Takeaways from our AI for HR workshop: How to turn performance reviews into follow-up conversations
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Most performance reviews end in a flurry of good intentions, and then? Silence.
Momentum fades, goals blur, and employees are left wondering, what now?
We call it the "post-review void."
That was the focus of our most recent AI for HR webinar: how HR leaders and people managers can bridge that gap and create a consistent, human-centered follow-up system that actually sticks.
This recap breaks down the live, hands-on workshop we hosted with Sarah Azadi and Eva Thouvenot, two of Workleap’s internal experts leading the way on HR transformation and AI adoption.
Together, they didn’t just outline best practices, they built a full coaching system live, showing how to use AI to turn performance reviews into a monthly coaching engine. Watch the recording here or read on to learn how to:
- go from raw feedback to role-specific goals,
- build a repeatable coaching rhythm,
- and design habit and accountability loops that scale.
All the prompts are included so you can get started today!
The post-review problem: Where good intentions go to die (but not for much longer!)
Picture this scenario: You've just completed a thorough performance review with Louise, your Customer Marketing Manager. You discussed her achievements, identified growth areas, and even set specific development goals. But within weeks, your one-on-ones shift back to operational talking points, and those carefully crafted growth objectives fade into the background.
This isn't just a manager problem. It's a systemic challenge that creates a dangerous delta.
As Sarah explained during our workshop, "if the business is growing and evolving at a fast pace, yet Louise is stagnating, there's a growing gap between organizational needs and employee development. This leads to underperformance, disengagement, and ultimately, retention risk."
The ripple effects extend beyond the individual employee:
- Customers may experience service gaps
- Team morale can suffer as peers observe stagnation
- Business goals become harder to achieve
- The organization loses its competitive edge in talent development
Where HR teams are today: Insights from workshop survey
To understand just how widespread this challenge is, we surveyed attendees during the webinar. Here's where performance follow-up tends to break down:
- 45% cited manager + employee accountability as the weakest link
- 29% said follow-up tracking was inconsistent
- 13% said turning feedback into actionable steps was the biggest struggle
These aren’t isolated issues; they’re signals of a system problem. Managers want to coach, but they lack the tools and structure to do it consistently.
And that’s where AI comes in. But before diving into that untapped opportunity, we asked attendees how they currently use it. The results were telling:
- 73% are only using it for light tasks, like summarizing notes
- 15% are exploring AI but have no live use case yet
- 12% have embedded it into a formal HR workflow (Small but growing number. We love to see this!)
- 0% reported using it org-wide
This tells us two things: curiosity around AI is high, and the opportunity is massive, especially in performance follow-up. AI can handle the prep, surface insights, and give managers the clarity they need to coach better. It doesn’t replace the conversation — it makes it easier to have the right one.
As we shared in this LinkedIn article, the question isn’t whether HR should lead AI adoption. It’s how. Helping teams follow through on reviews is one of the most impactful places to start.
A smarter coaching system: Inside the live workshop
Before we dive into the coaching system itself, it’s worth addressing the foundation: your performance review. That’s where everything starts, and it’s what we covered in our May webinar. There, we showed how to use AI to draft structured, high-quality performance reviews based on 360° feedback. If you missed it, watch the session here.
In this latest session, we picked up right where that left off: turning those reviews into sustained development. Eva broke the follow-up process into five essential stages. Each one solves a key friction point in the post-review journey, and each one comes with a tailored AI prompt to make it easier to implement.
But more importantly, these stages are the building blocks of real coaching infrastructure: clear, scalable, and designed to foster accountability and growth.
How to use the prompts: Read through the prompts and customize them to your needs wherever indicated (look for {insert} placeholders). Then, copy/paste the full prompts into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or your favorite LLM.
Stage 1: Build your monthly coaching template
This is where the rhythm begins. If you already have a coaching or reflection template, you can use Prompt 1A below to elevate it — upgrading language, structure, and coaching depth for executive-level conversations. If you’re starting from scratch, Prompt 1B helps you generate a full monthly coaching template optimized for performance conversations, accountability, and leadership alignment. Regardless of your starting point, AI makes sure you don't spend hours at the template phase.
