Summer Release Notes: September 2026
Our Summer release brings a new set of enhancements across Betterworks NextGen, with updates focused on improving the user experience and expanding functionality across the platform.
Betterworks follows three major feature release cycles each year: Spring, Summer, and Winter. These seasonal releases bring together broader platform enhancements and new functionality introduced throughout each cycle.
Between major releases, we continue to publish bi-weekly release notes covering:
- Bug fixes and performance improvements
- Minor enhancements and usability updates
- Updates across Classic, NextGen, and Engage
At the end of each seasonal release cycle, we also provide a consolidated summary of the major features introduced during that period.
Previous release notes can be found here.
| Module | Feature & Details |
| AI | Gemma 4 has been added alongside Llama to intelligently match each AI request with the model best suited to its complexity. This improves the quality and efficiency of both everyday AI tasks and more advanced reasoning experiences. |
| AI | The AI Performance Summary in Talent Profile has been redesigned with a clearer layout, improved controls, independent insight sections, and more consistent messaging. These updates make it easier for employees and managers to review and act on performance insights. |
| AI | Employees can now explore and define their career aspirations directly within the Betterworks Talent Profile. AI-powered recommendations suggest potential roles based on demonstrated skills, calculate a Skills Match Score, and identify development areas for each selected role. Employees can create goals addressing those skill gaps, access relevant learning content from connected learning platforms, and receive a personalized AI-generated Development Summary to help guide their progress. |
| Analytics | Automated PDF exports of conversation records delivered via SFTP are now supported for users in NextGen. This means conversation records can be generated, packaged, and delivered automatically and in bulk. N.B. This feature must be enabled by the Betterworks team prior to use. Please contact your CSM or SAM if you would like to use this feature. |
| Analytics | A Goal Weights Report is now available for HR Admins in NextGen when Goal Weights is enabled. The report provides a downloadable view of individual and team goals, including their assigned weight, hierarchy, progress, and assessment data for a selected date range. |
| Analytics | Two new capabilities, Export and Bookmark, have been launched for the Insights dashboards. Users can print or download the current dashboard view as a PDF and save frequently used filter combinations as named Views for future visits. |
| Analytics | Two new tables have been added to the Alignment & Relationships area of the NextGen Goals Insights dashboard. The Goal Hierarchy Explorer and Related Goals tables make it easier to view, navigate, and export goal hierarchies and relationships, including goal owners, status, and progress. |
| Analytics | A new Calibration Cycle Report is available to HR Admins in NextGen for completed calibration cycles. The report can be emailed as a CSV or Excel export and includes employee talent field changes and placement chart data within the HR Admin’s scope. |
| Analytics | Responses from Additional Contributors are now supported in the Conversation Answers Report. |
| Analytics | An update was made to include employee identifiers in the file names of PDF Exports via SFTP. |
| Analytics | Branching questions are now supported in the Conversation Answers Report. |
| Analytics | Additional columns have been added to the All Goals, All Goals and Milestones, Feedback Adoption, and Conversation Adoption reports in NextGen. |
| Analytics | The Feedback Answers Report now respects granular feedback visibility permissions for HR Admins. The feedback provider’s identity and response content can be shown or hidden independently based on the organization’s permission settings. |
| Analytics | Two new Talent Profile reports have been launched for Admins. The Talent Profile Report provides current employee talent data, while the Talent Profile History Report provides an audit trail of changes made to talent fields. |
| App Platform | Super Admins can now customize singular and plural module names for all supported languages directly from the Admin Branding page. Customized names are reflected throughout Betterworks, including navigation, emails, notifications, and reports, and can be restored to their default translations when needed. The Branding page has also been reorganized into separate tabs for Logos, Module Names, and Broadcast Message, with independent Save and Cancel options for each section. |
| App Platform | Betterworks now supports SCIM 2.0, enabling organizations to automatically manage Betterworks users and departments through a connected identity provider. Once configured, user creation, profile updates, manager or role changes, and account deactivation can be synchronized automatically, reducing the need for manual administration. |
| App Platform | General notification settings for Admin Privileges, User Deactivation, and Impersonation have been updated to provide a more consistent experience across admin and user settings. Individual users can now also choose whether to receive impersonation email notifications. |
