How Tagboard Creates a People-First Remote Culture With 15Five
Stephanie Smith is the SVP of People and Culture at Tagboard.
Community, connection, and a sense of belonging make Tagboard’s company culture special.
“The essence of our strategy is that people are human,” explains Smith. “In order to motivate and work with humans, you need to understand who they are, and why they do what they do.”
When faced with transitioning to a remote-hybrid model, Tagboard knew keeping that culture alive would be their priority. They wanted to create a psychologically safe, deeply connected experience for their newly remote team.
To keep up the communication and connections that made their team strong, Tagboard chose 15Five as their all-in-one tool for people and performance management, including check-ins, 1-1s, goal-setting, and manager transformation.
“We get a thousand-foot view of the employee, but also a one-inch view of their world,” Smith shares. “What they’re doing day-to-day, how they’re feeling about their work, and if they’re feeling connected to the company at large.”
“We’ve been able to grow our people and organizational strategy with 15Five, and it has been exponential.”
Joining the remote revolution — while staying true to their values
Smith and her colleagues knew strong, consistent communication was the only way to stay aware of how every employee was doing, every day.
Through 15Five, Tagboard’s managers get a holistic view of their team members, with a time commitment that feels sustainable no matter how many other projects they have on the go.
It takes just 15 minutes for employees to fill out a check-in that shares where they’re at, what they’re working on, and how they’re feeling. Then, managers review those updates in only 5 minutes.
That means a manager overseeing 5 people could get a complete picture of how they’re all doing in just 25 minutes a week.
“In 15Five, we’re able to capture everyone’s priorities and get a good pulse check,” explains Smith. “In other platforms, we could pulse check, but it didn’t correlate to anything. With 15Five, we have the full formula to understand how our team’s feeling, what they’re working on, and how that transpires towards our goals.”
15Five builds communication and relationships at scale
Tagboard’s human-centric strategy means they’re not only focused on targets and outputs. Instead, they start with the individuals whose hard work will get them there.
“For us, it’s not just here’s a goal and how we’ll meet it,” explains Smith. “We meet goals through people, and we know our peoples’ unique motivations, vulnerabilities, learning styles, and work styles.”
15Five was the solution Tagboard needed to enable strong communication, collect regular feedback, and capture data that could back up their decisions and move their whole strategy forward.
“Now, I have tangible data that shares the story, and the numbers behind it,” says Smith. “That lets us explain why we need to make a shift, or implement a new program or policy.”
Communication, culture, and a sense of belonging
Tagboard now has a scalable way to keep giving their employees the personal, people-first experience they value — no matter how much their team may shift or grow in the future.
“15Five allowed us to give our people a safe space to say what was going on, and what was on their mind,” Smith shares. “That lets us connect on a human level, because we’re trying to create an environment where people are seen, valued, and heard.”
With 15Five, Tagboard is proving that strong bonds and remote work can coexist. It just takes planning, coordination, and exactly the right tools.
