High Performance Without Burnout: Building a Healthy Performance Culture

DANIEL PATTERSON: Well, hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the final installment in our 2026 global culture report webinar series, high performance without burnout: building a healthy performance culture.

Now before we get, begin, just a few housekeeping items to take care of. Today's presentation is both, SHRM and HRCI certified for one hour of general credit. We'll be sharing the program IDs at the end of today's session, and this presentation is also being recorded and will be sent out to all registered attendees by the end of the week.

And with that, we'd like to introduce ourselves for those who may not know us. I'm Daniel Patterson, and joining me today is Cristen Dalessandro. Cristen is a principal researcher and sociologist at O.C. Tanner who specializes in the study of social inequalities as well as qualitative and quantitative research methods. As part of the O.C. Tanner Institute and the Research Center of Excellence, Cristen's work focuses on the employee experience and workplace culture using a social science lens.

In addition to contributing to institute research projects such as the state of employee recognition and annual global culture report, Cristen is an award winning researcher who has published over thirty articles in peer reviewed journals and one book, intimate inequalities, millennials romantic relationships in contemporary times.

Cristen has a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utah.

CRISTEN DALESSANDRO: Thanks, Daniel. So hi, everyone. I'm Cristen Dalessandro, and I'm here today, of course, with Daniel Patterson. Now as a research manager for the O.C. Tanner Institute, Daniel oversees the IP research team in developing original, large scale, cross cultural studies that explore the intersection of workplace culture, recognition, and the employee experience.

Specializing in mixed method research, he collaboratively developed strategic research that supports client solutions, shapes product strategy, and identifies long term industry trends and transitions. Daniel excels in translating complex data into actionable insights that help global organizations advance measurable strategies for success. Daniel holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Utah with advanced studies in research and theory.

DANIEL: Well, thank you very much, Cristen. Okay. So now that you know a little bit about us, let's take you through our agenda for the day.

So today's webinar is going to explore research from the final chapter of O.C. Tanner's 2026 global culture report or as you'll hear us refer to it as the GCR.

In the next slide, we'll tell you a little bit more about the report and provide you with some additional context and a sense of scope of the work.

After that, we'll take a look at the challenges and demands that are driving the current performance imperative and the disconnect between high performance and well-being that so many organizations are experiencing today.

From there, we'll jump right in and explore the model of high performance cultures, and then we'll walk you through an experiment that reveals how cultures with high expectations and high support outperform other workplace models.

Next, we'll take a closer look at some of our findings and the well-being, cultural, and business ROIs that are captured in organizations with high performance cultures.

As always, we'll follow these up with recommendations for how leaders can put these principles into practice and then wrap up everything up with some key takeaways.

Okay. So now that we have a bit of a road map, Cristen, can you tell us a bit more about the global culture report?

CRISTEN: Of course. I would love to. So the global culture report is O.C. Tanner's annual report that provides industry leaders with a rigorous look at the evolving shape of work. So every year, our institute team tracks, analyzes, and chronicles the latest trends and insights in the workplace using both qualitative and quantitative data to develop a framework of a thriving workplace culture from the employee perspective.

So through interviews, focus groups, and surveys, this year's report engaged more than thirty eight thousand employees, leaders, and HR practitioners across twenty three countries to better understand the state of workplace cultures around the world. And a key theme that emerged from this exploration was the idea of inspire, which is also the title of our report this year.

So let's take a closer look before we move on at the theme for this year.

You know, in this current moment, employees are feeling a little bit tapped out. While phrases like work life balance might suggest that the ability to recharge is something that's happening outside of work, in reality, this is not the experience of a lot of employees right now.

You know, the majority of us have a lot of competing demands for our time and attention that happen outside the workplace. And in some cases, life outside of work can be draining.

At the same time, you know, I think it's important to point out that life isn't really separate from work and vice versa. You know, for many employees whose personal lives can be stressful, work actually can be the recharge, you know, or, you know, to kinda put it another way, a welcome change of scenery compared to maybe some of the more stressful things that are happening outside of work.

So while this idea of inspire has been used to describe some, you know, awesome moment that might happen outside the workplace, you know, whether that's on a hike or, on vacation or, you know, viewing some kind of inspiring event that happens outside of work. Increasingly, employees are actually wanting to be inspired at work as well.

We heard that time and again in our focus groups this year. And as we talked about in the last two GCR webinars, which if you didn't catch those, they're available to stream now on the octanner.com website, the social interactions that employees have with other people in the workplace are key when it comes to whether or not they're going to be feeling inspired on a daily basis.

Employees are looking to others around them most often in order to find that inspiration.

And, you know, again, we talk about that a lot more in the previous webinars. So if you wanna hear more about that, check those out.

But I bring all that up because this also relates to the topic that we're gonna talk about today, which is healthy performance cultures.