| App Platform | MCP Server Beta v2 introduces a standardized way for MCP-compatible AI clients, such as Claude and Copilot, to interact with Betterworks using natural language. The available tools and prompts allow employees, managers, and HR Admins to read and take action on Betterworks data across areas including goals, conversations, feedback, recognition, talent, and organizational data. |
| App Platform | An additional attribute toggle has been added to Group Creation. Admins can now choose Yes or No to 'Is HR Admin?' during the group creation process. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | A new Display Labels feature allows organizations to upload performance labels (e.g., Exceeds Expectations, On Track, Needs Improvement) to individual employee conversations. Administrators can also configure label visibility at the Conversation cycle level, ensuring that performance information is shared only with the appropriate audiences. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | Admins can now choose to use the Hide Feedback feature, allowing them to facilitate organisational requirements for unbiased performance evaluations by hiding past feedback. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | Participants can now upload, manage, and reference supporting documents directly within a Conversation. This centralizes relevant files, such as performance evidence or PDFs from external systems for full stakeholder visibility during performance and review discussions. This new functionality is available across both Anytime and Scheduled Conversations. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | Admins now have the ability to bulk-delete Conversations via a CSV upload, rather than having to delete them individually. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | When enabled, conversation ownership changes can be automatically approved and transferred, eliminating the need for managers to manually accept the change. This functionality can be controlled by Admins and Super Admins under Admin > Conversations > Settings. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | A word limit setting has been introduced for paragraph-type questions in Conversations. Once configured by the admin, the word limit will be displayed below the text input area. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | A word limit setting has been introduced for paragraph-type questions in Feedback. Once configured by the admin, the word limit will be displayed below the text input area. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | Branching Questions are now available for Betterworks Conversation templates. HR Admins can configure scale and rating questions to display different follow-ups based on each respondent’s answers, creating a more relevant and streamlined conversation experience. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | A new Conversations Write API allows integrations to programmatically submit a manager’s answers to conversation questions in Betterworks. Answers can be submitted individually or in batches, making it easier to transfer performance data from an external system of record. |
| Conversations, Feedback & Recognition | Participants can now view previous conversation history directly within the Right-Side Panel, enabling easy access to historical conversation data without leaving the current view. |
| Engage | A new Recognition card is available on the My Direct Reports tab of the Manager Homepage for organizations using Recognition. Managers can view recognition given and received by their team, compare the percentage of direct reports recognized with the company average, and identify who was recognized least recently. Managers can now also give recognition directly from the homepage. |
| Goals | Goal Weights are now available in NextGen, allowing managers to assign percentage-based weights to goals and sub-goals within a business period to reflect their relative importance. Organizations can also allow employees to manage the weights of their own goals. Validation ensures configured weights total 100%, and the resulting Goal Weight Score is available in reporting to support performance and compensation discussions. |
| Goals | Goals support for Matrix Managers has been expanded with new filtering and visibility options. Admins can enable a new My Matrix Reports filter view, allowing eligible Matrix Managers to quickly find goals owned by their matrix reports. Goal privacy messaging has also been updated to clarify that relevant goals may be visible to both direct and Matrix Managers |
| Goals | Users can now search for Goals, Milestones, and Teams using the main search bar on the Betterworks homepage. This update is designed to improve discoverability and reduce the time it takes users to navigate to relevant work in organizations with large volumes of goals and team structures. |
| Goals | Existing Betterworks Public Goals APIs now support applicable goal-related operations for NextGen customers. Integrations can continue using the supported existing endpoints and response formats without migrating to a new API version or connecting directly to internal NextGen APIs. |
| Goals | Progress Range Settings are now available for Goals and Milestones, allowing users to evaluate progress against configurable thresholds rather than only a starting and target value. Users can choose whether progress should stay within a range, increase, or decrease. A dynamic, color-coded range bar updates in real time to provide a clearer view of progress |
