Woo hoo! You get to wear two hats during review cycles; participant + manager whose direct reports are participating. This guide will walk you through logistics and responsibilities associated with being the manager of a review cycle participant.
Tip
It's possible that you're also a review administrator. If you are a participant, a manager, and a review administrator, we suggest reading all role guides (below) before beginning a review cycle.
Success Center article🗒: What to expect: I'm a review participant
Success Center article🗒: What to expect: I'm a review administrator
Science 🔬: Best-Self Review®
Email notifications
In addition to the emails you will receive as a participant, you will receive manager/reviewer specific emails. They are listed below (if applicable to your cycle).
- Review cycle kickoff
- Reporter submitted their self review
- Manager review reminder - 7 day
- Manager review reminder - 3 day
- Manager review reminder - Past due
- Manager review - nudge from Review admin or direct report
- Release results - nudge from direct report
- Release results - nudge from Review Admin
- Reminder to schedule final meeting with direct reports
- Reminder to schedule final meeting with direct reports - last day
- Review cycle has been deleted
For a more extensive list of emails that are sent out during a Best-Self Review® cycle, see this article.
Peer review(s)
Peer nomination
- As a manager, the first interaction you will have with your direct reports who are participating in a cycle is during the peer nomination window.
- Your direct reports have (likely) nominated their peers. In addition to the peers that your direct report nominated, you can also nominate peers on their behalf.
- Once peers have been nominated, the next step is for you (the manager) to approve or deny the nominations. We recommend only approving nominations who work closely with the participant.
- If settings are such, all unapproved nominations will be automatically approved on the 'Manager approval deadline'. This will depend on the review settings that were set by your review administrator.
To approve peer nominations for your team:
1. Click Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you need to work on. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' tab. So, click on the 'Peer nominations' tab.
4. Then you'll be on the 'My team' tab for peer nominations.
5. Scroll down to the 'Manage peers for your team' section. Find the direct report you would like to add/manage nominations for, and expand their list of peers using the arrow to the right of their name.
6. Click Approve or Deny for each nominated peer.
Peer review
- Once a peer review has been submitted for one of your direct reports, you will receive a notification. These are peer reviews that have been written about your direct reports.
- After submission/notification, you can open the peer review. As a manager, you may have the ability to remove feedback that is not constructive on these peer reviews before sharing them. This will depend on the settings that the review administrator selected when creating the cycle.
- Depending on the review settings, the identity of the peer's identity may be hidden from you.
- Peer reviews will be shared with your direct report when you 'Share results'. This usually is the very last step in the review cycle.
To view submitted peer reviews for your team:
1. Click Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you want to view peer reviews for. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' tab. Scroll down to the 'Cycle participants' section, which lists out your direct reports that are participating in the cycle. Click on the name of the person whose peer reviews you want to view.
Tip
If you have a large number of direct reports participating, you can also search for a specific person in the search field and then complete steps 3-4.
4. There will be a 'Peer' tab after the 'Self' tab. Click on it.
Upward review(s) (if your direct report is also a manager)
- If you are the manager of an participant who is also a manager, you will receive the upward reviews that your direct report's direct reports submitted. Once an upward review has been submitted for one of your direct reports, you will receive a notification. These are upward reviews that have been written for your direct reports by their direct reports.
- After submission/notification, you can open and view the upward review. As a manager, you may have the ability to remove feedback that is not constructive on these upward reviews. This will depend on the settings that the review administrator selected when creating the cycle.
- Depending on the review settings, the identity of the direct report who wrote the upward review may be hidden from you.
- Upward reviews will be shared with your direct reports when you 'Share results'. This usually is the very last step in the review cycle.
To view upward reviews for your team:
1. Click Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you want to view upward reviews for. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' tab. Scroll down to the 'Cycle participants' section, which lists out your direct reports that are participating in the cycle. Click on the name of the person whose upward reviews you want to view.
Tip
If you have a large number of direct reports participating, you can also search for a specific person in the search field and then complete steps 3-4.
4. There will be an 'Upward' tab after the 'Self' or 'Peer' tab. Click on it.
Manager review(s) (you review your direct reports)
A manager review is completed for each of your direct reports that is participating in the cycle. You will be asked the same questions that your direct report was asked on their self review, or very close to the same questions. Asking both participant and manager the same questions reduces bias and creates a fair performance review environment.
