.png){kind=logo}
Most managers don't set out to be tiger bosses. But across Southeast Asia, performance review data tells a consistent story: managers spend more time documenting what's going wrong than reinforcing what's going right, and it's costing companies their best people.
Last month, Omni partnered with TalentKraft to review anonymized performance review and employee engagement data across the region. The pattern that emerged is what we're calling the Tiger Boss Problem, and it's driving higher attrition and disengagement across the region.
To dig into what the data actually means for HR teams on the ground, we brought together three regional HR leaders for a live panel: Rodica Belocosov, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Gen; Sherman Tan, Head of People & Talent at Liminal; and Zhihan Yeo, Partner at TalentKraft, who co-produced the research. Here's what they had to say.
1. Pay isn't the top motivator, and most companies still act like it is
When employees ranked their top motivators, salary didn't come out on top. In fact, five of the eight leading motivators, things like environment, flexibility, respect, communication, and support for growth, are factors managers can directly shape.
"Pay isn't just not the only important factor, it's not even the most important factor. And I think that's how the workforce has evolved over time." — Zhihan Yeo, Partner at TalentKraft
That doesn't mean compensation doesn't matter. It means companies that can't compete on salary alone still have real levers to pull.
"If you can't pay at the pay that is a no-brainer... then you need to look at the other motivators even more seriously. So that will help you differentiate yourself and stand out as an employer." — Zhihan Yeo
2. Underperformers get more words than your best people
The data showed bottom-quartile employees receive an average of 37 words of written feedback at the median, most of it documenting mistakes. Top performers get even less: 28 words on average, 25% shorter than the feedback given to low performers.
For Sherman, that imbalance often comes down to time and risk, not intent.
"Sitting down and penning performance reviews is a luxury... it becomes a bit of a a covering-ourselves exercise, because we've seen in the headlines so many times how people have been dismissed unfairly." — Sherman Tan, Head of People & Talent at Liminal
But under-investing in feedback for high performers has its own cost, one that shows up as a retention problem before it becomes a recruitment problem.
"Your best performers are leaving... you fail to make performance scalable, which is huge for a startup because you have a few people that are really, really impactful. And when they leave, you are not able to replicate those behaviors." — Rodica Belocosov, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Gen
Zhihan added a subtler explanation: it's not always neglect, it's a blind spot on both sides.
"As a manager, we often assume that telling a high performer that's great is good enough... but a high performer is always thinking about what's next... they don't ask for what they want. They expect to be acknowledged proactively." — Zhihan Yeo
3. Companies with more review types see far lower attrition
Companies running five different review types (peer, self, manager, 360, and so on) saw average attrition of 13.5%. Companies running just one review type saw 38%, nearly triple.
Sherman argued the real fix isn't more paperwork, it's structural.
"I think the structure should be looked at first... if there are mechanisms we can put in place that take the heat off that formal review process, for example a continuous feedback process... I think that's helped alleviate a little bit of that tension that can come from working together." — Sherman Tan
Rodica pushed back on reading too much into the review-type count itself, and pointed to what actually drives the outcome.
"It's hard for me to relate to the infrastructure... but what I do agree is very important is the number of touch points and meaningful conversations that a manager has with their team members." — Rodica Belocosov
Zhihan tied the two views together with a distinction worth sitting with:
"Structure does not equate to formality. One of the review types could be coffee chats that you make a time in your calendar to do every couple of months with your staff. Is that structured? Yes. But it's by no means formal." — Zhihan Yeo
4. Attrition isn't the earliest warning sign. Silence is.
By the time attrition shows up in the numbers, Rodica argued, it's already too late to act on it.
"The earliest sign isn't usually attrition, it's actually silence... when people stop disagreeing or challenging the status quo, when they think that there is no point to say anything because their thoughts won't be taken into account. Secondly, when people stop asking for more difficult challenges or problems." — Rodica Belocosov
Sherman connected this back to a Gallup data point on the relationship between feedback and engagement, positive or negative.
"People who get positive feedback are the most engaged. The people who oftentimes get more negative feedback are less engaged but still engaged. The ones that are most disengaged are the people who face silence, whose managers do not even say anything." — Sherman Tan
5. Don't push people into management, and don't reward the title over the impact
A recurring thread across the panel: many of the behaviors driving the Tiger Boss Problem trace back to how companies select and reward managers in the first place.
"The honest answer is I think performance reviews and the way we promote people is broken... we tend to reward people for great performance and promote them to their level of incompetence... oftentimes these are people who are excellent at their jobs but terrible leaders." — Sherman Tan
Rodica offered a practical set of guardrails for founders and HR leaders building out their management layer:
"Don't force and don't push people into people manager roles if they are not willing to do that or if they're not good at that... don't pay more for people managers, because then you create a situation where in order to get a higher pay, you can only do it by becoming a manager. A strong individual contributor can have a big impact without a team as well." — Rodica Belocosov
And on what accountability should actually look like once someone is in the role:
"A win is a team's win, and a loss is a manager's loss. I wish I would see it more often where managers take accountability for a loss, a failed project, and share success with the team and those top performers." — Rodica Belocosov
Where to start, even with a small or lean team
For HR leaders without a formal review structure in place yet, all three panelists agreed: start simple, and build the habit before you build the process.
"It doesn't have to be very fancy... at least have a manager review. It doesn't have to be so extensive with 50 questions... ensuring that one-on-one manager and team member conversations happen, I think that's non-negotiable in any setup." — Sherman Tan
"Invest in your frontline managers, entry-level managers, first-time managers. I found this to be a very big gap, even for large companies." — Zhihan Yeo
"Take your team out for lunch tomorrow or on Friday and start by doing that... it's a very good opportunity for you to get to know them better and open conversations that wouldn't start otherwise." — Rodica Belocosov
The Tiger Boss Problem isn't about bad managers. It's about performance systems that, often unintentionally, reward documenting failure over developing people. The data shows that companies investing in more consistent feedback loops, not necessarily more formal ones, are the ones holding onto their best performers.
Want the full findings behind this conversation? To see the full breakdown of performance review trends across Southeast Asia,
Download the complete Tiger Boss Problem report
.png)
.avif)
.avif)
