When creating a review cycle in 15Five, setting clear due dates helps participants stay on track and ensures a smooth process from start to finish. This article explains each review milestone and offers best practices for choosing timelines that work for your organization. This article includes all possible cycle due dates, but which ones you see will depend on the type of reviews in the cycle and whether calibration is included.
Access and availability
⛔️ Required access to Best-Self Review®.
👥 This article is relevant to Review admins.
📦 This feature is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.
Set milestones in a review cycle
When you create a review cycle, you’ll be asked to set due dates for each step. These dates determine when 15Five sends automated reminders to participants and reviewers, helping everyone stay aligned.
Important
Review milestones are soft due dates. This means participants can still submit reviews after a due date passes, up until the review cycle is locked.
The following milestones may be included in a review cycle:
- What it is: The day your review cycle launches.
- Best practice: Start your cycle on a Tuesday or Wednesday—participants have time to begin their self reviews or peer nominations without the pressure of a Monday.
- What it is: The day your review cycle closes.
- Best practice: Cycles typically run 3–6 weeks, depending on whether peer or upward reviews are included.
- What it is: The due date for employees or managers to select peers.
- Best practice: Allow 5–7 days for nominations. Consider holidays or out-of-office schedules, as late nominations may not be accepted in time for reviews to be completed.
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What it is: The due date for managers to approve or deny peer nominations.
Best practice: Give managers 3–5 days for approvals. If no action is taken, peers may be auto-approved (settings are managed by Review admins in Feature Settings).
- What it is: The due date for participants to submit their self reviews.
- Best practice: Allow 5–7 days for self reviews. Once submitted, reviews become visible to the participant’s manager. Drafts are not visible until submitted.
- What it is: The due date for peers to submit their reviews.
- Best practice: Give peers 5–7 days after the “Peers approved by” date to complete reviews.
- What it is: If included, this is the due date for submitting peer-initiated reviews (no nomination or approval required).
- Best practice: No best practice needed! Peers can complete and submit feedback anytime before the cycle closes.
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What it is: The due date for direct reports to submit upward reviews of their managers.
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Best practice: These can be due around the same time as self reviews.
- What it is: The due date for managers to submit reviews of their direct reports.
- Best practice: Give managers 5–7 days after the self review due date. This allows them to focus on reviewing their team’s submissions before completing their own manager reviews.
- What it is: The due date for completing and locking calibration sessions. This must be done before results can be shared.
- Best practice: Schedule calibrations to be due about two weeks after the manager review due date. Prepare calibration sessions early to maximize available time. If more time is needed, extend this date and adjust “Start sharing on,” “Finalize by,” and “Cycle end” dates accordingly.
- What it is: The date managers can begin sharing submitted reviews and summaries with participants. Sharing gives employees visibility into all submitted reviews and manager summaries.
- Best practice: Set this 1–2 weeks before the cycle end date. This gives admins time to remind managers who still need to share results.
This review phase includes the manager’s Summary, the final meeting, and the ‘Share results’ step. The Summary compiles all reviews for the employee, after which the manager shares results (always after calibrations) so the employee can see their feedback. Once the final meeting is complete and feedback is final, the manager will ‘Finalize results’ (next due date).
- What it is: The last due date for review submissions, final manager summaries, and meetings. Once finalized, reviews are locked and can’t be changed.
- Best practice: Leave a buffer of a few days to a week before the cycle end date. Make sure managers understand that finalizing means no further edits or submissions are possible.