People, Culture, and Leadership: A Report on Xero Ltd's Initiatives

This report analyzes Xero Ltd, an Australian company, focusing on its performance management, organizational culture, and employee engagement initiatives. The study highlights Xero's recruitment practices, which aim for a diverse workforce through partnerships and university outreach. It examines how Xero fosters a supportive culture through employee empowerment activities like one-on-one conversations, and company-wide engagement efforts. The report also explores Xero's engagement strategies, including its total rewards system, which encompasses compensation and benefits. The conclusion summarizes key insights and suggests areas for improvement, emphasizing the importance of these initiatives for Xero's future success. The report references various academic sources to support its findings and recommendations.

Running head: PART A
People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership
[PART A]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1PART A
Introduction
This study deals with assessing 'Xero Ltd', which is one of the companies in Australia's
top 200 listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) (Asx200list.com 2020). The purpose
of this study is to see and identify how effectively the company deals with a few of the most
important activities of contemporary organisations. These are managing the performance at the
workplace, fostering a supportive and responsive organisational culture and keeping the people
effectively engaged to work.
Performance-related initiatives
Performance-related initiatives are the actions adopted to address a performance problem
or implement new practices to leverage emerging opportunities in the existing or a new
marketplace (Maletič et al. 2016). In this study, the centre of the discussion is Xero Ltd. It was
being found in the research that the company has taken a few notable initiatives concerning
organisational performance. One of these is its recruitment policy and practices. Xero strives to
foster a diversely natured workforce. It looks to attract and recruit people from different gender,
cultural and physical orientations. They do seminars in colleges and universities to recruit the
students based on their skills to facilitate an unbiased recruitment practice and support the
development of a diverse workforce. They also have partner companies to resource them the
veterans and individuals with disabilities (Asx.com.au 2020).
Culture related initiatives
Workplace culture can have significant impacts on employee motivation. A company that
does not address the concerns of its people appropriately is bound to face many barriers in its
way to a change (Davis, White and Stephenson 2016). For instance, if a company has to make

2PART A
night shifts compulsory for all amid the new business needs, it must have the required support
from its employees to get the initiative implemented effectively. It was being found in the
research that Xero effectively understands the urgency to keep its people motivated, which is
why it strives to follow employee empowerment activities. It regularly does one-on-one
conversations and company-wide engagement activities to identify and listen to their concerns
and keep them motivated (Asx.com.au 2020).
Engagement related initiatives
The research of Choi (2019) says that employees are the most valuable asset for a
company. They should be given the best care to encourage them to deliver their best. The best
way to keep employees engaged to work is to keep them away from any distraction that affects
their productivity. The distraction will happen when there is no sufficient acknowledgment to
performance. One of the best ways to acknowledge the performance is to facilitate the rewards
and recognition programs. Xero Ltd. also facilitates the total rewards system, which includes
compensation offerings and several other benefits (Xero Accounting Software 2020).
Conclusion
In this section, there will be concluding remarks on what could be extracted out from the
discussion on Xero Ltd. to be of importance for the company in the future. In the purpose, few
points of suggestions based on the findings of the study could be put forwarded to, so that, Xero
Ltd shows a better utilization of its initiatives concerning the areas discussed in the study.

3PART A
References
Asx.com.au 2020. [online] Asx.com.au. Available at:
<https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20190516/pdf/445434h484j299.pdf> [Accessed 17 April
2020].
Asx200list.com 2020. ASX 200 List Of Companies - Directory. [online] Asx200list.com.
Available at: <https://www.asx200list.com/> [Accessed 18 April 2020].
Choi, J.H., 2019. What one thinks determines one's actions: the importance of employees’
perception in implementing HR systems. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 57(1),
pp.85-102.
Davis, K., White, S. and Stephenson, M., 2016. The influence of workplace culture on nurses’
learning experiences: a systematic review of qualitative evidence. JBI database of systematic
reviews and implementation reports, 14(6), pp.274-346.
Maletič, M., Maletič, D., Dahlgaard, J.J., Dahlgaard-Park, S.M. and Gomišček, B., 2016. Effect
of sustainability-oriented innovation practices on the overall organisational performance: An
empirical examination. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 27(9-10), pp.1171-
1190.
Xero Accounting Software 2020. Online Accounting Software – Free Trial, Free Support | Xero.
[online] Xero Accounting Software. Available at: <https://www.xero.com/> [Accessed 17 April
2020].

4PART A