Learn to configure and launch Performance review cycles.

A performance review cycle is a framework that helps to structure your organization's performance management. 

The Performance Review Cycle Builder in Personio allows you to create and trigger performance review cycles across your organization. It enables employees and supervisors to create and send reviews, and keep track of due dates. All reviews are consolidated in one centralized area.

Tip To read more about Performance Management and how it can support the retention of talent, visit our website and read our Attraction Plus Whitepaper or take a look at our Performance Management Guide. 

Before you start

• To learn how permissions determine who can create or edit cycles, read View and edit permissions in the Performance area.
• Before you can create a performance review cycle, you need to set up forms to collect standardized feedback across the organization.
• To add employees to a cycle, you need viewing permissions for their HR information profile section. It contains the attributes used for filtering ("Workplace", "Department" etc.). Otherwise you can't see and select these employees. Configure this under Settings > Organization > Roles & permissions.

Step 1: Define name and start date of the cycle

1. Navigate to Performance > Review Cycles.
2. Click New cycle.
3. The cycle creation builder opens. Define the cycle name and the reviews start date. 
4. Click Next.

Step 2: Select cycle participants

Choose which participants to add to the review cycle. You can:

• Use the filters and decide which employees to include or exclude. For example, exclude employees who started after a certain date and are still in probation, or include employees from one department only. 
• Edit the filters and add your own rules. For example, include employees from one of your workplaces or include people on longer leave.
• Optional: Remove all filters, then add or exclude specific employees. To see an employee in the list you need permissions to view their HR information.

Personio displays the list of included employees below the filters. Double check the list and add or remove individual employees before continuing. 

Step 3: Select activities for your cycle

Choose which types of reviews to include in your review cycle. Each review type you add becomes an activity in the cycle.

Manager review

Use a Manager Review to collect feedback from supervisors about their direct reports.

Learn how it works

• Who to Include in the cycle (the receivers of the feedback): the employees who should receive manager feedback (direct reports).
• Who gets the task (the reviewers): each participant’s supervisor.
• What triggers the task: when the Manager Review activity starts, Personio automatically detects each participant’s supervisor and notifies them to complete the review. They complete and submit their review in Performance > Tasks.

Tip:
If you add a manager review, make sure the cycle includes the relevant teams, so the correct supervisors are notified.

Self review

Use a Self Review so employees can assess their own performance.

Learn how it works

• Who to include in the cycle: the employees who should complete a self review.
• Who gets the task: the same employees (each participant reviews themselves).
• What triggers the task: when the self review activity starts, Personio notifies the participants. They complete their self review via Performance > Tasks.

Peer review

Use a Peer Review to collect feedback from employees about their peers.

Learn how it works

• Who to Include in the cycle (the feedback receivers): the employees who should receive peer feedback.
• Who gets the task (the reviewers): the peers you assign to write reviews.
• What triggers the task: peer reviews are only created after the cycle is live and you assign reviewers. Once assigned, reviewers receive a notification and complete the review under Performance > Tasks.

Note:
Adding the Peer Review activity sets it up in the cycle, but the peer assignments happen later.

Upward review

Use an Upward Review to collect feedback from employees about their supervisors.

Learn how it works

• Who to Include in the cycle (the feedback receivers): the supervisors who should receive upward feedback.
• Who gets the task (the reviewers): the employees selected to write upward reviews (often the supervisor’s direct reports).
• What triggers the task: when the Upward Review activity starts, Personio notifies the selected employees to complete the upward review via Performance > Tasks.

Select reviewers

When configuring the activity, choose how to select employees to write upward reviews:

• Automatically select direct reports via the org chart.
• Let the supervisor’s supervisor do the selection.
• Let the cycle owner or the administrator do the selection.

If you choose the automatic selection of direct reports, everyone in the supervisor’s direct team receives an upward review request, regardless of their start date.

Step 4: Select feedback forms

For each activity, select the relevant feedback form.

You can include performance and potential ratings, empowering managers to provide standardized feedback on their reports.

Tip:
You can preview and edit the form directly from this step in the cycle configuration.

Step 5: Select how to nominate peer and upward reviewers

Peer reviews

1. Choose who selects peer reviewers. You have the following options:

• Participant’s nomination with manager’s approval: Participants nominate feedback providers, and have supervisors approve or reject the nominations. 
  
