15Five, the strategic performance management platform that drives action and impact,  announced a major evolution of its platform at Thrive 2023, the company’s annual conference for strategic HR leaders. The launch includes Spark AI, an AI-powered assistant enabling managers to more effectively support their teams, and a reimagined HR Outcomes Dashboard, helping HR leaders easily identify and deploy data-driven performance management strategies.

“One of the worst-kept secrets in HR is that conventional performance management practices don’t actually manage employee performance. At best, they barely measure it, let alone improve it,” said Jeff Smith, Head of Product at 15Five. “We’re further empowering HR and People leaders to put the conventional tactics aside and start by identifying the performance management outcomes that matter most. From there, they can build a strategic plan grounded in their own unique data, and deploy that plan through managers, supporting them within the flow of work through AI-assisted coaching.”

Spark AI Supports Managers Where and When They Need It

A recent report by Gartner® states that “Leader and manager development tops the list of 2024 priorities for HR leaders.”¹ Also, “76% of HR leaders say their managers are overwhelmed by the growth of their job responsibilities.”

To address this challenge and make performance management scalable and ongoing, 15Five is introducing Spark AI, an AI-powered assistant for managers, employees, and HR teams. Spark AI is easily accessible anywhere within the 15Five platform and supports managers with real-time recommendations and coaching so they can better support their team, including:

• Concise, clear summaries and digestible trend lines on metrics like team member engagement levels and where they might need support
• Tips on conducting more effective one-on-one meetings
• Guidance on creating and delivering more empowering, effective performance reviews and suggestions on when to check for potential bias

HR Outcomes Dashboard Evolved for Action

First introduced in June 2023, 15Five’s HR Outcomes Dashboard is evolving further to help HR leaders launch impactful performance management programs that support key business outcomes. This evolution includes:

• New, real-time insights that point HR leaders toward the areas of greatest leverage. For example, the Dashboard might indicate that role clarity is a key opportunity for improvement, highlighting that 46% of employees felt misaligned on expectations with managers in the latest engagement survey.
• From there, 15Five will offer tailored recommendations, giving HR leaders a plan they can customize based on their objectives and unique culture.
• HR leaders can then deploy guided actions for managers that create accountability and support within the flow of work. For example, a management cohort struggling with employee feedback might be empowered with a set of actions such as micro-learning courses on constructive feedback and more regular one-on-one meetings with team members.

“Performance management – done right – has the potential to deliver great value to the business, to employees, and to HR, but most companies struggle to get it right,” said Kathi Enderes, Senior Vice President of Research and Global Industry Analyst at The Josh Bersin Company. “15Five has filled a major gap in the market with the launch of Spark AI and the new HR Outcomes Dashboard. Finally, it’s much easier for managers to drive business objectives and develop their teams, and HR can use meaningful insights to take the right action, delivering business value through performance management.”

“We made it a company-wide priority to focus on employee performance and engagement, with manager effectiveness as a conduit to driving improvement,” said Jamy Conrad, VP of People at TrustRadius and an early adopter of 15Five’s new solutions. “With the support of 15Five’s latest platform evolution, we’ve already seen 63% of managers improve engagement on their team in the span of just thirty days.”

Manager Training Curriculum Expands with Industry Luminaries

To further enable managers, 15Five has partnered with microlearning leader Athena Online and its faculty of globally-respected academics and business thought leaders. Video courses from best-selling authors and leadership experts such as Marshall Goldsmith, Dr. Beverly Kaye and Ellen Burts-Cooper will appear inside Transform, the 15Five platform’s training and coaching solution for managers.

HR leaders can deploy these tailored microlearning courses to managers based on the outcomes they’ve prioritized and the manager’s biggest growth opportunities.

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