You know, because what we're seeing is that in order to really excel at work, employees need to feel that sense of connection to their teams, their leaders, and even the organization itself.

Feeling a sense of connection and inspiration is what leads employees to feel energized and ready to do great work rather than feel burned out, anxious, and ready to quiet quit. So this information is critical because in the current competitive environment, organizations are increasingly worried about performance.

But the question is, do organizations themselves see the through line between this need for employee connection, well-being, and high performance?

In fact, our research suggests that there may unfortunately be a disconnect here.

So let me explain to you a little bit about what I mean. And in order to do so, I actually want us to take a little step back.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, if you can remember back that far, you know, it feels like forever ago and yesterday at the same time, issues like burnout and high turnover were increasingly prevalent in workplaces all over the world.

And then to add insult to injury, COVID hit, sending employee well-being into an even worse free fall.

Essentially, because of everything that was happening, organizations had to respond to this public health crisis, and they had to put employee well-being first.

So while these moves felt necessary, everyone was worried that this would potentially hurt productivity.

You know, for example, I think the best case study for this are the conversations around remote work, which are actually still ongoing, to be fair. However, when we actually look at the outcome of this COVID experiment when it comes to remote work, for example, the opposite actually happened.

In the second and third quarters of 2020, individuals and teams were actually more productive compared to that same time frame a year prior. So the takeaway here is that organizations, during this crisis where they chose to support employee well-being, the result of this was that they could support employee well-being without compromising their performance standards.

And yet, you know, this was, at this point six years ago, old habits are sometimes hard to shake. Now that we're six years past COVID and everybody's worried about the impact of AI on work, you know, COVID seems to be a little bit of a distant memory for many organizations, many employers have returned to focusing on productivity and performance.

And, unfortunately, the current kind of prevailing belief seems to be that prioritizing productivity might mean sacrificing well-being.

So, you know, even though the COVID experiment showed that this doesn't have to be the case, and in fact, it's not a zero sum game. Right? We don't necessarily have to choose well-being or productivity. These two things are not at odds.

Unfortunately, this is the sort of prevailing narrative right now that we're seeing, which means that this is a good time to do this research because as we'll kinda see through this presentation, what we actually found is that the right employee support, rather than pose a challenge to productivity, actually helps maximize productivity and profitability.

DANIEL: I have to jump in here too and say, Cristen, it's really fascinating because, way back in those dark ages so long ago, during COVID, we actually did some of the original research around remote work and performance and really kind of the data then, you know, demonstrated that, you know, you, you still could, be, you know, have high performance and maintain that well-being. And it's interesting that, you know, as times have changed and new challenges, that same conversation is coming back up again.

CRISTEN: I know. It's hard to believe that was six years ago already.

DANIEL: I know.

You know, and where we're at today kind of thinking about those historical lessons is that addressing well-being gaps could actually be the key to addressing productivity gaps.

But, unfortunately, our research finds that only about thirty four percent of employees across the world at this point feel that they have enough support to match their employers' expectations.

And, I mean and that's definitely, it's not an encouraging percentage. We definitely don't like seeing numbers like that. However, it does mean that there's a lot of opportunity and room for growth.

CRISTEN: Exactly. And, you know, fortunately, our research has also investigated that, you know, what it takes to support employees to meet those high expectations is something that we can measure and make sense of.

So I feel like I'm starting us off a little doom and gloom here, but right now, I wanna transition to talk about something a little more positive. So, Daniel, would you mind taking us through our model of healthy performance?

DANIEL: Absolutely. I'd be happy to. Well, you know, when it comes to how we perform in the workplace, as Cristen sort of was describing, organizations and leaders have long held to a model that said high performance meant great sacrifice.

Now if you, you know, the kind of the thinking was if you want to capture those golden rings of maximum productivity and great outcomes, it meant you had to put in longer hours, have less balance, and put up with way more stress. You had to be the first one in, the last one out, fourteen hour days, kiss your weekends goodbye, and embrace the mantra that sleep is for the weak.

You know, the accepted wisdom really was that well-being and high powered results simply couldn't coexist. Now I want us to think for a second.

I mean, how many of us operated like this? I mean, I know I've gone through phases like that in my career. But the question is how many of us still do? Now, sadly, while this approach occasionally gets teams and individuals across the project finish line, it comes with significant negative impacts on well-being.

And in fact, the sort of, you know, suck it up and push through for greatness way of working has actually led to seventy nine percent of employees reporting symptoms of burnout.

Now, again, as Cristen was describing earlier, COVID showed us that it doesn't have to be this way. So, with our research, we set out to challenge the old playbook, and here's some of what we found.

Our research revealed a simple truth, and that is that productivity and well-being aren't rivals. They're actually partners.

Employees actually crave high expectations, but they also want and need high levels of support from their leaders and teams to execute in a way that is healthy and sustainable.

