15Five’s Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) gives you a clear, data-driven view of how managers are performing across key leadership competencies. In this article, you’ll learn how to access and use MEI reporting to track organizational trends, explore competency insights, and evaluate individual manager performance—so you can take informed action to improve effectiveness at scale.
In this article, you will learn...
- How to Access MEI Reporting 👩💻
- Explore the ME Indicator Dashboard 🔍
- Manager Summary Report 🎯
- AI Coach Insights Report 🤖
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
Access and availability
⛔️ Required access to HR Outcomes Dashboard.
👥 This article is relevant to roles and individuals assigned access to the HR Outcomes Dashboard.
📦 This feature is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.
How to Access MEI Reporting 👩💻
- Click Outcomes Dashboard in 15Five's main, left-hand navigation.
- Open the "Manager Effectiveness" tab at the top of the page.
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You're now on the Manager Effectiveness Dashboard. From here, open the ME Indicator tab at the top of the page.
Note
The ME Indicator Dashboard is just one part of Manager Effectiveness reporting in the HR Outcomes Dashboard. You can use the other tabs to access reporting powered by 15Five's AI Coach, Kona. Learn more →
- You're now on the ME Indicator Dashboard, which helps you analyze how managers demonstrate core competencies and take action to improve their effectiveness.
It includes the following reporting elements:
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Overall MEI Score: Displays your organization’s current average Manager Effectiveness Indicator score, out of 100.
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MEI Trend Chart: Visualizes how your average MEI score has changed over time, helping you track progress and identify shifts in manager effectiveness.
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Competency Highlights: Shows which Manager Effectiveness competencies your managers are currently scoring highest in—your organization’s strengths.
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MEI Breakdown: Displays how many managers fall into each MEI score range, week over week, so you can monitor distribution trends across your population.
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Heatmap View: Allows you to compare how individual managers score across all eight MEI competencies, making it easy to spot patterns and outliers.
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List View: Presents each manager’s MEI score alongside related metrics like Engagement, Objectives, Turnover, and Span of Control, enabling side-by-side comparison.
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Org Chart View: Maps manager performance onto your company’s reporting hierarchy to provide insight into effectiveness at each level of the organization.
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- Continue reading to learn how to explore each of these elements in detail.
Explore the ME Indicator Dashboard 🔍
The ME Indicator Dashboard is made up of two sections: Org-Level Insights and Manager Details. The Org-Level Insights section highlights overall trends across your organization, while the Manager Details section lets you dig into individual manager performance using interactive views.
Org-Level Insights
The Org-Level Insights section provides a high-level snapshot of how managers across your organization are performing in key leadership competencies. It’s ideal for spotting trends, tracking progress, and identifying areas to focus on before diving into individual manager performance.
It includes the following reporting elements:
MEI 🧮
Displays your organization's current average Manager Effectiveness score, calculated from assessment data.The Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) tile shows your organization’s current average Manager Effectiveness score, out of 100. This is your core metric for evaluating how well your managers are performing across eight core Manager Effectiveness competencies. This single score gives you a quick, digestible indicator of overall manager effectiveness—ideal for tracking progress across initiatives or presenting results to executives.
How it’s calculated:
MEI is based on employee feedback gathered through Manager Effectiveness Review Cycles and/or Engagement Surveys. In these assessments, employees rate their managers on competencies such as setting goals, supporting career growth, giving feedback, and building strong teams.
Note
If your organization hasn’t run a Manager Effectiveness Review Cycle or Engagement Survey, your MEI may still be calculated using historical 15Five platform usage data (e.g., Check-ins, High Fives, 1-on-1s). This fallback method is temporary and will be phased out in a future update. To ensure your MEI reflects real-world manager behaviors and competencies, we recommend running a Manager Effectiveness assessment.
MEI Trend 📈
Visualizes how your MEI score has changed over time, helping you track progress and impact.The MEI Trend graph shows how your organization’s average MEI has changed over time, helping you identify movement in manager performance.
Each data point on the graph reflects your average MEI for that week. A rising trendline indicates that recent efforts—like training, coaching, or new processes—may be paying off. A flat or declining trendline may signal a need for attention or support.
The trendline turns your MEI from a static score into a dynamic metric. You can monitor impact over time and use it to build the case for continued investment in manager development.
Tip
Regularly check your organization's MEI using the Trend graph and watch how the dot moves as your organization conducts manager effectiveness initiatives using Action Plans.
Competencies 💪
Shows which manager effectiveness competencies are strongest across your organization.The Competency Highlights section shows the top three competencies where your managers are currently scoring highest based on the latest assessment data. These are your organization’s areas of strength—they reflect where your managers are excelling and where your culture of leadership is already strong.
