Set up and launch a review cycle

A review cycle (for example "H1 FY26-27 Appraisal") collects a self review from each employee and a manager review from their reporting manager, then lets HR set a final rating. This article covers creating and launching the cycle.

Before you start

• The Performance module must be in your plan, and you need the performance.manage permission.
• Make sure reporting managers are set on employee profiles — the manager at launch time becomes the reviewer.

Create the cycle

1. Go to Performance → Performance Reviews ( open Performance Reviews).
2. Click New review cycle.
3. Enter a Name and an optional Description (employees see it on their review).
4. Set Period start and Period end, and optionally Self review due and Manager review due.
5. Choose the Rating scale: 1 – 3, 1 – 4, 1 – 5 or 1 – 10.
6. Leave Show the employee's goals in the review ticked if reviewers should see the goals from that period.
7. Click Create cycle.

The cycle starts as a draft with a default question set already added.

Choose participants

1. Open the cycle and stay on the Setup & launch tab.
2. Under Participants, pick All active employees, Selected departments or Selected employees, and tick the ones you want.
3. Click Save participants. The Launch card shows how many people are included and how many have no manager.

Review the questions

1. Open the Questions tab.
2. Click Add question, or use the pencil to edit one. For each question set:
   • Asked in — Self + Manager review, Self review only or Manager review only.
   • Answer type — Rating (plus a comment) or Text answer.
   • Whether it is required.
3. Use the arrows to reorder and the bin to remove questions.

Launch

1. Back on Setup & launch, click Launch cycle and confirm.
2. A review is created for every participant, and each one gets an in-app notification asking them to complete their self review.

After launch

• The Participants tab shows each person's reviewer, self and manager review status, ratings and acknowledgement.
• Click Add participants to include people who joined later.
• Open a participant to change their Reviewer or Remove from cycle.
• Use Settings to change dates or the description.

Next: Finalise ratings and release review results.