Help / People & time off

Performance reviews

Performance reviews come with the People add-on. There are two sides: an HR admin builds the questionnaire and runs the round, and everyone else writes and reads reviews at People → Reviews.

Templates

A template is the questionnaire. Build it at People → Reviews → Set up templates and cycles, or /people/reviews/setup.

Add questions of three kinds:

  • Free text — an open answer.
  • Rating 1–5 — a scale.
  • Multiple choice — your own options, one per line. At least two are required.

Mark a question required or optional.

Templates are reused across cycles, so changing the questions after a cycle has been issued changes a form people may be part-way through answering. If a round is already running, create a new template rather than editing the live one.

Starting from a ready-made questionnaire

Browse starter questionnaires offers three you can apply and then edit: an annual review, a quarterly check-in and an end-of-probation review. Applying one copies its questions into a new template and selects it, so you can see what you got.

Applying the same one twice does not create a second copy — if a template with that name already exists, it is selected and nothing is created.

The questions are written to be answerable. They ask about observable behavior over a period rather than about character, because "describe something you did" can be answered honestly by somebody who is not a professional writer, while "rate your attitude" mostly measures confidence. Ratings are used sparingly for the same reason: a form of ten 1–5 scales produces a number that looks precise and means very little.

Removing a template

Select it and choose Remove template. Its questions go with it.

A template is refused while any cycle uses it, and the message names the cycles. A cycle records which questionnaire it ran, so removing the template would leave issued reviews — possibly already written and shared — pointing at questions that no longer exist. If you want a template out of the way but a cycle depends on it, leave it; it costs nothing but a line in the list.

Cycles

A cycle runs one template over a period — "H1 2027", say. Give it a name, optionally a period and a due date.

Nothing exists for anyone to write until you issue the cycle. Issuing creates a self-assessment for every active person, plus a manager review wherever a manager is on record. It reports how many reviews were actually created.

Issuing again later is safe and picks up anyone who joined since — it will tell you plainly when there is nothing new to create rather than repeating the original figure.

Progress shows how far the round has got: how many reviews are not started, submitted, shared and acknowledged.

Writing a review

Your reviews appear under To write.

Answers save as you go. Submitting locks them — there is no un-submit — so the app tells you what will happen before you press it:

  • A self-assessment is shared as soon as you submit it. The button says Submit and share.
  • A manager review stays private after submitting. Only you can see it until you explicitly share it.

Sharing

This is the part to be deliberate about. A manager's review of somebody is not visible to them until it is shared — and sharing cannot be undone.

Once submitted, a Share with them action appears. After sharing, the review moves to the subject's About me list and they can read it.

The status wording follows the boundary: Submitted — not yet shared means exactly that.

Acknowledging

When a review is shared with you it appears under About me. You can read it and acknowledge it, optionally with a written response. Acknowledging is what completes the review in the cycle's progress.

Updated 2026-08-01. Still stuck? Contact support or return to the Help Center.