Highlighting strengths helps build trust in the data and shifts the narrative from “fixing managers” to supporting what’s already working. Use this section to:
- Use high-performing competencies as internal best practices.
- Pair them with lower-scoring areas to design more targeted training.
- Celebrate them in communications with your executive team or board.
MEI Breakdown 📊
Breaks down how managers are distributed across different MEI score ranges over the past 12 weeks.The MEI Breakdown shows how your managers are distributed across MEI scoring bands, helping you visualize the composition of manager effectiveness across your organization. Each bar in the chart represents a weekly snapshot of your manager population by MEI range.
You can hover over any week to see a detailed count of how many managers fall into each band, as well as how many managers don’t yet have an MEI score due to missing assessment data.
Manager Details
At the bottom of the ME Indicator Dashboard, you'll find the Manager Details section, which lets you explore individual manager data in three ways: Heatmap, List, and Org Chart.
Each view offers a different lens into your manager population—whether you’re looking for patterns by competency, performance by team structure, or detailed metric-by-metric comparisons.
Heatmap (Default View) 🔥
Best for spotting strengths and opportunities by competency.The Heatmap visualizes how each manager is performing across all eight MEI competencies, displayed as individual factor scores.
This view enables you to:
- Compare performance across competencies at a glance
- Identify clusters of managers with similar strengths or development needs
- Spot organizational trends or gaps in specific competencies
Click on a manager’s name to open the Manager Details side panel for deeper insight into their individual factor scores and overall metrics.
Tip
The top row of the heatmap shows your organization’s average factor scores, making it easy to benchmark individual managers against org-wide performance.
List 📋
Best for comparing managers across key outcome metrics.The List view shows each manager’s MEI score alongside key metrics. This view makes it easy to sort by outcome areas and identify managers who may need follow-up or support.
This view contains the following metrics:
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MEI: The manager’s overall Manager Effectiveness Indicator score.
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Engagement: The most recent engagement score for the manager’s team, provided the team meets confidentiality requirements.
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Objectives: The percentage of objectives owned by the manager’s direct reports that are currently marked as “on track.”
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Top Performers: The number of Top Performers on the manager’s team, based on performance ratings or responses to a selected rating-scale question in review cycles included in your HR Outcomes Dashboard configuration.
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Turnover: The number of employees on the manager’s team who had a termination date recorded in the past 30 days. Learn how to add termination data to 15Five →
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Span of Influence: The total number of employees in the manager’s reporting hierarchy.
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Span of Control: The number of direct reports the manager currently has.
Click the arrow next to any manager’s name to open the Manager Details side panel for deeper insight into their individual factor scores and overall metrics.
Org Chart 🏢
Best for viewing manager effectiveness in the context of your org structure.The Org Chart view maps manager data onto your organization’s reporting hierarchy. Use the expand/collapse arrows and zoom controls to explore different parts of the hierarchy.
Use this view to...
- Understand team-level effectiveness in context
- Explore how scores cascade across leadership layers
- Navigate easily across departments and managerial levels
Click on a manager’s name to open the Manager Details side panel for deeper insight into their individual factor scores and overall metrics.
Accessible from all three views, the Manager Details side panel provides a comprehensive snapshot of a manager’s performance. Use this panel to identify targeted coaching needs, build development plans, or track progress over time.
This sidebar contains the following information:
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A breakdown of the manager’s MEI factor scores
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Their MEI score alongside Engagement, Performance, and Turnover metrics
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Span of influence and span of control figures
Manager Summary Report 🎯
Overview
The Manager Summary Report (in-app link) helps you identify where targeted manager support can drive meaningful improvements in engagement, performance, and retention—so you can take action where it matters most. It surfaces managers with the greatest opportunities for impact by combining multiple data signals, including engagement results, MEI scores, performance designations, and recent enablement activity.
Think of this report as your launchpad for manager development. Whether a manager is struggling with low engagement scores, a dip in team performance, or gaps in key leadership behaviors, the Manager Summary Report provides the visibility you need to prioritize support and move confidently into action.
What's Included
This report is made up of three main elements: the Show Managers Filter, the Manager Table, and the Manager Details Panels. Use the dropdowns below to learn about the data contained in each.
Show Managers Filter 🎯
Allows you to focus on managers with the most pressing or strategic support needs.The Show Managers Filter enables you to filter the Manager Table to include managers who meet specific criteria.
The following filtering options are available:
- With High Urgency: Displays only managers who have been flagged with a high urgency rating, indicating they have the most immediate need for support based on AI-driven analysis.
