Managing Review Cycles

Introduction

Review cycles are the assignment of the same review template to a set of employees. These work well when you are going to be doing the same review for a group or perhaps employees in similar positions. To create or manage a review cycle, navigate to the Review Cycles page inside the Reviews dropdown in your navigation. You will see listed any existing cycles; you can also navigate to the All Reviews list to see any review done in PerformYard.

The Review Cycles Page

The Review Cycles page lists every cycle you have access to. Group Admins only see cycles for groups they administer.

Cycles are sorted by Created Date, newest first. Click any column header to sort by that column. Click the filter button to filter by Review Cycle Type, Status, and 360 Review Enabled. You can select more than one option in each filter.

Setting Up a Review Cycle

To create a review cycle, click New Review Cycle.

Select the type of cycle you want to create, then click Get Started.

Manual Review Cycle: Assign reviews to selected employees and/or groups of employees.
Automated Review Cycle: Use rules to assign reviews automatically as employees qualify.
Group Review Cycle: Limit reviews to one group of employees and allow that group's administrators to help manage the cycle. This option is unavailable until your company has at least one group.

The steps that follow depend on the cycle type. You can return to a previous step at any time without losing your entries.

Cycle Settings

Review Cycle Name: A short name your team will recognize.
Cycle Group: (Group cycles only) The group whose members will be reviewed.
Review Cycle Start Date: The date and time reviews begin. The default time comes from your Company Settings. Start and due times are set in your company's time zone, shown below the field.
Lock Reviews from Non-Admins: Only admins can make process changes, such as adding forms, changing authors/signers, modifying visibility, and updating due dates.

Add Forms

Choose a template under Select a Review Template. The template's forms appear on the Forms, 360 Forms, and External Forms tabs.

Each form shows its authors, signers, due dates, visibility, and redact author settings. Forms from the template show both the relative due date and the calendar date and time it works out to when applied to your selected cycle start date.

For Manual and Group cycles, you can edit or remove any form, or click Select Forms to add forms that aren't in the template. For Automated cycles, form settings come from the template and can't be edited here.

Add Subjects

(Manual and Group cycles) Check the box next to each employee you want to review, or use the checkbox at the top of the table to select everyone. Search by name, sort by any column, or click the groups icon to add everyone in one or more groups. Check Show only selected to review your selections.

Group cycles only list members of the selected group.

Preview and Finalize

Review your cycle's settings, then click Create Review Cycle. A loading screen will be displayed as PerformYard builds the cycle you have configured. When it finishes, you'll be taken to the cycle's page.

The Review Cycle Page

Click a cycle's name to open it. The top of the page shows:

Review Cycle Information: Start date, due date, group, and template.
Review Completion: How many reviews are Completed, Closed, and Active.
Form Completion: Author and signer progress across the cycle.
Review Automation: (Automated cycles only) Automation type, status, schedule, and end date.

Review Subjects Tab

The Review Subjects tab lists each subject's review with its due date and author, signer, and overall progress. Click Open Review to view a subject's review, or click the ⋯ menu and select Delete Review to remove it.

Search by subject name, or click the filter button to filter by group, review status, due date, unassigned forms, external forms, pending 360 approvals, and progress.

Click Add Subjects above the table to add employees to the cycle.

Review Forms Tab

The Review Forms tab lists every form in the cycle, one row per form per subject, with its status, due dates, visibility, and redaction setting. Search by form name or sort by any column.

Click Add Forms above the table to add forms to the cycle.

Options Menu

The Options menu includes:

Edit Cycle Details – Update the cycle's name, start date, and lock setting.
Add Forms – Add forms to every review in the cycle.
Copy – Create a new cycle using this cycle's settings.
Edit Automation Rules, Disable Automation/Enable Automation, View Assignment Log – Automated cycles only.
Edit 360 Form Settings, Approve 360 Forms – Cycles with 360 forms only.
Download CSV – Export the cycle's review data or goal discussion answers.
Close Cycle – Close all remaining active reviews.
Delete Cycle – Remove the cycle. Only available before the cycle starts or if it has no reviews.

Options shown depend on the cycle type and your role.

Updating a Review Cycle

Select Edit Cycle Details from the Options menu. You can update:

Review Cycle Name
Review Cycle Start Date – Until the start date passes.
Lock Reviews from Non-Admins – Changes only apply to reviews going forward.

For automated cycles, you can also update the automation type and end date.

Click Save Changes.

Note: Changing the start date does not change existing form due dates. To update due dates, use the Review Forms tab.

Adding Subjects to a Cycle

On the Review Subjects tab, click Add Subjects.
Set the Review Start Date for the new reviews. It defaults to today at your company's default start time.
Select the employees to add. Employees already in the cycle aren't listed.
Click Add Subjects.

New subjects receive the forms in the cycle's template. To add other forms, use Add Forms.

Adding a subject to a closed cycle reopens the cycle.

Editing Forms in a Cycle

Form changes are made on the cycle's Review Forms tab.

Select the forms you want to change. To change every instance of a form, search by its name, then check the box at the top of the table.
Choose an action:
- Set Author Due – Change the author due date and time.
- Set Signer Due – Change the signer due date and time.
- Set Visibility – Make forms visible or not visible to the subject once complete.
- Set Redacted – Redact or show authors. Admins and Billing Admins only.
- Delete Forms – Permanently remove the forms and their answers.
Confirm your change.

Changes only apply to the selected forms. Due times are set in your company's time zone.

Completed and Closed forms keep their status when edited. An Overdue form moves back to In Progress if its due date is moved to the future.

Warning: Deleted forms and their answers can't be recovered.

Adding Forms to a Cycle

Click Add Forms above the Review Forms table, or select Add Forms from the Options menu.
Choose the Forms, 360 Forms, or External Forms tab, then click Select Review Forms.
Select one or more forms and set up each form's authors, signers, due dates, visibility, and redact author setting.
Click Add Forms, then Yes, Add Forms.

The forms are added to every review in the cycle. Completed and closed reviews are reopened.

Copying a Cycle

Select Copy from the Options menu. The cycle setup opens with the name (with "(copy)" added), start date, lock setting, and template already filled in. Manual cycles also copy their subjects, Automated cycles copy their automation settings, and Group cycles copy their group. You can change anything except the cycle type.

Copies use the latest version of the template. Forms added directly to the original cycle are not copied.

Downloading Cycle Data

Select Download CSV from the Options menu, then choose Review Data CSV or Goal Discussion CSV. If the cycle has no goal discussion questions, the review data CSV downloads immediately.

Closing a Review Cycle

Closing a cycle closes every review that isn't complete. Before closing, check what's still outstanding:

Select Review Cycles from the Reviews dropdown. Optionally, click the filter button and select Active under Status.
Click the cycle's name.
Use Review Completion and Form Completion to see how much is left. On the Review Subjects tab, click Open Review on any review to see which authors and signers haven't finished.

To complete a partially finished form instead of closing it, open the review, click Edit on the form, click the X next to each remaining author or signer, and click Update. The form completes immediately. If the form is visible to the subject, they'll be notified.

When you're ready, select Close Cycle from the Options menu and confirm. Active 360 forms are deactivated automatically.

Managing 360 Forms in Completed Cycles

Cycles with active 360 forms show a 360 icon next to the cycle name.

Closing a cycle deactivates its 360 forms automatically. If every review is completed without closing the cycle, deactivate them manually:

Open the cycle.
Select Edit 360 Form Settings from the Options menu.
Click Deactivate 360 Forms.