👀 Is this you during review season?

Nobody should feel invisible at review time.

That’s why we’re making life a little easier for everyone, from the manager trying to see the full picture to the new hire who just wants to be seen.

This month's treats: a notetaker that handles meeting notes for you, the edtech company that won Account of the Year, your most-asked Performance questions (answered), and a toolkit for giving new hires a system instead of a tour.

Oh, and by popular demand, we added two more Performance Parties: Thursday, Oct. 22, and Tuesday, Oct. 27. Save your spot. 🎉

TREAT YO’SELF

Q: Trick or treat? (Hint: This is a haul worth sorting through.)

A: Treat. We may as well be the house giving out full-size bars this year. 🍫

Picture it: Halloween night, your pillowcase haul dumped on the floor (the pumpkin bucket could never). Now comes the best part, sorting through it all. Here’s what's in our bag this season — and every piece makes your workday easier.

🎙️ [New!] Give every meeting your full attention with the notetaker.
Invite the notetaker to your next call and walk out with an AI summary, recommended action items, and a full transcript with names and timestamps. The AI assistant can pull any discussion or decision from anywhere.

👉 Get a demo of Operations in Trainual.

⚡️ [New!] Get more done in fewer clicks with bulk and automatic updates.
Import existing content in one go, or drop files right into the AI assistant to kickstart new content or get answers about what’s inside. Manage people in bulk — from permissions to Performance and Operations access. Plus, your HR system now keeps your org chart current as groups change, and and guides offboarding so a departing teammate’s content and responsibilities land with the right person.

🔌 [New + coming soon!] Plug Trainual into ChatGPT, Claude, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, & Slack.
Your AI assistant has been pulling answers (and building content) using file storage systems like Google Drive — soon, it'll pull from project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Clickup, too. Plus, it now works the other way around! Bring Trainual into ChatGPT and Claude, so everything you write, solve, and build starts from your one source of truth. Slack is up next.

🏃 ONE SYSTEM, START TO FINISH

How to set your new hires up to win from day one

Only 12% of employees strongly agree their company does a great job training. That leaves 88% starting their first year already behind.

And the gap keeps growing: skipped check-ins, untracked goals, reviews written from memory. The best teams connect it all, from first login to first review.

Here's your toolkit for building that system:

• 📖 Map your new hire’s first year, start to finish. One gets a tour and a prayer. The other gets training, goals, and a review built on real data. See the difference.
• 🎓 Rebuild new hire training for a team past 50. Shadowing worked when you were small. Here's what to do instead.
• 🌱 Give them something to grow toward. Growth areas turn "keep up the good work" into a real plan. See how it works.

🏆 TOP OF THE CLASS

How this company saved 1,500+ hours in a year

StrongMind builds award-winning curriculum for tens of thousands of K–12 students. And the irony is too good not to share: their own processes were scattered across docs, tools, and people’s heads.

So they did their homework. 21 Trainual seats to 470 in a single year, and Trainual’s Account of the Year award to prove it.

Here's what you can learn from StrongMind:

• 🎓 Train your trainers first. StrongMind made HR the power users before anyone else got a login. Adoption sticks when the rollout has a guide, not just an announcement.
• 🎬 Make it not boring. GIFs in the handbook. Looms in the policies. If it feels like a checkbox, rewrite it.
• 🔍 Let your team self-serve. 300 AI searches a month. 1,500+ hours saved. When your training, operations, and performance data all live in one place, the answer is always findable — and your team stops asking you.

👉 Yeah, you might want to study up on this one.Want a rollout like StrongMind’s? Get a demo.

🎉 WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED

Missed the Performance Party? We added more dates.

To celebrate the launch of performance, Trainual CEO and VP of People Ops, Chris Ronzio and Sasha Robinson, threw a Performance Party: music, hot takes, and a Q&A that moved faster than we could scroll. So many of you showed up that we added two more.

And if anyone on your team has been feeling like a ghost lately, we made a little Halloween video about that. 👻 (Thanks to our friends at Look Studios for bringing it to life. More are dropping all month!)

Here are the questions that came up most:

• 🔒 Who can see performance data? Not everyone. Performance has its own permissions, separate from training. By default, managers see their reports, and being a training admin doesn't automatically open anyone's reviews.
• 🧩 Do I need the Operations suite? Nope, Performance stands on its own. But if you're running meetings, goals, and updates in Trainual, all of it flows into your reviews. Sasha's reviews went from hours to 15 minutes.
• 💺 Does everyone need a seat? Only the people you're reviewing or collecting feedback from. Contractors or part-timers you don't review can skip it, and seats don't have to match across suites.
• 🤝 We already have an HRIS. Why Trainual? Let your HRIS handle payroll, PTO, and taxes. Trainual is where roles, training, and daily work live, so reviews pull from real context instead of a bolted-on form.
• 🧠 Can I add assessments like Kolbe or DISC? Yes. Upload any assessment to someone's profile, and the AI assistant will coach you on how to give them feedback they'll hear.

🎟️ Got a question we didn’t cover? Bring it to the next Performance Party on Thursday, Oct. 22, or Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Save Your Spot! 🎉