15Five 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study
About the Company
15Five is the holistic performance management company. 15Five equips HR teams with a complete, single-platform solution to improve manager effectiveness, drive high performance and engagement, and increase retention.
15Five was founded in 2011, by serial entrepreneur, David Hassell, and born of his deep desire to help people reach their fullest potential at work. The early version of the product got its name from the practice the platform encouraged: employees setting aside 15 minutes each week to write reports called 15Five’s, and managers taking five minutes to read and respond to them. The insights gleaned could then be automatically passed up to HR and company leadership so that they had visibility into the most important things happening for employees—things like where people were stuck and what they were proud to have accomplished, that would have otherwise gone unknown. (Interestingly enough, the idea behind 15Five is often credited to Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who had built his company around his passion for climbing and spent ample time each year away from Patagonia pursuing this passion. In truth the idea actually originated in the 1980s with Chouinard’s friend and ESPRIT founder, Doug Tompkins.)
Hassell, an avid kite-surfer, snowboarder, and adventurer himself, made the tradition of effective management from anywhere accessible for the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. In the succeeding years since 15Five was founded, the once-simple employee feedback system has evolved into a beautifully designed, mature platform that exists to accelerate human-centered leadership in the world, so that companies and their people can thrive.
Today, while 15Five provides value across the many organizations that use it, the platform is primarily directed toward progressive HR/People Operations leaders, particularly at small and medium sized businesses. (Though some of 15Five’s largest customers have teams in the thousands.) These strategic HR leaders are tasked with driving business outcomes like increasing revenue by focusing on four main HR outcomes: Improving manager effectiveness, decreasing regrettable turnover, increasing employee engagement, and maximizing employee performance.
15Five is essentially the only HR software built on top of management software, and the weekly check-in that once comprised the entire offering, and still remains core to the 15Five product, has been augmented over the years by 15Five’s total platform offering. Today this combines powerful coaching and manager training, 360 performance reviews, in-depth engagement surveys, robust goal & OKR tracking, and manager-employee feedback tools like 1-on-1s and pulse ratings. Together, these enable HR leaders to continuously measure engagement and performance within the flow of work and empower managers to drive change from the bottom up. Over 3,500 companies, including Credit Karma, Spotify and Pendo rely on 15Five to make their talent a growth driver.
Click here to read the full case study
Ben Eubanks is the Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory. He is an author, speaker, and researcher with a passion for telling stories and making complex topics easy to understand.
His latest book Talent Scarcity answers the question every business leader has asked in recent years: “Where are all the people, and how do we get them back to work?” It shares practical and strategic recruiting and retention ideas and case studies for every employer.
His first book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is the world’s most-cited resource on AI applications for hiring, development, and employee experience.
Ben has more than 10 years of experience both as an HR/recruiting executive as well as a researcher on workplace topics. His work is practical, relevant, and valued by practitioners from F100 firms to SMB organizations across the globe.
He has spoken to tens of thousands of HR professionals across the globe and enjoys sharing about technology, talent practices, and more. His speaking credits include the SHRM Annual Conference, Seminarium International, PeopleMatters Dubai and India, and over 100 other notable events.