Quick Launch Guide: Performance Reviews in 15Five

🧑‍💻 Step 1: Prepare Your People Data

Before you launch a performance review cycle, make sure your people data in 15Five is accurate and complete. This ensures the right participants are included and that you can segment and analyze results effectively after the cycle ends.

You can make updates via your HRIS, bulk import CSV, or one-off in employee account settings.

Here’s what to check:

• 👥 Confirm your user list. Ensure all employees who should participate in the review are added to 15Five. Learn how to add new people →
• 🏷️ Populate core attributes: Ensure you've populated demographic attributes (Birth date, Ethnicity, Gender, Race, and Salary) and other core attributes (Location, Job title, and Hire date) for employees to enable filtering and analysis after the cycle ends. Learn more about people attributes →
• 👔 Review manager-employee relationships. The manager listed in 15Five is responsible for completing their team’s manager reviews by default. If others should write reviews, assign them as additional managers.
• 👥 Verify group assignments: Make sure employees are assigned to the correct groups—such as departments, teams, or levels—especially if you plan to assess group-specific competencies during the cycle. Accurate group assignments also allow you to filter and analyze results by group type once the cycle concludes.
• 💼 Ensure role and job descriptions are accurate: Confirm that each employee is assigned the correct role (e.g., AE, CSM, Junior Engineer) if you intend to evaluate role-specific competencies. Additionally, check that job descriptions are up to date—review writers can reference them when completing reviews, ensuring feedback is grounded in role expectations. Learn how to manage job information →

⚙️ Step 2: Configure Settings

Before launching your first review cycle, make sure your Best-Self Review® feature settings are aligned with your org's needs. You only need to do this once—your settings will carry over to future cycles.

To access feature settings, click Performance in 15Five's main, left-hand navigation and select "Best-Self Review®" from the dropdown. Then, click Review Settings in the top navigation.

Focus on these key settings:

• 👩‍💼 Review administrator(s): Because reviews often contain sensitive information, it's important to assign one or more Review Admins. Review Admins can create review cycles, manage question templates, and view all in-progress and completed responses. Learn how to use Best-Self Review® as a Review Admin →

  ✏️

  Note

  Review Admins have full access to all review results except their own. For their own review, they have the same visibility permissions as any other participant.

• 🚫 Exclude groups or individuals from your reviews: While we recommend running company-wide cycles to collect performance designations across your workforce, you can globally exclude specific groups (e.g., contractors, interns, seasonal employees) or individual participants if needed. You'll also have the option to exclude groups or individuals one-off when you create your review cycle.
• 🔒 Visibility defaults: Choose the ideal visibility settings for your organization. Learn more about visibility settings in Best-Self Review® →
• 📊 Competencies: Competencies are the skills, behaviors, and knowledge employees need to do their jobs well. You can optionally include a "Competencies" section in review cycle question templates, where reviewers assess how employees demonstrate company-wide, group-specific, or role-specific competencies. Learn how to add and manage competencies →
• ⭐️ Performance Ratings+: Performance Ratings+ automatically calculates a numerical score for each participant by combining self and manager review responses. These scores are used to assign performance designations (top, mid, or low). Use this section to enable performance ratings and configure tool settings.
• 🔍 Peer & Upward Review Transparency: Choose whether participants can see peer and upward review responses verbatim and whether reviewer identities are visible.
• 📧 Review Kickoff Email: This email is automatically sent to participants on the review start date, giving them a warm welcome to the process and outlining what to expect. You can customize the subject line and message to reflect your organization’s tone. 15Five will also include key details like timelines and deadlines.

🧠 Step 3: Prepare Your Templates & Question Strategy

Before you create your review cycle, you’ll need to finalize your question templates, set up any custom answer templates, and configure Performance Ratings+. These tools determine what feedback you’ll collect and how that feedback translates into strategic insights.

