Effy AI

Effy AI is cheap to start with and a very small company

What Effy AI does in a review round

A review round starts with a form. An AI form builder writes review questions for each role. One form can serve every review type. Or a round can use up to four forms, for managers, peers, self reviews and upward reviews. Rating scales can use numbers or labels.

Effy AI runs annual, mid-year, quarterly, 360-degree and probation reviews. Probation reviews can follow 30, 60 and 90 day steps. Each person nominates their peers, and their manager approves the list. An admin can hold the manager review until the self, peer and upward reviews are in. Goals join the review forms automatically.

AI helps at several points. An admin can switch on a follow-up question after each rating. The AI rates the quality of each written answer and tells the writer. It may suggest wording, and using it is optional. People write the feedback. A bias and consistency checker flags feedback that is vague, harsh or unfair before it is submitted.

After the round, the AI writes a summary of the written answers in each report. It covers only one report. It does not compare people. An admin can write a custom instruction to guide it. The AI also adds development recommendations from patterns in the feedback. After a probation review, its summary recommends pass, extend or exit.

Admins and managers hold a calibration step before staff see results. In calibration, leaders compare ratings so they are consistent across the company. Its AI-assisted calibration points out rating differences between managers and teams. Its company-wide charts, called Insights, chart only rating questions. Open text stays out of charts and scores. A 9-box grid plots people by performance and potential. Scores can show as percentile rankings. The Insights colours cannot be edited or turned off.

Before each 1-on-1 meeting, the AI agent reads the development plan and past reviews. It also reads earlier meetings and notes on what motivates the person. It connects to Gmail, Google Calendar, Granola, Zoom, Fathom and Slack. It sends prep notes by email or Slack the morning before. After the meeting it writes structured notes, action items and development signals.

Slack adds one more job. If you add Effy AI to a celebrations channel, it reads the messages there. It imports those that count as thanks and recognition from the last six months. It keeps a message identifier and the result of its check, not the message text. The check can occasionally miss a real thank-you.

You can price it, start fast and your data does not train its AI

Who Effy AI is built for

Plans run from $2 to $9 a seat each month, and you can cancel at any time

The 360 Reviews plan costs $3 a seat each month, billed yearly, for one review per person per year. It costs $6 for several reviews per person per year. The Goals and OKRs plan, for objectives and key results, costs $2. The Performance suite, reviews plus goals, costs $9 a seat each month, billed yearly. Fifty seats on the 360 Reviews plan cost $1,800 a year.

The free plan covers up to five people. It has full access to 360 reviews and no time limit. When you upgrade, all users are billed. The five free users do not stay free. Free workspaces are provided as is, and Effy AI may change their features and set usage limits at any time.

A pay-per-cycle option is available. The one-time review plan includes AI drafting for reviews. Nonprofits get a 30% discount. Billing changes in proportion as your team grows or shrinks. A deactivated employee stops counting toward active seats. Effy AI’s team applies seat and plan changes through in-app chat.

You can cancel at any time. Effy AI’s help centre allows a 30-day refund on the first payment. Its terms of service make all fees non-refundable. Put the refund you expect in writing.

Effy AI tells your administrators before it appoints a new sub-processor, meaning another company that handles your data. You have ten business days to object. If the objection stays open for thirty days, you may end the services. You then get a refund in proportion to the unused time. You pay for on-site audits at Effy AI’s current professional services rates.

Raw answers export as a spreadsheet (CSV) file. Formatted reports print or save as PDF. Bulk PDF download is not supported. A full data export for offboarding or backup goes through Effy AI’s team. You ask for it in the in-app chat. After the billing period ends, a cancelled account can view past data. It cannot run new review rounds. Effy AI’s help centre puts free storage after cancellation at 18 months. Its privacy notice puts deletion of a closed account’s contents within 12 months. Backups last 90 days. Only Effy AI’s team can delete a workspace permanently.

Nine questions to put to Effy AI

1. You give two size ranges, 30 to 1,000 or more employees and 50 to 300. Which size do your current customers run at? Good answer. Named customers near our size, and a reference call.
2. Is the uptime promise 99.5% or 99.9%, and what is the response time for a report of downtime? Good answer. One figure for each, in our order.
3. Your help centre allows a 30-day refund on the first payment. Your terms of service make all fees non-refundable. Which applies to us? Good answer. The refund, in writing, signed by you.
4. How long do you keep our data after we cancel, 18 months or 12 months? Good answer. One period, in the contract, with a deletion date.
5. Our review comments may mention illness or disability. Does that break your sensitive-information rule? Good answer. A written answer, and a way to keep those comments out.
6. Do you plan sign-in through our own login system and automatic account set-up? If so, when? What do we do until then? Good answer. A dated plan, and a named person for bulk uploads.
7. When will the ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certificates arrive, and what do you give our security team now? Good answer. A dated plan, and written answers to our security questions.
8. How do we make a manager’s review count for more than a peer’s? Good answer. A method that works today, or a date for weighted scoring.
9. Which of our tools does the 1-on-1 agent read, and can we switch each one off? Good answer. A list of tools, a switch for each, and a log of what it read.

Alternatives to Effy AI

Teamflect, PerformYard, Leapsome and Trakstar run review rounds like Effy AI. Risely’s Merlin coaches managers on the feedback they write.

Teamflect was built to run inside Microsoft Teams and Outlook. Its Starter plan is free for up to 10 users with full functionality. Essential costs $7 a user each month and Professional costs $11, both billed yearly. Above 10 users, you pay for every user. On annual plans the licence count cannot fall until the agreement ends.

PerformYard prices at $5 to $15 a person each month, billed yearly. The price depends on headcount and products. Links to your HR system and company sign-in are included with every plan. Onboarding and training cost nothing extra. Its contract renews for a year unless either side gives 60 days’ notice. It may raise the price at renewal by up to 20%.

Leapsome prices Performance Reviews at 7 euros per employee each month. The platform comes with every plan, and other products add to it. Leapsome quotes exact figures with a discount for the number of products and employees. Its fee-based accounts renew for 12 months, or one month on monthly contracts. Ending needs two months’ notice. Fees are non-refundable.

Trakstar is part of Mitratech. It quotes its price by headcount. Onboarding, set-up and training are included. Its terms renew automatically unless either side gives 60 days’ notice. It aims for 99.5% availability, using commercially reasonable efforts, with some exceptions. If it misses that for three months in a row, you may end the contract.

Effy AI may suggest wording, and its checker flags feedback that is vague, harsh or unfair. Merlin is Risely’s AI coach. An admin sets the company’s feedback guidelines in Risely. Merlin helps managers draft review feedback that follows those guidelines. Managers can upload feedback they drafted themselves, and Merlin coaches them on matching the guidelines. Merlin also coaches managers on best practice for giving constructive feedback. Managers still write the feedback and choose the rating. Merlin coaches the wording of that feedback. The rating stays with the manager. It runs no review round. Risely’s enterprise plan includes review-feedback coaching.

Buying nothing means keeping whatever you use for reviews today. NX tried Google Forms and found it too time-consuming to manage. Effy AI’s free plan covers up to five people, so a small test round costs nothing.