- With Low Performing People: Shows managers who have multiple direct reports who are designated as low performers, signaling a potential need for performance coaching or team development support. Learn how performance designations are calculated in the FAQs below →
- With Low Engagement Teams: Highlights managers whose teams had low engagement scores in your organization’s most recent engagement campaign, pointing to morale, motivation, or culture challenges.
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With Low MEI Scores: Filters for managers with low Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) scores, helping you identify those struggling to demonstrate key leadership competencies.
Note
The Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) is a score that reflects how effectively a manager demonstrates key leadership competencies, gathered based on feedback given in Manager Effectiveness Assessments. Learn more →
- With Large Teams: Focuses on managers who are responsible for larger teams, where the stakes—and impact of strong leadership—are especially high.
Manager Table 📋
Provides a prioritized view of which managers may benefit most from additional support.The Manager Table provides a prioritized view of which managers may benefit most from additional support.
It includes the following details:
- Manager: Displays the manager’s name, role, and avatar.
- Urgency: Indicates the level of need for support—High, Medium, or Low—based on AI-driven analysis.
- Recommended focus area: The AI coaching focus area 15five recommends for the manager.
- AI summary: A brief explanation of why this focus area was selected, based on observed behaviors.
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Last Actions: The most recent manager effectiveness activity completed (e.g., course completion, coaching session attendance).
For example, in the screenshot above, Ethan Carlson is flagged with High urgency around Change Management, and the latest manager effectiveness action he took was attending a group coaching session.
Manager Details Panels 🔎
Offer a deeper dive into the team health, performance, and effectiveness of individual managers.Manager Details Panels, accessible by clicking the arrow to the right of a manager's name, offer a deeper dive into that manager’s team health, performance, and effectiveness.
It may contain the following information:
- Performance: The manager’s performance designation (top, mid, or low) and the number of top/low performers on their team, based on data from Best-Self Review®.
- Engagement: Displays the lowest-scoring engagement driver for the manager’s team from your organization’s most recent engagement campaign.
- Team: Shares insights about team size that may impact effectiveness.
- Actions: Highlights if the manager hasn't recently completed enablement activities, signaling they need encouragement or support to re-engage with development efforts.
- Recommended focus: The AI coaching focus area 15five recommends for the manager based on data in 15Five.
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MEI Competencies: The manager's current scores in manager effectiveness competencies, which are used to calculate MEI.
Note
The Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) is a dynamic score that reflects how effectively a manager demonstrates key leadership competencies. It’s calculated using data from Manager Effectiveness Review Cycles and Engagement Surveys, helping organizations identify strengths and growth opportunities across their leadership team. Learn more →
How it Works
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📊 Review the data to spot trends.
Start by scanning the report and applying filters to narrow your focus. This helps you zero in on where support is most needed. -
📶 Prioritize using urgency scores.
Each manager is assigned an urgency rating—High, Medium, or Low—based on how much they would benefit most from timely, proactive coaching and development. This allows you to quickly prioritize where to focus. -
💡 Understand each manager’s development needs.
Managers are also assigned a recommended AI coaching focus area based on a blend of behavioral signals and historical data. These insights help you not only identify who to support, but also how to support them. -
🤝 Translate insights into targeted support.
Once you’ve identified your priority managers, include them in a Manager Effectiveness Action Plan. Each plan targets specific leadership behaviors and includes structured actions—like coaching, learning content, and in-the-moment support by Kona—that help HR teams deliver the right development at the right time. View step-by-step instructions for creating a Manager Effectiveness Action Plan →
AI Coach Insights Report 🤖
Overview
The AI Coach Insights Report (in-app link), powered by Kona, helps you evaluate how effectively managers are showing up in 1-on-1s across core focus areas. It provides behavior-level insights grounded in AI analysis of actual meeting data, so you can spot strengths, identify gaps, and take informed, timely action.
Think of this report as an early warning system and continuous improvement tool. It’s especially valuable for tracking manager behavior between formal manager effectiveness assessments (engagement surveys or reviews)—so you can intervene with support before small issues become performance or engagement risks.
What's Included
This report offers an org-wide snapshot of manager behavior during 1-on-1 meetings attended by Kona. It highlights trends across core AI coaching focus areas and evaluates each one on three key dimensions: frequency, trend, and quality.
Here's What You'll Find:
- Focus area & aligned behaviors: Each focus area and the associated coaching behaviors that Kona evaluates in 1-on-1 conversations. Learn more about focus areas and behaviors →
- Behavior frequency: The percentage of manager 1-on-1s in which specific focus areas and behaviors were observed, compared to expectations for how often it should occur.
