15Five is a performance management solution that delivers higher performance, retention, and engagement through managers. In this article, we'll walk through why 15Five exists and the value, features, and services we offer.
In this article, you will learn...
- What is 15Five?
- Our Approach: The HR Outcomes Flywheel
- The HR Outcomes Dashboard
- Key HR Outcomes Defined
- Surveys
- Reviews
- Manager Tools (Check-ins, 1-on-1s, Feedback, and more)
- Manager Effectiveness: Content, Coaching, and Kona
What is 15Five?
15Five is HR’s strategic command center—where employee performance, engagement, and retention aren’t just measured, but maximized. Designed to drive real business impact, 15Five helps HR teams move from reactive chaos to proactive, data-informed action that delivers measurable results across the organization.
Our platform supports the full strategic HR journey through:
- Continuous performance management to assess and accelerate employee impact
- Powerful engagement surveys to uncover the "why" behind engagement trends
- Robust HRIS integrations to enable richer demographic analysis and targeted actions
- Out-of-the-box people analytics to diagnose critical issues faster and easier
- Strategic Action Planning and tracking to turn insights into clear, accountable action
- Dynamic manager enablement, powered by 15Five AI, to scale execution through your managers
15Five empowers HR teams to diagnose, plan, act, and prove impact — continuously improving their people strategy while maximizing business results. No more analysis paralysis. No more generic HR homework. No more guesswork. Just targeted, data-informed action that drives performance, engagement, and retention — faster, smarter, and with less effort.
Our mission and purpose
15Five's mission is to help HR leaders drive results through human-centered leadership and management. Our purpose is to accelerate human-centered leadership in the world so that companies and their people can thrive.
Our Approach: The HR Outcomes Flywheel
15Five's HR Outcomes Flywheel connects all the things HR does in a continuous, accelerating flywheel to improve the outcomes that matter most to your company: maximizing employee performance, increasing employee engagement, and decreasing regrettable turnover. The HR Outcomes Flywheel approach enables HR leaders — in partnership with managers — to act on measured outcomes at scale and in a way that demonstrably impacts the business. Using your own performance, engagement, and people data, 15Five prescribes actions that are proven to achieve outcomes and quantify results, closing the measurement to action loop to drive positive outcomes for your people and your business.
The HR Outcomes Flywheel works in three phases: Diagnose, Plan, and Act.
In the Diagnose phase, you'll use 15Five to create a shared understanding of what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus. 15Five’s HR Outcomes Dashboard converts your existing people data into executive-level insights. Discover what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus. Explore how HR outcomes vary across specific employee segments, so you can take the right action in the right places.
Help Center article 💡: Diagnose using the HR Outcomes Dashboard
In the Plan phase, you'll implement strategic action plans that are clear, accountable, and trackable. Create strategic Action Plans based on AI-generated insights to drive outcomes performance across your organization.
Help Center article 💡: Action Plans: Tool Overview
Help Center article 💡: Create an Action Plan
In the Act phase, you'll scale your strategy by activating and enabling your people managers. Partner with managers by assigning them actions that will help them drive outcomes within their teams.
Help Center article 💡: Add actions to an Action Plan
15Five AI is the connective tissue that helps HR Leaders and Managers navigate the HR Outcomes Flywheel even faster, at scale.
Help Center article 💡: 15Five AI Overview: How AI is used across 15Five
The HR Outcomes Dashboard
Key HR Outcomes Defined
Engagement
Definition: Engagement is the emotional commitment and passion that an employee has toward their work and their employer. It's demonstrated by their willingness to put in discretionary effort—going above and beyond their basic job requirements to help the organization succeed.
In the dashboard: Engagement is typically measured through employee surveys (such as engagement campaigns or Pulse Check-ins) that assess how employees feel about their role, their manager, their growth opportunities, and the company's direction. Scores are presented as a composite and can be broken down by teams, departments, tenure, and more.
Why it matters: Engaged employees are more productive, innovative, and loyal. They’re the ones who go the extra mile, advocate for the company, and contribute to a positive culture. On the flip side, disengagement can be an early warning sign of burnout, turnover, or performance issues.
Performance
Definition:
Performance represents how employees are evaluated in your organization’s formal review processes. It reflects the extent to which individuals meet or exceed expectations, contribute to business goals, and demonstrate role-specific competencies or behaviors.
In the dashboard:
Performance scores are typically derived from review cycle ratings and objective completion (OKRs). You can analyze how performance trends vary across teams, departments, tenure, or demographics.
Why it matters:
High-performing teams drive business results. Performance data helps you identify top talent, underperformance risks, and opportunities for development or recognition.
Turnover
Definition:
Turnover measures the rate at which employees leave your organization—both voluntarily and involuntarily. It includes both total turnover and regrettable turnover (employees you’d prefer to retain).
