some people burn out. Others do the minimum expected or leave.
In a High Performance Culture, employees are more engaged, more satisfied and more motivated to perform.
Co-Founder & Director
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