  Participants receive a nomination task. They can choose their peer reviewers among their closest colleagues.
  
  Personio then notifies the relevant supervisors to review the nomination. Note that once an employee has a nomination rejected, they can no longer make a proposal.
  
  You can activate this option only when reviewers share both their reviews and names with the recipients. For this to happen, set peer reviews sharing to Always and confidentiality to Show names to recipients. [link to section]

• Participant’s nomination with automatic approval: Participants nominate reviewers without approval from their supervisor. This option reduces admin work for supervisors.

• Supervisors select the feedback providers. Supervisors nominate peer reviewers. They can do so from the cycle details page or their manager's review page.

2. Recommend a minimum and maximum number of nominations. This ensures that employees collect enough feedback and avoid review fatigue. If the number of nominations is too low or too high, supervisors receive a notification.

Upward reviews

For upward reviews, set how to select employees to write upward reviews. You can either:  

• Automatically select the relevant direct reports from the orgchart, to ensure comprehensive feedback.
• Have supervisors' supervisors do the selection. Cycle owners and Administrators can also select employees.

If you choose automated selection of reports, everyone in the supervisor's direct team receives an upward review request. This applies regardless of their start date.

Step 6: Configure sharing behaviour

1. Configure when supervisors can see reviews

You can control what supervisors can see before they submit their own review. Under Hide reviews from manager view, choose which review types to restrict: self, peer, upward, or any combination. 

Managers who haven't submitted their manager review cannot see the selected review types for that team member. Once they submit, they get access immediately.

This helps ensure fair, unbiased assessments, as the supervisor writes their review before reading the employee's current feedback.

Tip:
You can change this behavior in a live cycle.

2. Configure how to share reviews

• All together (by the supervisor or the cycle owner). This ensures big-picture impact.
• Individually (by the reviewer), to weave feedback into daily conversations.

3. Select the sharing mode for each type of review

Manager review: choose if supervisors can share their manager review: 

• Only after the cycle owner has enabled sharing. This adds a layer of security in sensitive performance cycles.
• When submitting it. This option speeds up the process.

Peer and upward review: choose when to share the submitted review with the recipient:

• Always share. For peer reviews, select this option if participants can nominate peer reviewers.
• Never share.
• Let the reviewer decide. 

Personio always shares peer and upward reviews with the recipient’s supervisor.

Understand how these settings interact 

 The following table explains how these settings interact:

Note:
Once a cycle is closed, supervisors gain access to all reviews about their team members, regardless of whether they submitted their manager review or not.

Step 7: Configure confidentiality

Choose confidentiality settings for review types.

Peer reviews:

Choose if feedback recipients can see the reviewer’s name. If you enable confidentiality, you can promote honest feedback. Supervisors can always see the reviewer’s name, for context.

Upward reviews:

Choose if feedback recipients can see the reviewer’s name. Ensure confidentiality to foster candid reviews and ensure psychological safety. The supervisor of the feedback receiver can always see the reviewer’s name, for context.

Step 8: Schedule activities and reminders

Schedule start date and duration of the cycle activities.

Schedule all cycle activities. If participants can select peer reviewers, schedule the time window for the nominations and the supervisor’s approvals. 

When nominations are overdue, you can assign the task to the cycle owner, or to the next supervisor in the reporting line.

Schedule reminders

You can set up to four reminders for each activity.

Tip:
Set three reminders: one early, one mid-cycle, and one close to the deadline. This is enough to help keep activities on track without overloading participants with notifications.

Step 9: Review and launch the cycle

Review the summary of the cycle. You can edit each element by clicking it.

The cycle goes live when the first scheduled activity starts. When each activity starts, the relevant participants receive a notification. They can complete their reviews under Performance > Tasks.

Review cycles and employee account status

In Personio, employees can have four different statuses (Active, Inactive, Onboarding, Leave). This status has repercussions on both the employee access to a cycle and the visibility of their reviews.

Deleting the account of a cycle participant also impacts the cycle, as detailed below.

Active employees

You can decide to add employees to a cycle if their status is Leave, or Active. 

Any status change is automatically highlighted by Personio, in the review changes view. In the cycle details view, click Edit > Participants > Review changes. You can then decide to either keep or exclude the employees whose status has changed.

The account of a cycle participant is Deleted

The employee will be removed from all the cycles and their reviews (and review requests) will be deleted.

Next steps

Learn to manage a performance review cycle.