- After your direct report has submitted their self review or the self review deadline has passed, the manager review window is open and you will be able to submit your manager review(s).
- You can draft up your manager review before you are able to submit it.
- Your manager review will not be visible to your direct report until you 'Share results' at the end of the cycle.
- Following the manager review, you'll likely begin scheduling final meetings. These meetings are where you will complete the Summary portion of the review cycle.
Blog post 🗒: Giving Critical Employee Feedback Is Not As Scary As It Seems
To complete manager reviews for your team:
1. Click Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you want to view peer reviews for. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' tab. Scroll down to the 'Cycle participants' section, which lists out your direct reports that are participating in the cycle. Click on the name of the person whose manager reviews you want to complete.
4. Find and click on the 'Manager' tab.
Note
You can also get to your manager reviews from the 'Overview' tab under your to-dos. Click the 'Write manager reviews' button.
5. Complete the manager review of your direct report. Then click Submit review or Submit & review next.
6. Also included in manager reviews is the Private manager assessment. The Private manager assessment piece of manager reviews is only visible to the manager who completed the review and the review administrators, but is never visible to the participant. Additionally, the Private manager assessment includes future focused questions inspired by research from Deloitte and highlighted in the April 2015 HBR article, Reinventing Performance Management, by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall. Questions 1 - 3 are taken directly from Deloitte, question 4 has been adjusted and Question 5 is 15Five's addition.
Questions for the 'Private manager assessment' are managed by your review administrators from within the review question templates.
Summary
Once the self and manager reviews have been completed and the 'Start sharing on' milestone has passed, the summary will open up. This summary be a condensed version of all reviews that were conducted on the subject participant.
The ideal order of events is: calibration sessions (if necessary), complete the summary of your direct report, share the information from the review cycle with the participant using 'Share results', hold the final meeting, add on to or revise the summary itself and your summary notes, then 'Finalize results' with your direct reports. We also suggest that managers hold the final meeting and deliver feedback in person, to avoid the text being misinterpreted before the results are finalized.
- If calibrations are needed, they should take place before sharing.
- Manager will share before or during the final meeting.
- Manager will hold a final meeting with each direct report. This meeting agenda should address the content of all reviews. The summary of answers, private notes/answers, and the private manager assessment portion will not be visible to the participant when shared. The summary and private manager assessment answers will remain editable until finalizing.
- After results have been shared and the final meeting has been held, managers will finalize the review. At this point, summary notes will be shared, private content and private manager assessment content will not be shared, and editing will no longer be allowed on any review.
To complete Summaries for your team:
1. Click Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you want to view peer reviews for. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' tab. Scroll down to the 'Cycle participants' section, which lists out your direct reports that are participating in the cycle. Click on the name of the person whose manager reviews you want to complete.
4. The last tab will be titled 'Summary'. Complete this summary using the previously submitted reviews about your direct report. The Summary tab will show a lock icon until the self and manager reviews have been completed for the participant and the 'Start sharing by' date has passed.
5. After entering your initial thoughts in the summary fields, click Share review. Sharing reviews releases submitted review information to the participant—summary notes, private answers, and private manager assessment information is not shared. This step should take place before the final meeting is held.
Pay attention to the tip that appears. It reminds you what sharing reviews means.
6. Next, it's time to hold the final meeting with your direct report(s). The two of you can go over the review information that has recently been shared. After this meeting takes place, managers can still edit the summary, add additional information, revise any notes, and make any changes needed to the private manager assessment.
7. When the summary is ready to be finalized, click on Finalize results.
Pay extra attention to the tip that pops up. Finalizing results will restrict any outstanding reviews from being submitted for this person.
Blog post 🗒: 8 Proven Methods To Responding To Employee Feedback
Download or print review details (for my direct reports)
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.
To download or print a participant's final data:
1. Click Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you want to view peer reviews for. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' tab. Scroll down to the 'Cycle participants' section, which lists out your direct reports that are participating in the cycle. Click on the name of the person whose manager reviews you want to complete.
4. There will be a 'Summary' tab after the 'Manager' tab.
5. Use the gear icon toward the top right of the page, across from their name, and then click Print.
Want to feel inspired as a reviewer?
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