Building Forms (Admin)

Your organization has the ability to create as many review forms as needed to conduct the various types of reviews that you want. To create and manage forms, navigate to the Reviews page in Administration where you can find Forms and Templates. Selecting Forms lists every review form for your organization, along with the following information related to each form:

  • Date of Last Update
  • The name of the person who last updated the form
  • A count of the number of templates the form is used in
  • A count of the number of questions in the form

In addition, selecting the number of templates associated with a form displays a window that lists each review template alongside a link to view the template's details.

To edit an existing form, click the form name. To create a new form, click Create New Form. Adding a new form asks you to define the new form's name before taking you to a view that allows you to define your new form's questions. You can re-name your form using the title at the top of the question area, indicated by the pencil icon when hovering over the form's title.

To add a question, click the New Question button. This will add a new question to the bottom of your form in an open editable state that allows you to select the question type you would like to use. There are 10 types of questions available:

  • Long answer – Text boxes where employees can write detailed answers; the most open ended question type
  • Multi-line answer – Bulleted lists where employees can add as many or as few bullets as they want
  • Numeric – Questions seeking an answer in the form of a number only; contains options for min/max and to allow decimals/integers
  • Date – Employees select a date using a calendar function
  • Multiple choice – Questions where employees can select from a pre-defined list of choices; maximum 20 answer choices. Default allows for selection of one choice; option exists to allow for multiple selections.
  • Instructions - Not truly a question type in that no answer options will be provided; instructions provides the opportunity to give information about the review and expectations
  • Rating scale - Questions where employees select from a pre-defined list, but where each point on the scale is converted into a numeric value such that it can be used in a Numeric calculation
  • Goal discussion - Provides the option for employees to select one or more of the subject's goals and discuss their achievement; may also include the option to rate performance on the goal
  • Goal creation - Allows the employee to create new goals for the subject employees one and a time
  • Numeric calculation - Questions that are automatically answered by addition or average calculations on other Numeric questions

Our article on question describes each of the question types in depth along with images of how to set them up and what they look like in use. You can also learn more about adding goal information to a review form by going to this article explaining Goal questions in the form builder.

While in an editable state, each question type includes a Question Title field and an optional Question Subtitle field that can be enabled by selecting the Add Subtitle button located at the top of each question. The Question Title field allows for a larger more emphasized title, while the Subtitle field is smaller to account for more text explaining the purpose or details of a question that better fit as subtext. Depending on the question type, more options will be available.

In addition, each question type allows you to indicate that a question is required and must be answered before the form can be fully submitted. This option can be toggled using the Required Question checkbox that is displayed towards the bottom of each question's edit mode area. Required questions will be indicated with an asterisk next to the question title after saving your question settings and when previewing or authoring a form.

Hovering over a question displays a set of options that allow you to take action on a question. Selecting the Edit button will open the question into an edit mode that allows you to change aspects of the question and how it will work in your form. The Duplicate button will copy your selected question and place the copy directly beneath its source. The Delete button will remove the question from your form.

Options for taking action on the question will be displayed depending on whether you are creating a brand new question or editing an existing question. If a new question is being created, options to Cancel or Create will be available. Selecting the Cancel option will abandon your new question and remove it from the form, while selecting the Create option will save your new question to the form.

If you are editing an existing question, a Cancel option will also be present just as it was when creating the question. However, instead of removing the question you are editing the Cancel option abandons any changes made and reverts the question back to its last saved state. In addition to the Cancel option, the Update option is available that allows you to save your changes to the question you are editing.

Regardless of whether a question is being updated or created, a question type's required fields must be completed in order for the question to be saved. If a required field or error in configuration is detected, the problem will be highlighted for easy correction or re-configuration.

The right-hand menu has a number of options for taking action on the form as a whole. These include:

  • Save Form - Allows you to save your changes to a form. This button is disabled if no changes to a form have been made.
  • Save as Copy - Allows you to duplicate the form. The option to rename your copy will be presented before the copy is created.
  • Preview - Opens a preview of the form as it would appear to a form author or signer in another browser tab.
  • Preview as PDF - Generates and downloads a PDF version of the form preview for ease of review and sharing outside of PerformYard.
  • Delete Form - Removes the form from PerformYard.