Stage 2: Customize for each employee
The magic happens when you feed the template with actual employee information, like:
- Most recent performance review
- Role description and expectations
- KPI progress
- Recent feedback from peers
- Manager notes and reflections
Pro tip: At this stage, Eva uses Superwhisper, an AI-powered voice-to-text tool, to turn her spoken word into additional manager context for her prompt. No typing needed!
Adding this information to Eva’s Prompt 2 allows the AI to pre-populate sections while leaving room for employee self-reflection, creating a conversation starter rather than a rigid checklist.
Stage 3: Clarify what “great” looks like
As Eva emphasized in the workshop, "we can never be clear enough in our expectations as managers."
That’s what Prompt 3 helps you define: what exactly do your performance levels (3, 4, 5 — or whatever the scaling system you use) mean in practice for a given role. It gives managers real, benchmarked examples to help employees understand the leap between “meets expectations” and “exceeds”, and more importantly, how to get there.
Stage 4: Design the habit and accountability plan
The final step turns insight into action. Prompt 4 helps leaders design three micro-habits — each tied to a core development area — along with accountability mechanisms (Slack nudges, buddy check-ins, etc.) that make follow-through natural and visible.
Each of these prompts was designed to meet you where you are, whether you’re refining a system or starting fresh. The result is a repeatable, high-impact coaching workflow that adapts to your org’s structure and maturity.
AI doesn’t replace the human element; it enhances it
A critical question emerged during our workshop about AI hallucinations and bias in HR functions. Eva's perspective was refreshingly practical: "The risk of hallucination is fairly minimal when we're using AI to build frameworks that we then deliver and refine. You're still in control. We're not suggesting you take everything at face value."
Key safeguards include:
- Always review AI outputs before using them in employee conversations
- Maintain human ownership of final decisions and ratings
- Be transparent with employees about AI assistance in preparation
- Focus on AI as a thinking partner, not a decision-maker
Interestingly, Eva noted that her team members described their AI-assisted performance reviews as "the best performance review experience they've had" because the AI helped sharpen and structure human insights rather than replacing them. Great coaching isn’t automated, but AI can make it easier to do the hard parts well.
From insights to action: Why this works
Sarah contextualized the entire approach within a broader HR strategy. Clarity, consistency, and momentum are often the missing pieces in employee development. With this system, each becomes tangible.
Employees walk away from conversations with a clearer sense of how to grow in their actual roles — not just a list of abstract goals. Managers gain a consistent framework they can scale across their teams, without writing a new template each time. And HR teams can finally deliver a process that is not only structured and fair but also easy to adopt.
Habit formation, as Sarah noted, is central to sustainable growth. "It's about creating positive momentum,” she said. “Just like building any habit, employees need to see progress to stay motivated. These monthly touchpoints celebrate small wins and maintain forward movement." By integrating lightweight check-ins and peer accountability, this system builds positive feedback loops. It also aligns with modern coaching science, moving development from an annual event to a monthly ritual.
Getting started: Your next steps
Our workshop data showed that 48% of attendees are "exploring AI ideas for later" and 26% need executive buy-in first. So here's how to move from exploration to action:
For individual managers:
- Start small with one direct report
- Use the template approach to structure your next one-on-one
- Iterate based on feedback and refine your process
- Track outcomes to build your business case
For HR leaders:
- Pilot with willing managers who are already AI-curious
- Document success stories and metrics
- Create governance guidelines for AI use in HR
- Build change management plans using AI assistance
For organizations needing buy-in:
- Quantify the current cost of disengaged employees
- Show competitive advantage of systematic development
- Start with volunteer participants to prove value
- Emphasize human enhancement rather than replacement
The future of HR is human-centric AI
The workshop reinforced a crucial point: AI in HR isn't about replacing human connection — it's about enabling more meaningful human interactions. When AI handles the structural heavy lifting, HR professionals and managers can focus on what humans do best: listening, empathizing, coaching, and inspiring.
As Eva demonstrated, the same conversation that might take hours to prepare manually can be structured and personalized in minutes with AI assistance. AI helps you redirect energy toward the conversations and relationships that truly drive employee growth.
The organizations that master this balance — leveraging AI for efficiency while maintaining human authenticity — will have a significant competitive advantage in developing and retaining top talent.
Ready to transform your post-review process? Download the complete prompts and templates from our workshop, and start building your own AI-enhanced coaching workflow today.
Watch the full workshop recording: From reviews to results: AI workshop for monthly performance follow-ups
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