OpenBlend Reviews & Product Details

Open Blend puts the employee at the heart of all 1-1 conversations. It facilitates discussions based predominantly on an agenda created by the employee. It is extremely simple to use, encourages regularity and reminds managers that there is a real person in front of them who has a life outside of work which impacts their behaviour and ability to do their job. It promotes and develops a coaching style and supports a consistent approach to 1-1's across the business. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I can't think of anything I dislike about Open Blend. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

OpenBlend is a real leveller in terms of line manager ability. Regardless of line manager experience and competence, OpenBlend allows everyone to experience a well structured, development led, coaching based 1-2-1 with their line manager. It's easy to generate actions and outocmes from these conversations, and provide individuals with a clear set of next steps towards achieving their goals. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The system genrates huge amount of potentially helpful data, which can sometimes be tricky to interpret without support from OpenBlend. However our Customer Success Manager is always willing to give us whatever we need around data, making it relevant and helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The scheduling and reminders about upcoming 1:1s, the ability to add different talking points, that you can send high fives to people and the motivators are all helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have occassionally felt a bit lost when navigating. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The implementation of OpenBlend was smooth and tailored to us. The change of behaviour towards the regular conversations we are now having is welcomed and has transformed the conversation from KPI's based and now more conversations to the needs of the individual. The frequency of conversation is dependent on the individual. Multiple features that help drive engagement, and the system is easy use and understand. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

At the moment, I can't think of anything that I dislike as OpenBlend are regularly developing and improving the system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It gives you the opportunity to understand what matters most to your employees, what drives them and what has a real impact on their emotional wellbeing. As well as how they like to be managed and what they need to perform at their best. Combine this with features that are built to make one-to-one conversations more effective, with helpful coaching prompts, wellbeing trackers and performance objectives and you come away from one-to-ones feeling and knowing that you've been able to contribute to improvements in their overall performance and how they feel towards work. OpenBlend makes performance convos, a really collaborative process, where employees have a stake in their own career plans and can bring their own agenda to one-to-ones. They know what they are working towards, and have clarity in how their personal objectives feed into company objectives. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

That it isn't a universal tool in all companies everywhere. I speak to so many friends and family members who aren't afforded the opportunity like I am to bring their own agenda points to their one-to-ones and have an impact on how they build and grow their team. The fact people are missing out is sad :( Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The account management experience we receive is brilliant. Proactive and insightful, they really understand the needs of our business and how OpenBlend can best support us. We love that our colleagues are able to use the tool in the way that works best for them - we make recommendations on frequency of use and the benefits of the different features, but ultimately the messaging is that the main purpose is to support effective coaching conversations between individuals and their manager, so it is in their hands. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The product in itself is sound. The one thing that would make the OpenBlend experience a 10 out of 10 one, would be the speed that they could get customer-specific product enhancements or recommendations implemented. The more we use the tool, the more we see the benefits of adding features that would benefit our company specifically, such as reporting functionality and further development of new features. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have used various CRM systems, bespoke coaching platforms (even Microsoft Excel and Apple ‘Notes’!!) to document coaching conversations in an attempt to measure impact and keep people accountable. The deficiency in all of these approaches has been the ease-of-use and wide-ranging areas of focus that come as standard within OpenBlend. As a platform, it provides a highly customisable experience which allows me to focus on what each individual direct report wants to focus on as well as needs to. Before we’ve begun, people are already invested in my conversations, because they truly feel like it’s to their benefit. When you blend (no pun intended) this with the coaching prompts and suggestions, ability to track long-term objectives and attribute shorter term actions to measure impact and progress over time. It’s the most comprehensive and supportive tool I have ever come across. It allows me the freedom to focus on asking the best question, touching the right nerve and properly listen to what I’m being told, rather than constantly having an internal conversation about how I’ll track something or scratch around to remember what was discussed last time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Really nitpicking here but I'd say that the Slack integration elements can be a little over-bearing. You'll get a LOT of notifications, even when seemingly I have turned them off. That said, the prompts are handy and I can totally see how if you were a new manager these would be exceptionally helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

At its heart it provides a platform which supports managers and team members in having powerful conversations. Further functionality such as High Fives, Evaluate and Feedback help the wider culture and development of a business. It's not a silver bullet, you will still need to consistently invest in your company culture and in ensuring there is trust between managers and team members, but Open Blend defintely helps you on that journey. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Whilst you can opt in and out of the various additional functions, true dual branding/customising of dashboards isn't really an option. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love the holistic approach to an employee's 121. The platform is fantastic for allowing an employee to lead their 1-2-1's and keep focus on the important things, whilst also allowing them to leave space for anything else they wish to discuss; in turn keeping focus on them as an individual rather than making it feel simply transactional.

The Openblend team are supportive and allow us to regularly discuss what we would like to see with the tech team - who are open to anything! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes the system is inflexible, you want to change something but it has to go through the tech team and takes time. However having said that, the tech team takes on all advice and is always looking at ways to improve things. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love that I can have all of my management notes about my employees in one place. I don't have to rely on memory to recall important priorities or development notes, it's all there when its needed - and that helps me to have really personal comversations with everyone. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes I struggle to remember where things are and click on the wrong bit, but I think this is my problem not the platform. However, it would be interesting to have a 'walkthrough' where it takes you through each step one at a time, with one 'step' per screen if that makes sense? Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.