Understanding and Managing People Attributes in 15Five

📚 What Attributes Are and How They’re Used in 15Five

Attributes are data points tied to individual employees—such as hire date, job title, gender, or location. They’re used throughout 15Five to power reporting, filtering, segmentation, and personalization. Here’s how they support key areas of your people programs—and which attributes make the biggest impact:

How Attributes Work Across 15Five

HR Outcomes Dashboard →

Attributes help you analyze company-wide outcomes through meaningful filters and cohorts.

• Key attributes: Hire Date, Job Title, Location, Demographic attributes, Termination Date, High-Potential.

• How they help:

  • Segment HR outcomes by tenure, department, or identity group.

  • Calculate turnover automatically using the Termination Date attribute.

  • Use demographic and job-related fields to uncover patterns in performance, engagement, and retention.

  • Target specific cohorts when creating Action Plans for improvement.

💡 Example: Filter the dashboard by “Location” to see turnover trends by region or use “Gender” to review engagement equity.

Engagement →

Attributes allow you to analyze survey results more deeply and build targeted action strategies.

• Key attributes: Hire Date, Job Title, Department, Demographic attributes (Gender, Race, Ethnicity).

• How they help:

  • Filter Engagement results by any enabled attribute to compare responses across groups.

  • Exclude new hires using the Hire Date attribute to ensure data reflects established employees.

  • Use demographic data to uncover sentiment and experience differences across identity groups.

  • Power equitable and data-informed Action Plans that respond to real employee feedback.

💡 Example: Filter results by “Race” or “Department” to identify areas where engagement differs and plan targeted next steps.

Best-Self Review® →

Attributes help you automate, personalize, and analyze performance reviews with fairness and consistency.

• Key attributes: Hire Date, Job Title, Department, Manager, Demographic attributes, Salary.

• How they help:

  • Automate review cycles based on tenure using the Hire Date attribute.

  • Filter review results by demographic data to ensure equity in performance outcomes.

  • Connect Job Title, Hire Date, and Salary to 15Five Compensation → to align pay decisions with performance data.

  • Support consistency across reviews by tracking role or department attributes.

💡 Example: Use “Hire Date” to set up automatic 6-month review cycles for new hires.

Compensation →

Attributes bridge the gap between performance and pay.

• Key attributes: Job Title, Hire Date, Department, Manager, Salary, Performance Ratings.

• How they help:

  • Provide context for compensation planning by showing tenure, role, and performance data side by side.

  • Ensure pay equity analysis includes demographic attributes.

  • Enable HR leaders to identify and reward top performers using objective data.

💡 Example: Use “Job Title” and “Performance Rating” to benchmark compensation across similar roles.

Lifecycle Surveys →

Attributes make survey delivery timely and automated.

• Key attributes: Hire Date, Termination Date, Department, Location.

• How they help:

  • Automatically trigger onboarding surveys based on Hire Date.

  • Send milestone surveys (30/60/90-day) using hire date automation.

  • Launch exit surveys using Termination Date to capture offboarding feedback.

💡 Example: Use “Hire Date” to trigger a 90-day new hire survey automatically.

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Check-ins → & Career Hub →

Attributes personalize employee experiences and make reporting more actionable.

• Key attributes: Job Title, Department, Strengths, Manager, Location, Demographic attributes.

• How they help:

  • In Check-ins, filter submissions or participation data by department or demographics to understand engagement by group.

  • In Career Hub, automatically populate employee strengths and role information to personalize career development.

  • Ensure each employee’s growth plans are informed by accurate, up-to-date role and location data.

💡 Example: Filter “Check-ins” by “Department” to see how feedback participation varies across teams.

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🗺️ Navigate to the Attributes Page

All attributes are managed from the Attributes page (People → Attributes). This is your home base for viewing, creating, and managing employee data fields.

The page is divided into two main sections:

• Core Attributes: Fields essential for analytics and reporting (Demographic, Hire Date, Job Title, Location).
  

  ✏️

  Note

  Due to their sensitive nature, demographic attributes are only visible to HR Admins.

• Other Attributes: Additional fields that support daily administration, such as custom attributes, job information, and the High-Potential flag.
  

  ✏️

  Note

  The High Potential attribute is only visible to HR Admins.