CRISTEN: Oh, I love this. You know, and it actually resonates with a lot of what employees told us in our focus group research. You know, they want to do more right now. Employees are ready to meet the moment. Employees are ready to innovate. They are ready to collaborate, but they need the support to do it without sacrificing the rest of their lives for the sake of productivity.

DANIEL: Exactly. And what we found too was that, you know, when expectations and well-being are in balance, that actually really great outcomes result both for the individuals but also for the organizations.

So let's take a little closer look at our model and how this all works.

Okay. So a good old two by two model. We researchers, we love these. Now this matrix illustrates how levels of expectation and support create four types of workplace culture that affect performance. Now based on this model, we conducted an experiment that tested the impact of each of these work types on several key outcomes, and Cristen's gonna walk us through that here in just a moment.

But first, I wanna kinda briefly take you through each of these quadrants to give you a general sense of what each experience looks like. And first up is the uninvolved.

Now the uninvolved work culture is characterized by low expectations and low support based on where you could see it there in that quadrant. Now as you might imagine, it's not a very exciting or rewarding environment to work in. Employees here can expect boredom, a general sense of apathy from leaders and teams, professional stagnation, and general skill atrophy. Sounds like a dream job. Right? Not really.

The next work culture is permissive.

Now here you have low expectations and high support. Now this might sound ideal, and we're gonna, Cristen's gonna take us through a little more of the details in the experiment, but this quadrant really is problematic because it lacks the direction and drive that employees really crave. It's kinda what we would call comfort without challenge.

Now the third up is authoritarian, high expectations and low support. Now we kinda tipped our hand here with the danger red color scheme. But as you might expect, this type of work environment can very quickly become the most toxic of the four work types.

High demands in terms of quality, delivery, and innovation, but without providing the necessary resources to execute in a reasonable way, can turn opportunities for motivation into unrealistic and crippling demands. Now, again, Cristen will speak more to this in the experiment findings, but let's just say that neither performance nor well-being fare well in this environment.

And then finally, we have the sweet spot. That's the authoritative. Here, we have high expectations and high support. And in this environment, employees are pushed to do more, create more, and work in ways that challenge both their skills and assumptions, all while being supported and with the resources necessary to deliver and do it in a way that does not compromise their well-being.

So that kinda gives you a general overview of our model. And, again, we're gonna deep dive a little more as we go through the experiment.

But, you know, kind of to transition into this quote from author Doug Conant, I think, really gets to the heart of the high performance culture. And he said, "the key to unlocking better results is an abundant approach. The best and fiercest leaders find a way to look for the and in small and big moments. They are both resolute and exacting on standards and care with the people involved."

Okay. So now that I've laid out the basics of the model, Cristen, will you show us how it played out in the experiment?

CRISTEN: Yes. I'd be happy to. Thanks for kind of explaining and walking us through that, Daniel. So, you know, logically, this model makes sense based on what we know, what we just talked about with regards to the relationship between well-being and performance.

But, you know, given that, how can we know for sure that healthy performance is made up of that sort of magic combination of high support and high expectations? You know, well, for this chapter of the report, we decided to conduct a survey experiment in order to help us really show that what our, what we theorize is the case, is the case.

You know, so for those of you who've been following our work for a while, you probably know that every so often, we like to conduct survey experiments for our culture report topics. And the reason that we do this is because it's a good way to demonstrate a causal relationship between the concepts that we're investigating and the outcomes that we wanna measure. So for this particular experiment, what we did was we designed four scenarios that participants who were taking our survey were shown at random.

So, you know, if you're taking the survey as a participant, you would randomly be shown one of these scenarios. You don't get to choose. It's not predetermined. It's just a random assignment.

So then following their exposure to this scenario, we measured their responses to outcomes such as, you know, innovation, collaboration, desire to stay working at said organization based on what they read about.

So, and I like this, this approach as well because, you know, from, I guess, sort of a reader standpoint, these scenarios kinda give you a sense of what an organization that falls in one of these categories actually looks like on the ground.

DANIEL: Yeah. I'm with you. These are really, these are really insightful because it's creating, like, a more in-depth, relatable type of scenario, which really helps us generate some some really fascinating insights.

CRISTEN: Yeah. Exactly.

So first up, we have the uninvolved workplace scenario. And, you know, I know Daniel just took you through what that means. But as a reminder, this is the case where we have a low support and low expectations situation.

So here's the scenario that our survey participants were shown for this type of workplace.

You're working on a critical project with a tight deadline. Your manager rarely checks in with you or your team. When you seek guidance or feedback, your manager is either unavailable or gives vague, unhelpful direction. You feel left to figure things out on your own, and no one recognizes your efforts. The lack of direction and support leaves you feeling frustrated and disconnected from the project's goals.

