Peer reviews within a Best-Self Review® cycle are reviews in which your nominated teammates review you. This article contains an overview of the the peer nomination process, steps on how to nominate someone to review you, and different settings for peer reviews.
Science
Research shows that using peer feedback for development increases performance, goal orientation, and a growth mindset. This differs from traditional performance appraisals, in which it’s common for managers to evaluate their direct reports only.
Peer nomination process overview
- You will nominate peers to review YOU. Your manager or a cycle collaborator can also nominate peers on your behalf.
- Peers can be nominated up until the review cycle's end date, or until your review results have been finalized- whichever comes first.
- After you nominate a peer(s), your manager or a cycle collaborator will see the peers you nominated and will either approve or deny the nominations.
- Approved peers will be sent a notification asking them to either accept or decline the nomination. Peers who accept the nomination will then write a peer review about you.
- If any of your peer nominations are denied by either your manager, a cycle collaborator, or the peer themselves, your manager can remove that nomination so you're able to nominate another peer in their place.
Nominate peers to review me
1. Click on Best-Self Review® in the left-hand navigation bar.
2.Open the review cycle you want to nominate peer reviewers for.
3. Click on the 'Peer nominations' tab at the top of your page.
4. If you're not a manager in the review cycle, continue directly to step #5.
If you are manager, you will land on the 'My team' page, on which you can nominate people to review your direct reports. To manage your own peers, click on 'My nominations' under the name of the review cycle.
5. Click into the 'Peers for your review' field and start typing the name of the person who you'd like to nominate as a peer. Select their name from the dropdown menu.
Note
Who can/can't I nominate as a peer? You can nominate anyone- whether or not they're a participant in the review cycle- to be a peer, with some exceptions. Anyone you don't have the ability to nominate as a peer won't appear on the dropdown menu. You cannot nominate anyone who is excluded from a review cycle or globally excluded from reviews in general to be a peer. If the review cycle includes only peer reviews, you can nominate anyone to be a peer. If the cycle includes self & manager reviews, you can nominate anyone except your direct report(s) or your immediate manager as a peer.
6. Select all the peers you want to nominate, then click Submit. 
Note
You can remove your peer nominations up until your manager or a cycle collaborator approves it by clicking the Remove button next to that nomination. Removing a nomination frees up space for you to nominate someone else if needed.
7. Before the peer nomination deadline approaches, you should visit the 'Peer nominations' tab to check the status of the nominations you sent and ensure people are taking action. In the example below, Natalie and Carmen have both been approved and accepted their peer nominations. Peter has been approved but hasn't yet accepted, and Salome hasn't yet been approved.
Options for peer reviews
Review admins have several customization options when setting up a review cycle that includes peer reviews. Continue reading for information about what each of these customization options means for you.
Peer-initiated / Participant-initiated
Participant-initiated peer reviews are reviews in which participants nominate peers to complete peer reviews about them. These is the most common type of peer review. Peer-initiated peer reviews are reviews in which participants opt into reviewing their teammates- there is no nomination process.
Peer review transparency
Your review admins dictate in your company's Best-Self Review® feature settings whether 1) peer reviews written about a participant will be shared with the participant verbatim, or 2) if the participant's manager will be required to write a summary of all submitted peer reviews and share them with the participant.
They also determine whether a peer reviewer's identity will be...
- Fully transparent: The identity of the peer is visible to review admins, cycle collaborators (if applicable), the participant, the participant’s manager, and the manager’s hierarchy (depending on review visibility settings)
- Transparent to everyone but the participant: The identity of the peer is visible to review admins, cycle collaborators (if applicable), the participant’s manager, and the manager’s hierarchy depending on review visibility settings
- Fully anonymous: The identity of the peer is not visible to anyone.
Minimum and maximum peers
In your company's Best-Self Review® feature settings, your admins can set a minimum and maximum number of peers (we typically suggest 3-5). These limits control the number of peers a participant can nominate, but do not impact the number of peer nominations a person can accept. In other words, this setting only controls nomination limits, not acceptance limits. Peers have the option to accept as few or as many peer nominations as they have capacity for.
"Select by", "Approve by", and "Peer review" deadlines
When setting up a review cycle, your review admin will select deadlines (we call them "milestones") for specific actions. The three milestones that are relevant to peer review are "Select peers", "Approve peers", and "Peer reviews". The milestones are soft, meaning that one can submit a review after the deadline and until the cycle is locked or the specific review finalized for the participant. That said, we suggest following the deadlines set forth by your review admins to ensure a productive and successful review cycle.
Select peers: This milestone dictates when you should finish nominating peers by. You can still nominate peers after this deadline passes.
Approve peers: This milestones dictates when managers and/or cycle collaborators should approve peers for their direct reports. After this deadline passes, you may or may not require approval for future peer nominations. Review admins get to decide whether they want peer nominations that are made after the "Nominate by" deadline to be auto-approved (rather than need manager approval) to prevent roadblocks in the process.
Peer reviews: This milestone dictates when peer reviews should be completed and submitted by.