From this page, you can:

• 📊 View attribute coverage: See what percentage of employees have each field populated to identify data gaps.

• 🔒 Set permissions: Control who can view or edit each attribute.

• 🎯 Enable filtering: Choose whether attributes appear in HR Outcomes or Engagement dashboards.

• 🧩 Edit or create attributes: Add new custom fields or update existing ones.

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Types of Attributes in 15Five

15Five includes three types of attributes:

🧩 Default Attributes

Default attributes are built-in employee fields that form the foundation of your organization’s people data. Examples include First Name, Last Name, Email, Hire Date, Job Title, and Location.

Manage Default Attributes

You can update or sync default attributes using the following methods:

1. HRIS Integration

Automatically sync demographic fields from your connected HR system.

2. Bulk CSV Import

1. Follow the same steps here to complete a bulk import.

2. To populate employee Default Attributes, remove all columns except "email" and add any of the Default Attribute columns that you want to use.

3. Manually/One-Off

1. Go to People → Manage People.

2. Select an employee.

3. Update the attribute and click save at the bottom of the screen.

 🌐 Demographic Attributes

Demographic attributes include identity-related fields like Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Birth Date, and Salary. These fields help HR Admins uncover trends, promote equity, and support strategic analysis.

Enable Demographic Attributes

To begin using demographic fields:

1. Click on the Settings gear in the top right-hand corner of 15Five.
   
2. Select "Features" from the dropdown menu.
   
3. Open the "Features overview" section.
   
4. Scroll to the "People Attributes" section at the bottom of the page and toggle on the "Demographic Attributes" option.
   
5. A pop-up will appear asking you to confirm that you have read, understand, and consent to 15Five's Master Subscription Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Data Policy Processing Agreement, amongst other things. If you agree, check the boxes and click Enable demographic data.
   
6. Demographic Attributes are now enabled for your company.

Populate Demographic Attributes

Once enabled, populate demographic data in one of three ways:

1. HRIS Integration

Automatically sync demographic fields from your connected HR system.

2. Bulk CSV Import

1. Follow the same steps here to complete a bulk import.

2. To populate employee Demographic Attributes, remove all columns except "email" and add any of the following columns that you want to use:

   demographic_salary
   
   demographic_gender
   
   demographic_race
   
   demographic_ethnicity
   
   demographic_birth_date

🏗️ Custom Attributes

Custom attributes allow your organization to track unique data not included by default—like certification level, employment type, or region. They’re flexible and fully configurable for visibility, permissions, and filtering.

Create a Custom Attribute

To add a new custom field:

1. Go to People → Attributes → Create a New Attribute:
   
   

2. Fill out a name, format, and description for your attribute. You can create the attribute to accept either text answers (a mix of letters and numbers) or dates (MM/DD/YYYY).
   

3. Configure who can view and edit the attribute:
   

4. Choose whether to enable filtering in HR Outcomes Dashboard and in Engagement survey reporting:
   

5. Save your changes.

Populate Custom Attributes

You can populate or update custom attributes in three ways:

1. Bulk CSV Import 

1. Follow the same steps outlined here to complete a bulk import.

2. To create new custom attributes, add new columns with the format custom_attribute_name (e.g., custom_department, custom_certification_level, custom_tshirt_size).

3. Fill in employee values.

4. Upload the file to update records in bulk.

2. Manually/One-Off

1. Go to People → Manage People.

2. Select an employee.

3. Scroll down to the "Additional Information" section of the page. Use this section to assign custom attribute values to the employee.

   

4. Click save at the bottom of the screen.

3. HRIS Integration

If your connected HR system includes custom fields, you can map them to corresponding custom attributes in 15Five. This keeps employee data consistent and reduces manual updates. You'll want to have the custom attributes created in 15Five first via step 1 or 2 to populate the values from your HRIS.

Manual Updates

1. Go to People → Manage People.

2. Select an employee.

3. Open Account Settings → Custom Attributes and edit the value.

3. HRIS Integration

If your HRIS supports custom field mapping, sync custom attributes automatically.

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🧠 Best Practices for Managing Attributes

To maintain clean, useful data:

• Sync regularly with your HRIS.

• Review attribute coverage quarterly.

• Limit access to sensitive demographic information.

• Use consistent field naming for clarity.

• Remove outdated or duplicate custom fields.