- Trend: A directional signal that shows how frequency has changed compared to the previous month—helping you track progress over time.
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Quality: A letter grade (e.g., C+, B-) that reflects how well the behaviors tied to each focus area were demonstrated during the meetings where they appeared, based on Kona’s qualitative analysis.
🔎 See examples of “perfect” quality for each behavior- Asked for Feedback: The manager proactively sought specific feedback with genuine curiosity, creating a comfortable environment for input and demonstrating clear intent to improve.
- Career Development: The manager engaged in a thoughtful career growth conversation, providing clear guidance, identifying skills or opportunities, and empowering the employee with a sense of direction toward long-term development.
- Change Management + Resiliency: The manager guided the team through change with clear communication, addressing emotional and logistical impacts, and providing concrete strategies for adapting, managing uncertainty, or building resilience.
- Coaching: The manager facilitated coaching through insightful questions, active listening, and reflective guidance, empowering the employee with greater self-awareness and a clear development path.
- Conflict Management: The manager navigated conflict by actively listening to all perspectives, fostering open dialogue, and guiding the team toward a respectful, mutually agreeable resolution that maintained a positive dynamic.
- Delegation: The manager delegated tasks with clear expectations aligned to individual strengths and development needs, empowering ownership and accountability with appropriate support.
- Difficult Conversation: The manager navigated sensitive topics with honesty, empathy, and composure, addressing issues directly while preserving trust and strengthening the working relationship.
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: The manager fostered an inclusive environment where diverse voices were valued, equitable opportunities were promoted, and intentional actions addressed bias or barriers to inclusion.
- Expectation Setting: The manager reinforced responsibilities, priorities, and success criteria, ensuring team alignment with minimal ambiguity, even when ownership was implied from prior discussions.
- Giving Constructive Feedback: The manager provided actionable feedback with specific examples, clearly addressing areas for improvement and the impact it had on the team or work.
- Leader Availability + Support: The manager remained accessible, proactively offering tailored support, removing obstacles, and ensuring employees had the resources, guidance, and stakeholder influence needed to succeed.
- Managing the Individual: The manager understood each team member’s unique strengths, motivations, and challenges, tailoring support, feedback, and opportunities to foster individual success.
- Performance Review Convo: The manager conducted a structured performance discussion that assessed accomplishments, offered actionable feedback, and set clear growth goals, fostering alignment and accountability.
- Prioritization: The manager clearly identified and communicated top priorities, focusing the team on high-impact work with structured guidance on managing time and resources.
- Psych Safety + Collaboration: The manager is clearly working towards a team environment where employees can feel safe to share ideas, included in the group, free to take risks, and able to collaborate openly.
- Receiving Feedback: The manager listened to feedback with openness and appreciation, processed input thoughtfully, and demonstrated a commitment to growth by applying feedback constructively.
- Recognition and Praise: The manager promptly and specifically acknowledged individual contributions, reinforcing positive behaviors and motivating continued engagement and performance.
- Vision + Goals + Objectives: The manager clearly communicated strategy, translated it into actionable goals, and consistently reinforced the broader meaning behind the team's work, fostering alignment and motivation toward company priorities.
- AI Summary: An aggregated view of behavior-related metrics across all managers, giving you a company-wide snapshot of strengths and opportunities.
How it Works
The AI Coach Insights Report helps you close the loop between manager behavior and manager development in three steps:
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📈 Spot behavior patterns at scale.
Review org-wide trends across all AI coaching focus areas to identify which behaviors are showing up—and which are missing from manager 1-on-1s. -
🔬 Understand quality and consistency.
Dig into frequency and quality ratings to see not just how often behaviors occur, but how effectively they’re being demonstrated. -
🎯 Take early, targeted action.
Use the coaching summaries and behavior scores to guide organization-wide manager enablement efforts, whether that means creating an Action Plan, assigning courses from 15Five's Manager Effectiveness course library, or assigning live coaching sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
The MEI is measured by combining feedback from two sources: Manager Effectiveness Review Cycles and Manager Effectiveness Engagement Surveys. Both assessments evaluate how consistently a manager demonstrates the eight Manager Effectiveness competencies.
You can configure how much each source contributes to the overall MEI score in your settings, allowing you to align measurement with your organization’s feedback approach. The final MEI score is displayed as a number out of 100.
Help Center article 💡: Configure the Manager Effectiveness Indicator
If your organization hasn’t yet run a Manager Effectiveness Review Cycle or Manager Effectiveness Engagement Survey, your MEI score may still be calculated using historical 15Five platform usage data (e.g., Check-ins, High Fives, 1-on-1s). This approach was part of an earlier version of MEI.
