Note (29/01/24): Presently, this article is intended for beta users of our Performance Management module. However, all of our readers are welcome to read on and acquaint themselves with the module ahead of its full release.
Stay updated on the official release by keeping an eye on our Release Notes article collection.
What is a performance review?
Keeping track of progress in a company, whether twenty or two hundred employees strong, can be a daunting process, as is identifying areas for improvement and outlining requirements for future goals.
It’s not surprising that over time, gaps in expectations and communication can develop between managers and their team members.
Done correctly, performance reviews are an effective antidote. These are qualitative exercises instrumental in acknowledging and celebrating achievements, pinpointing areas in need of support, and plotting sensible roadmaps for future achievements.
This process helps ensure everyone is moving in the right direction, contributing to the team’s success and continuously growing in their roles.
Before you start a performance review (or as we call it, an Ad Hoc Review), it’s necessary to prepare a template.
Assigning a performance review
Finding your employees
After having prepared a new or old template (templates are reusable) for upcoming performance reviews, you need to access the My Team or Employees section.
Head to My Team if you are a team manager and wish to start a performance review with only members of your team.
Go to Employees if you wish to start a performance review with members across one or potentially several companies.
The process is the same from either section, as both sections offer the same grid with very similar functions. The choice of section simply determines your potential selection of employees.
Since more employees will have access to My Team than Employees, this tutorial will mostly feature My Team.
Only reviewers can access the My Team section. Reviewers are users who have employees reporting to them, as set in the Organisation Chart.
Furthermore, to access all features related to the Employees section, you must have the HR Administrator role. In this section, if your permissions do not extend to all companies within your tenant, you will only be able to view employees from the companies for which you have viewing rights.
Starting an Ad Hoc Review from the My Team screen
My Team shows a grid listing all the employees in your team. The grid lists important information relevant to the employee's company and work details, Last Review date, Review Notes and Respondent Status.
To start an Ad Hoc Review:
Select the desired employees from the list by clicking the check box to the left of their names.
Click the Create Adhoc Review button (white flag in blue circle), or the Start Review button. Both buttons open the same drawer
In the resulting drawer, set a Review Name, Choose a Template as a base for your review, and set a Due Date.
When done, click Start. This will immediately notify the selected employees that a new review is pending in their Personal screen. Their Respondent Status will also change in My Team, from 'No Review Sent' in yellow to the icons highlighted below.
Tracking a performance review
To monitor your employees’ progress with a performance review, a number of functions are available on both the My Team and Employees screens.
You can access each employee's Review history by clicking on the arrow on the far right of the employee entry.
A search bar, refresh button and a number of filter options are available at the top right corner of the grid.
When a review is pending, you can nudge an employee to respond by pressing the Nudge Employee button (black arrow in white circle).
The Review history screen
In this screen (accessed via the arrow to the far right of the My Teams / Employees grid), Pending Reviews are displayed at the top. Each review includes the following details:
Due Date: The deadline by which the review must be completed.
Remaining Days: The number of days left until the due date.
Reviewed Employee’s Role: The role or position of the employee being reviewed.
Progress Bar: A percentage-based progress bar that fills up as questions from the performance review are answered.
You can click Cancel (white cross in red box) to cancel the review.
You can click the blue arrow to the right to access a review and nudge the reviewees if they haven't yet submitted their answers.
Below Pending Reviews is a grid for Past Reviews, which displays reviews that have either been completed or cancelled. Click the Go to Review link for more information.
Answering a performance review
When a performance review is assigned, all assigned employees will be notified.
Begin answering the appraisal by clicking it from the Personal screen.
Carefully read each question, then answer each one as honestly as you can.
Click Save Changes if you wish to save your progress and continue the appraisal later.
Once you have answered all required (red asterisk) questions, click Publish to finalise your review.
Your respondent status in the My Teams / Employees grid will change to green once you have completed the review.
Note that in the example highlighted below, the employee status has turned green because Lita Ford (the employee) has completed the review. The red manager status means that Lita's manager has not yet submitted their part of the review.
Understand better the main screens of Performance Management: