HighGround Reviews

We love that we can have our employee recognition platform and performance management process within one system. Our associates can get a clear picture of how they have performed throughout the entire year within HighGround.

Nothing comes to mind yet. Of course no system is perfect and we have had some small administrative hurtles to overcome with it being a new system but there is nothing too crazy that has come up!

I have nothing negative to say about HighGround. Our implementation was easy, their customer service is quick to answer any questions and their associates are very easy to work with.

No business problems just yet since we have only be with them since January but we have realized we can incorporate our Reward and Recognition platform together with performance management. We love that our associates can sit down with their supervisors and their supervisors can see all the reward and recognition they received throughout the year while discussing their performance.

With a nationwide branch network and corporate support groups, many of our employees never meet in person. HighGround facilitates communication, recognition, coaching and overall employee engagement within an easy to use digital platform.

Not much to dislike. Easy to use, easy to administrate and highly customizable.

HighGround helps prevent us from living in silos among our business units by facilitating communication and recognition. Additionally, recognition that would otherwise have been private is now public, allowing the entire team to join in congratulating and recognizing great efforts, both large and small. Rather than just an email or a phone call, everyone can see recognition. We've been able to put faces and names to employees that might otherwise be anonymous across divisional lines.

The simplicity of the platform for the user is great.

The reports we generate are cumbersome and not accurate for a handful of metrics.

There is a big need to improve the analytics functions, configurable security, and the fact that people can create any title or location they want by just sending it through a template or typing it vs. some sort of quality check is concerning. I want to move away from administering this software and hand the administration over to HR people in the fields, but they'd likely create so many unique locations with typos and formatting that it scares me to ever pass the torch.

Employee engagement through a unified platform of performance. We have been able to bring together our global performance eligible groups onto one platform.

Highground offers an integrated solution that has really taken our performance & engagement initiatives to the next level. The platform is user-friendly & administrative-friendly, intuitive, clean, simple.

The level of customization & flexibility is outstanding, and overall it has been very easy to work with their outstanding customer success team in getting FUEL (our branded performance, engagement, & recognition platform) up and running.

There are a few minor system things I might change about how goals are structured at the different levels, (e.g. rather than just individual, departmental, company levels would love to have more customization such as by leader/manager, by business unit, etc. as well as have the ability for one person to "own" multiple goals (like if a leader oversees multiple departments each with unique goals.

This is coming down the line later at some point though - so looking forward to that!

We deeply evaluated about 10+ different performance management/engagement platforms (+ many more that we discarded right away) and Highground was above and beyond all other options that we really drilled down into in terms of usability, breadth of offerings, depth, and most importantly meeting our business needs & fitting our culture. Our second choice was Reflektive - another great platform, but Highground just seemed to be doing things better and more thoughtfully all around.

We really loved how Highground also is continuously updating their system based on customer feedback and innovating themselves. A great partner.

How to elevate performance & continuous development

How to recognize our people for excellence (to promote further excellence and motivation)

Employee Engagement

The new admin interface and GUI is easy to use, password reset functions are simple and easy to understand. The white labeling process was smooth and looks aesthetically pleasing.

Many bugs, inability to put in feature requests in a meaningful way, inability to add "all employees" to a perform cycle (must add individually or by department), lack of documentation or instruction on how to set-up a perform card or leverage modules for their best impact. Seems like there is a focus on certain tools (Feedback) but not on others (Perform) - not encouraging when we leverage perform the most out of all the modules. Also, an inability to use in-line GIF images in recognition module - a number of competitors offer this feature and it adds a lot of personality to the process.

Make sure your business model and needs fit the parts of their product they are actively iterating on.

Honestly, not much. Goals and the idea of aligned goals are difficult to manage in a start-up environment in which goals are constantly shifting and pivoting. The intractable nature of the deadlines set in the system (once set, you can't edit) makes it difficult to be as flexible as the business demands.

HighGround is a small company that offers great customer service! We have been working with them to build up the recognition piece of their performance management tool and they have been nothing but gracious. We have a lot of demands and are working towards rolling this out to over 90K employees so there are a lot of details to work out. They have been extremely responsive and generous with their time and resources. They are truly great to work with.

