Learn to configure and launch Performance review cycles.

What are 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 feedback and reviews, and keep track of due dates. All feedback is 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.

Prerequisites – Feedback form templates

Before you can create a Performance Review Cycle, you need to set up Feedback Form Templates to collect standardized feedback across the organization. 

Note
Only Administrators and employees with edit rights for Performance & Development settings can create Feedback Form Templates.

To create a new form, navigate to Performance & Development > Settings. Click Create a new form, input a name for the template and click Create.

The configuration page opens. To configure the template, follow these steps:

1. 1. To edit the form title, click the pencil icon on the upper right hand side.
   2. You can create sections to organize the template questions. To do so, click the plus sign next to Sections. Then click the relevant section to configure it. 
   3. To edit the name of a section, click the pencil sign next to it. You can add a description by clicking Give your section an optional description.
   4. To add a question under a section, click Add question. Enter the name and the type of question (open, binary, traffic light or scale). Configure the question as needed.
   5. Optional: To make a question mandatory, or to allow comments, click the respective toggles.
   6. Optional: To make the template available for employees when giving continuous feedback, select Enable this template for continuous feedback.
   7. Click Save.

Tips
▶︎ To duplicate or delete sections and questions, click Duplicate or Delete on the selected element.
▶︎ Use the handle icon to drag and drop questions and sections where needed. When moving a section, all questions currently under it move as well.

Create a performance review cycle

To learn how access rights determine who can create or edit cycles, read View and edit access rights in the Performance & Development area.

To create a review cycle, follow the steps below.

1.Define name and start date of the cycle

1. Navigate to Performance & Development > Cycles.
2. Click Create new cycle.
3. The cycle creation builder opens. Define the cycle name and the reviews start date. Click Next.

2.Select cycle participants

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

• Use the default 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 offices.
• Include or exclude specific employees.

To use the filters, you need access to all the corresponding employee attributes ("Office", "Department" etc.). Configure this under Settings > Employee roles > Access rights. Verify that you have access rights for all the employee profile sections containing the attributes (for example, HR information).

Personio displays the list of included employees below the filters. You can double check it before continuing.

3.Select activities for your cycle

Choose the types of reviews that will be used in the review cycle:

1. • Manager Review: Supervisors provide written feedback to their direct reports.
   • Self Review: Individual employees assess their own performance by completing a written reflection.
   • Peer Review: Individual employees assess the performance of their peers by providing written feedback.
   • Upward Review: Individual employees assess the performance of their supervisors by providing written feedback.
     

4.Configure activities in the timeline view

From the timeline view, you can easily edit, delete or add an activity that is not yet included in the cycle:

You can add a new activity to the cycle by clicking Add activity. To configure an existing activity, click the activity's name:

1. Edit the start and end dates for the activity. For example, you can have all activities start at the same date, or start manager reviews only when all other activities are complete.
2. Select the template from the drop-down menu. To edit the template, click on the arrow next to the template's name.
3. Optional: set up reminders to be sent to employees to complete their reviews.
4. Configure sharing and confidentiality settings. Sharing controls if recipients see the reviews, while confidentiality determines if reviewer names are visible.
   ▶︎ For Manager Reviews, supervisors can share feedback with direct reports upon submission or after the cycle owner enables sharing.
   ▶︎ For Upward Reviews, set how to select employees to write upward reviews. Automate it for all direct reports, or let supervisors' supervisors manually assign reviewers.
   

Once you have finished the configuration, click Review and schedule cycle.

6.Review and launch or schedule cycle

Depending on the starting date you chose for your cycle, you can either launch it immediately, or schedule it for the desired date.

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 & Development > Feedback > To do.

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 cycle details view. You can then decide to either keep or exclude the employees whose status has changed.

The status of a cycle participant changes to Leave or Inactive

The employee will continue to be included in the cycle and their reviews (or review requests) will still be visible.

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.