Attributes in 15Five allow you to track and manage individual-level employee data in a flexible, powerful way. Whether you're organizing basic details like job title and location or discovering insights using demographic filters, attributes give you the control and information you need to drive meaningful outcomes.
This article provides an overview of the different types of attributes in 15Five, how to manage them from the Attributes page, and where they appear across the platform. By learning how to leverage attributes effectively, you'll be equipped to strengthen your reporting, personalize your strategies, and improve the employee experience at scale.
In this article, you will learn...
- What are Attributes? 👥
- How to Navigate the Attributes Page 🗺️
- How Attributes are Used Across 15FIve 🔄
Access and availability
👥 This article is relevant to HR Admins and Account Admins.
📦 This feature is available in all pricing packages.
Note
In addition to attributes, you can organize people in 15Five using groups. While both help you organize employee data, they serve different purposes: Groups are public and typically represent shared characteristics like department, team, or location. Attributes are private, individual-level fields that often include more sensitive information, like tenure, performance designation, or demographic data. Learn more about groups →
What are Attributes? 👥
Attributes are specific data points tied to individual employees, such as hire date, location, gender, or job title. They can be used tactically to organize employees, or strategically across 15Five to help you:
- Power filtering and segmentation in the HR Outcomes Dashboard, Best-Self Review® results, and Engagement results
- Track trends across teams or demographics
- Build targeted Action Plans to drive performance, engagement, and retention
15Five includes three types of attributes: Default, Demographic, and Custom.
🏷️ Default Attributes
Standard fields automatically included in 15Five—like job title, hire date, and location.Default attributes are built-in fields that are automatically included on employee profiles in 15Five. They help establish a consistent foundation of people data across your organization.
Examples include: First Name, Last Name, Email, Hire Date, Job Title, Location, and Timezone.
Default attributes can be imported and updated automatically through your HRIS integration, or manually—either in bulk via CSV import or one-off in an employee’s account settings.
👉 Learn how to connect your HRIS
👉 Learn how to update attributes via bulk import
👉 Learn how to update attributes one-off in account settings
🌐 Demographic Attributes
Sensitive identity-related fields—such as gender and race—used by HR Admins to uncover trends, promote equity, and support strategic analysis.Demographic attributes are identity-related fields used to support strategic insight and inclusive workforce analysis. These include Birth Date, Ethnicity, Gender, Race, and Salary.
Note
Because of their sensitive nature, demographic attributes are only visible to HR Admins.
Use demographic attributes to:
- Compare trends across different identity groups
- Power equitable strategies in Engagement and performance reviews
- Filter results in the HR Outcomes Dashboard and Engagement reporting
Demographic attributes can be populated automatically using your HRIS or manually via bulk import CSV.
👉 Learn how to connect your HRIS
👉 Learn how to populate demographic attributes
🧩 Custom attributes
Organization-specific fields you create—like certification level or employment type—to capture unique data and power segmentation and reporting.Custom attributes are fields your organization creates to capture additional people data specific to your needs. Whether you want to track certification level, job tier, region, or T-shirt size, custom attributes provide flexibility to capture and organize what matters most.
Custom attributes can be created one-off from the Attributes page or in bulk via bulk import CSV. You can configure visibility, edit permissions, and filterability for each one.
👉 Learn how to create custom attributes
👉 Learn how to populate custom attributes
Tip
The easiest way to keep employee data accurate and up-to-date is to connect your HRIS to 15Five using the HRIS Connector. Learn how →
Navigate the Attributes Page 🗺️
The Attributes page (People → Attributes) is your home base for managing employee attributes. It's separated into two sections: Core Attributes and Other Attributes. Let's walk through each of these sections.
🔑 Core Attributes
The Core Attributes section includes key fields that power strategic reporting and people analytics across 15Five. These fields play an essential role in segmenting data, identifying trends, and supporting informed decision-making.
Core attributes include:
- Demographic attributes: Birth Date, Ethnicity, Gender, Race, and Salary
- Hire Date
- Job Title
- Location
Note
Due to their sensitive nature, demographic attributes are only visible to HR Admins.
From this section, you can...
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📊 View and Improve Attribute Coverage: See what percentage of employees have each core attribute populated. This helps you identify data gaps that could limit your ability to generate accurate insights.