So some of you listening maybe have worked in such an environment before. You know, in this scenario, there's clearly low support based on the manager seemingly being checked out. And even though the project is labeled critical, the scenario actually communicates that this is also a low expectation environment because there's really a lack of structure and direction here. Right?

You know, there's nothing to indicate that the organization or this team's leadership are really expecting much from this team, but they believe the team is actually gonna be able to execute on this project. So, you know, from an employee standpoint, even though maybe, it might, you know, we might make a joke about, oh, it sounds nice to have, you know, low expectations if we're not gonna have low support. This is really a demoralizing environment all around. Right?

Low support, or there's low expectations, yes, but there's also low support here too.

DANIEL: Yeah. It's a, I mean, I think we've all kind of had experiences where we've worked in this kind of environment and maybe even briefly. And it, and it's, not only is it demoralizing, but it kind of just, it drains all the energy out of you. You feel stagnant, there's no direction.

There's no incentive. There's no reason to go. I mean, you barely meet expectations. Definitely no incentive to go above and beyond.

CRISTEN: Right. I feel like directionless is a good word to describe this environment. Right. Alright. So let's take a different, a different approach.

So moving on to a different part of the two by two, we have an example of an authoritarian environment. And so here, we have high expectations. So we've solved that issue of having a direction.

We have, we have goals. We have expectations. So employees are now being held to that higher standard, but, unfortunately, the support is still lacking. So here's this scenario.

You're assigned to a high stakes project with strict deadlines and high expectations. Your manager demands perfection and frequently criticizes your work without offering constructive feedback. When you ask for additional resources or support, your manager dismisses your requests and insists that you meet the high standards with what you have.

The constant pressure and lack of support create a stressful and demotivating environment, making it difficult for you to do your best work.

DANIEL: You know, this particular scenario is, I think, is really interesting and sadly fascinating because, it really is the environment that a lot of employees are finding themselves in today. And in fact, when we did our focus groups and interviews, I mean, this was a very, very common scenario that we heard described over and over.

And when it's laid out like this in the scenario form, it's really pretty clear that, this is really unsustainable. Having those high expectations but not providing, you know, the support, whether it's, you know, on the well-being or the mental health or the resources. I mean, something's gotta give here.

CRISTEN: Exactly. I think, to kind of continue the pattern that I, that we just started, unsustainable is a good word.

I think to me when it comes to looking at this scenario.

Right? You know, we've again, we've corrected that issue of, we're giving, we're holding employees to a higher standard, which can be empowering. But without the support needed to reach those expectations, this can be, this can just be, create a high stress environment that over time you know, this may work for a short amount of time, may work for, a project or two, but, ultimately, it's going to become unsustainable.

DANIEL: Sorry. Just quickly, I was gonna add. And I think one of the things that we're seeing, especially in the current climate and, Cristen, you sort of touched on this in the introduction.

In the current climate, everybody I mean, organizations across the board are increasingly under pressure to perform. And so there is, I think, sort of a sneaky trap that leaders and organizations fall into where they think that, you know, okay. Let's all, we just have to have the grit and suck it up, and we gotta push through.

And those expectations keep getting higher and higher, but they fail to realize that the impact that they're having when they're not balancing that with the type of support necessary. So, again, I mean, I think this is, it's just one of many reasons why this is a really prevalent sort of work type, environment that we're seeing today.

CRISTEN: Right. It makes sense. But, unfortunately, as we, as we just talked about, there's, we have a lot of doubts based on our research that this environment can really sustain over time.

So what about if we had the opposite, kinda moving to another one of the squares?

Maybe high support but low expectations. This is what we would call a permissive environment. And here's the scenario for this case. You're part of a team working on a new initiative. Your manager is friendly and always willing to listen to your concerns.

However, they don't set clear goals or deadlines, and there's little accountability for your work. While you appreciate the supportive environment, you often feel the lack of structure and the lack of challenging tasks prevent you from achieving your full potential.

The relaxed atmosphere sometimes leads to procrastination and less progress.

DANIEL: You know, again, this is, I mean, this is fascinating. And it's interesting that although these employees are actually receiving high support and their leadership clearly cares about their well-being, I mean, I've got to imagine that employees in this kind of environment are actually gonna find themselves really frustrated and annoyed by the lack of structure. I know I would. This would this would absolutely drive me insane.

CRISTEN: Absolutely. And I felt that and seen that, that when the structure is missing, even if you've got that high support, this is not gonna be the solution that leads to high performance. Right? So this brings us to our last scenario, which is the authoritative case.

So in this case, which is the one that we hypothesize is the most effective, this is where we have high support and high expectations. So let's take a look at this scenario.

You're working on a challenging project with ambitious goals. Your manager sets clear expectations and provides regular feedback and support to help you succeed. They're approachable and encourage open communication, addressing any concerns you may have.

