Zenwork champions a culture of high-performance in the age of AI

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Zenwork, a global compliance and tax reporting platform headquartered in the USA and trusted by over 500,000 businesses and CPAs, has always believed that high-performing teams are the core engine of business growth. But as the company scaled globally - across roles, products, and time zones - so did the complexity of driving performance.

Without a unified system for managing goals, feedback, and growth conversations, Zenwork faced growing friction. Managers were juggling too many tools. Reviews felt disconnected from day-to-day work. Goals were static. And feedback was often late or missing altogether.

The business risk was clear: delayed execution, misaligned priorities, reduced accountability, and a loss of momentum. Performance conversations weren’t just an HR concern - they were impacting business velocity, retention, and leadership leverage.

Zenwork chose Klaar to solve this - not with more process, but with clarity, predictability, and a rhythm that teams could actually stick to.

“We weren’t looking for another performance management tool or force-fit our performance process on an HRIS tool. We wanted a platform that could evolve with us, predict what needed attention, and help managers actually engage with their teams. Klaar nailed it.”
— Seth Givens, Director, HR (US), Zenwork

From reactive tracking to predictive performance

As the business grew, Zenwork’s leaders needed to stay ahead - not just look back. But traditional tools gave them lagging indicators at best.

Klaar changed that by introducing predictive goal tracking. Every strategic objective now came with real-time confidence scores, intelligent nudges, and last-mile visibility into what was on track and what wasn’t.

This meant fewer surprises during quarterly reviews and faster decisions at the leadership level.

“This isn’t just goal tracking. It’s goal intelligence. Our leaders now know exactly where to lean in and where to unblock teams before it’s too late.”
— Saurabh Verma, Vice President of Engineering, Zenwork

Performance processes were draining execution. Klaar made them seamless.

Managers were losing time in scattered systems - toggling between goal sheets, calendar tools, and static HRIS review forms. That time drain slowed down teams and left little energy for actual coaching.

Klaar brought everything into a single, unified workflow - integrating with tools like Jira, Salesforce, Slack, and Google Sheets, over and above Zenwork’s HRIS. Goals auto-updated, 1:1s were structured and stored, and review cycles happened with context already built in.

“Our managers saved over 10 hours each during the review cycle. It’s not just about saving time - it’s about better decisions and less frustration.”
— Edward Pratt, Chief Operating Officer, Zenwork

• 24 managers × 10 hours saved = 240 hours total
  
• At $40/hour average manager cost → $8,400 in time savings per cycle
  
  

Managers were bandwidth-constrained. Klaar’s AI became their unfair advantage.

Zenwork’s managers weren’t resisting feedback or coaching - they were drowning in it. With rapidly expanding teams and expectations, there simply wasn’t enough time.

Klaar’s AI stepped in like a co-pilot - suggesting feedback, summarizing 1:1s, nudging follow-ups, and highlighting goals slipping off track. This didn’t just improve participation - it made performance conversations sharper and more consistent.

“It’s like giving every manager an invisible co-pilot. Klaar handles the nudging, structuring, summarizing - so they can focus on the conversation.”
— Pranav Kumar, Vice President of Growth Marketing, Zenwork

Tangible business impact

With Klaar, Zenwork didn’t just create better performance hygiene - they saw real business outcomes:

• 95%+ performance review completion rate (up from ~70% in 2024)
  
  • 50 additional reviews completed
    
  • $150,000 potential savings by reducing turnover risk (based on $3,000 average turnover cost per employee across geographies)
    
    
• 10+ hours saved per manager during reviews
  
  • $8,400 saved annually (24 managers × 10 hours × $40/hour)
    
• 90% of goals updated monthly (up from ~70%)
  
  • $57,600 annual savings through reduced misalignment and rework (based on 200 employees × avg 4 goals × $30 cost of stale goal)
    
• 2.3x increase in manager-initiated 1:1s
  
  • 65 additional 1:1s per month → 780 annually
    
  • $39,000 cost of meetings offset by $60,000 in retention savings
    
  • Net impact: $21,000 in savings
    
• 30% faster decisions through predictive goals
  
  • Based on $25M annual revenue
    
  • 10% of revenue impacted by performance decisions ($2.5M baseline)
    
  • 30% improvement = $750,000 business impact
    
• Stronger retention and engagement from continuous feedback
  
  • 10% reduction in attrition across 200 employees
    
  • $3,000 turnover cost per employee
    
  • $60,000 in savings
    

“We’re finally connecting intention with impact. Our teams know what’s expected - and they have the support to deliver on it.”
— Bill McNamara, Chief Financial Officer, Zenwork

Not just adopted - embedded into execution

Klaar wasn’t just easy to implement - it became invisible. There were no extra logins, no retraining, no selling managers on “another HR tool.” Klaar worked where the work happened.

“We explored other platforms - and they felt like a copy of each other. Klaar felt like it was built for how we actually work, not how HR tools usually think we do.”
— Seth Givens, Director, HR (US), Zenwork

Performance is no longer a ritual. It’s a rhythm.

Klaar helped Zenwork turn performance from a quarterly event into a weekly habit. Managers coach more. Employees check in more. And leaders move faster, with fewer blind spots.

“Klaar helped us scale our culture - not change it. That’s what made the biggest difference.”
— Seth Givens, Director, HR (US), Zenwork