To unlock more accurate, actionable MEI data, we recommend running a Manager Effectiveness assessment. This will shift your MEI to reflect your managers’ performance in key leadership competencies like goal-setting, feedback, and career development.
- Help Center article 💡: Run a Manager Effectiveness Review Cycle
- Help Center article 💡: Run a Manager Effectiveness Engagement Survey
Note
We’re phasing out platform usage as a factor in MEI. In an upcoming update, MEI will be based solely on manager effectiveness assessments—ensuring the score reflects real-world manager behaviors and competencies, not just tool adoption.
If you don’t see the Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) in your account, it could be due to one of the following reasons:
- You don’t have access to the HR Outcomes Dashboard. MEI is housed within the Outcomes Dashboard, so you’ll need to be granted access by an Account Admin.
- Your organization isn’t on the Total Platform package. MEI is only available to customers on 15Five’s Total Platform plan.
- The Manager Effectiveness feature is turned off. The “Manager Effectiveness” setting may be disabled in your company’s Feature Overview settings (in-app link). An Account Admin can enable it.
If you believe you should have access, we recommend reaching out to an Account Admin to check your role permissions and feature settings.
MEI updates automatically based on the most recent data from surveys and reviews. If scores appear stale, consider launching a new review cycle or survey to refresh the data.
- Help Center article 💡: Run a Manager Effectiveness Review Cycle
- Help Center article 💡: Run a Manager Effectiveness Engagement Survey
- Inform the actions you include in manager-specific Action Plans: Leverage MEI data to create tailored Action Plans for managers who have similar areas of opportunity. By analyzing each manager's strengths and areas for improvement, you can design targeted actions to develop their skills in key competencies.
- Identify organizational strengths and opportunities: Utilize the heatmap to identify which factors your organization is excelling in and where your areas of opportunity lie. Celebrate strengths and leverage them as examples of best practices. Simultaneously, pinpoint areas where improvement is needed and take action to improve them.
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Identify cohorts of managers with similar areas of opportunity: Use the heatmap to identify cohorts of managers that exhibit similar opportunities for improvement. Tailor development initiatives to address specific needs within each cohort, fostering a culture of continuous improvement across the organization. This proactive approach can help managers enhance their skills and become more effective leaders.
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Identify outliers: Leverage the heatmap to identify outliers—managers whose performance deviates from the norm across various factors. Investigate the reasons behind their exceptional performance or areas needing improvement. Develop tailored strategies to either replicate successes or address areas of concern, ensuring a more balanced and effective leadership landscape within the organization.
Urgency is calculated using a set of defined rules that consider multiple factors, including a manager’s tenure, their own performance, and signals from their team—such as team performance and engagement levels. These signals help surface which managers may benefit most from timely support and coaching.
The following AI Coaching Focus Areas are available:
- Change Management
- Coaching + Career Conversations
- Feedback, Recognition, Difficult Conversations
- Goals, Expectations, Alignment
- Manager 101
- Performance Review Convo
- Psychological Safety + Collaboration
You can read more about each of these focus areas and their aligned behaviors in this article.
Performance designations are assigned based on the performance rating or opinion-scale response a participant received in the most recent review cycle included in your organization's HR Outcomes Dashboard configuration.
The top option corresponds to Top Performers, the bottom to Bottom Performers, and all others to Mid Performers.
For example, let’s say your Performance Ratings+ rubric contains five categories: 1) Does not meet expectations, 2) Needs improvement, 3) Meets expectations, 4) Often exceeds expectations, and 5) Consistently exceeds expectations.
In this case, a rating of “5” would classify a participant as a Top Performer, “1” as a Bottom Performer, and ratings of 2, 3, or 4 as Mid Performers.
The Quality score reflects how effectively a manager demonstrated a specific behavior during their 1-on-1 meetings. A high score means the behavior was generally executed well when it appeared, showing strong intent, clarity, or follow-through. A low score indicates the behavior may have occurred, but the execution was often lacking or could be improved.
Use the Quality score to identify coaching opportunities: focus on behaviors that are showing up frequently but are being executed with low quality to drive meaningful improvement.
Not at this time.
Start by identifying managers flagged as high urgency in the Manager Summary Report. These managers have the greatest opportunity for impact. From there, create targeted Action Plans based on their recommended Focus Areas to help them build the skills they need to succeed.
You can also use the AI Coach Insights Report to monitor behavior quality and frequency over time, ensuring each plan is backed by real data and tied to measurable outcomes.