Your manager also offers resources and training to help you improve your skills. The combination of high expectations and strong support motivates you to excel and fosters a positive and productive work environment.

DANIEL: Again, you know, when it's all laid out like this, I think it very quickly becomes obvious that the high expectations, high support strategy, that balance of the two is really the clear winner.

CRISTEN: Yes. You would think. But, of course, you know, for in order to make sure that this doesn't just stay a hypothesis, we have to test it. Right? So we've been talking a lot about hypotheticals. What were the actual results of our experiment?

Alright. So let's take a look at this table. So when employees, so and these are the results of the experiment, again, that, you know, those, survey participants saw at random one of those four options and then were asked to respond to a series of outcome questions. And these are the results, that resulted from that experiment.

So when employees are part of a healthy performance culture environment, which is, again, that last, represented by that last column here, the authoritative column, what we really see here is that their outcomes clearly outpace everyone else.

So for instance, you know, let's just take a look at whether or not employees are highly motivated, and let's compare authoritarian and authoritative models. Because I think, you know, as we've kind of talked about, I think organizations are sort of leaning towards an authoritarian model of low support, high expectations in this sort of race to achieve performance metrics.

This is what some organizations think they need to do to be successful. So in an authoritarian workplace, only seventy six percent of employees are highly motivated versus in an authoritative workplace, we've got almost all employees, ninety seven percent, saying that they would be highly motivated in this environment.

So how about innovation? In an authoritarian workplace, again, that model of high expectations but, unfortunately, low support, only sixty four percent of employees are innovating versus a full eighty nine percent in authoritative workplaces.

And let's just look at one more. You know, last but not least, when we look at desire to stay, in that authoritarian scenario, low support, high expectations, sixty five percent of employees say they would like to stay another year versus ninety three percent of employees in an authoritative workplace of high support and high expectation.

DANIEL: I mean, the findings here I mean, the authoritative really just blows the others out of the water.

And another area here that I think is really notable is giving recognition. And as we see with every other element, employees are most likely to be giving recognition in authoritative environments, which is significant because as we know from all of our past and in our current research as well, is that the more recognition supports, that more recognition supports pretty much all of the positive outcomes that we measure and the outcomes that organizations really wanna see.

CRISTEN: Exactly. You know, we haven't talked about it much up until this point, but recognition contributes to a high performance culture because it acknowledges, identifies, and honors people when they achieve their goals and meet high expectations, right, which then helps motivate them to keep setting those ambitious goals and keep, keep achieving them. You know?

It inspires them to set those higher goals because it helps workers see their progress, and it helps them understand that their contributions are valuable.

And when employees feel like, they're questioning whether or not their contributions are valuable, this tends to be something that we see most often in those scenarios with low support, right, where we saw employees questioning, you know, why are we even doing this? Why are we here?

And also low expectations as well. Right? But in those environments where we have both, recognition is prevalent, and recognition can also support us in getting there to that kind of environment.

So outside of the experiment, you know, let me just show you a few more stats that support the argument that high support and high expectations are really the key to success.

You know, when employees find themselves in a healthy performance culture with high support and high expectation, it increases the odds eight times that the organization is producing quality products, ten times that the employees have a high level of trust in the organization, and eleven times that employees have what they need to innovate.

And last but not least, employees have eighteen times increased odds of thriving overall in high performance cultures.

DANIEL: And that's, those are really remarkable numbers. It's just it, you know, it's just fascinating to see how the data really supports those high performance cultures.

CRISTEN: Yeah. And just before we move on, because I know Daniel's gonna give you some more cool stats that you can sort of ruminate on and use, in a minute.

But I think before moving on, you know, the scenario, I think, gave us some good, a good idea of what these different sort of parts of the quadrant look like, the two by two.

But, I wanted to just kinda give a shout out to a few, common characteristics that you might see in a high support and high expectation environment in order to inform, you know, what might it take to get there if we're not already there.

So, so first, you know, organizations that are offering high support are those that give employees the resources that they need. And this can differ by industry. Right? Really, in order to figure out what this means to your employees, just ask them.

You know, what resources are needed here in order to for you to feel that you have adequate support? You know, offering training and development is another strategy, and that's something that we saw show up in the scenario too. You know, we've covered this in, also, in some of our previous culture report research as well, and it usually is a good idea, right?

Provide employees with training that's not just relevant but interesting to them in order to help them feel like they're growing, they're challenged, and that they're ready to hit the ground running when it comes to new projects, new challenges.

You know, in addition, lead with emotional intelligence. Be able to understand when something's off with employees, take steps to address any issues that might come up.

And lastly, encouraging teamwork is something that we see a lot in high support environments. You know, in both our culture report and our new 2026 state of employee recognition report, which is also on the O.C. Tanner website, would recommend checking that out if you haven't already.

