How Bank First created a performance framework that balances kindness with accountability

When your organisation’s culture is built on kindness, how do you ensure accountability while recognising high performance? That was the challenge facing Bank First, a customer-owned mutual bank with a 52-year legacy of serving communities across Victoria, Australia.

Founded to address community needs and improve banking experiences across savings, loans, and insurance, Bank First has maintained their relationship-centered approach throughout their growth. As a mutual bank serving educators, nurses, and allied health professionals, their values emphasise putting people first in everything they do.

But Chief People Officer Louise Marshall saw a critical gap when she joined the organisation in 2024. Bank First had no employee performance ratings and limited ways to recognise top performers. Without proper evaluations in place, they struggled to balance their kindness-driven workplace with the structured feedback needed to support performance goals.

Working closely with Nadine MacLeod, the bank’s Head of People Partnering and Experience, the two set out to create a performance framework that would maintain Bank First’s people-first values while introducing the clarity and recognition their employees needed to thrive.

When kindness isn’t enough

To start creating Bank First’s performance framework, the People team interviewed employees to understand what was working well and what needed improvement. They discovered there were three key areas that would be most impactful to focus on.

Recognition without a framework

Without a formal rating system, outstanding work often flew under the radar, leaving high-performing team members with limited acknowledgment. Performance conversations also lacked consistency in evaluating excellence, while the compensation structure offered few options beyond base salary to financially reward top contributors.

No shared standard for performance

The performance experience varied widely across the organisation, providing uneven development opportunities:

• Goal-setting quality was inconsistent across the organisation, with some well-defined and others lacking specificity
• Existing feedback cycles were overly complex and confusing to employees
• Without a unified performance framework, there were inconsistent growth opportunities for employees

A system out of sync with the work

The formal review structures weren’t aligned with how work actually happened day to day:

• Mid-year check-ins felt artificial when compared to the ongoing conversations already happening
• Administrative requirements sometimes overshadowed meaningful development discussions
• The milestone-based reviews didn’t reflect the continuous nature of feedback and growth

Looking at these challenges holistically, Louise and Nadine saw the chance to reimagine performance management as an experience that would energise employees and drive success. To build a new framework, they turned to Culture Amp.

Prioritising clarity, recognition, and culture

Louise, Nadine, and the Bank First team set out to design a performance framework that balanced accountability with empathy and felt like a natural extension of how their people work and connect. But to create lasting change, they had to start with the right people-first foundation.

Building momentum through consistency

The first step was standardising performance processes. With Culture Amp’s Perform platform, the bank replaced their inconsistent spreadsheets and documents with a centralised system that made check-ins, goals, and feedback visible and easy to manage.

In addition to the technology itself, Culture Amp provided templates, frameworks, and best practice guidance that helped Louise and Nadine shape a more intuitive experience for both employees and leaders. This support gave managers the tools they needed to engage in performance conversations confidently and helped Bank First track how the new system was landing in real time.

Making conversations meaningful

A newly unified system empowered Louise and Nadine to introduce “Power Chats” into the organisation. These regular one-on-one conversations replaced traditional check-ins, creating a more flexible framework that adapts to each employee’s needs rather than following a rigid structure. Leaders receive toolkits and guidance to align these conversations with performance objectives.

Resources like conversation prompts, manager tips, and flexible templates make it easier to build habits around high-quality feedback without adding extra complexity.

Gaining clarity through milestones

To improve clarity across teams, Bank First launched a company-wide alignment session that linked organisational strategy with individual goals. They implemented “milestone mapping” to set larger goals and started with the leadership team to ensure organisational priorities cascaded throughout the company.

Culture Amp’s tools help employees set clear, meaningful milestones by tracking progress in real time. This creates clarity where there was once complexity and refocuses efforts on impactful actions.

Embedding recognition as a habit

As Bank First established a new rhythm of continuous performance conversations, Louise and Nadine implemented another new initiative: a quarterly ritual called “Let’s Celebrate” that gives teams the space to reflect on achievements and set intentions for the next quarter. This practice is now a cultural centrepiece that drives engagement across the organisation.

Together, these changes have helped Bank First turn performance into a consistent, meaningful, and energising experience for all employees. And as the new approach was embraced, the impact was palpable.

Measuring the impact of a people-first approach

The refined, standardised performance cycle and process still put people at the centre and reshaped how the organisation set goals, gave feedback, and showed up at work. Employees were more engaged, leaders were supporting their teams more effectively, and recognition became a regular part of the employee experience.

In the months following rollout, Bank First saw meaningful gains across engagement, retention, and participation:

• Employee engagement rose from 66% to 83% over the course of a year, with some business units reaching engagement levels in the 90s
• Regrettable turnover dropped from the high teens to just 4.7%
• 30% of employees started giving feedback via Culture Amp’s platform

Based on that progress, the team is now planning to roll out 360-degree feedback to support more holistic development conversations and build even stronger feedback loops across the organisation.

Culture in motion

Where performance conversations had once felt disconnected or inconsistent, they have become embedded in the day to day. High performers, who previously felt overlooked, are now being recognised, and as retention improved across the organisation, so did momentum and engagement.

Reinforcing a culture of clarity and connection

Designing a performance approach for a culture built on kindness meant that Louise and Nadine would have to do more than simply introduce new tools. It required listening, co-creating, and committing to clarity at every level. With Culture Amp, they were able to reshape how the organisation understood, experienced, and talked about performance.

Their ongoing journey has revealed five key principles that other organisations can apply to their performance transformations:

1. Focus on the philosophy first. Louise and Nadine started with a clear “why” that guided all following decisions about processes and tools.
2. Meet employees where they are. Bank First decided to co-create their performance processes with extensive employee input to design a program that addressed real needs.
3. Prioritise simplicity over process. By simplifying goal setting across the organisation, Louise and Nadine were able to improve engagement and feedback participation from employees.
4. Build human-centered experiences. Throughout the implementation of the new performance management program, the organisation focused on clarity and growth rather than boxes to check and processes to implement.
5. Celebrate your wins. “Let’s Celebrate” shows that a little recognition can go a long way. And with flexibility, small touchpoints can turn into cultural pillars.

It all comes back to how performance feels – not as evaluation, but as inspiration. Performance conversations shouldn’t be something to dread, but something that moves you to action.

As Louise, Nadine, and the Bank First team continue to evolve their performance approach, they remain focused on what matters most: championing a culture where clarity, accountability, and kindness go hand in hand.

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