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You've already decided. You shouldn't have to do this alone.

Describe the situation. ANCHOR surfaces what you might have missed — before it matters.

Decision framing, not legal advice.

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Before you act, make sure you've seen what might be invisible.

Decision Framing

Before you decide, consider:

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e.g. "I've already had that conversation" or "We explored adjustments last week."

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You've seen what one decision looks like without the full picture.

A Sprint gives your Head of People seven days of receipts like this one — every flag, a pattern report, and a debrief on what your managers are missing before it escalates.

£1,000 fixed fee 7 days 3 decisions Full debrief
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What this tool does

How to handle a performance conversation before it becomes a formal process

Most manager decisions don't fail because of bad intent. They fail because the right question wasn't asked at the right moment.

This tool gives you that question — structured, specific, and grounded in the type of decision you're facing — before you act, before you have the conversation, and before the situation compounds into something harder to resolve.

You describe what's happening. ANCHOR surfaces the considerations you might have missed: the invisible factors beneath the surface, the questions worth asking before you decide, and a risk assessment that tells you whether this needs People team involvement before you move.

It takes three minutes. It costs nothing. No sign-up, no data stored, no permission needed from anyone.

Who this is for

Managers facing a people decision who want structured thinking before they act

Not a training course three months later, and not a People team escalation that could have been avoided. It's used most often for:

Performance concerns

Where output has dropped and you want to know how to handle the performance conversation before a formal process takes over.

Absence and return to work

Where an employee is back from a health-related absence and you're deciding what full capacity looks like.

Workplace adjustments

Where a disclosure has been made and you're not sure what you're required to do versus what would actually help.

Conduct or behaviour

Where something has happened that looks like a disciplinary issue but might have a different cause underneath.

Promotion and progression

Where you're about to make a commitment or withhold one and want to check what you haven't considered.

Exit and termination

Where a situation has reached a point of no return and you want a record that shows you thought carefully before acting.

If you're a Head of People or People Partner

The free tool is one part of ANCHOR. It's designed as a starting point — the version built for People teams adds pattern visibility across multiple managers, a closed-loop response system, and board-level reporting on where risk is concentrating.

Find out how ANCHOR works for People teams →
Why it matters

Why the question you ask before the performance conversation is the one that matters

UK employment tribunal records consistently show the same pattern: managers who made decisions that looked reasonable in isolation, without the question that would have changed the outcome.

In Merchant v BT, a performance process ran its course without anyone asking whether the role design was creating a barrier for a dyslexic employee. The tribunal found for the claimant. Not because the manager was negligent. Because the framework they were working inside didn't prompt the question that would have changed what they were looking at.

Merchant v BT — Employment Tribunal

The question that wasn't asked is always cheaper to ask than the outcome it prevents.

Performance management done well is not about following a process. It is about asking the right question before the process takes over. This tool is built for that moment — the thirty seconds before you decide, before you send the email, before you have the conversation.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about handling performance conversations

How do I handle a performance conversation without starting a formal process? +
Start by asking whether the performance issue is a capability problem or a barrier problem. A capability problem is where the employee lacks the skill to do the job. A barrier problem is where something in the environment or circumstances is preventing performance that was previously available. Most managers go straight to the formal process when the right question first is: has something changed for this person? Is there a barrier that wasn't there before? ANCHOR's free tool is built for this moment — the structured thinking before the conversation, not the process that follows it.
Is this tool free? +

Yes. Completely free. No sign-up, no credit card, no trial period. You can use it up to three times per week.

The free tool is built for you as a manager — one decision, one receipt, one moment of clarity before you act. Your Head of People sees nothing. There's no pattern data, no dashboard, no way to know what's happening across your team.

That's what the paid tiers are for. A Sprint (£1,000 / 7 days) runs three real decisions from your organisation through ANCHOR. Your Head of People gets a live dashboard — every receipt, every flag, a debrief on what your managers are missing. A Pilot (£5,000 / 10 weeks) takes it further: ANCHOR runs live across your managers, patterns emerge across every decision, and your People team gets a board-ready ROI report showing what changed and where risk was caught before it cost anything. The data is what changes how your People team operates — from reacting to individual situations to fixing the conditions that cause them.

Is this legal advice? +
No. ANCHOR is decision framing, not legal advice. It surfaces considerations, invisible factors, and risk signals based on the type of decision you're facing. If your situation requires legal guidance, speak to an employment lawyer or your People team. ANCHOR is designed to help you ask better questions before you need that conversation — not to replace it.
What is a reasonable adjustment and when do I need to make one? +
A reasonable adjustment is any change to how, when, or where someone works that removes a barrier to their performance — where that barrier relates to a disability or health condition under the Equality Act 2010. Employers are legally required to make reasonable adjustments when they know, or should know, that an employee has a disability. 'Reasonable' is determined by what is practicable given the size and resources of the organisation — not by what is convenient for the manager.
How is this different from HR case management software? +
HR case management tools are built for what happens after a decision goes wrong. They manage the case once it exists. ANCHOR is built for the moment before the decision is made — the thirty seconds before the manager acts. By the time a situation reaches a case management system, the decision that caused it was made weeks or months earlier.
What if I need my whole People team to use this? +
The free tool is a single-manager experience. If you want pattern visibility across multiple managers — seeing what your managers are deciding, where the risk is concentrating, and which decisions need People team involvement before they escalate — that's the ANCHOR platform. It starts with a Sprint: three real manager decisions, seven days, a debrief that shows you what your managers are actually thinking.

See what your managers are missing →
Further reading

Why no one asks the right question before a performance conversation — and what Merchant v BT tells us about the gap in every performance process.

Read the full breakdown →

What ANCHOR does for People teams — and how a Sprint works.

ANCHOR for Heads of People →
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