We found that teams work best when they feel united. So take those steps, including encouraging plenty of peer to peer recognition, for example, in order to build rapport however possible.

And at the same time, make sure that you're in an environment that doesn't just offer all the support, but also holds employees to those high expectations. You know, just some strategies for that. Help employees set challenging goals that they're also feeling empowered to achieve.

This also relates to our hope chapter from the GCR this year, which we covered in a previous webinar, if you, so check that out if you are interested.

In addition, hold employees accountable. Employees need deadlines and standards to feel like their leaders actually care about the work that they're doing and delivering. Right?

That they're actually invested in what employees are doing and what's going on. And related to our training and development point, you know, don't just offer training, but establish it as an expectation. Help employees find a subject that inspires them and give them the support that they need to grow in that area.

And last but not least, more generally, it's a good idea to set clear and ambitious expectations.

Help employees thrive or employees can thrive when they know what's expected of them, and, again, feel challenged that they can also see a pathway for how to get from point a to point b.

DANIEL: Cristen, I think this is so important because as much as we talk about the dangers of high expectation with a lack of support, there's also a danger in offering adequate support but without giving employees work that really challenges them in healthy ways. It leaves employees wondering, why am I even here, which is just a recipe for disengagement.

CRISTEN: Exactly. And, you know, I can think of so many examples from our other chapters from the report that draw on this theme too.

You know, for example, in addition to the hope chapter that I just mentioned, our inclusion model from the report also stresses that the importance of employees being united around a shared goal, for example.

And our transparency chapter stresses that employees are looking for clear communication around how they're doing in accomplishing their goals and, you know, what their leaders and the organizations have in mind for their roles.

But that being said, you know, so this is a lot of information. And, you know, we had a few stats here, but I think at this point in the webinar, it wouldn't hurt to have some more.

So, Daniel, would you mind us taking taking us through some more evidence for why aiming for that high expectation, high support balance is critical in the workplace today? You know, what's the competitive advantage? What are the, what are the outcomes when we have a high performance culture?

DANIEL: Well, excellent questions, Cristen. And, yes, we'll give some more data points. Those are always good data. We love our data. But, really, also, this is to kind of put all of this into context.

And, you hopefully, you see kind of the emerging narrative here. And, honestly, hopefully, at this point in the conversation, all of this has come into a little bit focus, a little bit more focus.

But, first, I wanna walk it back just a little bit to the beginning, and remind ourselves why high performance cultures are critical in today's workplace.

So, again, no matter what industry you're in, the business landscape has become increasingly competitive. And there are a few reasons for that. In large part, this is because change has become a constant. Whether it's in the technologies or markets or workplace demographics, change is fundamentally how we work now. So navigating this change requires thinking differently and challenging assumptions.

We need new solutions to new problems, and sometimes we need to be looking at old problems through new lenses. So as a result, collaborative innovation is no longer just a tactical response to sort of a one off external event. It has to be a regular ongoing part of your business DNA. And to achieve all this and maintain this kind of dynamic growth, organizations have to have a healthy, sustainable model of performance.

And, you know, as we've gone through, you know, our the model in these different workplace types, hopefully you can see that, you know, there are definitely some that are better or worse than others. We definitely have our ideal with the authoritative. But the, one of the real strengths to that is it's sustainable.

And in this equation, really, what it comes down to is that healthy performance culture isn't just a nice to have business environment. It's a key differentiator that gives your organization that competitive advantage that Cristen was kind of getting at.

So what do I mean by this? Well, let's take a look, at some key ROIs. And these are just a few of the stats. If you wanna see more, we've got a much more in-depth chapter that you can find in the global culture report.

But let's take a look at a few here.

So when it comes to cultural ROIs and here we're talking a lot of, about a lot of the things that kind of create that sense of community and that connection with others within a workplace.

High performance cultures see a seven times increase in a sense of inclusion. Employees see an eight times increase in their sense of belonging and an eleven times increase in their sense of purpose.

And for those of you familiar with our work and some of our previous webinars and the different chapters this year, all of these are really key to seeing a culture and developing a culture that's gonna be able to grow, excel, and perform.

Now equally important, our research shows that high performance cultures have better mental health outcomes. So we see, for those that have healthy performance cultures, we see a forty four percent decrease in the odds of probable anxiety. We see almost a fifty percent decrease in the odds of probable depression and an astounding eighty eight percent decrease in the odds of burnout.

And just as, you know, kind of reminder as we always throw around is we're throwing around a lot of these numbers, when it comes to decreasing those percentages, we can only decrease a hundred percent. So when we're talking about an eighty eight percent decrease in the odds of burnout, that is an enormously impactful statistic there.

And then if we're, you know, talking about overall performance measures, which, of course, everybody is interested in that performance, high performance cultures have a major impact on several key business outcomes.

