Next Practices Weekly recently featured Lisa Pariot, Chief People Officer at AXIS, in an insightful session hosted by i4cp’s Tom Stone, Senior Research Analyst, and Marshall Bergman, VP of Advisory Services. The session explored how AXIS, under the leadership of their new CEO, Vincent Tizzio, has partnered with i4cp to drive a cultural transformation aimed at improving business performance.
If you missed this session, you missed a grounded look at how AXIS is trying to make culture more than a set of words on a page. Lisa talked through how the company is approaching culture change as part of a broader business transformation under CEO Vincent Tizzio. The session focused on what AXIS is actually doing to build a high-performance culture and why the company sees that work as closely tied to business results.
With their practical approach, AXIS is not treating culture as a side initiative or a communications exercise. The company started by asking some basic but important questions: are leaders ready to lead change, what kind of culture will support the business they want to become, and how do you make sure employees are part of the process instead of just hearing about it after the fact.
- Leadership readiness came first. AXIS began by looking at whether its leaders were prepared to drive culture change in a real way.
- The business case was front and center. The company made a point of showing that culture is not separate from performance; it is part of how results happen.
- New values and behaviors are being built on purpose. AXIS is creating a new culture architecture to support its larger transformation.
- Employee input was not an afterthought. The process included executive interviews, more than 20 culture conversations and focus groups, and an ongoing emphasis on listening.
- Measurement matters. AXIS put a culture scorecard in place so progress can be tracked over time instead of left to instinct.
Another useful part of the session was seeing the work broken into phases. AXIS got executive support first, introduced the effort through the CEO, moved into research and listening, then used executive workshops and a culture steering committee to shape the framework. From there, the company focused on rollout, measurement, and reinforcement. That included tying culture into performance management and engagement efforts, rewarding people who live the values through their everyday behavior, and continuing to listen as the work evolves.
The scorecard piece was especially interesting because it showed that AXIS wants culture to be something leaders can actually manage. The measures mentioned included eNPS, reputation index, performance and productivity indicators, regretted voluntary turnover, internal mobility, inclusion and purpose measures, Glassdoor rating, ERG participation, and diverse candidate slates. The point was to give leaders a clearer picture of where the culture stands, where it is improving, and how those shifts connect with business outcomes.
A key theme: everyday behavior matters more than slogans. AXIS’s goal is not just to launch new values, but to make those values visible in how work gets done. That means how leaders lead, how teams operate, what gets recognized, and what gets measured all have to line up.
This is a good example of culture work that is trying to stay close to the business. AXIS is building the case for change, checking leadership readiness, involving employees throughout the process, defining the behaviors it wants to see, and using a scorecard to keep the work honest. The big takeaway is that AXIS is treating culture as something that has to be built into daily work and tracked over time if it is going to help drive business success.
The recording is now available for viewing above. Stream the full session to explore these next practices in more detail and be sure to register for future sessions.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.