'Increases in role clarity tended to precede increases in performance'
The top 1% of workers are responsible for 10% of a company’s output, while the top 5% account for 25% of an organisation’s productivity.
That is just one of the top line results analysed from two years of comprehensive research encompassing more than 200,000 employees across 741 companies between June 2020 and June 2022 by people scientists at Culture Amp.
The research revealed that high performers are: highly motivated by constructive feedback; want internal processes to focus on improvement with consistent unbiased standards; and need sufficient resources to enable them to succeed in their job.
Performance management
“It was surprising to find that high performers are uniquely motivated by constructive feedback,” Dr Joel Davies, senior people scientist at Culture Amp in Sydney, said.
“When we compared the drivers of motivation across different levels of performance, we found that high performers are much more motivated by receiving feedback that helps them improve their performance.”
High performers seem to be highly motivated by personal growth, and constructive feedback is one of the best ways for high performers to know what they need to do in order to grow, he said.
“This research finding reveals the importance of creating a feedback culture that goes beyond just giving regular praise.”
The other surprising finding was that high performers really seem to care about the quality of performance management processes in their organisation.
“High performers who believed that their performance management processes were fair were much more likely to feel proud to work for their organisation and to recommend their organisation to others. Specifically, high performers cared that performance management processes focused on improvement, standards were consistently applied, and bias was minimised.”
Improving feedback
The research revealed that learning and development, recognition, confidence in senior leadership, and belonging all continue to be important — regardless of performance level. That means that employees at any level are likely to be more motivated to strive for greater goals with a strong network around them.
There are a few key things that organisations can do that will have an outsized impact on their high performers, Dr Davies added.
“Firstly, businesses need to educate and train employees on giving and receiving constructive feedback. Secondly, they need to scrutinise your performance management process to make sure it is as fair as possible.
“While this might include increasing the number of sources of performance feedback, updating your ratings scales to avoid common biases, conducting rigorous calibrations, auditing outcomes to assess for fairness is a good business practice.
“Thirdly, provide the right support and resources to help high performers manage their stress and workload. Our research reveals that high performers can struggle with overwork and are less likely to want to stay in their organisation when they lack support from others.”
Increasing the number of high performers
While employers may do their best to create an environment where everyone can thrive by providing training, IT equipment and support, mentorship and appropriate resources to help employees complete their tasks, they may need to add in extra steps to help push employees to the next level.
And there are three key ways to help good performers reach high performance, Dr Davies said.
“Start my making expectations clear. We found that increases in role clarity tended to precede increases in performance. Thus, it is important that every role has a clear job description that accurately reflects the day-to-day tasks. It is also important to monitor changes in role clarity over time to be able to intervene early.
“Next, companies should provide development opportunities to the employees most likely to benefit from them. Development is something that almost everyone cares about, however, we found in our research that high performers tend to be rewarded with additional development opportunities while average performers can be overlooked when it comes to development.
“An unfair cycle can emerge where high performers get access to disproportionately large development opportunities which in turn can increase their performance (and access to subsequent opportunities). Thus, providing equal growth and development opportunities is an important step towards increasing the number of high performers in your company.”
Lastly, employers should nip preferential treatment in the bud, he said.
“High performers tend to be treated more favourably by managers. Thus, it is important that average and low performers get the same level of attention and support to set them up for success.”
