Understand freeze goals in a performance review

Freezing goals controls how long employees, managers, and admins can add, edit, or delete goals after the review template is shared. It also controls whether an employee, manager, and admin can change goal weightage during this period.

To set up goal freezing, go to the cycle settings. For more information, refer to Create a performance review cycle.

How the freeze period works

The freeze period:

Starts when the review template is shared, not when it is assigned.
Uses calendar days.
Applies separately to employees, managers, and admins.
Does not depend on when the employee starts the review.

📒Note: When automatic template sharing is enabled in the cycle settings, the template is shared and assigned on the same date.

Examples:

If the template is shared on 1 March and you enter 0, goals lock immediately.
If the template is shared on 1 March and you enter 7, goals lock on 8 March.

📒Note: When the template is shared automatically, it is shared as soon as it is assigned, so the freeze period starts on the assignment date.

Different users

Users	Includes
Self	The employee
Manager	The employee's manager, or a delegated reviewer acting in the manager role
HR	The employee's assigned HR manager with the required permission
Admin	Follows the HR settings

Goal and weightage changes

A persona can change goals only while their freeze period is open and the goals are not locked.

To allow a persona to change goal weightage, enter a value in the Days field, including 0, and select Allow weightage change.

0-day freeze: Entering 0 prevents the persona from adding, editing, or deleting goals after the template is shared. If Allow weightage change is selected, the persona can still change goal weightage.

📒Note: A blank Days field and 0 have different effects. Weightage changes are available only when the Days field contains a value.

Freezing and goal lock

Freezing controls when a persona can change goals.
Goal lock (in the Goals module) controls which goals a persona can change.

A user cannot unlock a goal in the review form if someone higher in the reporting hierarchy has locked it. Unlocking a goal does not extend the freeze period.

After the freeze period

After a persona's freeze period ends, they cannot add, edit, or delete goals in the review form. Users can still update goal progress after the goals are frozen.

Freezing does not determine which goals appear in the review. To automatically add goals to the review, enable Automatically fetch goals in the template.

📒Note: If Automatically fetch goals is off and Self has 0 days, employees cannot add goals to the review form.

Example

Persona	Days	Allow weightage change	Result after the template is shared
Self	0	No	Cannot change goals
Manager / delegated reviewer	10	Yes	Can change goals and weightage for 10 days
HR	15	Yes	Can change goals and weightage for 15 days
Admin	Follows HR	Follows HR	Follows the HR settings