Action Plans: Tool Overview

What are Action Plans? 🚀

Action Plans in 15Five are structured, strategic plans designed to help HR leaders and managers drive measurable improvements in engagement, performance, and retention. Think of them as strategy in motion—once you diagnose organizational challenges using 15Five, Action Plans guide you through creating targeted, outcome-aligned strategies and scaling impact through your people managers.

Each plan includes a set of targeted actions—such as 1-on-1 talking points, coaching sessions, and skills-building courses—that can be assigned to specific individuals or groups. Action Plans are customizable, trackable, and tied to real outcomes, making them a powerful tool for turning insights into action and creating accountability across your organization.

Using this tool, leaders can...

• Easily draft targeted plans based on insights from the HR Outcomes Dashboard.
• Access AI-generated recommendations for Action Plans based on your organization's unique dataset.
• Maintain accountability by measuring how individuals are progressing with assigned actions and nudging those with outstanding tasks in your flow of work.
• Continuously track the key metrics that indicate success, allowing for iterations along the way.

Whether you're responding to engagement survey results or delivering personalized manager coaching, Action Plans help you operationalize your strategy—quickly, collaboratively, and at scale.

How They Work 🧑‍💻

Action Plans provide a simple, structured way to create alignment, assign responsibilities, and drive progress. They're built to help you turn strategic priorities into clear next steps—and make it easy to follow through. Here's how:

1. Start with insights: Use data from the HR Outcomes Dashboard, Engagement campaigns, or Kona’s AI-powered manager insights to identify areas of focus.
2. Draft your plan: Select the outcome you want to improve and your target audience. You can start from scratch or use AI-generated recommendations.
3. Assign actions: Add relevant tasks—like 1-on-1s, coaching sessions, or courses—and assign them to individuals or groups.
4. (Optional) Share for feedback: Collaborate with colleagues to fine-tune your plan before launching.
5. Launch: Once finalized, launch the plan. Assignees will receive a notification and see tasks on their 15Five homepage.
6. Track and adjust: Monitor progress, nudge where needed, and update the plan as goals evolve.
7. Measure impact: Use the HR Outcomes Dashboard to evaluate how the plan has affected key metrics. You can refresh data with a new survey, review cycle, or assessment.

Where Action Plans Begin 🌱

Action Plans in 15Five are always tied to improving key HR outcomes—engagement, performance, and/or turnover. The experience of creating a plan varies slightly depending on where you start. Here’s a quick overview of the three main entry points:

• HR Outcomes Dashboard: This is the most flexible entry point for creating Action Plans. From the HR Outcomes Dashboard, you can build fully custom plans or use AI-generated recommendations based on your company’s performance, engagement, and turnover data. These plans can target specific teams, custom cohorts, or your entire organization.
• Engagement Campaign Results: After concluding an engagement campaign, you can create Action Plans based on survey insights. These plans help you address low-scoring themes and drive targeted improvements based on employee feedback.
• Manager Effectiveness Reporting: In the Manager Effectiveness section of the HR Outcomes Dashboard, you’ll find AI-driven recommendations powered by Kona. These plans are designed to help managers grow in specific development areas, with recommended actions tied to coaching behaviors. You can review and adjust assigned focus areas before launching the plan.

All Action Plans allow you to define outcomes, assign actions, and track progress—regardless of their origin.

Actions You Can Assign 🎯

When assigning an action as part of an Action Plan, you can select from the following action types:

• Action Item: Assign a task for individuals to complete.
• Discussion: Assign a talking point for individuals to discuss in 1-on-1 meetings or async.
• Best-Self Kickoff: Assign the task of holding a Best-Self Kickoff meeting.
• Coaching Session (1:1 or Group): Assign the task of scheduling a 1:1 coaching session or group coaching session, which assignees will complete with one of 15Five's certified coaches.
• Complete Course: Assign a course for managers to take from 15Five's on-demand course library.
• Complete Microlearning: Assign a Microlearning for managers to take from our on-demand Microlearning course library.
• Create Objective (Company, Group, Individual, or Self-Development): Assign the task of creating an OKR (Objective and Key Results).
• Give Individual High Five: Assign the task of giving a high five.