Who can use this feature?

Survey creators, Account Administrators, Surveys full permissions, Survey admins

Available on:

All Culture Amp subscriptions that include Engagement or Effectiveness

The Performance Culture Quadrant™ (PCQ) is a strategic framework and diagnostic feature that bridges the gap between how people "feel" and whether the organization is positioned to "win." This tool moves beyond traditional engagement metrics to definitively answer the executive question: "Do we have a high-performing culture?"

By plotting Workplace Engagement against Performance Confidence, the Summary Report provides a visual "shared language" to help you understand your organization's health at a glance. For a deeper dive into the research and methodology, see The Science Behind Culture Amp’s Performance Culture Diagnostic™ (PCD) and Performance Culture Quadrant™ (PCQ).

How The Quadrant Interprets Your Data

The PCQ categorizes your organization and teams into four distinct Culture States based on where they land on the grid.

These four states are defined by the intersection of Workplace Engagement (Y-axis) and Performance Confidence (X-axis):

Peak Performance (Top Right): High Workplace Engagement, High Performance Confidence.
Engaged Skepticism (Top Left): High Workplace Engagement, Low Performance Confidence.
Strained (Bottom Right): Low Workplace Engagement, High Performance Confidence.
Disconnected (Bottom Left): Low Workplace Engagement, Low Performance Confidence.

Deep Dive: To learn more, refer to the Science Behind: From Measurement to Meaning section of our research.

Setup: Enabling The Quadrant

To trigger the quadrant in your reports, utilize the Performance Culture Diagnostic (PCD) survey template. This template contains the exact outcome-and-driver architecture required to identify what is holding teams back from Peak Performance.

Step 1. Template Selection

Go to your Surveys page > Template Library and select either the Performance Culture Diagnostic (Full) or (Pulse).
These templates include the EVOLVE dimensions (Excellence, Vision, Ownership, Learning, Voice, and Energy), which serve as the drivers for your two main outcomes: Workplace Engagement and Performance Confidence.

Step 2. Reporting Factor Configuration

While the template is pre-configured with default settings, confirm these in Survey Design > Reporting Factors to unlock full PCQ functionality:

Index Factor: Workplace Engagement is set as the default Index Factor. This powers the "Your Top Opportunities" section on the Summary Report and the Focus Agent algorithm.
Key Factors: Manually ensure Performance Confidence is also marked as a Key Factor. This adds it as an interactive tile on the Summary Report and triggers the Recommended Focus Areas within the Insights Explorer.

Manual Driver Removal

For the most accurate Impact (correlation) results, the outcome questions should not "drive" each other in the data. Since you will be using both Workplace Engagement and Performance Confidence to navigate your results, we recommend having all 8 outcome questions (the 5 Engagement and 3 Confidence questions) manually removed from the driver analysis calculation.

Why this matters: This prevents "circular" data where outcome questions appear as their own top drivers. By excluding them, your "Top Opportunities" will focus exclusively on actionable EVOLVE drivers, (like Excellence or Energy) that actually move the needle on your culture. This follows our standard approach of using drivers to explain outcomes, rather than including outcome items in their own driver analysis, which can distort the Impact results.
How to do it: Contact Culture Amp Product Support to request that the PCQ outcome questions be excluded from the driver analysis for your survey.
When to do it: Once your survey questions are finalised in the platform, and before your survey closes.

⚠️ Outcome Questions to Exclude from Driver Analysis

Factor	Question
Workplace Engagement	I would recommend %ACCOUNT_NAME% as a great place to work
	I see myself still working at %ACCOUNT_NAME% in two years' time
	I really enjoy the work that I am doing
	I often find myself immersed in my work here
	I feel like I belong at %ACCOUNT_NAME%
Performance Confidence	%ACCOUNT_NAME% is in a position to really succeed over the next three years
	At %ACCOUNT_NAME%, we consistently meet or exceed the high goals we set
	The products and services %ACCOUNT_NAME% provides are as good as, or better than, our main competitors

Managing Results After the Survey Closes

Step 1: Assign your Index and Key Factors

Before you share reports with managers, it’s important to decide which outcome to set as the Index Factor (your primary outcome) and which as the Key Factor (the secondary outcome). This choice is important because it determines which "Top Opportunities" and "Recommended Focus Areas" the platform highlights for your users.