• Question templates define the questions participants will answer during self, manager, peer, and/or upward reviews. You must select these during review cycle creation, so they need to be ready in advance.
• Answer templates customize the rating scales used in opinion-based questions, allowing you to tailor how participants respond to align with your organization’s language and feedback style.
• Performance Ratings+ automatically calculates a performance score for each participant based on responses in self and manager reviews. Scores are used to assign performance designations (Top, Mid, Low) that appear in the HR Outcomes Dashboard and inform downstream decisions like calibration, promotions, and compensation.

Here’s what to do:

• 📝 Select your question templates: Each review type—self/manager, peer, and upward—requires its own question template. You can use 15Five’s recommended defaults, build your own, or clone and edit an existing one. Learn more →

  Our Recommendation: Use 15Five's Default Templates ⭐️

  We recommend using the following default question templates:

  • Self/Manager: 15Five template - Self & Manager Questions
  • Peer: 15Five template - Peer Questions
  • Upward: 15Five template - Manager Effectiveness

  These templates include question sections like the Private Manager Assessment (PMA) and Manager Effectiveness competency questions, which help you gather valuable feedback on promotion readiness, manager impact, and compensation adjustments.

  💡

  Tip

  You can view question templates on the Template Configuration page (in-app link). To preview the questions included in a template, click the three dots next to it and select “View.”

• 🧾 Customize with answer templates: By default, 15Five uses a 5-point scale (Strongly Disagree → Strongly Agree) for all opinion-scale questions. Answer templates let you create custom scales (e.g., Very dissatisfied → Very satisfied or Not at all effective → Extremely effective) to better fit the content of specific questions. Learn how to create an answer template →

  💡

  Tip

  Custom answer templates let you reinforce your organization’s language and intent—helping participants respond more clearly and consistently. Create them once and reuse across future review cycles to save time and maintain consistency.

• 🧮 Create a performance ratings formula: Define the formula that calculates each employee's performance score. The formula pulls in answers from your selected self/manager question template and applies weights to the questions that matter most. Learn how to create a formula →
• 📊 Build a performance ratings rubric: Rubrics map the scores from your formula to performance designations (e.g., Top, Mid, or Low). These designations feed into the HR Outcomes Dashboard and can be used for calibration, compensation reviews, and strategic planning. Learn how to build a rubric →

✍️ Step 4: Create & Launch Your Review Cycle

With your settings in place, it’s time to create your review cycle—the framework that delivers review questions to participants and collects performance feedback. Only HR Admins and Review Admins can create review cycles.

Begin by navigating to the "Review cycle" page (Performance > Best-Self Review®) and clicking Add Review Cycle. A modal will guide you through the process of creating your cycle.

Best Practices for a Successful Cycle:

• 🔄 Run a Full 360° Review: Include self, manager, peer, and upward reviews to gather rich, well-rounded feedback.
  

• 👥 Add Cycle Collaborators: Collaborators have the same permissions as Review Admins—but only within their assigned cycle. They can assist with setup and help track progress. Learn how to use Best-Self Review® as a cycle collaborator →

• 📅 Set Smart Milestones: Establish clear timelines for each phase of the cycle. See milestone best practices →

• ⚖️ Include Calibration Sessions: In the "Review Milestones" section, check “Include calibration sessions in this review cycle” to enable calibrations. Calibrations help ensure fair, consistent ratings by allowing appointed leaders to review feedback given in manager reviews and adjust answers as needed for alignment. Learn more in our blog →

• ⏰ Automate with Repeat Cycles: Save time by setting your review cycle to recur on a regular cadence. You’ll get a reminder email one week before the next cycle is scheduled to begin. Scheduled cycles won’t launch automatically—admins must confirm before launch.

• 📊 Include Performance Ratings+: Turn on Performance Ratings+ to generate performance designations using your selected formula.

To maximize engagement and clarity, we also recommend making a company-wide announcement (via Slack, Teams, or your internal comms channel). A thoughtful launch message helps set expectations, build momentum, and drive participation.

