15Five Reviews

Pros

Using Emplify has changed our company for the better. We are now able, thanks to Emplify, to track detailed data on how our associates are feeling about their work. We then use this data to help improve the work experience for all of our associates, particularly teams who need extra help. Emplify enables us to put data around something that leaders may feel, but can't really identify. Taking these "feelings" and putting them into actionable data, which is something Emplify helps with significantly via the engagement dashboard, has been huge for our company. The dashboard that displays data is very easy to use and understand and contains a lot of meaningful visual elements that are easy to drop into presentations for C-level and board members. Emplify's software is extremely easy to use from an admin perspective, and the survey process is very easy and painless for associates. It takes 5-6 minutes 4 times each year. The data we get from that small investment of associate time is invaluable. We have decreased regrettable turnover and have seen an increase in topline revenue since using the Emplify product.

Cons

I struggle to come up with things that I dislike about Emplify. It is incredibly easy to use and has made a huge difference for our company.

Pros

The "annual review" and the like are very invaluable to the individual and become an exercise in repetition. 15Five takes what that same concept tries to accomplish and incorporates it into smaller, admin defined spans. With each [bi]weekly 15Five, the Team can focus on their priorities and align them with the overarching objectives/goals (individual, department, and/or company-wide). As a result, the growth path is managed at early stages and progress is recorded throughout the process to document each team member. I have used 15Five at 3 companies and have seen my teams improve within a short period each time. It does take effort but once it becomes the norm, progress just starts running!

Cons

There are always going to be features that are wanted and/or desired in any software. 15Five has a lot right out of the gate with a lot of the features I would have liked to see now in production and currently getting worked into my setup. I honestly don't have anything negative regarding 15Five as a software nor as a company.

Alternatives Considered

BambooHR

Reasons for Switching to 15Five

BambooHR is a great tool for HR but their review tools are the same old annual review and goals that don't get to the granularity that 15Five does. This is where the magic happens.

Pros

I like having a more private way to share feedback and how I'm feeling at work.

Cons

Occasionally I'll answer a question and it will require me to enter a second answer before I can submit my check-in.

Pros

The tool can be used by workers to alert team managment of dissatisfaction in a way that has a lower bar to action. In this i mean raising dissatisfaction can be difficult with team management often because it requires a push from workers to raise complaints. This software can provide an outlet that has a lower barrier to participation to alert dissatisfaction - this can get the process rolling to resolve these issues.

Anonymous feedback can be given if the software is configured for this. This can be useful to understand how a team feels.

Cons

This software to me feels like a solution that is better resolved by a more human touch from team management and company HR.
This software helps to provide feedback from multiple levels of a team to ensure members of the team are satisfied. I shall focus on what i feel is the most important purpose of this software, helping resolve dissatisfaction in a team.
This should in my opinion be dealt with using a human touch and face to face help from management for employees and not through a semi automated tool. 15Five sends out surveys and feedback requests every week to employees to ask for their feedback on how work is going. This to me feels not like the best solution for organisations.

Pros

I like the data you get from 15Five, and the consistency of the questions to get significant data to make business decisions over time.

Cons

I don't feel like it does an amazing job of adapting to the different sizes of departments. Feel like the data works great for larger departments, but harder to get reliable conclusions from smaller departments in our business.

Pros

15Five is a compelling tool that bundles individual performance measurement assessment with team-wide positive feedback. It makes it easier to build healthy rhythms and checkpoints into the culture of your team.

Cons

15Five is on the expensive side, especially when you consider how many organizations are now repurposing free or low-cost project management software to measure employee performance.

Pros

That it is so easy to use and great way to stay connected with your employees and your boss. It keeps all the conversations in a central location! I just started using it but really like the 1:1 tool, as both of you can enter information and action items.

Cons

So far I like everything, with anything it takes time to get familiar with the system.

Pros

Keeps us on the same page. Keeps us focused on our goals. Provides clarity and fosters collaboration. It's on outlet for staff's voice to be heard and recognize colleagues for good work.

Cons

No specific area for career or personal development goals.

Pros

The system of 15Five encourages users to give high fives to colleagues, which allows a positive atmosphere around employees & managers.