In the dashboard:
Turnover is displayed as a percentage and segmented across different groups. You can also compare turnover trends against performance and engagement to uncover drivers of attrition.
Why it matters:
Turnover affects productivity, morale, and costs. High or uneven turnover rates often signal cultural, leadership, or workload issues that need intervention.
Manager Effectiveness
Definition:
Manager Effectiveness reflects how well managers support, develop, and lead their teams to success. It encompasses skills like communication, goal alignment, feedback, coaching, and team engagement.
In the dashboard:
Measured through the Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI), which aggregates data from engagement surveys, Check-ins, 1-on-1s, Objectives, and feedback loops.
Why it matters:
Managers are the levers through which most HR strategies are executed. Effective managers increase engagement, performance, and retention—ineffective ones undermine it.
Surveys
ABC
Reviews
ABC
Manager Tools
Every part of the 15Five platform works cohesively to drive better performance, engagement, and retention for your organization. We offer the following features, depending on which pricing plan your organization is on:
15Five's 1-on-1s feature facilitates structured meetings that prioritize alignment and engagement by guiding discussions on priorities, challenges, and progress.
Help Center article 💡: 1-on-1s Feature Overview
Feature spotlight 📄: 1-on-1s
In-app link 💻: 1-on-1s
Availability
📦 1-on-1s are available in the Perform, Legacy Focus, and Total Platform pricing packages.
15Five's Best-Self Review® facilitates a guided performance review process that focuses on performance, goals, and feedback to nurture professional growth.
Help Center article 💡: Best-Self Review® Feature Overview
In-app link 💻: Best-Self Review® Dashboard
Availability
📦 Best-Self Review® is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.
15Five's Career Hub is a simple, powerful way for managers and their team members to co-create a strengths-driven career vision that keeps employees motivated and energized.
Help Center article 💡: Career Hub: Feature Overview
In-app link 💻: My Career Hub
Availability
📦 Career Hub is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.
15Five Check-ins replace status reports with quick employee feedback through a few questions, taking 15 minutes to fill and 5 minutes for managers to review.
Help Center article 💡: Check-ins Feature Overview
Feature spotlight 📄: Check-ins
In-app link 💻: My Check-ins
Availability
📦 Check-ins are available in the Perform, Legacy Focus, and Total Platform pricing packages.
15Five's Engagement feature enables organizations to create anonymous employee surveys to measure, evaluate, and enhance employee engagement.
Help Center article 💡: Engagement Feature Overview
Availability
📦 Engagement is available in the Engage, Legacy Perform, and Total Platform pricing packages.
15Five's Feedback feature allows employees to provide ad-hoc feedback to foster open communication, collaboration, and growth.
Help Center article 💡: Feedback Feature Overview
In-app link 💻: Feedback Dashboard
Availability
📦 Feedback is available in the Perform, Legacy Focus, and Total Platform pricing packages.
High Fives in 15Five enable employees to recognize each other's achievements and contributions through a simple and positive feedback system.
Help Center article 💡: High Fives Feature Overview
Feature spotlight 📄: High Fives
In-app link 💻: High Fives Dashboard
Availability
📦 High Fives are available in the Perform, Legacy Focus, and Total Platform pricing packages.
Your homepage in 15Five is your one-stop destination for a people-centric and action-oriented approach to managing your team and driving business outcomes. It serves as a single place for the actions you need to take to be an effective manager or employee by listing all your priorities, providing real-time insights into how your team is doing, and providing a space for facilitating asynchronous discussions with your team.
Profiles allow you to add your strengths, preferred working and feedback styles, and more so that your team knows how to best work with you (and you, them!). Within your profile, you can access 15Five's Best-Self Kickoff: a strategic meeting that aims to help employees and managers understand each other and their work needs, building a stronger working relationship. The questions discussed in the Best-Self Kickoff are science-backed and help create psychological safety in employees, as well as increase manager effectiveness: the biggest driver of employee performance, engagement, and retention.
Help Center article 💡: Homepage for managers
Help Center article 💡: Homepage for employees
Help Center article 💡: My Profile: Feature Overview
Help Center article 💡: Hold a Best-Self Kickoff
In-app link 💻: My Homepage
In-app link 💻: My Profile
Availability
📦 The Homepage and Profile are available in all pricing packages.
15Five’s HR Outcomes Dashboard and Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) provide a reliable way for HR executives to consistently capture, synthesize, and present the outcomes they are measuring and working to improve: manager effectiveness, employee engagement, employee performance, and regrettable turnover. This allows HR leaders to show clear and concise data that directly links programs like employee learning and development to outcomes like employee retention, which can, in turn, be connected to business outcomes like customer satisfaction and revenue.