Tip
Click View next to the coverage percentage to see which individuals are missing the attribute so you can take action in 15Five or your HRIS to fill in the gaps. Learn how to populate demographic attributes →
- 🔒 View Attribute Permissions: Check which roles have permission to view and edit each attribute.
- 🎯 Enable Filtering: Choose whether an attribute should be available as a filtering option in the HR Outcomes Dashboard and Engagement results to support targeted analysis.
📋 Other Attributes
The Other Attributes section includes a variety of employee data fields that support day-to-day administration, coworker relationships, and strategic tracking across your organization. While not considered “core” for analytics, these fields still play a vital role in maintaining complete and actionable employee records.
This section includes:
- Default employee information: Fields like Email, First Name, and Employee ID, which are included automatically in 15Five.
- Job-related fields: Additional details such as Job Description, Termination Date, and Strengths that help provide context about each employee’s role.
- Custom attributes: Any organization-specific fields created by your team, like Certification Level, Region, T-shirt Size, or anything else you need to track.
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High-Potential attribute: A hidden field used to identify employees with significant growth or leadership potential. Learn how to mark an employee as high potential →
Note
The High Potential attribute is only visible to HR Admins.
From this section, you can:
- 🔒 View Attribute Permissions: See which roles have permission to view and edit each attribute.
- 🎯 Enable Filtering: Choose whether an attribute should be available as a filtering option in the HR Outcomes Dashboard and Engagement results to support targeted analysis.
- 📝 Edit Custom Attribute Settings: Click the three dots to the right of any custom attribute to update its name, format, visibility, or editing permissions.
Tip
Want to add a new custom attribute? Use the Create a new attribute button at the top of the Attributes page. Learn more →
How Attributes are Used Across 15Five 🔄
Attributes aren’t just stored data—they’re the foundation of personalization, segmentation, and insight across 15Five’s most strategic features. Here's how they're used across 15Five:
The HR Outcomes Dashboard helps you measure and improve key HR outcomes like engagement, performance, and turnover. Here's how attributes are utilized in this tool:
- Segment results: View outcomes data for specific cohorts by filtering results by core, custom, and the high potential attributes (if filterability is enabled).
- Turnover tracking: The Termination Date attribute is used to calculate your organization's turnover outcome. Learn more →
- Action Plan targeting: Assign attribute-based groups as Target Groups to create tailored Action Plans. Learn more →
Engagement helps you measure employee sentiment and uncover drivers of engagement across your organization. In this feature, attributes are used to create group types that you can utilize to power deep analysis of engagement results.
- Exclude participants based on hire date: Create targeted campaigns that exclude newer employees who may not have enough experience to provide meaningful feedback. Learn how →
- Results filtering: Enable filtering for any attribute on the Attributes page to use it in Engagement survey reporting (so long as confidentiality thresholds are met). Learn more →
- Action Plan targeting: Build plans based on segment-specific insights using both demographic and custom attributes. Learn how →
Note
The "Salary" demographic attribute is excluded from Engagement filters due to its variability.
Best-Self Review® enables fair, consistent, and strategic performance reviews. Here's how attributes fit in:
- Cycle timing: Use Hire Date to run review cycles based on employee tenure. Learn more →
- Results filtering: Filter company-wide review results by demographic attributes. Learn how →
- Compensation insights: Job Title, Hire Date, and Salary feed into 15Five Compensation to inform pay decisions.
Did You Know? 💰
15Five offers a Compensation module that connects performance data to pay decisions—so you can ensure your top performers are being recognized and rewarded for their impact. Using insights from your people data and review insights, it helps leaders support fair, strategic compensation planning. Learn more about Compensation in 15Five →
Lifecycle Surveys capture employee sentiment at key moments—like onboarding or offboarding. Attributes help you make lifecycle touchpoints smarter and more automated.
- Automated onboarding: Trigger onboarding surveys based on Hire Date.
- Milestone check-ins: Automate 30, 60, and 90-day surveys based on Hire Date.
Attributes help you personalize support and track progress.
- Check-ins: HR Admins can filter the "Submitted Check-ins" and "Reviewed Check-ins" reports by demographic attribute.
- Career Hub: An employee's strengths and job description are automatically pulled into Career Hub so they can access their job and craft their ideal career path.
By keeping your attributes complete and accurate, you’ll unlock smarter insights and stronger strategies across your people programs.