What managers do in a performance review cycle

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

Managers in a performance review cycle are responsible for peer nominations, writing manager reviews, reviewing peer and upward feedback, completing the review summary, and sharing finalized results with direct reports. This article orients managers to each phase of the cycle and links to task-specific instructions.

Required access: Performance Reviews (Perform or Total Platform package) Relevant roles: Primary manager, additional manager

Feature Structure

What Managers Do in a Review Cycle

A review cycle moves through these phases in sequence:

Cycle launch — The review admin initiates the cycle. Managers and participants are notified.
Peer nominations — If peer reviews are included, managers may nominate peers for their direct reports and approve or decline submitted nominations.
Self reviews — Participants submit self-assessments.
Peer and upward reviews — If enabled, peers and direct reports submit feedback.
Manager reviews — Managers write a review for each direct report.
Calibration (optional) — Admins and stakeholders review and adjust feedback for consistency.
Review summary and final meeting — Managers complete a summary, meet with each direct report, and share results.
Finalize results — Managers, admins, or collaborators finalize results to close the cycle.

Notifications

When a review cycle launches or you are assigned as an additional manager, 15Five notifies you in three ways.

Action item: An action item appears on your Actions List in-app. Click it to go directly to your review.

Email notification: You receive an email from notifications@15five.com with a call-to-action link to open your review.

If added as a default additional manager, the email reads: "You are now an additional manager for [Name]'s future review cycles."
If added as a cycle-specific additional manager, the email reads: "You are now an additional manager for [Name] for their '[Review cycle name]' cycle."

In-app notification: Click the notification bell at the top of your 15Five account, then click Go to cycle to open your review.

Throughout the cycle, managers also receive:

Review cycle kickoff notification
Self review submitted notification (one per direct report)
Manager review reminders (7-day, 3-day, and overdue)
Nudges from admins to write or share reviews
Reminders to schedule and complete final meetings

For the full list of cycle email notifications, see Email notifications for a review cycle.

Key Rules

You can write manager reviews only for your direct reports. To write a review for a skip-level or dotted-line report, you must be assigned as an additional manager. See Can I write reviews for skip-level or dotted-line reports?.
The Private Manager Assessment (PMA) section is not visible to the participant by default. Admins configure visibility settings. See Is the Private Manager Assessment visible to the employee?.
Manager reviews are visible to review admins, cycle collaborators, and anyone in the participant's hierarchy (if hierarchy visibility is enabled). The participant sees results only after sharing. See Who can see my manager review after I submit it?.
You can edit a submitted manager review until it is shared or calibration begins. See Can I edit my manager review after submitting?.
If you miss a deadline, contact a review admin or cycle collaborator to adjust dates or unlock the review. See What if I miss a deadline to write or share review results?.

What You Can Do

Manage

Note: You cannot submit a manager review until the participant has submitted their self review or the self review deadline has passed. You can edit your manager review until you share it, unless calibration has started.

How peer nomination types work: In participant-initiated peer reviews, the participant, their manager, a review admin, or a cycle collaborator can nominate peers. The manager, a review admin, or a cycle collaborator can approve, decline, or remove nominations. In peer-initiated peer reviews, peers volunteer directly; there is no nomination or approval process. See Review types in a performance review cycle for details.

Analyze

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