Strategic Index: Feature Overview

Your people data is the foundation for strategic impact. Syncing your HRIS ensures accurate demographic, role, and employment data—enabling deep analysis by cohort and targeted actions that actually move the needle. Without this connection, insights are limited, and decisions risk being misaligned.

Measured Inputs:

• Is your HRIS connected to 15Five?
• When did your HRIS last sync to 15Five?
• Are Demographic Attributes (Birth date, Ethnicity, Gender, Race, and Salary) populated for employees?

Best Practices:

• Integrate using 15Five's HRIS Connector. Learn more →
• Ensure auto-sync is enabled to keep data accurate.
• Enable demographic data syncing to understand why specific groups are disengaged or underperforming—and take precise action. Learn more →

Best-Self Review® in 15Five helps you identify top performers, uncover who’s at risk, and understand what’s driving success—or holding people back—so you can take focused, strategic action.

Measured Inputs:

• Are you running at least one performance review annually?
• Are reviews reaching your full employee population?
• Are you scheduling reviews in advance?
• Are employees assigned performance designations?

Best Practices:

• Run 360° reviews at least once per year to keep designations current. Learn how →
• Connect reviews with HRIS and engagement data to identify trends (e.g., top performers disengaging or leaving) using the HR Outcomes Dashboard. Learn how →

Engagement is a leading indicator of both performance and retention. With 15Five’s engagement tools and Predictive Impact Modeling, you can zero in on root causes and take action where it matters most.

Measured Inputs:

• Are you holding engagement campaigns at least twice a year?
• Are you scheduling periodic engagement campaigns in advance?
• Are your employees participating in engagement campaigns?
• Do your campaigns contain the right surveys to collect meaningful engagement data?
• Have you set up automated lifecycle surveys to gather employee feedback at key stages in the employee journey?

Best Practices:

• Send the Total Engagement with Predictive Impact survey 2–4 times a year to your entire workforce. Learn how →
• Launch targeted manager enablement and team action plans immediately following survey insights. Learn how →
• Automate lifecycle surveys to capture feedback at onboarding and beyond. Learn how →

Insights only lead to outcomes when paired with follow-through. Action Plans operationalize your HR strategy by guiding managers to take focused, high-ROI actions that address real issues surfaced in engagement or performance data. These plans are trackable, accountable, and proven to drive change.

Measured Inputs:

• Are you creating Action Plans?
• Are you assigning actions to individuals on your team?
• Are you marking Action Plans as complete?

Best Practices:

• Launch Action Plans shortly after major surveys or reviews. Learn how →
• Assign actions to high-impact cohorts to improve outcomes quickly. Learn how →

• Help Center article 💡: Add New People
• Help Center article 💡: HRIS Connector
• Video 🎥: Manage employee data using the HRIS Connector
• Help Center article 💡: Enable Demographic Attributes
• Help Center article 💡: Populate Demographic Attributes
• Help Center article 💡:  Filtering Options on the HR Outcomes Dashboard

• Help Center article 💡: Best-Self Review®: Feature Overveiw
• Help Center article 💡: Configure Best-Self Review® feature settings
• Help Center article 💡: Create a review cycle
• Help Center article 💡: Quick Launch Guide: Performance Reviews in 15Five
• Help Center article 💡: Predictive Impact Model: Tool Overview
• Help Center article 💡: Measure Performance Using the HR Outcomes Dashboard

• Help Center article 💡: Engagement: Feature Overview
• Help Center article 💡: Quick Launch Guide: Engagement Campaigns in 15Five
• Academy course 👨‍🏫: Engagement Survey Prep & Launch
• Help Center article 💡: Lifecycle Surveys Feature Overview
• Help Center article 💡: Create a Lifecycle Survey
• Help Center article 💡: Measure Engagement Using the HR Outcomes Dashboard

• Help Center article 💡: Action Plans: Tool Overview
• Help Center article 💡: Create an Action Plan
• Help Center article 💡: Add actions to an Action Plan
• Help Center article 💡: Launch an Action Plan
• Help Center article 💡: Track the Progress of an Action Plan

The pressure on HR to prove impact with fewer resources has never been greater. Yet most platforms track surface-level activity—things like logins or feature clicks—without connecting them to real outcomes. That’s not enough.

The Strategic Index helps HR leaders shift from reactive support to proactive strategy. It replaces noise with clarity, turning scattered actions into focused momentum.

By elevating visibility, aligning on what matters most, and removing the guesswork, the Index empowers HR teams to move from doing things to doing the right things—and showing the results.

Here’s how the Strategic Index tackles the common challenges HR leaders face:

Only HR Admins can see the Strategic Index. It’s intentionally limited to those responsible for driving strategic outcomes, such as performance, engagement, and retention.

No. The Strategic Index cannot be turned off, and that’s intentional. Many of the most strategic HR leaders have asked for a way to clearly see where their efforts are having an impact, and where to focus next. The Index delivers that guidance passively, without requiring setup or manual tracking. It’s designed to support decision-making, not add noise, and is only visible to HR Admins to keep the focus where it belongs.

Every oragnization is grouped into one of five categories, reflecting how strategically they’re using 15Five: At Risk, Needs Focus, Building Stability, Driving Outcomes, or Best in Class.

