15Five User Management Guide

• Model type: role-based
• Description: 15Five uses a fixed role-based permission model. Each user is assigned one or more predefined roles (Account Admin, HR Admin, Billing Admin, Group Admin, Manager, Employee) that determine platform access. Some features (Engagement, Best-Self Review, 1-on-1s) have their own additional specialized roles layered on top of general roles. Engagement results visibility can be set as role-based (default) or custom (Full, Limited, Limited+Groups) per individual.
• Custom roles: No
• Custom roles plan: Not documented
• Granularity: Role-level with some per-feature visibility overrides (e.g., Engagement results access: Full, Limited, Limited+Groups assignable per user). No arbitrary permission set construction. Fields synced from HRIS/IdP integrations are locked from manual editing in-app.

1. Click the Settings gear in the top-right corner of 15Five.
2. Select 'People' from the dropdown to open the Manage people page.
3. Click 'Add a person' in the top-right corner of the screen.
4. Fill in the required fields: First name, Last name, and Email.
5. Optionally set: manager, group membership, Check-in frequency, start date, and permissions (e.g., Account Admin checkbox).
6. Check 'Send invite email' if you want the user to receive an invitation immediately, or leave unchecked to send later.
7. Click Save or Save and add another.
8. New user appears under 'Pending invitations' (if invite sent) or 'Created people' (if invite not sent) in the Invited tab of Manage people.

Required fields: First name, Last name, Email

Watch out for:

• If the company is integrated with SCIM or an HRIS, the 'Add a person' option may not be visible or may be disabled for manual additions.
• Invitations expire after 30 days; expired invites must be resent or reset.
• Admin cannot edit an invited user's profile settings (e.g., manager, reviewer) until the user accepts the invite and activates their account.
• If a maximum user limit is set in company settings, adding users beyond that limit will produce an error until unused accounts are deactivated or the limit is increased.
• If SSO is enabled and the user is granted access in the IdP, they appear in the 'Created' section of the Invited tab automatically and do not need a separate invite email to log in.
• Updating a user's email address in 15Five before updating it in the IdP (when SSO is active) will create a duplicate account.

• Can delete users: No
• Delete/deactivate behavior: 15Five does not offer a standard in-app delete function. Deactivation is the standard offboarding action. Permanent PII deletion requires contacting 15Five Support, who can grant the ability to PII-delete a person's data. Deactivated users remain in the Deactivated tab and can be reactivated.

1. Click the Settings gear in the top-right corner of 15Five.
2. Select 'People' from the dropdown to open the Manage people page.
3. Find the user in the Active tab using the search bar or filters.
4. Click the user's name to open their account settings page.
5. Click 'Deactivate [Name]'s account' (typically in the top-right of the profile page).
6. If the user has direct reports, reassign those reports before deactivation can complete.
7. Confirm deactivation. The user is moved to the Deactivated tab.
8. Alternatively, use the Actions dropdown on the Active tab to bulk deactivate multiple users at once.
9. For CSV bulk deactivation: include the 'is_active' column with value 'n' for target users in a bulk import CSV.

Watch out for:

• On annual subscriptions, deactivating a user does not reduce the current contract cost-the seat remains paid through the end of the subscription term.
• If SCIM is enabled, manual deactivation in 15Five may be overwritten at the next sync; deactivation must be managed in the IdP.
• Users with direct reports must have those reports reassigned before deactivation can be completed.
• 1-on-1 agendas become permanently inaccessible after deactivation; a Global Viewer should download or print agendas before deactivating the user.
• Deactivation date is not used in turnover calculations-a termination date must be separately recorded in the Terminated tab for accurate HR Outcomes Dashboard metrics.
• Turnover scorecard only reflects employees with a recorded termination date, not just deactivated accounts.

