Once the self and manager reviews have been submitted for a person and the 'Start sharing reviews' milestone has passed, the summary portion of their review will open up for the manager to begin work on. The summary is a condensed version of all reviews written about the participant, and serves to be used as managers hold final review meetings with their direct reports. Once final meetings are held, you should finalize the review summary to prevent any further changes and complete the review process.
In this article, you will learn...
- What the ideal order of events is when completing, sharing, and finalizing summaries
- How to complete, share, and finalize summaries as a manager
- How to complete, share, and finalize summaries as a cycle collaborator
Note
Though the summary may be open, there may still be peer and/or upward reviews in progress. Best practice is to give everyone time to submit their reviews before writing and sharing the summary. There will be pop-up messages that appear if you try to share or finalize before all reviews are submitted. If there are outstanding peer or upward reviews, we suggest nudging those writers and not sharing/finalizing until all reviews have been submitted.
Tip
We suggest that managers/cycle collaborators use responses given in all reviews written about the review cycle participant to guide the summary and final meeting. In other words, use the reviews as resources for the summary. This is especially important when peer and/or upward feedback is hidden from the participant—since the verbatim feedback will not be shared with the participant, it is your responsibility to ensure the peer and upward feedback is included in the summary of answer and the final development conversation. Summaries should be shared and finalized by the 'Finalize by' milestone date.
Ideal order of events
- All reviews are submitted and the 'Start sharing reviews' window opens.
- You (the manager/cycle collaborator) complete the initial summary for the review cycle participant, including all peer and upward feedback that might be hidden from the participant.
- You (the manager/cycle collaborator) share the submitted reviews with the review cycle participant using the Share review button at the bottom of the summary. The sharing option will share the submitted reviews with the participant and will lock any reviews that have already been submitted from being edited. After sharing, managers can still edit the Private Manager Assessment and summary up until finalizing (the exception being that if the review has been calibrated, the Private Manager Assessment cannot be edited). If you are an additional manager for a participant, you will be able to view the summary when it is shared. We do not recommend finalizing the review before a manager has held a final meeting with their direct report about results of the review. Reason being, if results are finalized before the meeting, the summary and Private Manager Assessment will no longer be editable during or after the meeting. It's helpful to hold a final meeting before finalizing those sections of the review.
Note
The Private Manager Assessment is never visible to the participant; even when results are shared and/or finalized.
- Hold the final meeting. This meeting should address the content of all reviews, even those that have not been shared verbatim. Add on to or revise the summary itself, your notes, and your Private Manager Assessment (if necessary).
- If the "Review Acknowledgement" setting is turned on in your company's global review settings, the participant should acknowledge their review results.
- Once all desired edits have been made to the summary, notes, and Private Manager Assessment, finalize the results. After Finalize results has been clicked, editing and submitting will no longer be allowed for any fields.
Blog post 🗒: Why Managers Needs To Be More Vulnerable And Authentic To Give Employee Feedback
Complete, share, and finalize the results for your team
1. Click on Best-Self Review® in the left navigation of 15Five.
2. From the 'Review cycles' tab, click on the active cycle that you're working on.
3. You're now on the review cycle's overview page. Scroll down to the filter section, then select to filter by 'My team'.
4. Scroll down to 'Cycle Participants' section of the page and click the ... next to the participant whose reviews and summary you want to view. Select 'View' from the dropdown menu.
Note
It is important to note that calibration sessions may be taking place during this time. Sharing may be disabled until calibration sessions have been completed
5. You're now on your direct report's review page. Look directly under the box that contains their avatar and name, and click Summary.
Note
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.
6. If desired, once on this page you can remove any answers you would prefer not to appear on the shared results with the review cycle participant. To do so, click the "..." next to the answer you want to remove from shared results and select 'Remove from shared results' from the dropdown menu:
7. After entering your initial thoughts in the summary fields, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Share review. Sharing reviews releases submitted review information to the participant— summary notes, private answers, and Private Manager Assessment information are not shared. You should share review results with your direct report before you hold a final meeting with them to discuss review results.
Pay attention to the tip that appears. It reminds you what sharing reviews means.
8. 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.
9. Once you're made all desired changes to the review summary, 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.
10. You're done! This participant's review is complete and your steps as their manager are finished.
Share and finalize summaries as a cycle collaborator
Cycle collaborators can share participants' reviews by navigating to their review summary. Please note that you cannot share results with people who do not have a manager in the review cycle.
1. Click on Best-Self Review® in the left navigation of 15Five.
2. From the 'Review cycles' tab, click on the active cycle that you're working on.
3. You're now on the review cycle's overview page. Scroll down to the 'Cycle Participants' section and find the person whose summary you want to manage. From here, click the "..." next to the participant's name and select 'View' from the dropdown menu to open their review summary. 
Note
You cannot manage a person's summary until after 1) their manager has submitted their manager review, and 2) the "Start sharing on" milestone has passed.
4. If desired, once on this page you can remove any answers you would prefer not to appear on the shared results with the review cycle participant. To do so, click the "..." next to the answer you want to remove from shared results and select 'Remove from shared results' from the dropdown menu:
5. After entering your initial thoughts in the summary fields, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Share review. Sharing reviews releases submitted review information to the participant— summary notes, private answers, and Private Manager Assessment information are not shared. You should share review results with your direct report before you hold a final meeting with them to discuss review results.
Pay attention to the tip that appears. It reminds you what sharing reviews means.
6. The next step is for a person's manager to hold a final meeting with their direct report to discuss review results. After this meeting takes place, you or a person's manager can still edit the summary, add additional information, revise any notes, and make any changes needed to the Private Manager Assessment.
7. Once you're made all desired changes to the review summary, 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.
8. You're done! This participant's review is complete.