Yes, 15Five integrates with BambooHR through a third-party connection that syncs employee performance data, goals, and feedback between your performance management and HR systems.
Overview
15Five is a continuous performance management platform designed to help organizations align employee goals, gather feedback, and track progress throughout the year. BambooHR is a cloud-based human resources information system (HRIS) that centralizes employee data, payroll, time-off tracking, and HR workflows.
When these two systems are connected, employee information flows between them, reducing manual data entry and keeping your HR and performance management processes in sync. This integration is particularly valuable for mid-sized companies that want to maintain a single source of truth for employee records while leveraging specialized performance management capabilities.
How the Integration Works
- Employee Data Sync: Employee records created or updated in BambooHR can be synced to 15Five, ensuring your performance management platform always has current employee information including names, titles, departments, and reporting structures.
- Organizational Hierarchy: The integration pulls your organizational structure from BambooHR into 15Five, so manager-employee relationships and team assignments are automatically reflected in your performance management workflows.
- Feedback and Goals: Performance data, goals, and feedback collected in 15Five can be referenced alongside HR records in BambooHR, creating a complete employee development profile without switching between systems.
- Automated Workflows: When new employees are added to BambooHR, they can be automatically provisioned in 15Five, reducing setup time and ensuring consistent onboarding across both platforms.
- Data Consistency: Changes to employee status, department, or manager in BambooHR propagate to 15Five, keeping both systems aligned and eliminating conflicting information.
Key Features & Capabilities
Unified Employee Profiles: HR managers can view an employee’s complete profile—including compensation, benefits, time-off history from BambooHR alongside performance goals, feedback, and development plans from 15Five—without toggling between systems.
Automated Employee Provisioning: New hires added to BambooHR are automatically created in 15Five with the correct department and manager assignment, eliminating manual account setup and reducing onboarding time.
Real-Time Organizational Updates: When employees change roles, departments, or managers in BambooHR, those changes immediately reflect in 15Five’s goal-setting and feedback workflows, ensuring performance reviews are always aligned with current structure.
Streamlined Goal Alignment: Managers can set and track employee goals in 15Five while referencing compensation, role level, and development history stored in BambooHR, enabling more informed performance conversations.
Reduced Data Entry: By syncing employee information once from BambooHR, you eliminate duplicate data entry and the risk of inconsistencies between your HR and performance management records.
Compliance and Audit Trail: All synced data maintains audit logs in both systems, supporting compliance requirements and providing a clear record of performance management activities tied to official HR records.
Setup Difficulty
Medium (15–30 minutes)
Setting up the 15Five and BambooHR integration requires basic configuration but no custom code. You’ll need administrative access to both platforms. The typical setup involves:
- Authenticating 15Five with your BambooHR account via OAuth or API credentials
- Selecting which employee fields to sync (name, email, department, manager, etc.)
- Configuring the sync frequency (real-time or scheduled intervals)
- Testing the connection with a small group of employees before full rollout
- Reviewing and confirming organizational structure mapping
Most organizations complete this setup in under 30 minutes with minimal IT involvement. If you have a large or complex organizational structure with custom fields, plan additional time for configuration and testing.
Alternatives to Native Integration
If the native 15Five–BambooHR integration doesn’t fully meet your needs, consider these alternatives:
Zapier: A no-code automation platform that can trigger workflows between 15Five and BambooHR. For example, you could automatically create a 15Five user when a new employee is added to BambooHR, or send goal completion notifications to BambooHR. Zapier offers more flexibility but may introduce slight delays in data sync compared to a native connection.
Make (formerly Integromat): Similar to Zapier, Make offers visual workflow automation between the two platforms. It’s useful if you need conditional logic—for instance, only syncing certain employee types or triggering actions based on specific HR events.
Custom API Integration: For organizations with highly specialized workflows, both 15Five and BambooHR expose REST APIs that allow a developer to build a custom integration. This approach offers maximum control but requires ongoing maintenance and technical resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the integration sync in both directions?
The integration primarily syncs employee data from BambooHR to 15Five. Performance data, goals, and feedback created in 15Five are viewable in both systems but do not automatically write back to BambooHR’s core HR records. This one-way flow prevents accidental overwrites of HR data while keeping performance information accessible to HR teams.
What employee fields are synced between the two platforms?
Standard fields include first name, last name, email address, job title, department, manager/reporting relationship, employment status, and hire date. Custom fields in BambooHR can often be synced as well, depending on your configuration. Consult your integration setup documentation to confirm which custom fields are supported.
How often does the data sync between 15Five and BambooHR?
The sync frequency is configurable during setup. Most organizations choose real-time or hourly syncs to ensure employee data is current. You can adjust this frequency based on your needs and system load. Real-time syncs provide the most up-to-date information but may have slightly higher API costs.
What happens if an employee is deleted or deactivated in BambooHR?
When an employee is deactivated in BambooHR, the integration typically deactivates their 15Five account as well, preventing them from accessing performance management workflows. This ensures that only active employees are participating in goal-setting and feedback cycles. Deactivated records are usually retained for historical and compliance purposes.
Disclaimer: Integration features and capabilities may change as both 15Five and BambooHR release updates. This guide reflects current integration functionality, but you should verify the latest capabilities and requirements on the official integration documentation or contact vendor support before implementation.