Cons

It's somewhat irritating to me the way that we needed to define up our objectives in the event that the objectives were connected to a bigger objective for my chief or my supervisor's chief.

Pros

I love the weekly check ins, goal setting features, and the review functionality

Cons

This is company specific but outside of goal setting and the performance management features, there is a large lack of engagement org wide

Pros

- It's easy to use week-to-week and serves are our "meeting space"
- The use of "repeatable questions" has allowed my team to evolve from conventional performance management solutions to an ongoing discussion of each associates performance
- The visuals in the Dashboards allow me to display to the rest of the organization how my team is trending and continues to get the chatter going with other teams who don't (yet) use 15Five
- The OKR feature allows us to coach our team on ensuring that they are trending well towards both their professional and personal goals

Cons

- I still struggle with the Question Queue, but have developed my own work-around to deal with that
- I wish that associates were not allowed to see other responses before submitting their own each week. There are some on my team that seem to look at other responses before submitting their own
- Associates should not be able to submit their responses before a pre-set date. My team is supposed to submit on Monday mornings. We are trying to drive a culture of reflection on Monday's before starting the week, but often they submit early (like on the weekend) - which has caused issues of them submitting before new questions rolled in.

Pros

The software used as the foundation for creating and designing our own employee communication app is extremely user friendly. The content is robust, engaging (almost addicting over time) and has become the hub of all things "employee" at our company. The always accessible customer support is incredibly knowledgeable and willing to go the extra mile to allow us to do what we want to do with the app.

The engagement survey software requires very little effort on our part. Emplify does everything except create the list of employees. The results are available within 10 days and are very detailed. We have been able to clearly understand our strengths and opportunities for improvement and make measurable improvements with the guidance and counseling of the professionals at Emplify who specialize in interpreting the results.

We are making progress in improving the level of engagement in our organization as a direct result of both the engagement survey and the app. This has been an outstanding partnership that we see continuing long term.

Cons

I have very few concerns about this software and the couple that I had, they are making changes to address. I am not a technical person, but have been successful in using the Emplify products.

Pros

Everything. It has improved our open door policy by giving us another outlet for effective feedback. Also, the 15Five team is always looking towards improvements; inspiring to see that.

Cons

It took longer for me to learn how to use it effectively. That was my own personal struggle. When presented with this service, I just wanted to hurry up, fill it out and get through it. I now know how to manage my time, fill it out a little bit here and there so I am not rushing to finish it at the end of the week. Maybe a stronger emphasis on filling it out little by little thru the week so the client isn't doing what I was doing at first and rushing to finish it with out providing efficient responses to the questions.

Pros

This program keeps me organized and on top of managing my team. I track employee professional progress, group project status, and categorize employee strengths. This allows me to offer quick and instant feedback on updates/corrections and opens up much-needed communication between team members. I can also track KPIs in a way that is useful and doesn't feel overbearing.This software is also perfect for administering annual reviews. All tracked metrics are at my fingertips and can be received with my team member.

Cons

There are so many features that it can be a little intimidating to explore. I use this program mainly for Employee Management, but it can offer so much more. I would like to see a follow-up with users that offer one-on-one tutorials.

Pros

This is a great software that allows you to check in with your teammates on a regular basis. The ease of use for this project is perfect, and it is clear, clean, and easy to navigate. I love that the supervisor creates whatever questions they think are applicable for this time period, and then all team members are able to answer the same questions. This gives an overall sense of the culture, the feel of the company as a whole. It helps identify gaps, places where a team member may be stuck, but also where your team is excelling. We use the goals feature every month that we send this out, and it truly helps us organize, prioritize, and stay on track. I would highly recommend this software to any and every company out there.

Cons

I really don't have anything that I haven't liked so far. This is a great software that allows you to check in with your team mates on a regular basis.

Pros

Very intuitive and easy to use. No training needed!

I like that 15five have several features such as the actual 15five (basically your to do list for the week), team/company objectives, high fives (team members give you a shout out), AND manager/peer reviews.

It mainly helps me keep track of my upcoming and past tasks. I can easily go back to a previous tasks and make sure it has been completed. I like that I can check off tasks that I have completed. It feels very satisfying!!

