This article is designed specifically for managers of participants in a 15Five review cycle. As a manager, you play a crucial role in supporting employee performance and growth. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know—from managing peer nominations and writing reviews to completing the review summary and holding final meetings with your team.
This article contains the following sections:
- Role Overview 👤
- How it Works 🔄
- Notifications 📩
- Manage Peer and Upward Reviews 🤝
- Write Your Manager Review 📝
- Complete the Review Summary & Final Meeting ✅
- Download or Print Review Results 🖨️
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
Access and availability
⛔️ Required access to Best-Self Review®.
👥 This article is relevant to Additional managers.
📦 This feature is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.
Role Overview 👤
As a manager, you’re responsible for supporting your direct reports throughout the performance review process.
You help create a well-rounded evaluation experience by:
- Managing and approving peer nominations
- Writing a manager review
- Reviewing submitted peer and upward feedback (if applicable)
- Completing the review summary
- Sharing and finalizing review results
- Holding a final meeting to discuss the results
How it Works 🔄
To help you understand your responsibilities, here’s a quick walkthrough of the review cycle:
- Review cycle launches: The review admin initiates the cycle. You and your direct reports are notified.
- Nominate and approve/decline peers: If peer reviews are included in the cycle, you may be responsible for nominating peers on behalf of your direct reports and approving or declining submitted nominations (in participant-initiated peer review cycles).
- Participants complete self reviews: Employees submit self-assessments based on configured questions.
- Peers and upward reviewers contribute feedback: If enabled, peer and upward reviews are completed.
- Managers complete their reviews: You write a review for each direct report based on their self-review and peer/upward input.
- Calibration sessions (optional): Admins and stakeholders may review and adjust feedback for consistency.
- Review summaries and conduct final meetings: You complete a summary, meet with your direct report, and share results.
- Finalize results: You (or an admin/collaborator) finalize the results to conclude the cycle.
Notifications 📩
Once a review cycle launches, you'll be notified in [] places.
When you're assigned as an additional manager in an active review cycle, you’ll see an action item on your Actions List (in-app link). Click on this action item to go directly to your review.
Upon being assigned as an additional manager, you'll receive an email notification from notifications@15five.com. Click on the call to action in the email to open your review.
- If you were added as a default additional manager, the text of the notification will read, "You are now an additional manager for [Name]'s future review cycles."
- If you were added as a cycle-specific additional manager, the text of the notification will read "You are now an additional manager for [Name] for their “[Review cycle name]” cycle."
You'll also receive an in-app notification, which you can access by clicking the notification bell at the top of your 15Five account. Click Go to cycle to open your review.
As a manager, you’ll also receive key notifications to help guide you through the review process:
- Review Cycle Kickoff
- Self Review Submitted (per direct report)
- Manager Review Reminders (7-day, 3-day, and overdue)
- Nudges from admins to write or share reviews
- Reminders to schedule and complete final meetings
For a more extensive list of emails that are sent out during a Best-Self Review® cycle, check out our "Email notifications for a review cycle" Help Center article.
Manage Peers
If peer reviews are included in the cycle, you’ll take part in these processes:
- Nominate peers (in participant-initiated cycles)
- Approve/decline peer nominations
Learn more → Manage peer nominations for a review cycle participant →
Write Your Manager Review 📝
Follow these steps to complete your review:
Navigate to the participant’s review via your Actions List or the Best-Self Review® dashboard.
Click the participant’s name to open their review.
Select the “Manager” tab to begin writing your responses.
Use the Resources for reviews panel for helpful context:
Self review
Peer and upward reviews
Past check-ins and objectives
Complete the Private Manager Assessment (PMA) section with future-focused insights.
💡 Tip: Use objective language and clear examples to give actionable feedback.
Read more → Giving Critical Feedback Is Not As Scary As It Seems →
✏️ Note:
You cannot submit your review until your direct report has submitted their self review or the self review deadline has passed.
You can edit your manager review until you share it, unless calibration has started.
Review Peer & Upward Reviews
Review feedback written about your direct reports by their reports (if applicable)
Learn more → Review submitted upward reviews of my team →
Complete the Review Summary & Final Meeting ✅
Once the self and manager reviews are complete and the "Start sharing on" milestone has passed:
Complete the review summary, a concise synthesis of all feedback.
Schedule and hold a final meeting with your direct report.
Share review results (you, an admin, or a collaborator can do this).
Finalize the review once feedback has been reviewed and discussed.
Learn more → Complete, share, and finalize summaries →
Download or Print Review Results 🖨️
You can download or print the complete review for any direct report at any time, typically after finalizing results.
Learn more → Download my team’s review results →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
Can I edit my manager review after submitting?
Yes—until the review is shared or calibration begins. PMA sections cannot be edited during calibration.
Can I see feedback from others while writing my review?
Yes—submitted peer, upward, and self reviews appear in the Resources for reviews panel.
