The numbers don’t lie, but they should worry you.  Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends Survey finds that nearly three-quarters of workers (72%) and three in five managers (61%) could not say that they trust their organisation’s performance management processes. And while 65% of organisations recognise the importance of rethinking performance management, only 6% are making significant progress in doing so. 

How to regain employee trust in performance management

It all starts with changing the way you look at key performance indicators (KPIs). Performance management programmes, such as KPIs, are often just another check-box exercise, usually serving the system. They tend to revolve around traditional metrics such as sales targets, revenue growth and operational efficiency. While offering valuable insights into financial and operational performance, they often overlook the human element that drives success.

This is where a shift of focus to people-centric KPIs comes in. People-centric KPIs are designed to maximise individual potential. They complement traditional metrics by providing a deeper understanding of the organisation’s culture, employee wellbeing and capacity for innovation. By incorporating both sets of KPIs, organisations can achieve a more balanced and holistic view of their performance.

By nurturing a culture that prioritises the development of the people, leaders lay the foundation for a thriving and high-performing workplace. In doing so, they foster a sense of trust, loyalty and commitment among team members, leading to increased productivity, innovation and success for the organisation.

The best intentions mean nothing if the wrong measurements are used.

Three ways to add people-centric KPIs to your performance management processes

What steps can HR take to integrate people-centric KPIs that nurture trust and drive high performance? Here, we outline three critical actions.

1. Reassess your approach to KPIs

Some of your KPIs should be solely about your people. Using the questions below as a guide, reflect on your organisation’s approach to supporting employee wellbeing and performance:

• Are there any KPIs in your organisation that prioritise the wellbeing and growth of your team members? If so, what are these KPIs? Some example metrics may revolve around the employee journey or the proportion of team members who feel happy, satisfied and engaged in their roles. 
• How are these KPIs incorporated into your organisation’s processes?
• Have these KPIs positively impacted your team members and the overall work environment? If so, how?
• Are these KPIs integrated into your organisation’s performance evaluation cycle, or are they treated separately?
• How does your organisation actively engage with these KPIs to ensure they are effective?
• What specific effects do these KPIs have on the happiness and productivity of your people?
• How do these KPIs contribute to creating a supportive and fulfilling work environment for your team?
• If your organisation does not currently use people-centric KPIs, what specific KPIs could you introduce? And how do you anticipate these will benefit your team?

Reflecting on these questions can offer valuable insights into how your organisation cultivates a supportive and high-performing work culture, anchored in the appropriate KPIs framework.

The best intentions mean nothing if the wrong measurements are used. Setting up appropriate KPI logic makes the difference between talking about people-centric performance and actually managing it.

When an employee’s skills match their challenges, they will perform at their best.

2. Match challenges to skills based on strengths

To build high-performing teams, leaders need to understand the skills of their team members. By knowing your people and understanding their strengths, weaknesses and motivations, you can then match them to tasks and projects that provide an appropriate level of challenge. This, in turn, maximises performance.  

When an employee’s skills match their challenges, they will perform at their best. When their skills exceed their challenges – ie. the task is too easy –  they may become bored and disengaged, resulting in subpar performance. And when the challenge is too high – ie. the task exceeds their skill level – they may feel overwhelmed and stressed, leading to errors and inefficiencies. 

Balancing the right level of challenge and skill for employees is key to high performance and can be easily measured. A good place to start is prompting people to assess their own soft skills with self-assessment tools or surveys.

These assessment tools empower employees to identify and capitalise on their strengths and lesser strengths. Leaders can then carefully consider the complexity, scope and requirements of individual assignments relative to employee skills and strengths. This will help them best match the capabilities required to do the job within the team framework, ultimately optimising individual and team performance. 

By balancing performance demands with people needs and relative skill level in this way, guided by a shared and powerful purpose, businesses bring the critical 3Ps – People, Purpose and Performance – into balance. Through this, organisations facilitate the state of FLOW@WORK, representing the pinnacle of organisational success, where individuals thrive, teams flourish and companies can realise their full potential. 

By embracing this holistic approach to performance measurement, organisations can unlock new levels of success while nurturing their most valuable asset – their people.

3. Assess the frequency of feedback 

Deloitte’s report found that managers only spend 13% of their time developing people. For high performance to thrive in your organisation, more consistent and regular attention needs to be paid to how employees are progressing with their targets and goals. 

When employees know how they are doing, it is easier for them to maintain focus, readjust if necessary and perform at their best. Assess how frequently leaders are recognising and rewarding their team’s contributions, offering feedback, and how often they open team meetings by checking in with team members.

Shifting your focus to your people, not just traditional metrics, in this way boosts morale and makes people feel valued. It ultimately encourages individuals to keep doing their best. 

People-centric performance management: Final thoughts

Ultimately, the integration of people-centric KPIs alongside traditional metrics empowers organisations to cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, employee empowerment and organisational resilience. 

By embracing this holistic approach to performance measurement, organisations can unlock new levels of success while nurturing their most valuable asset – their people. This approach enables leaders to unlock the full potential of their teams and achieve sustainable success in today’s competitive business environment.

Useful resources

Want to explore these ideas further? These related articles offer additional perspectives on transforming performance management:

• Performance management: How relationships beat systems – Discover why viewing performance management as relationships rather than processes creates better outcomes for complex, modern work environments.
• Why better questions mean better performance – Learn a proven four-stage conversation method (ERIC) that moves beyond tick-box evaluations to meaningful dialogue about performance.
• Performance management doesn’t work for 98% of CHROs – Understand why traditional approaches fail and discover three practical actions for implementing people-centric performance management.