5 tips on how to build a high-performing Singapore organisation

A recent survey in Singapore showed that few people stay in their jobs for six years or longer these days. Figures show that only 55 percent of men had been in their jobs for six years or more, and just 45 percent of women stayed for that time.

How can employers create an environment that their employees will excel in, and most importantly, not want to leave?

It all comes down to injecting a little X-factor into what could otherwise look like an average team. While creating a high performing, fun and loyal team culture is not rocket science, it does take time, patience and a leader with their finger on the office pulse.

Here are five tips to get the ball rolling in your own organisation:

1.)  Define it

What is a good and bad result? This should be no secret. You’d be surprised how often this is overlooked. Expectations should be set from interview stage, not at the point you realise someone isn’t meeting ‘the bar.’ A clear set of KPI’s/achievements should be available for each role within the team, this is different from goal setting and should be inline with your team’s overall objective.

2.)  High 5!

Congratulations and recognition is incredibly important and need to be more frequent than quarterly/annually. This is about realising that different people get there differently; some quicker than others and some using completely different strengths.

Recognise individual milestones (personal-bests) e.g.: sales achieved (even if it were below other team members), reduced error rate in reporting etc. It’s far too easy to close off each month without a glance at how you got where you did and even easier to lose people who don’t understand how they add to the bigger picture.

3.)  Identity

Everyone wants to work for a high performing team. However a high performing team is created as a sum of collective strengths, not a playground of over-exposed weaknesses.  Achieving this is a process of identifying weaknesses or threats early on and structuring your “dream-team” to minimise the impact of these.

It’s no good having a culture where people hide what they see as inadequacy. Put it out on the table, call a spade a spade and drive or develop the area they excel in. A limelight approach to individual contribution means engagement, respect for fellow colleagues (what they bring) and ultimately an identity to be reckoned with.

4.)  Will vs. Skill

Attitude is the catalyst to any high performing culture. Without this in your team you have nothing. Whether you are talking about going the extra mile for a customer, mentoring others or being a positive influence to the rest of the team, it all boils down to the will to be part of something successful.

Ideally your hires come with a healthy bucket of this, however it feeds off itself and spreads like wildfire. Positivity, productivity and culture become a way of work and it is infectious to new starters. I’ve worked for companies where this was the one reason they worked for us as opposed to our direct competitor. If you have the above 3 pointers underway and attitude is still lacking, it’s probably time to rethink who you’re paying.

5.)  Consequences

Social vs. Managerial- I am a strong believer that it needs to be a mixture of both. If there are no consequences for not meeting expectations or not displaying a stellar attitude you will not build a culture to last. It’s not about threatening people to come to work as an overly enthusiastic genius but it’s about creating a norm.

In this team we are proud of what we do, we maintain these service standards and we treat each other in this way.  We are aware of the face we bring to work and how this affects the people around us. Don’t always be the one to jump in if someone turns up late, poorly dressed or in a terrible mood- your team will start to naturally do this for you.

An incredible thing to witness as it starts happening as it is a direct result of buying into team culture, total identity and valuing what they each bring to the table. The no-tolerance attitude will end up coming from your staff… so make sure you’re living what you’re preaching!