Reimagining Performance Management: Hochland’s Journey with Mirro
Industry: Food Manufacturing
Company size: 450
People in scope: 170
About: Hochland is one of the largest private cheese manufacturers in Europe.
In a bold move to empower their teams and enhance role-specific development, Hochland switched to a more dynamic performance management approach. With Mirro as their trusted partner for over three years, Hochland embraced this transformation, leveraging Mirro’s intuitive software as the catalyst for change. Together, we redefined how performance is measured and nurtured, fostering a culture of continuous growth and alignment.
Adopting Mirro for performance management
Switching to a new performance management process is no easy job and requires thorough research and planning. Hochland Romania collaborated with an experienced HR consultant and with the International HR Team to define the process over the course of two years. The result is a well-documented process focusing on people's growth and development.
As part of this process, Hochland separated performance management from financial bonuses. When bonuses are tied directly to performance evaluations, people may focus on securing a higher rating rather than engaging in honest discussions about their strengths and areas for improvement.
Mirro had already been a trusted partner for Hochland, happily using OKRs, recognition, and Culture Insights features. Hochland expanded the partnership by moving the performance process to Mirro. They chose our tool’s performance management features because they are flexible and customizable, allowing them to set up evaluation forms tailored to job roles.
Florin Dumitru, Senior HR Business Partner at Hochland Romania, remembers, "It was a major effort that was resolved in an excellent timeframe and with minimal errors. I can say that I have not heard of experiences with other systems that offer so much flexibility. Mirro provided us with advice as well as recommendations."
Driving organizational alignment and growth with Mirro
As highlighted in our previous case study with Hochland, the company initially adopted Mirro to make digital interactions more meaningful and create a culture of alignment where transparency, recognition, and development are core elements.
By adopting Mirro’s performance management module, Hochland increased the level of transparency and recognition. The HR team and people managers can now easily access past check-ins, feedback, kudos received, and OKRs progress, contributing to individual development and crafting thorough and impartial reviews.
The business outcome
By the end of October 2024, over 90% of white-collar team members had completed at least one evaluation. Mirro helped tremendously with automated reminders and nudges in the app to ensure timely completion.
By implementing Mirro, the Hochland team has achieved the following:
- Individual development plans are now built around actual needs and wants. Mirro's final performance check-in form lists the individual's development and learning needs in three categories: learning by doing, social learning, and formal learning. Then, the HR team collects and centralizes all the data to build personalized Learning and Development plans for the coming year.
- Mirro has helped team members and managers build a habit of having qualitative, development-oriented discussions. This way, the Hochland HR and leadership teams can really focus on continuous employee development all year round.
- Mirro has fostered a culture of open, constructive dialogue by encouraging regular performance check-ins. The structured yet flexible framework creates psychological safety, empowering team members to share ideas, voice concerns, and seek feedback without fear. This open environment not only strengthens trust and collaboration but also sparks innovation, as diverse perspectives come together to solve challenges and drive continuous improvement.
+90%
Completed
evaluations
With Mirro as a strategic partner, Hochland managed to have a much more strategic view of employee performance and gather valuable insights to foster growth.
What’s next for Hochland
In the near future, Hochland is looking to improve the performance management process for white-collar employees. Furthermore, the team wants to extend the newly added system to two factories with 250 employees.
Hochland also wants to increase communication and transparency further. It is equally essential for the company to maintain its values (conflict as an opportunity, leadership, initiative, information and communication, excellence and continuous improvement, culture of innovation, and cooperation) and express them through feedback and appreciation. Mirro is committed to being a trusting partner supporting Hochland in achieving the desired outcomes.
Florin Dumitru
Senior HR Business Partner at Hochland Romania
Together with Mirro, we have taken employee development to the next level. The evaluation forms tailored to job roles, together with the rest of the performance indicators in the system, guide our people in the most important discussion of the year, the one about people’s needs and wants.
About Mirro
Mirro's all-in-one performance management platform optimizes employee and business performance while streamlining HR operations. With a commitment to empowering businesses of all sizes, Mirro is a cutting-edge HR platform that combines advanced technology with intuitive design, catering to the diverse needs of modern workplaces. The HRIS platform integrates into a single solution performance management, company culture, feedback, recognition, people analytics, and workplace community features.
This innovative approach accelerates business outcomes, making Mirro the go-to solution for businesses aiming to prioritize their people and achieve exceptional results.
Mirro serves customers worldwide, including E Co., Adore Me, eMAG, McDonald’s, Public Inc., Hochland, Hyperfy, and Lactalis. You can learn more about how Mirro gets your teams thriving at www.mirro.io.