There really is nothing I can say negatively yet.. We have not launched the site yet so we don't know what we don't know yet..

This is a small company but very willing to work with you to get you what you need.

We are hoping to solve an issue with people not feeling like they are noticed for their work. We are hopeful that this platform will go a long way in helping leaders and others just take a quick minute to thank others for what they do everyday.

The ability to store all of our reviews saves us a lot of paper and emails. This allows everyone in the company an opportunity to be more organized. I also like that Highground sends alerts/reminders. This helps to eliminate constant emails from the HR team.

I know there are some things Highground is working on, but for now I dislike that admin can't reset passwords. I do not like that you can't edit a Check-In or Feedback card. If one word is incorrect, I have to duplicate the card and resend it to employees. We do not want to have 20 different cards because of a typo or addition. I also dislike the time period it takes to send out an email. When creating a user, the employee did not receive the email until the next day.

The benefits are again being able to house our reviews in one system. This will allow us to stay on track and have more frequent feedback. Most times there is one yearly review; this will help employees to have a voice more often.

I like that the entire recognition user experience feels like a mainstream social media site, which makes it easier for our employees to hit the ground running. Also, although we haven't begun using it yet, I think the rewards piece is easy to use and will really encourage our employees to recognize each other.

The performance management side of the application could be more customizable so that companies can use it to implement performance management as they see fir, rather than HighGround imposing their views on performance management.

Make sure that your vision fits in with their product, because if it does then you'll have a stellar user experience; if not, then you might find yourself frustrated in trying to conform your vision/philosophy to what's offered.

We've seen an increase in our employee recognition. It's nice to be able to run a report to see how people are recognizing each other. HighGround has also been a tool for us to execute our performance management process.

I like the clean and easy experience, it truly has simplified the recognition program for our organization and we have seen an impact with how people are engaging

Seems a little limited with how rewards can be given and the store functionality is not as strong as we would have liked it, however these are areas seem to be evolving and they were able to ultimately fulfill our needs with bringing rewards into the mix

Great option and platform, customer service has been excellent. We had a complicated history of rewards and recognition and we were able to bring it forward successfully with this partnership

Employee recognition was a variable that was being handled differently in different lines of business. Leveraging HighGround we have been able to align the experience to a single program and platform and our users have really taken to the ease of use and the mobile app

I like the streamlined user interface that was recently implemented on the left hand side. The upcoming changes to Goals that I experienced in UX testing.

here are where the improvements can happen to make it a much better user experience.

1. Reporting: analytics is everything now a days and the reporting tools within HG need to be revamped. By using a product like Qlikview, Domo, or Birst, HG can create customized data solutions that can be tailored for each business within a security framework they choose. These tools provide great visualizations and the ability to drill down to data on the fly as well as create adhoc style reporting. With this, it would be beneficial for HG to publish a data dictionary that gives the definitions and the business rules that drive their data fields

2. Custom email communications: almost all comms in the system are an all or nothing event. Goals is the only area where an admin can pick and choose what the system does or doesn't send. This should be available across all communications.

3. Data Dependent Questions: for areas such as Check-In and Feedback, the admin should be able to create questions that appear based on a previous questions answer. This will save some businesses from having to administer two separate cycles like we currently do today.

4. More answer types: when creating questions in Check-In and Feedback I can only choose from 4 answer types. It would be nice to see other answer types such as numeric value that will also allow the admin to choose the numeric value range. Something like this would show to the end user as (please enter values between 1-5). Also, please allow for the ability to have an optional DFF show when creating a Yes/No answer type so the user can explain why they chose the answer they did.

Right now we are in the process of changing global culture over the next few years in regards to performance and bonus. HG is the tool that we are using to shift that mentality.

Our consultant, Clare, is very helpful and organised. I like the way our meetings are structured and responsive the company is to our questions. It's good to see that the systems is being constantly updated and developed to meet the demand for new functionality.