How to choose based on your PCQ position:

Peak Performance: select the outcome that is most important to strategically focus on
Engaged Skepticism: select Performance Confidence
Strained: select Workplace Engagement
Disconnected: select the outcome that is most important to strategically focus on

If you need to change your Index Factor from the default (Workplace Engagement), you can update it in the Reporting Factors page of your survey configuration.

Step 2: Shared Reports Configuration

Please note the following technical requirements for sharing the PCQ:

Report Types: The PCQ is currently available only for Standard and Advanced report types. It will not appear in Summary-only (Participation-only) shared report types.
Visibility for All Report Viewers: For now, enabling the PCQ will make it visible to everyone who receives a Standard or Advanced report.

Note: If you'd prefer to show the quadrant to some groups but not others, a new update in Q2 2026 will allow you to toggle the PCQ on or off for specific reports.

Step 3: External benchmark matching for PCD questions

The Performance Culture Diagnostic brings together questions from across Culture Amp's survey library, including Engagement, Wellbeing, and Inclusion templates, alongside new questions developed specifically for the PCD template.

Of the questions that have global external benchmark coverage, most will match automatically when a Culture Amp benchmark is added in the platform. However, a small number of questions have been updated or reframed from their original versions in other templates. Because the platform matches questions to external benchmarks based on exact wording, these updated questions need to be manually matched to their closest equivalent to unlock external benchmark comparisons.

Manual matching is only relevant when:

You are using the Performance Culture Diagnostic (Full or Pulse) survey template, and
You have added at least one Culture Amp external benchmark to your survey, and
You want to see question‑level external benchmarks for the questions listed below.

If you are not using external benchmarks, or if your survey does not include the PCD template, you can safely skip this step.

How to Match Updated Questions to External Benchmarks

Add your chosen Culture Amp benchmark to the survey as usual.
During the questions matching process, for each PCD question listed in the table below, manually select the “Match to” question as its benchmark source.
Save your changes and re‑load your report to confirm that external benchmark comparisons are now available for these items.

Question from the PCD:	Match to:
I really enjoy the work that I am doing	I am enjoying the work that I am doing
I often find myself immersed in my work here	I often find myself immersed in the work I am doing here
Day-to-day decisions demonstrate that continuous improvement is a top priority	Day-to-day decisions here demonstrate that quality and improvement are top priorities
My teammates regularly give each other constructive feedback	Team members regularly give each other constructive feedback
People in our team collaborate well with one another to get the job done	Team members collaborate well with one another to get the job done
I can see how the work I do makes a positive difference at %ACCOUNT_NAME%	I can see how the work I am doing is making a positive difference at %ACCOUNT_NAME%
I have enough autonomy to perform my job effectively	We have enough autonomy to perform our jobs effectively
The work I am doing makes good use of my strengths	The work I am doing is making good use of my strengths
I feel equipped to manage both personal and work life demands	I feel equipped to manage both personal and work life demands right now

Note: The Performance Confidence factor does not yet have benchmarks.

Navigating Your Report

The PCQ is the centerpiece of the Summary Report.

The Anchor Dot: Represents the Report Overall (the population the report is scoped to). Clicking this dot launches the Insights Explorer in the Side Panel.

Comparison Dot: Plots your chosen Comparison (Company Overall or Past Survey). This non-clickable dot only appears when data exists for both factors. Adjusting your comparison will update all Comparison Deltas (percentage point differences) across the report.

PCQ Demographic Selector: Use this in-quadrant selector to plot sub-groups (e.g., Department). This plots each group as a clickable Demographic Value Dot for subgroup deep-dives. The anchor dot is removed for clarity, and the view continues to respect any active Side Filters. This selector is hidden if demographic filtering is disabled in the Report Sharing Configuration.

Side Panel (Insights Explorer): Clicking any Index or Key Factor tile, dot, or Question tile opens Insights Explorer. Here, you can review the Top 3 Recommended Focus Areas for both Workplace Engagement and Performance Confidence.