• Where to check usage: Settings gear → Billing tab → Manage Billing Details (opens Billing Portal). Active tab of Manage people page shows all billable active users. Invited tab shows users with optional billed seat assignments.
• How to identify unused seats: Review the Active tab on the Manage people page for users who have not submitted Check-ins or engaged with the platform. No native 'last login' report is documented in the Help Center; admins can use custom reports filtered by hierarchy and follow settings to identify inactive participants. Deactivated tab shows previously active users who have been offboarded.
• Billing notes: All plans billed annually. Active users (accepted invite) automatically fill a billable seat. Inactive/invited users are not billed unless manually assigned a billed seat by an admin (for engagement survey eligibility). New seats added mid-subscription are prorated to the monthly anniversary date. Deactivated users' seats are retained for the remainder of the annual contract with no refund or credit. Vacant seats from deactivations are filled first before additional seats are charged when new users are added.

Managing every app in your stack by hand compounds quickly in 15Five specifically because deactivation errors carry real cost. On annual contracts, deactivating a user does not release the paid seat - the cost runs through the end of the subscription term with no refund or credit.

Vacant seats from deactivations are filled before new seats are charged, so timing matters. Beyond billing, 1-on-1 agendas become permanently inaccessible after deactivation, requiring proactive export before offboarding.

Admins also cannot edit an invited user's profile - including manager or reviewer assignment - until that user accepts the invite and activates their account, creating a gap window for onboarding flows that rely on accurate reporting-line data from day one.

Practitioners flag several recurring friction points. Manual deactivation inside 15Five can be silently overwritten at the next SCIM or HRIS sync, meaning deactivation must always be managed in the IdP when an integration is active.

JIT provisioning conflicts with SCIM and should be disabled to prevent duplicate accounts.

One G2 reviewer noted that 'some features can feel a bit limited without customization, and certain advanced options are only available in higher plans.' A legacy note from 15Five's FAQ states that 'bulk imports are not available for SCIM customers,' though this should be verified against current SCIM documentation.

HR Admins are automatically granted Review Admin permissions on assignment - this can be toggled off but is easy to miss.

Common complaints:

• SSO prerequisite for best SCIM experience
• JIT conflicts with SCIM/HRIS integrations
• Manual deactivation in 15Five can be overwritten by the next SCIM or HRIS sync, requiring deactivation to be managed in the IdP instead
• Admin cannot edit an invited user's profile (e.g., manager, reviewer assignment) until the user accepts the invite and activates their account
• Deactivating a user on an annual contract does not free the paid seat cost for the remainder of the subscription-no refunds or credits are issued
• 1-on-1 agendas become permanently inaccessible after user deactivation, requiring proactive data export before offboarding
• Global Viewer role (for Check-in and 1-on-1 visibility) is not self-assignable and requires contacting 15Five Support with qualifying justification
• Bulk CSV import is not available for SCIM-enabled customers (per legacy Comparably FAQ; verify current behavior with 15Five Support as Azure AD SCIM docs suggest CSV import may still be an option)
• Some advanced features (Best-Self Review, 1-on-1s, Career Hub) are gated to Perform or Total Platform plans, requiring plan upgrades for access
• Updating a user's email in 15Five before updating it in the SSO/IdP creates duplicate accounts

Representative quotes (verbatim):

Bulk imports are not available for SCIM customers.

• 15Five FAQ via Comparably (legacy note; verify against current SCIM documentation) (https://www.comparably.com/companies/15five/faqs)

Some features can feel a bit limited without customization, and certain advanced options are only available in higher plans.

• G2 reviewer (verified current user), collected on G2.com (https://www.g2.com/products/15five/reviews)

Manual management is viable only for small, stable teams not yet using an IdP integration. Once SCIM is active, the UI blocks manual user addition entirely, and any manual deactivation risks being overridden at the next sync - a dynamic that differs from every app that permits mixed provisioning modes.

Teams on annual contracts should treat seat lifecycle as a planning exercise, not a reactive one, since deactivated seats do not generate credits. For organizations where manager and reviewer assignments must be accurate at hire, the invited-but-not-activated gap is a meaningful risk that manual processes cannot fully close without IdP-driven provisioning.

Bottom line

15Five's manual user management is straightforward for small teams but becomes operationally fragile at scale.

The combination of annual seat billing with no mid-term credits, SCIM overwriting manual deactivations, and a blocked 'Add a person' UI once SCIM is enabled means that manual processes and IdP-driven provisioning cannot safely coexist.

Organizations running 15Five alongside an IdP should commit fully to automated provisioning and treat the admin console as a read-and-verify surface rather than a write surface.