I lack some support when designing new badges (designer services) and a bit more attention to the international users' needs.

HG helps us to engage our staff, to creating high performance culture and establish feedback culture within the organization.

HighGround has been the best vendor to work with - very flexible, responsive and the right balance of educating us, yet having patience for our organization to fully roll out each module - on our own timeline.

The product is continually evolving but to our liking. The one improvement would be the partner for the Store within Rewards - GRS. They don't seem to have the same level of customer service as HighGround.

Don't delay, it's Awesome!!

Enhancing our culture with visible recognition and on the spot rewards with ease and efficiency (less drain on our internal resources).

Our company implemented the recognition module of HighGround in January of 2017 and have since added the goal, check-in and feedbaack modules. We will be adding the survey and rewards by end of fiscal year. The ability to have all of these features in one tool has been a great asset to our company and has aided in us really transforming out culture into that of a forward thinking company that really puts value on our employees.

HighGround is a newer company so there are several features that could use some improvement. However, I will say that they have been very accommodating to our requests for enhancements.

If you are looking for a very modern, social media type platform that really integrates several features into one, this is a great option. If your company has a lot of individuals that do not have access to computers it can be a challenge, however they have worked with us to create alternate solutions and have a mobile app that can be utilized.

HighGround is allowing us to minimize the number of different platforms we have to have internally and to allow cross-use between the different modules to truly get a full picture of an employee's performance. We are a global company so the recognition aspect is allowing us to truly view the amazing things are team is doing across all regions. The quick check-ins are also allowing us to really focus on the future of the company and not continue to simply review the past. We can gain insight into issues that need addressing in a much more timely manner to get them corrected.

It is a well rounded product that is customizable based on current needs of the organization. Meaning, the launch of the system can start out with basic modules. From there, once you have user acceptance, you can continue to launch additional modules that contribute to a positive experience. Also, I like that the branding of the system can mimic the culture of the organization.

The system is really easy to use, and I enjoy that it has a social media vibe. It makes the processes of performance management and engagement fun!

Finally, the support that we have received from our dedicated contact has been fantastic! They are a great partner and want to see your organization make the most of all of the valuable tools.

Within the goal module, there are certain portions of the software that do not allow enough characters to allow full descriptions. Naturally, if you are describing a SMART goal, that would require more text to be able to document.

Also, it would be nice to have the ability to have more options for how to measure the result of a specific goal. Today, they can track by completed/not completed, percentage or numeric. It has been difficult, at times, to get a goal result to fit into percentage or numeric structure as it is laid out.

Finally, there have been a few situations where the auto-generated emails regarding a user who made a change in the system were not sent to the person who needed the update. Once support was contacted, we saw that get fixed.

We have been better able to coordinate the communication that needs to happen about critical goals within an organization; at the corporate, department, and individual levels.

Also, recognition is an important part of employee engagement and seeing our users get excited about recognizing each other has had a positive result on our culture.

Approach to performance management and professional development aligns well with our company values and people-centered priorities. The software is easy to use and for the most part flexible and configurable. The interface is familiar and modern.

Analytics do not server our needs at all - they seem to be an afterthought. Also, the ability to have visibility into the quality of user inputs is not there. It's difficult to evaluate the quality of feedback and development from managers, with the goal of coaching managers to deliver more value to employees.

An easy to use repository of feedback and development. A platform to encourage more conversations, more feedback, and more engagement

HighGround has been a partner with our firm, not just a vendor to our firm. They have listened to what we are trying to accomplish and have provided solutions to our challenges that are unique to our firm and adaptive to what we need. They haven't just pulled something out of a "box" and said - here it is, use it as is.

While not exactly a dislike, as we are working with HighGround, they are learning and adapting and evolving their product based on our requests. It is the "downside" of having a flexible solution, but we would prefer it to being boxed in. There are some reporting kinks to work out however...

Our workforce is much more engaged with each other by using the product. It is not a hindrance to use, it is becoming part of their everyday lives.

Simple and easy to use. Whether's it is the web or mobile app, it's a system that doesn't require a lot of time to become comfortable with or learn. Very social-media like, so a lot of users are familiar with the navigation and functionality of it.

