This guide walks you through how to complete a performance review in the Performance/Talent & Development area.

Contents

• Introduction
• Inserting a Review
• Review Date amendments (system administrator licence required)
• Reviews in practice
• Close Review
• Reporting
  
   

Introduction

• Talent Management gives you the ability to keep a record of reviews such as probation, monthly 1-1’s and annual appraisals. Each review can have multiple sections and can provide a step by step workflow for employees, managers and peers to participate in each review.
• Review templates are built via Review Type configuration, which pulls together the Review Forms for each reviewer to complete (employee/manager/peer). For more details on configuration please refer to the relevant information on these areas.

Inserting a Review

• To add a review to an employee’s record, go to the Reviews tab in the Employee Dashboard.  You can find this via:
  • Latest (left-hand) menu: Performance & Development > Employee Dashboard
  • Pre-2025 (top) menu: Talent & Development > Talent Management > Employee Dashboard
• Access to this area is controlled by page permissions for each user role. There are additional controls on this page if a user has write access, as shown below. For example, you may wish an employee to create and update their own review but not delete, so that the manager/HR can control any deletions.

• When selecting a review type template, the associated forms become available.
• If only one form is attached for each reviewer, the forms will auto-populate and are mandatory.

• The employee and manager name will be pre-populated and cannot be amended. It is possible for a system administrator to change the manager if needed, once the review is created.
• If there is more than one manager in the manager job role (subject to Jobs File being enabled) and/or a deputy is assigned to the manager, all names will be visible in the Manager name field so they can all contribute to the review as necessary - see Multiple Managers section for more details

• If you attach more than one form for each reviewer in the Review Type configuration, to give users a choice of forms for different processes (such as where you may be limited to one review type with the standard Talent Management Fundamentals module) then the forms won’t auto-populate and are not mandatory. When inserting the review, the user can select the relevant form(s) as required.

• The review date and next review date can also be recorded at this stage. The next review date will default to a year ahead but can be amended as necessary.

• Once the appropriate review type, associated forms, and dates have been selected, click Submit to create the review
• A message will give you the option to go straight into the first form (usually employee), or go to the dashboard summary
• Each reviewer will receive an email alert (subject to system configuration) to advise them that they have been invited to take part in a review

Review Date amendments (system admins only)

• Review date and next review date fields cannot be amended after the review has been created, unless you have a system administrator licence.
• To edit dates, the system administrator can click on the relevant review within the Employee Dashboard > Reviews, and click the Edit button on the right-hand side to make the fields editable. Amend the dates then click Update to save or Cancel to abandon the change(s).

Reviews in practice

• Reviews are stored in the Reviews Tab of the Employee Dashboard
• When first accessing the Tab, the filter may need to be selected to see the relevant Review Type

Clicking into a review will show the associated forms and will be highlighted green if you are the reviewer.

• Clicking into a form will then show the sections and questions to complete, in line with your review form configuration.

Note: If you have used an optional Base Form in your Review Type, the section(s) will show at the start of the workflow before any specific employee/manager sections.

• A message at the top of the screen explains that answers will be automatically saved in draft mode whilst working on the form, and no-one else will be able to see the draft answers until the section is submitted. 

Note: Inactivity on the page will result in the normal timeout process.

• When a section is submitted, the workflow circle turns green and other permitted users (manager/HR) will be able to view the information in the form as read-only
• If detail is added without submission, it is saved in draft mode, so only the author can see it

• The above answers will not be visible to other reviewers/HR users as shown below
• The same visibility applies to the Print Review button, so draft (unsubmitted) comments can be output to PDF but will only be visible to the author

Note: Submitted (green) sections can still be edited and resubmitted by the reviewer, as many times as needed, as long as the form has not been signed off.

 

• An Employee Answers button allows the manager to switch between their form and the employee form. Similarly, a user will also see a Manager Answers button on the employee form to switch views between employee and manager’s responses (subject to access permissions)

• The name will change when clicking into the manager form so it is clear that clicking it again will take the user back to the employee form

 

• The option to Sign Off appears when the last section is submitted. The message warns that once the form is signed off it cannot be edited. Clicking Continue allows you to continue editing as required

• Once a form is signed off, this action cannot be undone by anyone involved in the review
• It is suggested that a final sign-off checklist section, such as the one illustrated below, can be helpful to avoid forms being unintentionally locked

Note: If a form is unintentionally signed off, an HR user role who is not directly involved in the review can undo the sign-off.

• Once the form is signed off, the draft message bar disappears
• The form is now read-only and answers are visible to all users who have access

• Within the Reviews tab in the Employee Dashboard, you can see if the overall review is signed off

• If the review shows an X, click into it to see which reviewer forms are completed

 

• If you have multiple managers within a job role that share the management of a group of subordinates, all managers in the manager job role (or their enabled deputy) can contribute to the review (subject to the appropriate Employee Dashboard page permissions)

• The manager that signs off the review as complete will then be the manager named in the dashboard and any reports: in the example below, Emma White signed off the form.

Note: Only the primary (reports to) manager will receive the email to invite them to take part in the review when it is inserted. When reporting on reviews that have not been signed off, the primary manager will also be listed as the manager reviewer.

• If a manager reviewer moves roles or their deputy status changes during a review (before sign-off), their names will be added to or removed from the associated review accordingly.

Note: The manager(s) is/are linked by the job they are in, so if a system administrator needs to change manager, the new manager selected will be linked by their job. Therefore, changing the manager changes the job the employee reports into for this particular review, so if there are multiple managers in the job they will also be updated accordingly. Please refer to the change manager guide for more information

 

Close Review (system admins only)

• System administrators (licence required) can close unfinished reviews, for example where an employee has left and is unable to complete it. A button will show when clicking into the review in the Employee Dashboard

• A warning box will pop up to confirm you wish to close the review
• Clicking Yes will then fully sign off the review (all forms within it – employee/manager/peer)
• If it is the manager form that is incomplete due to the manager being unavailable/incorrect, you may wish to consider changing the manager so that the review can still be finished rather than closed

Reporting

• Talent Management reports can be built in Report Designer in the usual manner, but there is a specialist report to output raw data on reviews that have been completed
• Go to Reports > Specialist Reports > Talent Management
• Please see the Talent Management - Specialist Report for more details