Add Questions to a Custom Performance Review Template

Ben Pemstein Ben Pemstein
· Updated

Review admins can create a custom question template from scratch to fully control which questions appear in a performance review cycle. When complete, the template appears in the Question templates section of the Template configuration tab.

> Note: Your organization may have renamed the Best-Self Review® or Objectives features. If you don't see these labels in your navigation, check with your admin for the name used in your account.

Required role: Review admin Required package: Perform or Total Platform

Before You Begin

Phase 1: Name and configure the template

  1. Go to Reviews > Template configuration.
  2. In the Question templates section, click Create a new template.
  3. Select a template type.
  4. Enter a name for the template.
  5. Select the review type this template applies to:

- Self & manager — used for self-assessments and manager reviews of direct reports. Select this option if your cycle includes self reviews only, manager reviews only, or both. - Peer — used when peers review an employee's performance. - Upward — used when employees review their manager's performance.

  1. Click Continue.
Note: If your cycle includes self reviews or manager reviews but not both, still select Self & manager. In the next phase, deselect the review type you do not need within each question section.

Phase 2: Add questions to each section

You are now in the Questions section. Add questions under each section that applies to your template. Sections available vary by review type — see Which question template sections are available for each review type? for the full matrix.

If you leave this page before finishing, the template is saved to Draft question templates in the Template configuration tab.

Growth & Development

Available in: self & manager, peer, and upward templates.

  1. In the Growth & Development section, click Add a new question.
  2. Type your question text.
  3. Click Show advanced options to configure the question further.
  4. Under Who is this question for?, select All participants or a specific group.
  5. Under Select a question type, select Text, Yes/No, Opinion scale, or Multiple choice.

- Opinion scale defaults to a 1–5 scale (Strongly disagree → Strongly agree). You can change scale labels, add label descriptions, and adjust scale points (minimum 3, maximum 7). - Multiple choice supports up to 20 answer options.

  1. Under Select an answer template, choose a saved answer template to replace the default opinion-scale labels. See Create a custom answer template for review questions for instructions.
  2. Toggle Required question off to make the question optional.
  3. Toggle Include field for optional content on to allow written context alongside a rating.
  4. Click Create question.

Company Values

Available in: self & manager, peer, and upward templates.

  1. In the Company values section, click Add a new question.
  2. Type a prefix such as "Rate [Name]'s contribution to the company value:" and select a value from the dropdown.

- The values in the dropdown are set in your company's review settings.

  1. Click Show advanced options to configure the question further.
  2. Under Select an answer template, select a custom answer template if you prefer a different rating scale. See Create a custom answer template for review questions.
  3. Toggle Include field for optional content on to allow a text response alongside the rating.
  4. Toggle Required question off to make the question optional.
  5. Click Create question.

Competencies

Available in: self & manager and peer templates.

Competency questions are automatically generated from uploaded competencies — they are not written manually. The number of questions generated depends on which competency types you include and how many competencies are assigned to the participant.

  1. Click Configure competencies.
  2. Select which competency types to include: Role-based, Group, and/or Company.
  3. Select which review types competency questions appear in: Self, Manager, or both.
  4. Under Select an answer template, choose the answer template for competency questions. The default Recommended template uses a 1–5 scale (Never demonstrates → Always demonstrates).
  5. Configure the following toggles:

- Questions are required — on by default; toggle off to make competency questions optional. - Include field for comments — allows review writers to add a text response alongside their rating. - Require comments — requires a written comment for each rating selected.

  1. Adjust scale labels, descriptions, or points if needed.
  2. Click Create question.

Manager Effectiveness

Available in: self & manager and upward templates.

Manager Effectiveness questions are fixed — they cannot be edited, because they are used for benchmarking. Adding them enables the Manager Effectiveness Indicator feature after the cycle ends.

Note: In a self & manager template, only participants who are managers will see Manager Effectiveness questions in their self review.
  1. In the Manager Effectiveness section, click Add questions.
  2. Confirm the eight standard questions are included.

The eight questions are fixed and cannot be modified.

Objectives

Available in: self & manager templates only. Objectives must be enabled in review settings before this section appears.

Note: If your organization has renamed the Objectives feature, the custom name appears here instead.
  1. In the Objectives section, click Add a new question.
  2. Type the self review question text (for example, "How was your completion of all objectives and key results you owned?").
  3. Type the manager review question text (for example, "How was [Name]'s completion of all objectives and key results they owned?").
  4. Click Show advanced options.
  5. Under Who is this question for?, select All participants or a specific group.

- Participants without at least one objective or key result within the cycle's timeframe will not see Objectives questions, even if included in the audience.

  1. Under Ask a question for every objective?, choose whether to ask one question per OKR or one question covering all OKRs.
  2. Under Select a question type, select Opinion scale or Text.

- Opinion scale defaults to a 1–5 scale (Slightly below expectations → Significantly above expectations). Scale points can be adjusted (minimum 3, maximum 7).

  1. Toggle Required question off to make the question optional.
  2. Toggle Include field for optional content on to allow a written response alongside a rating.
  3. Click Create question.

Custom Questions

Available in: self & manager, peer, and upward templates.

The Custom Questions section allows any question type to be added outside of the named sections above.

  1. In the Custom Questions section, click Add question.
  2. Click Create a custom question.
  3. Type your question text.
  4. Click Show advanced options.
  5. Under Who is this question for?, select All participants or a specific group.
  6. Under Select a question type, select Text, Yes/No, Opinion scale, or Multiple choice.
  7. Configure scale labels, answer templates, required and optional content settings as needed.
  8. Click Create question.

Private Manager Assessment

Available in: self & manager templates only. The Private Manager Assessment is visible only to managers and review admins — not to the employee being reviewed.

  1. In the Private Manager Assessment section, click Add a new question.
  2. Type your question text.
  3. Click Show advanced options to configure audience, question type, and answer settings.
  4. Click Create question.

See Add a Private Manager Assessment to a question template for full configuration details.

Phase 3: Finalize the template

  1. Click Preview to review how the template appears by review type and participant.

- See Preview a question template by review type and participant for instructions.

  1. To reorder question sections, click the drag handle to the left of a section title and drag it to the desired position.
  2. To edit a section title or description, click ... to the right of the section name and select Edit title from the dropdown.
  3. When the template is complete, click Save template.

Observable success state: The template appears in the Question templates list on the Template configuration tab with a status of Active. If you exited before saving, it appears under Draft question templates.

If Something Goes Wrong

Issue Check Fix
Objectives section does not appear Confirm Objectives is enabled in review settings Go to Admin > Reviews > Settings and enable Objectives. See Enable Objectives in a performance review cycle.
Company values do not appear in the dropdown Confirm values are configured in review settings Go to Admin > Reviews > Settings and add company values before returning to the template.
Competency questions are not generated Confirm competencies are uploaded and assigned to participants Go to the Competencies and Paths settings page and verify uploaded competencies. See Add competency questions to a question template.
Template cannot be edited or deleted Check whether the template is associated with an active or ended review cycle Templates tied to a cycle cannot be edited or deleted. Create a new template instead.
Draft template is not visible Confirm you did not fully delete the template Go to Reviews > Template configuration and scroll to the Draft question templates section.

Not Covered Here

This article does not cover cloning an existing template, applying a template to a review cycle, or configuring Performance Ratings+. See Copy a question template in performance reviews, Apply a default question template to a review cycle, and Configure Performance Ratings+ for a review cycle.

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