How 15Five Transformed Employee Engagement and Retention at Kreg Tool
15Five: Empowering HR Leaders to Drive Impact Through Strategic Performance Management
15Five is a strategic performance management platform designed to help businesses maximize employee performance, engagement, and retention. The platform leverages data-driven insights, human-centered principles, and generative AI to empower HR leaders and managers with the tools they need to achieve measurable business outcomes. Trusted by over 3,500 organizations, including major players like Credit Karma, HubSpot, and Pendo, 15Five has become an indispensable asset for HR professionals aiming to demonstrate the real impact of their initiatives.
Key features of 15Five include 360° performance reviews, actionable engagement surveys, goal & OKR tracking, customizable coaching and training tools, and ongoing feedback mechanisms like 1-on-1s and check-ins. This holistic approach ensures that companies can not only measure performance but also actively improve it, fostering an environment where both employees and organizations thrive.
15Five is a winner in the 2024 HR Tech Awards program. The following case study was a major contributor to 15Five’s entry and subsequent win. For more information, please visit HRTechAwards.org.
Solving Key Challenges with 15Five’s Comprehensive Solution
15Five is designed to tackle the most pressing challenges faced by HR teams today, including improving employee performance, reducing turnover, enhancing engagement, and boosting manager effectiveness.
Recent enhancements to the platform include:
- AI-Assisted Reviews: This tool generates performance review drafts in seconds, reducing biases like recency and gender bias and helping managers save time on the review process.
- Spark AI: An intelligent assistant that supports managers, HR teams, and employees with real-time recommendations and coaching.
- HR Outcomes Dashboard: A comprehensive tool that enables HR leaders to track and measure the impact of their performance management strategies, giving them the data needed to make informed decisions.
- The HR Outcomes Flywheel: A guiding framework that connects HR activities to business outcomes, driving higher employee performance, retention, and engagement.
By utilizing these features, HR leaders can adopt a more strategic approach to talent management, ensuring their teams remain high-performing and aligned with business goals.
Client Case Study: Kreg Tool’s Journey to Improved Engagement and Retention
Challenge: Kreg Tool, a leader in woodworking tools, faced significant challenges with employee engagement, leading to high turnover rates and low performance. Nearly 40-45% of employees were leaving the company each year, which was unsustainable for the business.
To address these challenges, Kreg’s leadership team sought a solution that would improve retention, performance, and engagement. Initially, they turned to their HRIS, but found it lacked the necessary tools for driving meaningful change. The breakthrough came when one employee recommended 15Five as a potential solution.
Solution: Kreg adopted 15Five’s HR Outcomes Flywheel, focusing on key HR outcomes like turnover, engagement, and performance. By utilizing tools like performance reviews, check-ins, and 360° reviews, Kreg gathered data signals that helped identify areas for improvement. These insights were paired with 15Five’s generative AI recommendations to take targeted action.
Approach: Kreg implemented several key strategies using 15Five, including:
- Performance Reviews: Flexible reviews that employees and managers actually enjoyed completing, resulting in richer data for decision-making.
- Objectives: Clear tracking of goals and alignment with organizational priorities, helping employees stay connected to the company’s broader objectives.
- 1-on-1 Meetings: Focusing on regular, meaningful check-ins between managers and employees to address issues and maintain engagement.
By using the 15Five platform, Kreg’s HR team was able to empower managers to lead more effectively, provide timely feedback, and foster a culture of recognition and accountability.
Results: The results of Kreg’s implementation were remarkable:
- Turnover decreased from 40% to 32% year-over-year.
- Retention increased from 71% to 83%.
- Manager effectiveness improved, leading to a 75% manager effectiveness rating.
- Significant improvements in performance management and career development conversations were observed.
Kreg Tool’s successful journey with 15Five demonstrates the transformative power of data-driven performance management in boosting engagement, improving retention, and driving company-wide success.
Conclusion: A Proven Solution for Modern HR Challenges
15Five has proven to be an invaluable tool for HR teams striving to create high-performing, engaged, and loyal workforces. By combining AI, data-driven insights, and human-centered design, 15Five enables organizations to optimize performance management and deliver real, measurable outcomes. Kreg Tool’s success story highlights how a strategic approach to HR can not only solve immediate challenges but also drive sustained growth and success. With 15Five, companies have the tools to build stronger teams and ensure a thriving workplace for the future.
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.