What if I miss a deadline to write or share results?
Reach out to a review admin or cycle collaborator to adjust dates or unlock the review.
Who can see my manager review once it’s submitted?
Review admins, cycle collaborators, anyone in the participant’s hierarchy (if hierarchy visibility is enabled), and review viewers. It’s only visible to the participant after sharing.
Is the Private Manager Assessment visible to the employee?
By default, no. Admins can configure visibility settings to allow broader access.
Can I write reviews for skip-level or dotted-line reports?
Not as a manager. You’d need to be assigned as an additional manager.
Related Resources 📖
What to Expect: I'm a Review Participant →
What to Expect: I'm a Review Admin →
🎥 Video: How to Complete a Best-Self Review as a Manager →
Manage peer nominations and review peer reviews
As a manager, the first interaction you may have with your direct reports who are participating in a cycle is during the peer nomination window. This is only relevant if peer reviews are included in the review cycle.
Either participant-initiated or peer-initiated peer reviews can be included in a review cycle. In participant-initiated peer reviews (the default peer review type), either the review cycle participant themselves, their manager (you), a review admin, or a cycle collaborator can nominate peers for the participant. The manager (you), a review admin, or a cycle collaborator can approve, decline, or remove peer nominations for a participant. In peer-initiated peer reviews, peers volunteer to write peer reviews of participants; there is no nomination or approval process.
Once the peer nomination process is complete and peer reviews are submitted, you are responsible for reviewing submitted peer reviews.
Check out these resources ⬇️
Help Center article 💡: Nominate peers for a review cycle participant
Help Center article 💡: Review submitted peer reviews of my team
Help Center article 💡: Peer reviews: participant initiated vs peer initiated (linked above)
Review upward reviews
If you are the manager of a participant who is also a manager and upward reviews are included in a review cycle, you are responsible for reviewing the upward reviews that your direct report's direct reports submit about them.
Check out this resource ⬇️
Help Center article 💡: Review submitted upward reviews of my team
Complete a manager review
If manager reviews are included in a review cycle, you are responsible for writing a manager review for each of your direct reports that are participants in the cycle. If self reviews are also included in the review cycle, you will be asked the same or similar questions in your manager review that your direct report was asked on their self review. Asking both participant and manager the same questions helps reduce bias and create a fairer performance review environment.
Once the review cycle begins, you are able to begin drafting your review(s) of your direct report(s). Please note that you cannot submit your manager review until your direct report submits their self review, or the self review deadline has passed. Once your direct report submits their self review, you can use their submitted self review, as well as other resources that appear on the right-hand side of your manager review page to help guide you as you fill out your manager review.
After you submit your manager review, it will be visible to review admins, cycle collaborators, a participant's review viewers (previously called "additional managers), and anyone in the participant's hierarchy*. It will not be visible to your direct report until you share results with them at the end of the cycle.
Included in manager reviews is the Private Manager Assessment (PMA) section. In this section, managers answer future-focused questions about their direct reports. By default, PMA answers are only visible to a review cycle participant's you (the the author of the manager review), review administrators, and cycle collaborators. However, review admins and account admins have the ability to manage visibility settings to allow for more transparency to a participant's hierarchy or the participant themselves.
*This is only the case if hierarchy visibility is enabled for the review cycle
Check out these resources ⬇️
Help Center article 💡: Write or edit a review in a review cycle
Help Center article 💡: Control who can see private manager assessment answers
Blog post 🗒: Giving Critical Employee Feedback Is Not As Scary As It Seems
Note
After you submit your manager review, you can edit it up until you share review results with your direct report. The exception is that if calibration sessions are included in the review cycle, you will not have the ability to edit the Private Manager Assessment section of your manager review once a calibration session begins.
Complete the review summary, hold a final meeting, and share and finalize review results
Once the self and manager reviews have been completed and the 'Start sharing on' milestone has passed, the review summary will open up. The summary is a condensed version of all reviews that were written about a review cycle participant. Writing a comprehensive summary is especially important if review settings dictate that verbatim feedback isn't shared directly with review cycle participants, as you need to ensure that your direct report is aware of the feedback they received.
You can edit the review summary up until review results are finalized.
Once you complete the review summary, you will schedule a final meeting with your direct report to discuss review results, share review results with them, hold the meeting, make any desired edits to the summary, then finalize review results. Review admins and cycle collaborators also have the ability to share and finalize review results.
Check out this resource ⬇️
Help Center article 💡: Complete, share, & finalize summaries
Download or print my direct report's review results
If you would like to view and analyze review data for specific participants, you can download or print the results from within their specific review page. It is best to wait until after the results have been shared and finalized to print, in case summary information is changed before finalizing.
Check out this resource ⬇️
Help Center article 💡: Access and download a participant's review cycle results
Related resources 📖
- Help Center article 💡: What to expect: I'm a review participant
- Help Center article 💡: What to expect: I'm a review admin