🏈 Your game plan for Q4 starts here

Football is back. Which means you just lost someone you love to Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night.

But if your team is that locked in on game day(s), let's make sure your operations are just as dialed in — and this month, we brought the plays to make it happen.

A pest control company that turned onboarding into something new hires actually rave about, a toolkit for running reviews your team won't dread, your September hiring playbook, and new tools that answer "how's everyone actually doing?" with evidence, not a gut check.

Time for kickoff.

HERE WE GROW AGAIN

The annual review is broken. So we built a better one.

Most performance reviews are a once-a-year scramble — run on memory, built on feedback that vanished the moment it was given. We think it can be a whole lot better. So on Tuesday, September 29, we're launching Performance in Trainual. 🚀

Here's the idea: good reviews should factor in what someone's expected to do, what they were trained on, and what they actually did all year. So we built Performance to pull it all together in one spot — reviews come from the real work (bye, blank page 👋), your people get better, and so does the business.

Now here's the thing: we didn't just build this from thin air — A+ performance management is how we stay a Best Place to Work (5 years running 💁‍♀️). So obviously, we're throwing a party. 🥳

Our CEO, our VP of People Ops, and our Sr. Education Manager — AKA, Chris, Sasha, and Shawn — are getting into the good stuff: what really makes performance work, and how it's shaped our whole business. Whether or not you ever use Trainual, you'll walk away with something you can put to use right away. 💪

Expect hot takes, zero chill, even some light bullying (Sasha vs. Chris — place your bets 👀). Sessions live Sep 29 (launch day!), Oct 1, and Oct 8.

RSVP to the Performance Party! 🎉

👉 Want to be first to know when performance is live? Get on the waitlist.

🏈 HALF-TIME REPORT

How to give reviews that build your team up

Only 14% of employees strongly agree that their performance reviews inspire them to improve. The rest? They're bracing for impact.

A good review should feel like a halftime adjustment. Both sides should walk in prepared and walk out aligned, ready to what's in front of them.

Here's your game plan:

• 📋 How to give (and receive) a performance review. Whether you're delivering feedback or sitting across from it, this covers the whole play.
• 🧑‍💼 Trace bad reviews to untrained managers. 60% of first-time managers never get formal training. This guide fixes that.
• 🎯 Reviews without follow-through are just conversations. Goals, scorecards, and check-ins keep everything alive between reviews — and yeah, Trainual does all of that.

🔐 So yeah... if you care about how your team performs (and we know you do) that waitlist link up there? Worth a click. In the meantime, book a demo to see a whole system of continuous improvement in action.

🪲 NO BUGS IN THE SYSTEM

"Never mind, I found it in Trainual"

That's what a new hire at Debug Pest Control typed — right after asking a PTO question and finding the answer himself before anyone could respond. Justin, their People Ops Director, got literal chills. That's the whole point, right? People find answers before you even have to help.

Debug's had some other cool wins, too. Onboarding cut in half. Driver safety up 30%. And a record class of 12 new hires — many from big national chains — called it the best training they've ever had.

Here's what you can steal from Debug:

• 🎮 Build training fast — even overnight. When a tech fell for a phishing scam, Justin used AI to build an interactive cybersecurity module and had it live in Trainual within 24 hours.
• 📱 Make it mobile or lose your frontline. 90% of Debug's training happens on phones. A field team isn't going to open a laptop between jobs — make sure they don't have to.
• 🧑‍🍳 Hand someone creative the keys. Debug's social media guy became their training coordinator. Justin's advice: "If you've got anyone with a creative brain, hand them Trainual and let them cook."

👉 This one's worth the full ride-along.

💼 FREE AGENCY IS OPEN

Your high-performing team won't build itself.

September is one of the biggest hiring months of the year — applications jump, job searches spike, and every team is trying to fill the gaps before Q4 hits.

If you want high performers on your roster by October, here's how to make your September hires count:

• 🔍 Your best recruiter is already on payroll. Internal referrals outperform job boards every time. Ask your team who they'd want to work with.
• ⚡ Move fast or lose the pick. Top candidates don't sit on the market. If you like them, lock it in before someone else does.
• 🤖 Let AI handle the busywork. Resume screening, interview scheduling, follow-ups — automate the pipeline so you can focus on the people.
• 🏟️ Sell the culture, not just the job description. High performers want to know how the team runs, not just what the role pays. Growth, development, and flexibility close the deal in 2026.

👉 Need a game plan? The Hiring Process Checklist Template walks you from defining the role to signing the offer.