| Goals | A number of updates were made to improve the user experience within the Goals module. 1. An issue with 'Show results that don't match the filter' has been resolved, so that the interface always shows all milestones upon expansion of a Goal, instead of offering a 'hide' option. 2. In the Alignment tree view, a fullscreen mode has been introduced which hides the side/top panels, with an exit button on the bottom toolbar, allowing for easier navigation. 3. Improvements have been made to the "Add Comment" button to ensure this remains visible and easily accessible whilst the user is adding a comment. 4. In the Alignment dropdown list of goals, filters have been added to ensure searching for past goals is more efficient. A 'newest to oldest' sorting logic has been added, Goals owned by inactive users have been removed. |
| Goals | A new 'Clone to my direct reports' option is available when cloning goals in NextGen. Managers can use it to create an individual copy of a goal for each eligible direct report without selecting team members one at a time. |
| Goals | Rich text editing has been enabled for the description field on Goals. Users can now use bullet points, bold text, and link to external resources from within the description field. |
| Integrations | Microsoft Azure DevOps has now been enabled for integration within Betterworks NextGen. For organizations that use Microsoft Azure DevOps for project or task management, Betterworks offers an integration to help you track your team's activity by connecting work items to milestones (Key Results) and syncing progress. With the NextGen experience, you sign in with your individual Azure DevOps account, choose an organization and project, and then search, filter, and select the work items whose state drives your milestone's progress. |
| Integrations | A GitHub integration is now available for Goals in NextGen. Once enabled by a Super Admin, users can connect GitHub issues or pull requests to milestones, which update automatically as issues are closed or pull requests are merged or closed. The integration supports the web version of GitHub at GitHub.com but does not currently support GitHub Enterprise. |
| Integrations | Employees can now define career aspirations and build personalized development plans within their Talent Profile. Betterworks uses AI to recommend potential roles based on an employee’s skills, calculate a Skills Match Score, and identify areas for development. Employees can then create development goals addressing those skill gaps and receive relevant learning recommendations from connected learning platforms. An AI-generated Development Summary also provides personalized guidance toward each target role |
| Integrations | The Betterworks NextGen Mobile Experience introduces a purpose-built native app for frontline and deskless employees and their managers. The initial release focuses on Meetings, allowing users to manage agenda items, action items, and shared notes through a streamlined mobile experience. Mobile data is shared with the Betterworks web application, providing continuity between devices. |
| Integrations | A number of new notifications for Slack and Microsoft Teams Integrations have been updated to ensure a seamless experience for organizations using these Integrations in NextGen. |
| Meetings | Previously, Admins who created agenda topics and action items could target these to All Meetings or Meetings with users in Specific Departments and Groups. Now, a new radio button has been introduced which lets Admins push agenda content specifically to all Manager:Direct Report 1:1 pairs, automatically, from the next meeting instance onwards. |
| Meetings | Managers and employees can now add past ad hoc 1:1 meetings to Betterworks. Meetings can be backdated to capture notes, agenda items, and sentiment from conversations that took place outside the platform, helping teams maintain a more complete record of their 1:1 history. |
| Talent Management | A new Import Manager allows Admins to upload Talent Profile and Position data directly into Betterworks using CSV files, without requiring an HRIS integration or SFTP transfer. Available under Admin > Program Management > Talent > Import Manager, it provides real-time import progress, status updates, and a history of previous imports. Admins can also download error reports to identify and correct rows that could not be imported. |
| Talent Management | Position Management is now available as a dedicated section under Admin > Program Management > Talent, separate from Succession. Admins can use the Positions tab to view and edit imported position records and the Settings tab to configure Position Categories. This update reorganizes the existing functionality without changing the available feature set. |
| Talent Management | A notification can now be sent to Super Admins and HR Admins when a Calibration cycle is launched and becomes Active |
| Talent Management | Two Talent Profile reports are now available to administrators under Admin Program Management > Reports. The Talent Profile Export provides a current view of employee talent data for selected departments or groups, while the Talent Field History Report provides an audit trail showing what changed, when, by whom, and through which process. These reports can support talent data audits, HRIS workflows, and analysis in external BI tools. |