Random issues and errors occur whether it's with data or communications. There were problems where users' profile data were incorrect. HG staff were responsible for keeping the profiles accurate, but there was a snag in the process. Wish there was more to do with the recognition module.

Establish Recognition culture. Engage employees with one another.

I love that HighGround is so easy to use! Employees love that it is similar to any other social media platform and they love that all their professional development and performance management is rolled into one tool.

I wish that the reporting feature for admins was better.

No more annual reviews! Now we do monthly coachings - employees love it!

HighGround has been extremely gracious in honoring our requests for changes and enhancements to their platform. They have been very flexible and understanding of our needs.

We have changed project managers 3 times since we started working with them and it takes each person a while to get up to speed with our expectations.

We are working on an in-the-moment spot recognition platform. We are looking to drive employee engagement and help employees to feel recognized for their work.

The platform is user friendly and the customer service that we receive is phenomenal.

I can't think of anything that I would change right now.

recognition for our employees and making sure that everyone is feeling valued.

Easy for all levels of employee to use from platform admin to employee to managers and executives. Great reporting and dashboard tools as well.

Not many downsides. The biggest one is just keeping up with turnover and employee changes.

This has closed the gap in employee recognition that we had before. It is accessible for local, remote offices and remote employees that wish to recognize each other.

The support is key. The tool itself is very intuitive for our employees to jump right in.

The tool is a also bit rigid, it doesn't adapt the way we always need it to. But that makes us creative .

The ease of Implementation, and how intuitive it is make it a no brainer.

We're trying to do a culture change, by providing a "social" atmosphere for recognition and also a new way of measuring performance with goals achievement.

The customer service and team availability.

The inflexibility of the platform to meet our enterprise needs.

Make sure you're willing to design a process that they've already envisioned and aren't trying to map their tool to how your company currently works.

We are trying to help support an anniversary cycle review process, foster an environment with ongoing feedback and enable team leaders to better manage their employees and managers.

We love the badges and get to see company-wide achievements!

Is easy to use, and does what it is supposed to do

While simple and easy to use, it has very little space for branding the company. The landing page is not good.

We haven't had a consistence performance management tool. We wanted something that could help us build upon our principles going forward: Goal based, Continuous feedback, Crowd Sorced

The product is simple and easy to use. Roll out was easy and it’s everything you need in one location.

Took a while to get all of the info but once we did it was smooth sailing.

Engagement, performance management, continuous feedback.

Intuitive, easy for new users to learn and adapt

Reporting could be beefed up, would like to see ability to create custom reports.

Engagement and equal recognition - been very well received from our staff

Enthusiasm and idealism of support staff

Adaptability

Data accuracy (dashboard rounding does not match raw data)

Ask very detailed questions based on your requirements

Recognition is the biggest win from our HighGround implementation.

High Ground is a very easy to use program. We currently do not take advantage of all of the features that High Ground offers.

This program does not integrate with our payroll/HRIS/HRMS solutions.

We have not had any problems, more of a lack of training.

Ability to set and align goals throughout the organization

Some technical limitations with the software, but that's not unusual. Our employees have really enjoyed it.

More goal alignment. More real time coaching and feedback. Consistent and timely recognition.

I like the people who have been assigned to our account. They are always helpful and get back to us promptly.

We only use the Perform module. It is not intuitive and the reporting is not great.

We are using this for performance management. This is better than the word docs we used before but it is not ideal for us.

User-friendly interface, simplicity of the platform

Nothing discovered at that point to dislike.

Building a culture of "we", "one company" instead of silos

The ease of use and functionality of inserting goals

The lack of options as needs arise such as mangers leaving the company

We are helping to encourage engagement between manager and employee. The benefit has been an increase in communication

Phil is the best providing support and pushing our requests to the tech team

Tech team is slow in implementing changes

group certificates. Implementing the system in Brazil

Recognition program, then you can recognize your peer

The system problems could be fixed faster

Improve company employees Recognition and Performance management process