15Five gives you the option to hold peer-only review cycles, which allow members of your organization to review each other without including self, manager, or upward reviews. Review admins can create one-off, peer-only review cycles to enable relevant, project-based feedback in a timely and lightweight fashion.
In this article, you will learn...
- How to create a peer-only review cycle 🧑💻
- What happens next? ➡️
- Related articles 📖
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
Access and availability
⛔️ Required access to create a review cycle.
👥 This article is relevant to Review admins.
📦 This feature is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.
Note
There are two types of peer reviews that you can select from: participant initiated (the default) and peer initiated. You can read more about these review types in our "Peer reviews: participant initiated vs peer initiated" Help Center article.
How to create a peer-only review cycle 🧑💻
This section walks through the basics of creating a peer-only review cycle. For more detailed information about creating review cycles, please refer to our "Create a Best-Self Review® cycle Help Center article.
- Click on Best-Self Review® in 15Five's main, left-hand navigation.
- You will land on the 'Review cycles' page. In the top right corner of the page, click the Create a new review cycle button.
- Use the "Cycle name" text field to select a name for your review cycle. When you're done, click Continue.
- Select "Peer" as the review cycle type.
- Select whether you want to run a participant initiated or peer initiated review cycle. You can read more about each of these review types in our "Peer reviews: participant initiated vs peer initiated" Help Center article. When you're done, click Continue.
- Selecting Participant-initiated means that participants will nominate peers to complete a peer review about them. This is the default and most common option.
- Selecting Peer-initiated means that peers initiate a review by selecting participants they wish to write a peer review for.
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In the "Cycle collaborator" section, select people to serve as cycle collaborators in your review cycle. Cycle collaborators have the same permissions as review admins but they are contained to a specific cycle. When you're done, click Continue.
- Next, select milestones for your review. Check out our "Best practices for review timelines" article for tips on setting milestones.
Note
If these change during the course of your review cycle it's okay— review milestones can be changed during an active review cycle.
- Select whether you want the review cycle to repeat. Options are to repeat quarterly, bi-annually, or annually. If you don't want it to repeat, select "No, this is a one-time review." When you're done, click Continue.
Note
Repeated reviews will not launch automatically. An email will be sent to review admins a week before the cycle's start date asking them to confirm the cycle.
- Decide who will participate in the review cycle. In a peer-only review cycle, participants will have peer reviews written about them. Non-participants can still write peer reviews in the review cycle. When you're done, click Continue.
Note
To learn more about the options for managing review cycle participants, please refer to the FAQs at the bottom of this article.
- Select the peer review question template you want to use for the review cycle. 15Five offers two default question templates: Peer questions, which is best for participant initiated review cycles, and Ad Hoc Peer Review, which is best for peer initiated review cycles. Use one of those, or create a custom question template to use in the cycle. When you're done, click Continue.
Tip
Click the View button to preview a template.
- Finally, review the cycle settings. If you want to edit a setting, click Edit to its right. Pay special attention to the settings outlined in the "Advanced settings summary" section, as these options dictate visibility, transparency, and more for the review cycle.
Tip
You can customize the kickoff email that will go out to participants by clicking Edit to the right of "Kickoff email."
- When you're satisfied, click Save changes.
What happens next? ➡️
Once you save the review cycle, you can view and manage on the review cycles dashboard by clicking Best-Self Review® in 15Five's main, left-hand navigation and clicking the three dots to its right.
Your review cycle will launch on your selected start date. At that point, participants will receive a kick-off email if you selected the option to include one when confirming review cycle settings.
You can share the following articles with review cycle participants and peer reviewers to help them get started:
- Nominate peers to review me
- Write a peer review in a participant initiated review cycle
- Write a peer review in a peer initiated review cycle
- Interact with a review cycle's Overview tab
Related articles 📖
- Create a review cycle
- Peer reviews: participant initiated vs peer initiated
- Options for peer reviews
- Interact with a review cycle's Overview tab
- Nominate peers for a review cycle participant
- Track the status of peer nominations
- Nudge a person to respond to a peer nomination
- Write or edit a review in a review cycle
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
- Make your review process more lightweight. Peer-only reviews can be run as a precursor to Best-Self Review® (self & manager) cycles to make both cycles more lightweight.
- Empower managers to be more informed. Peer-only reviews are designed to help managers understand how their direct reports are doing on cross-departmental or team projects to facilitate growth conversations.
- Encourage timely feedback. Research shows feedback immediately after a project or performance event has the most impact on performance. Launch a peer-only review cycle immediately after a completed project.
- Employee participation in the nomination process. Research shows employee participation in the nomination process increases perceived fairness, which increases the likelihood for a successful peer review. Unsolicited feedback triggers a threat response. 15Five recommends participants choose peers to review them, which encourages solicited feedback.
- Set clear expectations. 15Five recommends all people involved in a review cycle have visibility into who can see their feedback and what it will be used for. Clear expectations help to foster psychological safety.
- Focus on development. Research shows 360° peer feedback is effective for development purposes. Combine 360° peer feedback with the Best-Self Review as part of a larger performance management process for more robust development feedback. If running a Peer Only Review cycle, follow that up with the self & manager component to create a 360° Best-Self Review.
- Make feedback about the work. Research shows that feedback about work is more effective than feedback that centers on the person’s identity, especially when it comes to constructive feedback. For feedback to be effective, it’s important to tie it to specific goals and tasks that people perform every day. For sample questions, see 15Five’s recommended Ad Hoc Peer Review Question Template.
- Anonymous feedback. Research shows anonymous feedback is more honest and promotes psychological safety. Review administrators can choose the visibility setting during cycle setup.
- Participant initiated reviews are driven by the participant. The participant is in control of who their peers are and the participant's manager can approve or deny the peers. There is an option for managers to nominate peers on behalf of the participant, but we do recommend the participant be in charge of nominating the peers they work closely with.
- Peer initiated reviews are driven by the peer. In peer initiated reviews, the peer is in control of who they write peer reviews of. There is not an approval process for peer initiated reviews.
Help Center article 💡: Peer reviews: participant initiated vs peer initiated
The following options are available as you select review cycle participants:
- All active, invited, and created users: This option includes everyone in your organization, regardless of whether they are currently active in 15Five. It’s especially useful if you’re in the process of rolling out 15Five/adding employees and want to start with a review cycle that includes all team members.
- All active users: This option includes only individuals with active 15Five accounts at the time of the review cycle's creation.
- Everyone, except specific people or groups: Selecting this option includes all active, created, and invited individuals as participants in the review cycle, except for those you specifically choose to exclude. Excluded individuals or groups will not complete self-reviews but can still be nominated as peers or asked to write upward or manager reviews if their manager or direct reports are participating in the cycle.
- Only specific people or groups: This option allows you to include only selected individuals or groups. It’s ideal for smaller, targeted review cycles, such as one exclusively for the Leadership Team.
- Filter participants by hire date range: Use this option to include or exclude individuals based on their hire date. It’s particularly helpful for excluding new hires from a review cycle or running a cycle for a specific hiring cohort.
Note
People who are not participants will not have reviews written about them, but may still be asked to write manager, upward, and/or peer reviews about someone who is a participant.