Help Center article 💡: HR Outcomes Dashboard Feature Overview
Help Center article 💡: Manager Effectiveness Indicator Feature Overview
Feature spotlight 📄: HR Outcomes Dashboard
eBook 📖: HR Outcomes Playbook: Unlocking the True Business Value of HR
In-app link 💻: HR Outcomes Dashboard
In-app link 💻: Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI)
Availability
📦 The HR Outcomes Dashboard and Manager Effectiveness Indicator are available in the Total Platform pricing packages.
15Five's Objectives feature provides a framework for setting, tracking, and aligning goals, enhancing clarity and focus towards achieving desired outcomes.
Help Center article 💡: Objectives Feature Overview
Feature spotlight 📄: Objectives
In-app link 💻: Objectives Dashboard
Availability
📦 Objectives are available in the Perform, Legacy Focus, and Total Platform pricing packages.
Content, Coaching, and Kona
The manager-employee relationship influences nearly every aspect of the work experience and has a significant impact on engagement, performance, and retention. With that in mind, we created Transform to help you transform managers— your most critical resources— into catalysts for change so you can unlock their full power at scale.
15Five's Transform is live and on-demand training and coaching for the modern manager— designed to build effective managers, highly engaged employees, and top-performing organizations. Each course and concept is backed by evidence to help your leaders and teams thrive and perform at the same time.
Effective management is far more than what somebody does — it's about how they do it. Transform brings leadership development for managers into their workflow, helping scale effective management practices across an organization. Within the HR Outcomes Flywheel, leaders receive suggestions for courses based on organization data so relevant manager development is served up contextually and based on the needs of the moment as recommendations for areas of growth.
The following offerings are available through Transform:
Transform Microlearning is a powerful tool designed to enhance manager effectiveness within the flow of work with bite-sized learning and continuous development. Microlearnings are video courses with interactive content that follow the Transform Learning Model, which is built on the fundamentals of adult learning.
Course participants will learn best practices and share knowledge, practice the new skills and behaviors in a supportive learning environment, and get the resources they need to go out and apply these skills day-to-day in the flow of their work.
Use the resources below to learn more:
- Help Center article 💡: Transform Microlearning: Tool Overview
- Help Center article 💡: Assign Microlearning courses to managers
- Help Center article 💡: Learn with Transform Microlearning
- Help Center article 💡: On-demand Microlearning course library
Availability
📦 Microlearning is available in the Total Platform pricing package.
On-demand training is manager courses from our curated on-demand course library. This library contains courses created by 15Five's in-house coaching experts and Luminary content— course content created by thought leaders who defined their categories.
There are two options for registering for courses:
- Managers can register for on-demand courses one-off.
- Admins can assign courses to managers using learning journeys. A learning journey is exactly what it sounds like— a journey of learning that a person or people go through. Journeys are made up of tracks— collections of courses from our on-demand course library. We offer recommended tracks and the ability for admins to create custom tracks.
Use the resources below to learn more:
- Academy Course 🎓: Transform for Admins
- Help Center article 💡: Grant an individual access to Transform
- Help Center article 💡: On-demand Transform course library
- Help Center article 💡: Create and manage learning journeys
- Help Center article 💡: Recommended Learning Tracks in Transform
- Help Center article 💡: Create and manage custom tracks
- Help Center article 💡: Access on-demand Transform training courses
Availability
📦 On-demand training is available in the Copilot & Content and Group Coaching, Copilot, & Content pricing packages.
Group coaching is private, 60-minute group coaching sessions with one of 15Five’s certified in-house coaches, delivered to cohorts of up to 10 managers. Each session is focused on helping the group process their experiences, share learnings, identify opportunities, and create collective accountability for growth and development. These sessions are assigned to managers using Actions.
Use the resources below to learn more:
- Academy Course 🎓: Transform for Admins
- Help Center article 💡: Meet our coaches
- Help Center article 💡: Assign a group coaching session using Action Plans
Availability
📦 Live group coaching is available in the Group Coaching, Copilot, & Content pricing package.
1:1 coaching is a partnership between a manager and one of 15Five’s certified coaches, focused on the manager's individual goals. These sessions are assigned to managers using Actions.
This form of coaching is great for leaders of all levels who would benefit from bridging the disconnect between what they know and what they apply in the flow of work. Each session is a collaborative conversation focused on helping the individual gain the tools they need to achieve their goals. Their coach will use strategic coaching tools— inquiry, self-reflection, role play, skill development, etc.— to support them through the process of increasing self-awareness, practicing new skills or mindsets, and taking in feedback.
Use the resources below to learn more:
- Academy Course 🎓: Transform for Admins
- Help Center article 💡: Meet our coaches
- Help Center article 💡: Assign a 1:1 coaching session
- Help Center article 💡: Schedule an assigned 1:1 coaching session
Availability
📦 1:1 coaching is available as an add-on to any pricing plan. Please reach out to your 15Five Account Executive.
Help Center article 💡: Transform Coaching & Training Overview
Feature spotlight 📄: Transform