Question Tiles: Clicking a Question tile opens the Insights Explorer to show Participation, Trend, Spread by demographic, and AI comment summaries (depending on report sharing configuration).

Move Insights to Action with Coach

AI Coach is specifically trained on the Sustainable High Performance framework to interpret PCQ results. When used with PCQ, Coach draws on additional Performance Culture research and PCQ‑specific content, enabling deeper guidance than standard Engage reports – including exploring PCQ positioning across demographics and turning quadrant states into tailored action plans.

Interpret results: Ask, "What do these results mean for me?" for a high-level overview of cultural strengths and gaps based on your PCQ positioning.
Outlier Storytelling: Coach can compare demographics on the quadrant (e.g., "How are departments positioned on the PCQ?") and explain why a group might land in the Strained quadrant.
Recommended Focus Questions: By setting both PCQ outcomes as Key Factors, Coach can retrieve and analyze the "Recommended Focus Questions" to provide deeper strategic guidance.
Action Planning: Coach uses a comprehensive People Science knowledge base to suggest actions tailored to your role. Helping you move from understanding your results to identifying your next steps. Coach will not create or track actions on your behalf. Once you’ve aligned on focus areas, use our Take Action Framework to create, track, and measure your actions over time.
Science-Backed Actions: Coach provides tailored recommendations (e.g., "boundary setting" or "recovery rituals") based on the EVOLVE dimensions and Culture Amp's People Science Research.
Data Awareness: Coach "sees" exactly what is visible in your report UI, including filters and confidentiality settings. If a demographic dot is hidden due to confidentiality, Coach cannot reveal that data but can explain why the information is unavailable.

What if I don't have Coach?

If Coach is not activated, we strongly encourage enabling it to get the most value from your Performance Culture data. You can follow our Admin setup and rollout guide for AI Coach to get started. Otherwise, follow this workflow:

Identify Focus Questions: Use the Insights Explorer to identify your "Recommended Focus Areas" for both Workplace Engagement and Performance Confidence.
Use the Inspiration Engine via Take action:
1. Go to the Questions report and flag your chosen focus questions.
2. Click the green Take action button in your survey report to open the Inspiration Engine and browse science-backed ideas, or create your own custom action plan.
Follow the Take Action with the Action Framework guide to track progress, gather feedback, and measure the impact of your actions over time.

Note: The Performance Culture Diagnostic (PCD) uses new, research-backed questions. While we are constantly adding new ideas to our Inspiration Engine, you may find that some PCD questions don't have a direct match yet. If that’s the case, explore related focus areas for creative ways to support your team.

Troubleshooting/FAQs

Question	Answer
Why is the quadrant missing from my report?	The Performance Culture Quadrant only appears when both of these are true: Your survey includes the Workplace Engagement and Performance Confidence factors, and they are mapped to question data. Those factor names match the default PCD template (you can change capitalization or add spaces, but renaming the factors entirely will stop the quadrant from loading). Also check that your shared report type is Standard or Advanced. The PCQ is not available on Summary-only reports.
Why is the Comparison Dot missing?	Past Survey comparison: The comparison dot will only show if the past survey also used both Workplace Engagement and Performance Confidence with compatible questions. If either factor is missing or has been heavily customised, the dot won’t appear. Benchmarks: For the Performance Culture Diagnostic template, factor-level benchmarks are currently only available for Workplace Engagement. Performance Confidence does not yet have factor‑level benchmarks, so benchmark comparison dots will not appear on the quadrant for this factor.
Why is AI Coach not appearing?	AI Coach for PCQ is only available when: AI Coach is activated for surveys. The shared report type is Standard or Advanced, and The survey contains both PCQ factors (Workplace Engagement and Performance Confidence). If any of these conditions aren't met, the Coach button will be hidden for that report.
Can I use this for individual performance ratings?	No. The Performance Culture Quadrant is designed as an organization‑level and team‑level diagnostic. It helps you understand how people experience performance and engagement across groups, not to assess or compare individual employees’ performance.
Why can’t Coach compare some demographics on the quadrant?	For performance and privacy reasons, Coach can only explore demographics with 50 or fewer distinct values; very granular demographics (such as Employee ID or Email) won’t be available for PCQ exploration in Coach.