| Talent Management | A new Calibration Cycle Report is available to administrators for completed calibration cycles. The report provides a structured comparison of standard and custom talent profile fields at cycle launch and completion, making it easier to review and audit calibration outcomes. Results can also be exported for sharing with leadership or use in HRIS systems and BI tools |
| Talent Management | Organization Admins can now add custom translations for Talent Profile content across all 31 supported languages. Translations can be configured for talent field labels, custom field labels and values, and skill level labels within the Talent Profile settings. This allows employees to view Talent Profile content in their preferred language using terminology specific to their organization. |
| Talent Management | The AI-recommended Skills section in Talent Profile has been redesigned to make inferred skills easier to identify, scan, and validate. AI-inferred skills now appear as visually distinct chips, and the Skills Description section includes information about each skill’s source. |
| Talent Management | Super Admins can now define which employees are included in each calibration cycle by selecting specific departments or groups during cycle creation or editing. This cycle-level setting controls who appears for calibration without changing who can access the Calibration module. |
| Talent Management | Super Admins can now configure the employee population included in each calibration cycle. The selected population is saved with the cycle and applied when it launches, ensuring that only the intended employees are included in the calibration snapshot. |
| Talent Management | The field selection experience has been updated with a dual-panel, drag-and-drop interface that clearly separates available and selected fields. Admins can more easily choose and reorder fields when configuring Calibration, Succession Plans, Talent Search, and the Talent Profile side panel |
| Talent Management | Organization Admins can now add custom translations to Calibration cycles across all 31 supported Betterworks languages. Translations can be configured for cycle names and descriptions, as well as chart axis labels, column and row headers, and cell values. This allows employees and managers to view calibration information in their preferred language using terminology specific to their organization. |
| Talent Management | Employees can now define career aspirations and explore AI-recommended roles directly within their Talent Profile. Betterworks provides a Skills Match Score for each selected role and highlights the skills an employee may need to develop. Employees can use these insights to create targeted development goals and access relevant learning recommendations from connected learning platforms. An AI-generated Development Summary also provides personalized guidance toward each career goal. |
| Talent Management | Adaptive Learning & Upskilling provides personalized learning recommendations based on employees’ roles, skill gaps, development goals, and performance activity. Relevant content from connected learning platforms is surfaced throughout Betterworks, including Goals, 1:1s, Check-ins, Performance Reviews, and Skills. Recommendations adapt as employees progress and their skills, roles, or development needs change. |
| Talent Management | Performance Snapshot is now available in NextGen, providing a unified view of an employee’s Goals, Conversations, Peer Feedback, Recognition, and Meetings activity for a selected fiscal period. Users can now also export the complete snapshot as a PDF for performance reviews. |
| Talent Management | Admins can now enable the Skills module for all employees or limit it to selected departments or groups. This setting is available under Admin > Program Management > Talent > Talent Profile > Skills. |
| Talent Management | Super Admins can now enable the Succession module for all employees or limit it to selected departments or groups. This setting is available under Admin > Program Management > Talent > Succession > Settings. |
| User Interface | A new feature has been introduced allowing users to save a snapshot of the current org chart. When enabled, users can export the visible chart as a PNG or SVG file and can also use the print action to print the chart or save it as a PDF through the browser print flow. |
| User Interface | Identity searches in Betterworks have been improved with the addition of predictive suggestions for users, groups, departments, and teams. This autocomplete experience makes it faster and easier to find and select the correct identity while providing more consistent and accessible search behaviour across the platform. |
| User Interface | The Org Chart and Goal Alignment Chart now include keyboard-accessible pan and zoom controls, providing an alternative to dragging. Controls also include ARIA labels to improve compatibility with screen readers. |
| User Interface | Global Search is now available in NextGen, allowing users to find people, goals, and teams from a single location in the global navigation. Results update as users type and can be filtered by category, with keyboard navigation supported throughout the search experience. |
| User Interface | Improvements have been made to the user interface of the company Org Chart. Now, each manager shows a clear indicator (e.g., "1/3") revealing how many direct reports are available to expand. Clicking the arrow will reveal all direct reports, and clicking again will collapse them. This replaces the previous "Expand Peers" button, making it faster and more intuitive to navigate your org structure. |