How Netwealth is investing in its people performance

Performance management has become a key element of running successful, strategically-aligned businesses. Investing in performance means investing in the long-term success and well-being of your people.

Netwealth knows a thing or two about investment. As one of the fastest-growing wealth management businesses in Australia, Netwealth has found itself in the space between a startup and a large financial services company. However, having recently made the ASX 100 and continuing to grow with over 613 employees, juggling the high growth of the company with the diverse needs of an expanding team created a barrier to implementing an effective performance process that was fair, transparent, and aligned with larger company goals.

To achieve this goal, Shanyn Payne, Netwealth’s Chief People Officer, knew that the company’s approach to performance management had to center on its people – including both low and high performers. The Culture Amp team sat down with her to learn how a performance process can be satisfying and meaningful for everyone in your organization.

Netwealth’s approach to employee-centric performance management

In our conversation, Netwealth explained how the following four principles helped them create a motivating, fair, and engaging performance review process:

1. Prioritize employee well-being

Performance conversations can be difficult for both managers and employees, especially when the purpose is unclear. In 2016, Deloitte found that they were spending 1.8 million hours on review processes that felt largely ineffective. This finding reflected a growing backlash against performance reviews, driven by the feeling that they were too focused on past behavior rather than facilitating ongoing, growth-minded discussions that would drive employee success.

The pendulum has since swung back and forth around the effectiveness of performance reviews. But the real question isn’t whether the reviews themselves are effective tools. Rather, the question is whether companies are approaching both reviews and development conversations in a way that helps underperforming employees and simultaneously recognizes high performers. Essentially, how are your performance processes prioritizing employee well-being?

These are the questions that Shanyn Payne had to consider as Netwealth’s Chief People Officer. Shanyn has since decided to embrace an approach to performance management that provides employees clarity, first and foremost. In a high-growth environment like Netwealth’s, it can be a balancing act to ensure that people focus on the right work while avoiding burnout. Effective performance management gives employees the tools to do their best without telling them exactly how to do it. That means providing the guardrails of goals and values to work within, supported by very clear, top-down expectations of their responsibilities and priorities.

With the support of HR tech tools like Culture Amp’s employee experience platform, these goals and expectations can be easily communicated, tracked, and adjusted as needed. By integrating technology into the performance process, Netwealth has been able to reduce perceived workload, lower overall stress, and pave the way for more effective performance management.

2. Offer consistent, human-centric feedback

What do Netwealth’s performance conversations look like in practice? They’re centered around a culture-first approach, which emphasizes ongoing opportunities for the employee to grow and improve. They look at each employee as a human who genuinely wants to do a good job and provide continual pathways to high performance that include the how and the what.

Performance processes across organizations of all sizes have traditionally been hurt by sporadic and subjective feedback based on personal feelings, inconsistent company values, and a lack of concrete examples to refer to. Much of this comes down to the calibration process, or a lack thereof.

Calibration enables consistent, fair feedback based on clear criteria rather than subjective opinions. At Netwealth, Shanyn Payne has implemented a structured calibration process that involves reviewing performance ratings across departments to ensure that the criteria are applied consistently. This process, supported by the data analytics and feedback mechanisms provided by Culture Amp’s Perform solution, is crucial for maintaining objectivity and fairness, especially in a growing organization where different managers may have varying interpretations of what constitutes high performance.

To support this approach, Netwealth has developed a performance matrix that equally weighs employee adherence to company values and goal achievement. This matrix, which is easily accessible and manageable through Culture Amp’s platform, is used as a guide during calibration sessions to ensure that all employees are evaluated against the same standards.

3. Align performance with company goals

Another key element of Netwealth’s approach to performance management is aligning individual performance with the company’s strategic objectives. Shanyn and the executive team spent considerable time setting clear, measurable goals that are directly tied to their broader business goals. These SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals are then rolled out across the organization, ensuring that every employee understands how their work contributes to the company’s success.

"We wanted to invest a lot of time upfront on goal setting because getting performance management right starts with good goals," Shanyn noted. By aligning individual goals with the company’s strategic objectives and leveraging the goal-setting features within Culture Amp’s platform, Netwealth ensures that all employees work towards the same outcomes, creating a sense of shared purpose and accountability.

But alignment isn’t just about setting goals; it’s also about continuously revisiting and adjusting those goals as the business evolves. Netwealth’s performance management process includes regular check-ins to ensure that goals remain relevant and that employees have the support they need to achieve them. This agile approach to goal setting, using Culture Amp’s goal-tracking tool, allows Netwealth to remain responsive to changes in the business environment while keeping employees focused on what matters most.

4. Reward performance that aligns with values

Recognizing and rewarding high performance is a key component of Netwealth’s performance management strategy. However, Shanyn emphasizes that it’s not just about rewarding results. It’s about rewarding behavior that aligns with the company’s values. Netwealth has linked its top two performance ratings directly to performance bonuses, but only for employees who are “role modeling” the company’s values.

This approach ensures that high performance is recognized and rewarded, but it also reinforces the importance of maintaining a strong, values-driven culture. Employees who achieve their goals but fail to live the company’s values will not be eligible for the highest performance ratings, regardless of their results.

“If you are not living the values, even if you’re delivering above expectations, you’ll still get a 'needs development' rating," Shanyn explained. By linking performance to both results and values and utilizing the Culture Amp platform to track and measure these aspects, Netwealth has created a performance management system that supports the long-term success of the company while also promoting a positive and inclusive workplace culture.

The results: a high-performance, values-driven culture

“This is more than just a process. This is actually a different way of working,” summarizes Shanyn.

Netwealth’s approach to performance management, powered by HR tech like Culture Amp, has delivered significant benefits for both the company and its employees. By prioritizing clarity, consistency, and alignment with company values, Netwealth has created a high-performance culture that supports employee well-being and drives business success.

Employees at Netwealth are not only clearer about what is expected of them, but they also feel more connected to the company’s strategic objectives. This sense of alignment has reduced stress, improved employee engagement, and led to better overall performance across the organization.

As Netwealth continues to grow and evolve, its commitment to a human-centric, values-driven approach to performance management, supported by Culture Amp, will remain a key factor in its success.

For other organizations looking to strengthen their performance management practices, Netwealth’s journey offers valuable lessons in creating a system that is both fair and effective, ensuring that all employees have the opportunity to succeed and thrive.

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