Transforming TEAM’s people processes to enhance talent development

Interview with Silvia Pelli (Director People & Culture) and Amy Wright (Head of Talent & Development)

At the start of 2024, TEAM unveiled the results of a transformative, year-long project aimed at revamping the company's people processes, making performance management and talent development more transparent, accessible, and autonomous.

As Silvia Pelli, Director of People & Culture, and Amy Wright, Head of Talent & Development, explain, as part of TEAM’s vision to ‘be the best place to develop a career in the sports marketing industry,’ we place a big focus on the development of individuals as a foundation for fulfilling careers. These new processes have resulted in tangible ways to support TEAM staff and more opportunities for employees to grow, develop and thrive.

Re-defining performance management and talent development

As Silvia notes, "Together with the leadership team, we started by critically reviewing how performance and development were handled at TEAM. We asked ourselves, 'Should talent development be separated from performance appraisals?', 'How often should development be discussed?' and ‘How do we develop a culture of feedback?’"

In collaboration with external consultants specialising in psychology, neuroleadership, HR, and education, TEAM worked on implementing recommendations grounded in proven research. The resulting changes mark a significant departure from the traditional performance management process.

Shifting to a forward-looking, continuous feedback culture

The driving assumption related to performance management is that performance will take care of itself if TEAM focuses on building potential and reducing interference. This means empowering staff to develop skills, knowledge, behaviours, and agility, while facilitating regular feedback to keep employees on track with their goals.

Among the most notable changes that were introduced:

Performance appraisals and ratings are now a thing of the past. TEAM has adopted a continual performance management model that focuses on development, growth, and potential rather than retrospective performance assessments.
Review and development are now driven by employees themselves, with tools and resources provided to foster learning and skill-building.
Opportunities for discussing objectives, development and career planning are distinct and scheduled on an ongoing cadence, allowing and encouraging employees and line managers to have focused conversations on each.
Clear learning paths have been introduced for both individual contributors and people managers, empowering all staff to develop their skills in a structured and targeted way.
Open enrolment in learning courses is now available on TEAM's HR platform, making it easy for employees to take control of their professional growth.

Introducing a robust training programme

To support staff in their development, building out and offering comprehensive training courses was essential. Amy Wright, who is leading TEAM’s new Learning & Development function explains, “We’ve launched a training catalogue that is continually updated with new courses, ranging from enhancing leadership skills and giving feedback, to managing stress and setting objectives."

These courses, designed and led by external experts, are offered on-site at both TEAM's Lucerne and London offices, ensuring that employees have easy access to world-class training. "It’s important that we create a culture that allows staff to dedicate time for training," Amy adds.

The new approach is already showing results, with employees highlighting the value of these learning opportunities:

“Courses like Giving and Receiving Effective Feedback and Navigating Critical Conversations provided knowledge and tools that could be applied immediately. Additionally, the techniques presented are applicable beyond the workplace, giving an opportunity to improve both business and personal relationships.” Brand Design Manager

“Regular access to expert advice and best practices, tailored to our individual needs, has really been an amazing opportunity. We are all busy, but taking time for personal and professional development is worth it.” Head of Digital

Creating more opportunities

As TEAM continues to assess and optimise its new processes, the transformation has ultimately resulted in more opportunities for staff:

more opportunities to grow: employees are empowered to drive their development.
more opportunities to give and receive feedback: continuous and focused review cycles ensure that feedback becomes a natural and regular part of the process.
more opportunities to learn: curated learning pathways and accessible training resources provide employees with tools to continuously develop their skills.

"Changing the way we handle performance and development has been a big shift for us," says Silvia. "But we’re excited about the new direction, and we’re committed to continually growing the programme to give all employees numerous opportunities and resources to support their development."