Running a Review Cycle

Performance reviews in this system are built from four pieces that fit together:

Indicators (what you assess) + Goals (what someone committed to) + a Cycle (how often) = a Review (the conversation, recorded)

Everything lives under Talent & Growth → Performance Management. Set the first three up once; the fourth is the recurring work.

Set up: indicators

Go to Performance Management → Indicators.

An indicator is one thing you rate a person on — communication, technical skill, reliability. These are the rows on the review form, so they define what your reviews actually measure.

Indicator Categories group them, so a review form reads in sections rather than as one long list.

Fewer indicators, better reviews

It is tempting to add everything anyone might want assessed. Resist it. A form with thirty rows gets rated carelessly all the way down; a form with eight gets thought about.

You can add more later. Starting small is much easier than trimming a form people already dislike.

Set up: goal types

Go to Performance Management → Goal Types — the categories goals fall into, such as personal development, project delivery or revenue.

Set these before anyone writes goals, so goals are comparable across people.

Set up: review cycles

Go to Performance Management → Review Cycles.

A cycle is a recurring review schedule. Each has a name, a frequency (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual) and a status.

Note this screen’s shape: the Add New Review Cycle form sits on the left, with the list beside it on the right. There is no button in the top-right corner here.

Typical cycles look like the ones shown: a Monthly Performance Review, a Quarterly Business Review, a Mid-Year Review, an Annual Appraisal, and a Probationary Review for people still in their probation period.

Cycles are schedules, not the reviews themselves

Creating a cycle does not create reviews or notify anybody. It defines a kind of review that exists. The reviews are created separately, below.

The recurring work: goals

Go to Performance Management → Employee Goals.

A goal is something an employee is working towards, with a type, a target and a progress state. Goals are usually agreed at one review and assessed at the next, which is what makes a sequence of reviews add up to something.

Set goals at the review, not between reviews

The natural moment to agree goals is the conversation you are already having. Goals set outside that rhythm tend to be forgotten by both sides — and an unassessed goal is worse than no goal, because it teaches people the exercise is theatre.

The recurring work: conducting reviews

Go to Performance Management → Employee Reviews.

This is the list of reviews — who is being reviewed, under which cycle, by whom, and what state it is in.

1. Create the review. Click to add one and choose the employee, the cycle and the reviewer.

   

2. Hold the conversation. The system records a review; it does not conduct one. This step happens between two people.

3. Record the ratings. Open the review and rate each indicator, with comments.

4. Add overall comments — the summary, and anything agreed.

5. Agree the next set of goals, while you are both there.

6. Complete the review.

Write it up the same day

Ratings recorded a fortnight later are reconstructions, not observations. By the fourth review of the round, the first has blurred.

If you cannot write it up immediately, at least record the ratings and add comments later — the numbers are the part memory distorts most.

A sensible order for a review round

1. Check the indicators still make sense before the round opens. Changing them mid-round makes reviews incomparable.

2. Create the reviews for everyone in scope.

3. Tell people it is happening, and roughly when. Being ambushed by a review invitation puts people on the defensive before it starts.

4. Hold and record each one.

5. Agree goals at each.

6. Check nothing is left incomplete at the end — an unfinished review is a conversation somebody is still waiting on.

Common questions

Can employees see their own reviews? They can see reviews and goals that concern them, under Performance Management in their own sidebar. What exactly is visible depends on your permissions setup.

Can somebody review themselves? The reviewer is a field, so you can set it to the employee. Whether self-assessment is part of your process is a policy decision.

Do reviews affect pay? Not automatically. Nothing here changes salary — that is a separate, deliberate step under Payroll Management.

Can I delete a review? Generally yes from the Actions column, but think first: a completed review is a record of a conversation that happened, and records of that kind are usually worth keeping even when awkward.

Somebody left mid-cycle. Complete or close their review rather than leaving it hanging. See Offboarding Someone.