Q3 Product Release
Six new ways to save time
Smarter AI, stronger sign-off for the reviews that matter, faster objective setting, sharper talent reporting and a new home for over 800 resources. Watch a short demo of each feature below.
What’s new this quarter
Our Q3 release is about taking the admin out of performance management. AI Assist now keeps track of your conversation, so follow-up questions are quicker and cheaper to answer. AI writes tailored review questions for you in under a minute, and high-stakes reviews such as probation can now require approval before an outcome is final.
For managers, one objective can now go out to a whole department, team or group in a few clicks, and the 9-box grid shows senior managers their entire downline with richer filters. And everyone can use the new Resource Centre, with AI search across more than 800 guides, eBooks, videos and webinars.
AI Assist now remembers your conversation
Until now, every question you asked AI Assist started from a blank page — it fetched what it needed, answered, then forgot. AI Assist now carries a short summary of what it has already looked up through the whole conversation, so follow-up questions pick up exactly where you left off.
- Ask natural follow-ups like “now show me that by department” or “who are the three biggest risks here?”
- Noticeably quicker answers, because it isn’t rediscovering the same information every time
- Far lower running costs — which is how AI Assist stays on one flat annual rate for everyone
- Built for your leadership team, HR, L&D and every line manager in the business
Read the video transcript
To show you the AI Assist update, I'm going to create a brand new dashboard to show people that are running through the probation process in the last 12 months. Until now, every question you asked AI Assist started from a blank page at the beginning. It would go and fetch everything it needed, then answer you, but then it would forget it. But now AI Assist carries a short summary of what it has already looked up previously through the whole conversation. So now you can ask a follow up, say, now show me that by department. Or who are the biggest three risks here? Or is there a problem with people running through the probation process? And so two things really come out of that. It's noticeably quicker because it isn't rediscovering the same information every time. And also it costs us far, far less to run, which is how we manage to keep AI Assist on a flat annual rate for everyone. So that means your leadership team, HR, L&D and every line manager in the business.
Review approvals for high-stakes decisions
Some reviews are too important for one person to sign off alone — probation meetings, anything with a compliance angle or a contractual outcome. Reviews now have an optional approval step, so the right people confirm an outcome before it’s final.
- Add one or more approvers in the review template’s advanced settings
- When a reviewer sets an outcome — for example, extending a probation — the approval process starts automatically
- Approvers are notified and confirm the outcome in a couple of clicks
- Approved outcomes flow straight through to the Probation Review dashboard
Read the video transcript
Review approval process. So some reviews are just too important for one person to sign off alone. Things like probation meetings or anything with compliance angle, anything with a contractual outcome. So we've added a new approval step to reviews. Let me show you how that works. I'm going to open up a probation review template in this example and now once I've opened it we've added a new option in advance called approver. So I'm going to set myself and one other person as an approver and then once I've done that I'm going to add a new probation review to a person called John in this example and I'm also going to set myself up as the approver to make it easy to demonstrate. So in this example I'm going to extend his probation over because we feel like he needs more training and we're not quite sure yet. So I'm going to go through the probation review and then set the outcome to extend and then once that's done an approval process will kick in there it is it's going to go over in this example to me to then approve that outcome and then just to show you that if I go into the probation review dashboard you'll see then that John is now set up as extend for the probation reviews.
A more flexible 9-box grid
The built-in 9-box grid report has been enhanced. It sits alongside Success Circles — StaffCircle’s modern alternative to the 9-box — and now gives senior managers a clear view of talent across their whole downline.
- Senior managers can view their entire downline on the 9-box dashboard
- Filter by time period, department, team and site
- Filter by review type to compare like with like
- Use it side by side with Success Circles for a fuller picture of performance and potential
Read the video transcript
Okay, we've also improved the built-in 9-box grid report. As you know, StaffCircle has an alternative to the 9-box grid called the Success Circles, but this can be used alongside the 9-box grid. And now we've enhanced our existing 9-box dashboard so the senior managers can view their downline. You can also filter by time, department, team, site, and even types of reviews.
AI-generated review questions
Build a complete, tailored question set in under a minute instead of an afternoon staring at a blank page. Give a question template a title and description, and AI uses that context to write the questions for you.
- Generate questions from a simple brief — for example, an extended probation meeting
- Reword and edit any question before you save
- Add an outcome question in its own section, using your existing question or scoring templates
- Save it once and reuse it on every review of that type
Read the video transcript
Next up, AI generated review questions. Let me build one now. I'm going to create a question template for an extended probation meeting, something that we can reuse on every extended probation from here on in. I'm going to give it a title and description and that's the context the AI will use when it's generating the questions. And here's the questions generated. I can reword them, edit them. And now I can even add a new outcome question to this on its own section, which I'm going to do now. As you can see, I'll use an existing question template or scoring template on the system. and there it is. So a complete tailored question set in under a minute instead of an afternoon staring at a blank page.
Bulk objective assignment
Giving 20 people the same objective used to mean adding each person one by one. Not any more. Create a single objective, open the new bulk editor and push it out to exactly the right group of people in a few clicks.
- Assign to a whole department, a team, all your direct reports or a security group in one go
- Set the objective details once — it lands against every person you select
- Filter the objective list view by department to see it sitting against everyone
- Works however your organisation is structured
Read the video transcript
Next up, bulk objective assignment. So until now, if you wanted the same objective sitting with say 20 people, you created the objective in StaffCircle and then added the people individually. Not anymore. Let me show you. I'm going to create a single objective for completing three projects for Q4. But instead of assigning it to one person, I'm going to go into the new bulk editor and then pick a department I want it to land with and then select the whole department in one go. Set the detail of the objective and then it's done. Now if you then go into the objective list view, filter by department, you can see that objective sitting against every single person in it and it isn't just departments. You can also bulk assign all of your direct reports in one go to a team of people. obviously to departments or even by security group membership. So whichever way your organisation is structured you can push objectives out to exactly the right group of people in a few clicks.
A brand-new Resource Centre
Our new Resource Centre is free and open to everyone — customers, prospects and HR and L&D teams researching ideas. eBooks, guides, videos, webinars and knowledge base articles all live in one place, with AI-powered search.
- Over 800 pieces of content, and we’re adding more all the time
- Search with AI — try “9-box grid” and everything on the subject comes straight back
- StaffCircle AI Assist is connected and can reach this content too
- From review template structures and 360 appraisal questions to engagement survey ideas
Read the video transcript
We've launched a brand new Resource Centre and it's free and open to use for everyone. Customers, prospects or just HR and L&D teams who are perhaps researching ideas. There's a huge amount in there already. eBooks, guides, videos, webinars, knowledge base, over 800 pieces of content. And we're adding to it all the time. It's all searchable with AI. So if I search on 9-box Grid, you can see it comes straight back with a large amount of resources around videos and eBooks and so on. Essentially, everything we've got on the subject in one place searchable by AI and StaffCircle's own AI assist is connected and it can reach this content too. So whether you're after the latest review template structure, 360 appraisal questions or simply ideas for an engagement survey, we've got you covered.
Want these features switched on?
Most Q3 features are available now. Your Account Manager can help you set up review approvals, bulk objectives and AI-generated questions for your organisation.