This article catalogs every system-generated email sent to participants and review writers during a performance review cycle, organized by lifecycle phase.
> Note: Your organization may have renamed this feature. If you don't see "Best-Self Review®" in your navigation, check with your admin for the name used in your account.
Important: Kickoff emails cannot be edited, recalled, or resent after a review cycle has launched. Complete all customization before launching.
Feature Structure
Kickoff Emails
Kickoff emails are sent at 8:23 AM in the company's timezone on the day the review cycle starts. The review cycle title appears in all kickoff emails. Admins can change this title in review cycle settings before launch.
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject | Disable? | Customize? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participant kickoff | All review cycle participants | Review cycle start date | Kicking off our review! | Yes — uncheck Send Kickoff email during cycle creation | Yes — edit subject line and body at the Summary & Complete step |
| Additional manager kickoff | Non-participants writing an additional manager review | Review cycle start date | [Direct report] needs your feedback about their work | Yes — uncheck Send Kickoff email during cycle creation | Yes — edit subject line and body at the Summary & Complete step |
| Manager kickoff | Non-participants writing a manager review | Review cycle start date | Your direct reports need your feedback about their work | Yes — uncheck Send Kickoff email during cycle creation | Yes — edit subject line and body at the Summary & Complete step |
| Upward reviewer kickoff | Non-participants writing an upward review | Review cycle start date | Your manager needs your feedback about their work | Yes — uncheck Send Kickoff email during cycle creation | No |
Peer-Specific Notifications
These notifications are only sent when peer reviews are included in the review cycle.
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject | Disable? | Customize? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nudge to nominate peers | Participants | Admin or manager clicks Nudge | Nudge: remember to nominate peers for your review! | No | No |
| You've been nominated | Nominated employee | Nomination submitted and approved by manager | You've been nominated to review [Participant name] | No | No |
| Manager approved peers | Participants | Manager approves peers before the approval deadline, or the day after the deadline if no action is taken | [Admin/Manager name] has approved peers for your review | No | No |
| Peer nominations due | Participants | Participant has not reached the minimum peer count within 3 days of the nomination deadline; also sent on the due date if enabled in company-wide notification settings | Your peer nominations are due soon | Yes — uncheck Reminder to nominate peers for review, 3 days before nomination is due on the company notifications page | No |
| Peer nomination declined | Participants | An approved peer declines their nomination | [Name] has declined to review you | No | No |
Review Settings Changed Notifications
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance reviews enabled | Account administrators | Performance reviews feature is activated in the account | 15Five Best-Self Review® has been activated! |
| Individual settings changed | Participants | Admin edits a participant's individual review settings | Updates were made to your reviews |
| Participant removed from cycle | Participants | Admin removes a participant from an active cycle | You were removed from the "Current Reviews Cycle" cycle |
| Cycle deleted | Participants | Admin deletes a review cycle | Cycle was deleted |
| Cycle ended | Participants | Review cycle end date passes | Bravo! Your review cycle has ended |
Note: These notifications cannot be disabled or customized.
Role Management Notifications
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Additional manager added (account-level) | Employee | New additional manager assigned at the account level | You have a new additional manager! |
| Additional manager added (account-level) | Manager of the participant | New additional manager assigned at the account level | New additional manager added for your direct report |
| Additional manager added (account-level) | New additional manager | New additional manager assigned at the account level | You were added as an additional manager! |
| Additional manager added (cycle-specific) | Manager of the participant | Additional manager assigned within a specific review cycle | New additional manager for participant! |
| Additional manager added (cycle-specific) | New additional manager | Additional manager assigned within a specific review cycle | You were added as an additional manager! |
| Additional manager added (cycle-specific) | Participant | Additional manager assigned within a specific review cycle | You have a new additional manager! |
| Cycle collaborator added | New collaborator | Admin adds a cycle collaborator to an active cycle | You were added as a cycle collaborator to an active review cycle |
| Cycle collaborator added | Review admins | Admin adds a cycle collaborator to an active cycle | New cycle collaborator added to review cycle |
| Cycle collaborator removed | Removed collaborator | Admin removes a cycle collaborator | You were removed from cycle collaborators |
| Cycle collaborator removed | Review admins | Admin removes a cycle collaborator | Cycle collaborator removed from the review cycle |
Note: These notifications cannot be disabled or customized.
Review Writer Reminder Notifications
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Review due in 3 days | Review writers | 3 days before the review submission deadline | You have reviews due in 3 days |
| Review due today | Review writers | Day of the review submission deadline | You have reviews due today |
| Reviews past due | Review writers | Review submission deadline has passed | Your reviews are past due |
Calibration Session Notifications
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contributor added | Anyone added as a calibration session contributor | Admin adds them to a calibration session | You've been invited to a calibration session |
| Tagged in comment | Person mentioned in a calibration comment | Another contributor tags them in a calibration session comment | You were mentioned |
| Session deleted | All calibration session contributors | Admin deletes the calibration session | Calibration session deleted |
| Session ended | All calibration session contributors | Calibration session end date passes | Calibration session ended |
| Calibrations due in 3 days | All calibration session contributors | 3 days before the calibration session deadline | Calibration sessions due in 3 days |
Sharing and Finalizing Reviews
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Results shared and finalized | Manager(s) | Collaborator shares and finalizes all answers for a participant | [Manager] just shared and finalized all answers for [Direct Report] review for "[Cycle Name]" cycle with them |
| Results shared (not finalized) | Manager(s) | Collaborator shares answers for a participant without finalizing | [Manager] just shared all answers for [Direct Report] review for "[Cycle Name]" cycle with them |
Note: These notifications cannot be disabled or customized.
Reporting Notifications
| Notification | Audience | Trigger | Example Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report ready for download | Report requestor | Report file is too large to generate immediately and has finished processing | Your download is ready |
Key Rules
- Kickoff emails send at 8:23 AM in the company's timezone on the cycle start date.
- Kickoff emails cannot be edited, recalled, or resent after a cycle launches.
- A default kickoff email template can be set in system settings; individual cycles can override it during creation.
- 15Five automatically inserts each participant's name into kickoff emails — no manual input is required.
- Notifications marked Disable? No cannot be turned off from any settings page.
- Peer-specific notifications are only triggered when peer reviews are included in the cycle.
What You Can Do
Set Up
Manage
- Create and launch a manual review cycle
- Review types in a performance review cycle
- Roles in a performance review cycle
Related Articles
- Disable or manage performance review email notifications
- Create and launch a manual review cycle
- Roles in a performance review cycle
- Additional Managers in Performance Reviews
- What cycle collaborators can do in a performance review cycle
- Calibrations in performance reviews — overview
- Configure basic performance review feature settings (Admin)