I also like that all my reviews are kept in one place. I don't need dig into my emails anymore. I also like how easy it is to write either self reviews or manager reviews as I can go back and look into my previous works / high fives given and received to build a complete and very professional report.

Lastly, the high fives feature is a great feature. It enables anyone to give a shout out to someone within the company that is visible to everyone.

Cons

At first, I was very skeptical using 15five because I had my own way of keeping track of my tasks, but I absolutely love this software now. I have nothing bad to say about 15five! It has definitely helped me be more focused and productive since I started using it!

Pros

We love how it helps to develop our line managers and give a easy to use tool that helps give consistency, but allows individuals to express themselves.

Cons

Nothing significant that its missing at this point....if it integrated holiday booking and document saving that would be amazing...oh and a place to hold a role description doc...but thats it. Other than that. Outstanding.

Pros

I have been using 15 Five for several years now and my team loves it. They enjoy getting feedback and they really enjoy updating their otherwise clueless bosses on the great things they are accomplishing! : )

Cons

There is just so much power in the tool that we have not found the time to explore and implement everything yet. I would love a way to see what my employee is going to see before I finalize their report. That way I see the questions I created for them with the Suggestion Box, the company wide questions, etc. and know exactly what they will see as I am designing changes.

Pros

"How are you feeling?" feature does a great job keeping track of the pulse on our culture and overall employee satisfaction as a company.

High Fives are a brilliant way to keep our team motivated! In fact, we use this feature to fuel who chooses lunch for us on Fridays!

Really love that I get to keep track of my objectives in the tool as well. Good way to keep me honest about my progress.

The weekly reminders and reports that are emailed are super helpful!

Cons

None at this moment. Keep doing what you're doing!

Pros

- Easy interface
- Great customer service
- Enforces accountability
- Creates a space for communication and continued company culture
- It's quick

Cons

I'd like to see analytics and suggestions from it. More company surveys and numbers offered--quizzes or other interactive components that would allow our team to have deeper insight into our employees challenges, happiness or frustrations.

Pros

I like that it's a single place where my manager and I can coordinate on overall objectives and weekly tactical plans

Cons

Not always intuitive, sometimes requires me to re-write things to fit the format
Annoying that when I add items for the week that I did not submit the week before, I cannot comment on them and they are pre-checked as done.
Objectives aren't that flexible - sometimes I need sub-bullets and I have to break it up weirdly
Not easy to take notes / add action items while discussing items in 1:1 - I have to keep scrolling up and down - would be better to put the list of discussion topics side by side with notes fields or add functionality to the discussion topics where I can take notes on them and /or set action items

Pros

Software is easy to use. Also love the reminders during the week on how we are doing with our goals for the week. Very helpful in keeping us in check. I also like the feedback we can give to our co-workers. The knowledge that their managers will see the feedback is great because everyone likes to give and receive positive reinforcement of a job well done and constructive criticism as well.

Cons

My experience so far has been positive. From the option of entering information via my laptop or an App, it's all great.

Pros

The ability for management to take a temperature check of how the team is doing and or feeling is really valuable. (I do not know what the cost of this software is however) It also helps people high five each other when ever they want to give their friends/co-workers a simple & quick compliment which is really good for building comradery.

Cons

I think that if it is a mandatory tool to use every day it can become more of a annoying tool rather than a helpful one. Once or twice a week will suffice.

Pros

Ability to list my tasks and goals for the new week ahead of time ; while also reserving the choice to add tasks as I finish them.This option is very important for effectively tracking task and completing goals .
It has an intuitive user interface and I am allowed to freely customize how I receive my notifications.

Cons

There were weeks where I successfully completed my tasks and had no complaints , yet I was unable to submit my form until I had to report an issue or complaint ,which was non-existent ; just to enable me submit the form.

Pros

I like the ease of use and the ways I am able to describe weekly goals, and struggles. I love that my team is synced with me so that they can see and understand what my team is doing (different than theirs), and I can see theirs. It gives me a simple platform to give myself weekly goals and strategies, and to acknowledge others for their work as well.

Cons

Simple also can be restrictive. As a user not a manager I do not get to much range of editing my week goals and objectives outside of the simple setup. It can get repetitive.