So if we look at things like retention, the desire for employees have to stay with the organization, perceptions of company financial stability, innovation. Is the workplace, is your organization innovative and finding new ways to tackle problems, challenges, and products? Are your employees promoters? And do your employees produce great work? In all of these measures, we found that high performance cultures saw significant increases across the board.

And, when it comes to our favorite ROI data, everyone loves retention stats. So here's one such finding. When employees feel high expectations are met with high levels of support, so that high performance culture, they are more likely to stay two years longer with their organization.

CRISTEN: That's a great stat, Daniel. You know, we definitely love to see people stay with their companies, for everyone involved. Right? It's always good to hold on to talent and to develop that within an organization. And from the organization side, you know, it's always good to, it's always good to hold on to employees, again, right, just to keep them and help them grow, and to, you know, help them build that institutional knowledge so that they can continue to develop and help you innovate and just all the good things.

DANIEL: Yeah. Absolutely.

That, you're spot on. Now I also want everyone to pause for a moment here and look at this data point from also kind of a separate big picture perspective. This isn't just about retention. This is about experience, expertise, and culture that is choosing to stay with your organization instead of walking out the door.

And that's invaluable and just one, I mean, it's a major reason that you wanna be fostering those high performance cultures. Now let's take a look. We've given you some great numbers from the research. Let's talk quickly here about what this looks like in action at a company called ICF.

Now ICF is a global advisory and technology service provider, that uses recognition to ensure that its nine thousand employees feel supported, but they also couple their recognition program with their business strategies in a really compelling way.

The company's recognition platform, which actually is hosted by O.C. Tanner, combines frequent recognition with wellness resources to support employees.

Now recognition data integrated into ICF's Workday HRIS helps leaders draw the connection between company and team expectations and achievements in performance reviews, which allows ICF to celebrate team efforts in a way that ties back into performance standards and core values.

Now the result, ICF has seen a significant increase in retention while also ensuring both leaders and employees feel more supported and connected in ways that helps them perform at higher levels. In the end, ICF's approach shows how performance and well-being can actually coexist in healthy, sustainable ways and that recognition is key to making that alignment a success.

CRISTEN: Thanks, Daniel. You know, it's always great to see how organizations are kinda implementing and living out some of these ideas in real time so that, you know, it really takes it from the hypothetical to the real when we see what these organizations are doing on the ground.

DANIEL: Absolutely.

CRISTEN: And you'll be happy to know, you know, in the last fifteen minutes or so that we have, we do have a couple more examples of organizations that are doing a great job with really balancing high performance or sorry, balancing high support and high expectations in order to reach those performance goals.

So, yeah, believe it or not, we've reached that section of the webinar where we are gonna talk about our recommendations.

So now that we've kinda talked you through sort of our research and the chapter, what are some actionable insights that we have when it comes to how to move forward?

So as I mentioned a little bit earlier, one of our top recommendations for cultivating a healthy high performance culture is to provide employees with opportunities for growth.

So let's take a look at this table here. And here we have the top five predictors of healthy workplace expectations. Daniel, do you notice anything interesting here?

DANIEL: Why, yes. Especially related to your point, it looks like at least half of these have to do with employee growth opportunities.

CRISTEN: Exactly. So training sessions, opportunities for project leadership, involvement in decision making, all of these are growth opportunities for employees.

And if we look at the top predictors of support, we see that this is true for them as well. You know, even the, it just kind of shouted out. You know, even the points that don't directly have to do with growth, things like team meetings with open communication, for example, these actually might also be a growth opportunity if, for example, we've got something like a case of a new leader who wants to work on their transparency or emotional intelligence skills. Right?

So what we have here in both of these is that, you know, growth opportunities, providing those growth opportunities is really a way to sort of help work towards that healthy performance culture and that good balance of support and expectations that we talked about throughout.

And moving on to our second recommendation, this relates kinda to our first one as well. Encourage social connections.

So, for example, as this slide shows, when employees feel connected to their teams, leaders, and the organization, it increases the odds that they will assess their workplaces as having a high performance culture.

So, of course, what this tells us is that focusing on building those social connections is going to have a notable impact when it comes to business outcomes.

And one, I did promise you some, some real world examples. So one real world example of an organization that has strengthened business outcomes through connection is IAG.

So a few years ago, IAG embarked on a cultural transformation in order to enable its business strategy, which was focused on growth, deep customer centricity, and an elevated connection to IAG's purpose, which is "we make your world a safer place."

So the core of this cultural transformation was the introduction of a ready for anything unified mindset conveyed through the acronym HEART. Honest and upfront, easier together, act and own it, reimagine today, and treat everyone fairly.

So IAG's vision for their employee recognition program was clear. It should be owned by everyone, authentically modeled by leaders, and consistently communicated across the organization.

