Collective performance: 5 concrete levers HR can activate to grow it

For a long time, performance at work was framed first through an individual lens: personal objectives, individual bonuses, appraisals centred on "each person's contribution".

But in 2025, that paradigm is showing its limits: collective performance has become a strategic issue. Organisations now operate in an environment that is more hybrid, complex and collaborative than ever.

No single employee can create the expected value alone.

👉 What truly makes the difference today is the ability to activate the intelligence and energy of the collective.

Yet one pitfall persists: collective performance is often confused with the sum of individual performances. In reality, it belongs to an entirely different register.

• Individual performance is assessed.
• Collective performance is activated.

And this is precisely where HR has a key role to play. Uniting people, giving meaning, establishing rituals, measuring differently. These are all levers HR departments can pull to turn a group of talents into an aligned, engaged and lasting collective.

Here are 5 concrete, actionable levers that United Heroes shares with (H)R leaders to activate your collective performance starting today.

1️⃣ Set a clear, shared direction for everyone

A team's cohesion starts with a shared compass. According to Gallup (2021), teams working with well-defined objectives are 23% more likely to report being satisfied with their work.

👉 HR plays a central role here: making sure the company strategy is translated into accessible language and lived out day to day.

In practice:

• Make every internal meeting an opportunity to restate the "why", not just the "what".
• Weave a common thread through your internal communications: a clear, recurring message that connects individual projects to the collective ambition.
• Train managers so that they too become relays of meaning.

💡 Actionable tip: open your team meetings by restating the shared objective for the quarter, and how the team contributes to the overall mission.

🟣 Read also: 🔗 6 keys to understanding team cohesion at work

2️⃣ Create shared experiences

Trust and collective engagement cannot be decreed: they are lived. It is the shared experiences that turn a group into a collective.

And here again, HR's role is decisive: offering moments where everyone steps out of their daily role to join a common dynamic.

Examples:

• Collective challenges across sites or departments, whether sports-based, solidarity-driven or tied to CSR.
• Engagement days around a cause (accessibility, environment, solidarity, inclusion).
• Cross-functional projects bringing together different areas of expertise to tackle a concrete challenge.

👉 These experiences strengthen not only cohesion, but also mutual trust and a sense of belonging.

💡 Actionable tip: offer an inclusive collective challenge each quarter (sporting, environmental, solidarity-based). Simply living a shared experience builds bonds that last far longer than a one-off offsite.

🟣 Read also: 🔗 How to strengthen cohesion across multi-site teams working staggered shifts? 7 best practices from Orano

3️⃣ Celebrate collective wins

In many companies, rewards and recognition focus on individual "top performers". But over the long run, that logic can breed isolation and competition.

👉 HR can change the game by also valuing collective progress.

Examples of concrete actions:

• Highlight the success of an entire department that hit its objectives.
• Celebrate the cooperation between two teams that solved a problem together.
• Set up a "collective wins" ritual during internal meetings.

💡 Actionable tip: send an internal communication each month highlighting a collective success (not just an individual one). It is a strong signal that values mutual support and collaboration.

4️⃣ Strengthen a culture of belonging 

Collective performance also feeds on a strong sense of belonging to a mission and to shared values.

According to an OpinionWay survey for Anact (2022), 4 in 10 employees would be prepared to leave their company within the next two years if it did not give them enough meaning. And a sense of belonging is now a powerful safeguard against turnover and quiet quitting.

👉 HR therefore has a key role in bringing this culture of belonging to life every day.

In practice:

• Connect your CSR and quality-of-work-life projects to the company's overall mission.
• Give employees the chance to contribute to a cause (charitable giving, soft mobility, skills-based sponsorship).
• Let employees themselves speak up to embody your values.

💡 Actionable tip: introduce a small collective ritual (like 5 minutes of inspiring exchange at the start of the week) to reconnect teams with your values and commitments.

🟣 Read also, the L'Occitane case study: 🔗 A sense of belonging & CSR: Race for Equity, a global operation to unite the 8 brands of the L'Occitane Group

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5️⃣ Measure differently

• "What isn't measured doesn't exist." But collective performance can't be reduced to quantitative targets or financial indicators.

  👉 HR can introduce human and cultural indicators to complement the classic view.

  Examples of useful indicators:

  • Sense of belonging (internal barometer).
  • eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score).
  • Trust and cooperation index within teams.
  • Participation rate in collective initiatives (workplace well-being, CSR, solidarity).

  💡 Actionable tip: cross-reference these indicators with your business KPIs (turnover, productivity, absenteeism).

  🟣 Worth discovering: the SROI study carried out by United Heroes in 2025 shows that €1 invested in well-being generates €2.7 of social and economic value. Hard evidence to convince the C-suite.

What changes everything: setting human capital in motion

In 2025, collective performance is no longer a "nice to have". It is a strategic driver for staying competitive, attractive and sustainable.

And what makes the difference isn't only strategy, but setting human capital in motion:

• Creating shared experiences,
• Celebrating collective wins,
• Measuring differently,
• Strengthening a sense of belonging.

👉 It is this dynamic that turns a sum of talents into a high-performing, engaged and lasting collective.