Create performance review cycle

Creating a performance review cycle is crucial for evaluating and improving employee performance, aligning individual and organizational goals, and fostering a culture of communication, development, and accountability within the organization.

Based on their organization’s requirements, HR/admins can create and configure the workflows in the performance review cycle. Learn more in Performance user guide for admins.

Navigate to Performance > Cycles.

  1. Click CREATE, type the cycle name, and select the cycle type.

You can create three types of performance cycles: Focal Point Review, Hire Date Based Review, and Work Anniversary Review.

Follow the steps to create a performance cycle:

      1. Cycle Information
      2. Rating Scale
      3. Process Configuration
      4. Review Form Sections
      5. Post Review
      6. Notifications
      7. Summary

Create Cycle1

  2.   In the Cycle Information step, type the cycle description, set the start and end dates of the cycle, and click NEXT.

Note: In the hire date based and work anniversary reviews, employees are automatically added to the review cycle based on their hire date.

  3.   In the Rating Scale step, select the rating type as required.

You can select the Numeric Rating or Verbal Rating. You can configure the Verbal Rating in the ADVANCED SETTINGS. Learn more in Glossary in Performance.

In the ADVANCED SETTINGS, you can perform the following actions as required:

  • Show the rating scale to the employees in their review form.
  • Change the name of the rating scale (for example, to evaluation scale, performance scale, assessment scale, or grading scale).
  • Include Not Applicable (N/A) as a rating option in the rating scale.
  • Round off the average rating.

Note: If you enable Round off the average rating, the final rating on the review form is rounded off to the nearest whole number. For example, if an employee's average rating is 3.3, it gets rounded off to 3.

  • Add a grading scale, configure it, and click NEXT.

Note: In the grading scale, if you add the

  • Correct minimum and immediate next maximum grades, the rating appears as grades in the performance review form.
  • Incorrect minimum and maximum grades, the rating appears as Out of range in the performance review form.

Note: Employees and managers cannot see the actual calculation of the grading scale. It is visible only to the admins.

  4.   In the Process Configuration step, you can set up participants, timelines, and the review process flow in the performance review cycle.

  • You can perform the following actions:

Note: If review visibility is set to both HR and managers, managers receive weekly reminders starting from the first Monday after the review is submitted. These reminders continue until the cycle end date.

    • Enable skip-level manager capabilities in the review process.
      • Skip-level reviewers can either:
        • Approve review: Approve or rollback the manager’s review.
        • Edit manager review: Edit and approve the manager’s ratings and comments.
  • In ADVANCED SETTINGS, you can:
    • Decide who can assign or recall templates.
    • Set how templates are shared.
      • Automatic: Employees view the template immediately after being added to the cycle.
      • Manual: Templates are assigned and shared manually.
    • Decide who can share the template if manual sharing is selected.
    • Invite additional reviewers if employees work with multiple teams.
    • Decide who can invite additional reviewers.
    • Allow employees to view additional reviewers' comments.

Note: Additional reviewers can only comment on employee performance.

      • Allow managers to view their direct reports' self-reviews.
      • Allow additional reviewers to view both employee and manager reviews.
      • Decide what ratings employees can view (overall, section, and subsection ratings) when the manager shares the review.
      • Decide if managers can delegate their reviews.
    • Click NEXT.

    Create a performance review cycle2

      5.   In the Review Form Sections step, you can add sections, configure them, and reorder them, which reflects in the review form.

    Click REORDER, drag the Six Dot Six dot icon-1 Icon to reorder the sections, and click SAVE.

    Note: You must enable the sections to reorder them.

    If required, you can rename the following sections:

    Hover over the sections and click the Edit edit grey-2 Icon to rename them.

      • Employee overall remarks
      • Manager overall remarks
      • HR overall remarks
      • Employee Leadership Potential
      • Review Notes
      • Development Plans
      • Training Recommendations
      • One on One meetings
      • HR Recommendations
    • In the Review Form Sections, you can perform the following actions:
      • Enable/disable manager overall remarks with their ratings and comments.
      • Enable/disable employees’ overall remarks with their ratings and comments.
      • Enable/disable HR overall remarks.

    Note: HR/admins can only comment on the employees’ performance.

      • Enable/disable employee leadership potential.

    If you enable leadership potential, you can perform the following:

        • Allow employees to view their potential rating.
        • Allow the manager to determine whether the employee is not applicable to leadership potential.
        • Determine employee potential by ratings or questionnaires as required.
        • Edit/add potential and performance ratings/questionnaire for the 9-box grid.

    Engagedly offers you pre-defined questions created by industry experts. Each question has a weightage.

    The 9-box grid displays the employee’s and manager’s ratings in the review form.

    Note: The 9-box rating is available for the focal point and work anniversary reviews.

    Create Cycle3

      • Enable/disable manager recommendations.

    The manager recommendation questions are visible only to the managers on the review form.

      • Allow Employees to view Manager recommendations.
      • Enable/disable review notes, development plans, training recommendations, one-on-one meetings, and HR recommendations.
      • Decide who can add training recommendations.

    You can add customizable sections with various question types to gather employees’ feedback for their performance assessment.

      a.   In the Review Form Sections, scroll down to the bottom, and click + ADD SECTION.

      b.   Type the section name and click outside the box to save it.

      c.   Select who can respond to the questions.

      d.   Enable Response mandatory if required and click + Add question.

    Create performance review cycle4png

      e.   Type a question, select the question type, and click SAVE.

    There are various question types: Text, list, single selection, multiple selection, and star rating. You must provide options for list, single selection, and multiple selection question types.

    After adding a question to the section, you can edit or delete it if required.

    After adding a section, you can disable or remove it if required.

    Note:

    • If you disable a section, you can enable it again at any time, with all questions retained.
    • If you remove a section, it removes all questions associated with it.
    • Click NEXT.

      6.   In the Post Review step, you can perform the following actions:

    Note: If you enable the sign-off, by default, employees must sign-off.

      • Enable/disable the sign-off for reviewers and/or HR.

    Note: Employees do not get sign-off if you do not make their manager’s review visible to them.

      • Edit the sign-off message if required, which appears to employees, managers, and HR/admins when they sign off on the performance.
      • Enable/disable resolution workflow for employees, allowing them to request resolution if they have any issues with their manager’s ratings/comments.

    Note: You can enable the resolution workflow for employees only if the sign-off is enabled.

    • Enable/disable the post-review feedback questionnaire.

    The post-review feedback start date should be lesser than the cycle end date and greater than the manager review due date.

    Note: Post-review feedback questionnaire will be automatically sent to all the employees who were part of the review cycle after they sign-off.

    • Click NEXT.
      7.    In the Notifications step, you can set up reminders to remind the participants involved in the performance review cycle about their actions.
    • Click NEXT.

      8.   In the Summary step, you can view the cycle configurations that you have set and click SAVE.

    After creating a cycle, you can add the employees to it. You can modify the cycle if required. Learn more in Manage performance review cycle.