And this allowed for a unified approach while also taking into account local nuances across New Zealand and Australia where they're based.

So after revamping the program, IAG saw increases in the odds that employees were reporting stronger pride in IAG, that they would recommend it as a great place to work, and that there was stronger discretionary effort on the part of employees.

So you can see with this example that, you know, through their specific recognition strategy, focusing on building those social connections, it really helped impact business ROI for this organization.

DANIEL: I always love when we could see a, real world example of some of these ideas because it really brings these strategies to life. And I would, I would also say too, particularly with this recommendation and the importance of building those social connections, this was also a key theme in our state of recognition report, which you can also find out on our website.

CRISTEN: Yes. Right. Very exciting, just to kind of, piggyback on that, Daniel. Right, you know, this year, we, last year actually was our first 2025 state of employee recognition report, and we've, we just came out with the new one, the 2026 version, within the last few weeks. So if you haven't seen that yet, definitely go check that out.

Some, lots of good information in there, especially related to recognition and some of the things we've talked about today related to recognition.

Alright. So that brings us to our third big recommendation, which is, look at that, leverage employee recognition.

DANIEL: Had to get that in there.

CRISTEN: Okay. So perfect segue. So, you know, just to kinda give you a good big stat here. You know, when workplaces have integrated recognition, which is that, basically, they're taking an approach to recognition where it's integrated into the everyday culture of work, employees are eighteen times more likely to say their workplace has a healthy performance culture.

And to kind of wrap us up, just to share one more case study before we go, I wanna talk a little bit about AGL Energy because they really provide a great example of a company that has seen performance outcomes come out of a recognition program.

So AGL actually partnered with O.C. Tanner to launch a recognition program across their business to drive a connected and engaged culture aligned with their values.

Now a significant aspect of their strategy involved a focus on performance through multi-skilling, cross skilling, and upskilling as well as establishing a uniform recognition approach across their energy sites with the goal of integrating their core behaviors and fostering a more inclusive and cohesive culture throughout the organization.

So they sought a recognition program that could be implemented swiftly, align with their values and behaviors, and inspire and encourage their employees to perform to their full potential. So the result of their partnership was the launch of their Energize program powered by O.C. Tanner's Culture Cloud.

And as you can read more about, you can actually read more about their journey on the octanner.com website. But just to give you a preview of the impact of this Energize program, it helped foster a more inclusive and connected workforce. It helped elevate the visibility of employees' achievements, and it helped enhance their overall employee value proposition. So really a great example of a success story that involved recognition, and a great note, I think, for us to end on.

DANIEL: Absolutely. Thank you, Cristen. Always great recommendations. So we are actually at the wrap up. And, of course, as always, we've given you so much information. But, hopefully, we've got lots of good data, lots of good examples and stories, that show what this looks like in action.

So let's see if we can wrap all of this up with a couple of key core takeaways, that you can keep kind of top of mind.

Alright. So first, you know, when we think about high performance cultures, first and foremost, they are balancing high expectations with high support. Again, employees crave, they want to, you know, seize the moment. They wanna go above and beyond. They wanna innovate, collaborate, and do all that great work, but they can only do it when that high support from their leaders, teams, and organizations are there.

High performance cultures, as the data has shown and that we've demonstrated through our the experiments, they really have the best mental health and business outcomes.

High performance cultures also foster open communication and promote those growth opportunities. It's not just about executing on big initiatives and big projects. That's key, and that's gonna keep that performance going.

But organizations also have to ensure that communication is transparent, that people, their employees are informed and actually part of the feedback loop and the decision making process and that they've got those opportunities to grow within the organization.

And then last not, last but not least, leverage recognition to really promote that connection, belonging, and support.

So that brings us to the end of our formal presentation. We do have a few minutes here for questions.

Raven, do we have any questions, from the listeners today or the viewers?

MODERATOR: You know, no particular questions. Just some shout outs for Cristen, the view of State Street in your background here in Salt Lake City. Yeah.

That is State Street. Very astute observation.

And the, the Institute favorite, four by four quadrant. So that was it.

DANIEL: Excellent. Well, thank you so much all for attending and participating or attending, today.

For additional insights and a deeper dive into the into the research, we highly encourage you to head out to the O.C. Tanner website, octanner.com, and you can download the entire global culture report.

We also have all of our reports online, and these are actually, you can download the entire report or you can read them section by section, to you know, however you wanna tackle that. But there's lots of great additional data, narrative, and insight there. So, again, highly encourage and recommend that you get out there and and check that out.

And, for those, who are looking for both the SHRM and HRCI credit, here's both the program ID and the activity code. Feel free to grab those, jot those down. And, again, thank you so much for attending today, and we will look forward to seeing you again, for future presentations.

CRISTEN: Yeah. Thanks, everyone.