• At Risk: Lacking activation in key areas.
• Needs Focus: Partial engagement with 15Five.
• Building Stability: Consistent usage, ready to expand.
• Driving Outcomes: Strategic activity. Celebrate & optimize.
• Best in Class: Strategic power users.

Strategic Index categories are based on how consistently and strategically your organization is utilizing 15Five to drive performance, engagement, and retention. The system evaluates signals across four pillars: People Data, Engagement, Performance, and Action Planning, and weighs them based on their impact.

The actual score isn’t shown because the goal isn’t to chase points—it’s to drive outcomes! We’ve found that showing a number can distract from what matters: taking the next best action. By focusing on Strategic Categories instead, we aim to help HR leaders make better decisions without getting stuck debating score details. It also provides us with the flexibility to evolve the model as your organization continues to grow and its needs change.

The Strategic Index recommends tasks that will make a meaningful impact within your HR strategy. Each recommendation is prioritized based on its potential to drive real progress in engagement, performance, or retention.

Some actions carry more weight than others, but we focus on what will have the biggest impact for your organization right now, not how many points it adds.

The Index updates automatically as your team takes action. There’s no manual override. But if something feels off, reach out to Support—we're happy to help!

The Index updates continuously in real-time as you take action—launching surveys, completing reviews, and assigning plans.

Not yet—but we’re exploring ways to help customers understand their position relative to their peers. For now, the focus is on helping you progress from where you are with the most effective actions possible.

Being categorized as “At Risk” specifically means there are several missed opportunities, often related to a lack of connection to people data, engagement data, or performance data within the platform.

These missed opportunities may lead to:

• Risk of inability to prove impact and drive outcomes
• Risk of lacking critical data for making informed decisions
• Risk of undiagnosed issues in Engagement and Performance
• Risk of stalled improvements or lack of follow-through
• Risk of defaulting to checklists over strategy

You bring valuable experience to the table—this isn’t about questioning that.

The Strategic Index isn’t evaluating your skills or expertise. Instead, it’s reflecting how fully your organization is using 15Five’s strategic workflows to drive outcomes in engagement, performance, and retention.

Even the most experienced HR leaders face constraints—limited time, competing priorities, or tech barriers can all slow down activation. The Index is here to highlight where strategic momentum might be stalled and help you pinpoint the most impactful next step.

It’s not about where you’ve been, it’s about where you’re headed. And the good news? The path forward is clear, focused, and often simpler than it seems. The Strategic Index is here to guide you, not grade you.

TL;DR: the Strategic Index isn’t evaluating you, it’s highlighting missed opportunities based on what the data shows is actually being activated in your organization.

Nothing will break, but something will be missing in your HR strategy. You can ignore the Index, but you’d be skipping over high-impact recommendations designed to improve the outcomes you care about most.

Use Strategic Index as a compass, not a map for your HR strategy:

• Start with Outcomes: Follow the HR Outcomes Flywheel (Diagnose → Plan → Act) to drive impact.
• Diagnose with Precision: Run surveys, activate MEI, sync your HRIS.
• Plan Targeted Interventions: Use AI like Predictive Impact and Kona to guide Action Plans.
• Measure & Prove Impact: Use the HR Outcomes Dashboard to show trends and team growth.

Acting on 15Five’s recommendations directly improves performance, engagement, and retention because the platform is built to close the loop between insights and action. Tools like the HR Outcomes Dashboard, Engagement surveys, and the Manager Effectiveness Indicator diagnose real drivers of risk and opportunity.

This isn’t theoretical: Companies like Kreg Tool reduced turnover by 20%, and TrustRadius saw measurable gains in manager effectiveness and engagement by acting on their people data.

That concern is totally valid—survey fatigue is real. But the solution isn’t fewer surveys. It’s smarter, more purposeful ones that are followed by real action.

The truth is, ditching surveys altogether is like trying to lead with your eyes closed. Engagement surveys are how you spot risks early and uncover what your people truly need. But fatigue doesn’t come from the survey itself—it comes from the lack of response afterward.

When employees don’t see anything change, that’s when disengagement sets in.

By taking action post-survey using tools like Predictive Impact, Action Plans, and Manager Enablement, you can show your people that their voices lead to visible action. That builds trust—and makes future feedback easier to gather.

In short: You don’t need more surveys. You need meaningful follow-through. And when that loop is closed, engagement actually goes up—not down.

We understand the instinct to use 15Five just for Check-ins. But here’s what we’ve learned: Check-ins without upstream diagnosis create noise, not clarity.

If you're only using Check-ins—without the upstream insights from engagement surveys or performance reviews—you may be collecting updates, but missing the "why" behind them. That can lead to:

• 🚫 Unclear priorities: Without survey or review data, it’s hard to know what truly matters right now.
• ⏳ Wasted manager time: Managers are checking in, but not focusing on what drives outcomes.
• 💸 Missed ROI: You’re using a piece of the platform, but not unlocking its full impact.

Teams that go beyond Check-ins—by connecting them to diagnosis tools like Engagement and Best-Self Review®—are the ones who see real progress in retention, performance, and engagement. That’s where the magic happens.