You can share the following resources to help your team get started:

• Best-Self Review® for review admins
• Best-Self Review® for cycle collaborators
• Best-Self Review® for review managers
• Best-Self Review® for review participants
• Best-Self Review® for additional managers
• Write or edit a review in a review cycle

📋 Step 5: Manage the Review Cycle

Once the cycle is live, it’s time to guide participants through the review process and keep everything on track. From peer nominations to nudging reviewers and facilitating calibration sessions, this step is all about ensuring a smooth, timely, and fair experience for everyone involved.

Here's what you can do:

• ✍️ Nominate peers for participants: Once the review cycle begins, participants, their managers, Review Admins, or Cycle Collaborators can nominate peers. Thoughtful nominations help ensure participants receive well-rounded feedback from relevant colleagues. Learn how to nominate peers →
• ✅ Approve peer nominations: After peers have been nominated, they must be approved by a Review Admin, Cycle Collaborator, or the participant’s manager. Once approved, the nominated peer can either accept the nomination (confirming they’ll write it) or decline it (opening a slot for a new nomination). Learn how to manage peer nominations →
• 📈 Monitor progress to ensure reviews are submitted on time: Track completion rates in real time from the review cycle's overview page. Filter by manager, group, or review status to identify where follow-up is needed. Learn how →
• 🔔 Nudge people to submit their reviews: Keep things on track by sending reminders to participants who haven’t completed their reviews. Nudges can be sent individually or in bulk. Learn how →
• ⚙️ Create calibration sessions: Calibration sessions help ensure fair, consistent, and objective talent decisions. Once the cycle begins, Review Admins and Cycle Collaborators can start creating sessions: defining who will participate and how sessions should be segmented. Learn how to create calibration sessions →
• ⚖️ Hold calibration sessions: After the “Manager reviews due by” milestone passes, hold calibration sessions to review answers given in manager reviews, align on performance criteria, and make adjustments to answers where needed. This process reduces bias and promotes consistency across the organization. Learn how to hold calibration sessions →

📬 Step 6: Close the Loop

Once reviews are submitted, it’s time to close the loop by sharing results, facilitating final conversations, and capturing acknowledgment. This step ensures that every participant receives meaningful feedback, discusses it with their manager, and completes the review cycle with clarity and alignment.

Here's how it goes:

• ✍️ Complete review summaries: Once both the self and manager reviews have been submitted and the “Start sharing reviews” milestone has passed, the "Review Summary" section will open. Complete the summary—pulling together key feedback into a concise, shareable format. A solid summary sets the stage for a successful final review meeting. Learn how to complete a review summary →
• 📤 Share results with participants: When you’re ready, share review results with participants. Sharing gives participants access to their written feedback and review summary. This can happen before or after the final meeting—whatever works best for your team’s feedback culture. Learn how to share results →
• 💬 Hold final meetings to discuss results: Managers should schedule a 1-on-1 meeting with each direct report to walk through the review. This conversation is a chance to celebrate strengths, clarify feedback, and collaborate on a plan for continued growth.
• ✅ Finalize results: After the final meeting is held and the manager has made any finishing touches to the review summary, finalize the review. This locks the participant’s review and prevents further changes from being made. Learn how to finalize results →
• 📝 Secure review acknowledgements: If review acknowledgements are enabled in your feature settings, participants will be prompted to acknowledge their review after meeting with their manager. This step provides closure and confirms that feedback was received and reviewed. Learn more →

📈 Step 7: Analyze Company-Wide Results

Once the review cycle is complete, it’s time to review your results to understand performance across your organization. 15Five provides powerful reporting tools that help you uncover trends, assess strengths and gaps, and make informed decisions about talent and development.

Use the following reports and tools to analyze your team's results:

• 📊Performance Ratings+ Reporting: Combines manager and self-review data into standardized performance scores. Spot patterns across people, teams, and demographics.  Learn more →
• 🟦 Talent Matrix (9-box): Maps employees by performance and potential to support decisions around promotions and succession. Learn more →
• 🔒 Private Manager Assessment (PMA) Results: Shows how managers rate employees on future-focused questions like promotion readiness and compensation. Learn more →
• 🧠 Competency Assessment: Reveals how employees demonstrate key skills based on self, manager, and peer reviews. Surface strengths, gaps, and alignment. Learn more →