Understand the four core areas in Personio Performance & Development (Goals, Feedback, Review cycles, Training) and start using them.
What is Performance & Development in Personio?
Personio Performance & Development combines performance management and training management in one place. It includes:
- Performance review cycles.
- Continuous feedback.
- Goal management.
- Training management (courses and sessions).
Supervisors and employees use the Performance area as a central hub to track, manage, and reflect on feedback and reviews.
Understand Performance & Development features
1.Performance review cycles and reviews
What it is:
A performance review cycle is a framework that structures your organization’s performance management.
It helps you manage different types of performance reviews, keeping all feedback in one place. You can also organize reviews into activities, assign reviews to employees, and monitor progress.
After the cycle closes, you can review the results. You can also gather metrics on employee performance.
What types of reviews you can include:
- Manager review: supervisors provide feedback for their direct reports. You can enable supervisors to provide a standardized rating when assessing employee performance.
- Self review: employees reflect on their own performance.
- Peer review: employees provide feedback to their peers.
- Upward review: employees provide feedback to their supervisors.
When to use it:
- For structured review moments (for example, probation end, quarterly or annual cycles).
- When you want a standardized process, deadlines, and consolidated outcomes.
2.Continuous feedback
What it is:
With Continuous feedback employees can send and request feedback at any time. This works even outside of performance review cycles. Continuous feedback helps foster collaboration, improve recognition, and drive growth through constant communication.
How it’s structured:
- You can create and implement feedback forms to help employees structure their feedback.
- Employees can select anyone in the organization and send them feedback by filling in a form.
- Employees can also request feedback from anyone in the organization.
When to use it:
- For lightweight, ongoing feedback between peers, managers, and direct reports.
- To collect input that can later support a review cycle.
3.Goals
What they are:
Goals are objectives you can assign to employees in Personio. You can create them in bulk and assign them to multiple employees at once.
How progress works:
- You track progress using subgoals (target %, specific value, or yes/no).
- You can also use organizational goals to track progress centrally. You can link them to multiple employee goals.
When to use it:
- When you want clear objectives with visible progress over time.
4.Training
What it is:
With training management, you create courses and training sessions, enroll employees, and track attendance in Personio.
How it’s organized:
- The Personio training catalog is where you create courses and organize them into training sessions.
- Self enrollment option: you can enable employees to sign themselves up for training sessions. Once you do this, sessions appear in employees’ course catalog. Employees sign up with a click.
When to use it:
- For onboarding training, recurring compliance sessions, internal enablement sessions, and tracking training history.
Get started
Step 1: Confirm access and visibility
By default, only Administrators can see Performance & Development features.
As an Administrator, you can show or hide features. Go to Performance > Manage > Feature visibility (Review Cycles, Continuous Feedback, Goals, Training).
Once you set features as visible, you don’t need to grant any extra permissions to your employees.
Find more information in our dedicated article about how to configure feature visibility.
Tip:
Roll features out one by one to reduce noise.
Step 2: Create your first feedback forms
Feedback forms are templates to structure feedback. Once you create them, you can use them for performance review cycles and continuous feedback.
Create a form under Performance > Manage > Forms. See how to create feedback forms for more information.
Tip:
Start with one or two templates (for example: “Peer feedback” and “Manager feedback”). Iterate after your first cycle.
Step 3: Start with continuous feedback
Encourage employees to give and request feedback. This is the easiest and fastest way to start collecting feedback across your organization. Employees can:
- Give feedback via Performance > Give feedback. They can choose a template under Feedback form.
- Request feedback via Performance > Request feedback.
Step 4: Set up your first goals
Create goals via Goals > Create new goal and define:
- Goal details (name, timeframe, employee permissions).
- Measurement (track progress with subgoals or organizational goals).
- Employees to assign the goal to.
Tip:
Pick one team and one timeframe for your first rollout (for example, a single quarter), then expand.
Step 5: Launch your first review cycle
Before creating a cycle, you need to set up forms. See how to create feedback forms.
You can then create a cycle under Performance > Review cycles and:
- Select participants.
- Choose review activities (manager, self, peer, and upward reviews).
- Configure timelines, templates, reminders, and sharing and confidentiality settings.
Tip:
Run a small pilot cycle first. This reduces complexity and helps you get familiar with the feature.
Step 6: Add training
Add training courses to:
- Address any skill gaps that emerged during the review cycle.
- Help onboard employees.
Create a course under Training > Course catalog > Add new course, then add sessions.
You can:
- Invite participants (and track invitation status).
- Open sessions to self enrollment.
Set up activation essentials
Below you find a list of objectives to aim for during your activation journey.
-
Visibility set: the right features are visible to the right employees via Performance > Manage > Feature visibility.
See how to configure feature visibility. -
At least one feedback form created and (optionally) enabled for continuous feedback.
See how to create feedback forms. -
Continuous feedback is active and employees know where to give or request it in Performance.
See how to give and request feedback. -
One to three goals created for a pilot group. Each goal has at least one subgoal for tracking.
See how to configure goals. -
One small review cycle launched with clear dates and templates.
See how to set up and launch a performance cycle. -
At least one course with a scheduled session. Either invitations or self enrollment are enabled.
See how to add courses and sessions, invite participants to a training session, and activate self enrollment.
Tip:
Read our best practices article for ideas on how to use Performance & Development features in Personio. To continue learning, check the Academy courses on Performance & Development.