Notifications help keep your 360 Feedback cycle moving forward by guiding employees, managers, and reviewers through each stage. This article explains when each notification is sent, whether it is automatic or manual, and what you can control as an HR Admin.
Before you begin
A few things apply to most 360 Feedback notifications:
Some notifications are sent automatically when they are needed for the next step in the process.
Others must be triggered manually, giving you more control over timing and communication.
Most notifications can only be generated once within a 24-hour period.
The notifications available in your cycle depend on your cycle configuration and settings.
Nominations
Initial invitation to nominate reviewers
Depends on cycle settings
The cycle kickoff email is manually triggered and invites employees to nominate their reviewers.
If you are setting up a cycle in advance, you can have a cycle kick-off email sent automatically from the Timeline section of your cycle settings.
If you prefer to send it manually, you can do so from the Notify menu.
Each employee only receives this invitation once. After the initial send, the button will show "inform 0 reviewers" because everyone has already been notified. If you add reviewees after the initial mailing, using the same button will send the invitation only to those new people.
Note: This notification is not available in cycles where managers or HR Admins assign reviewers directly.
Reminder to nominate reviewers
Depends on cycle settings
This is a separate email for following up with employees who have not yet nominated reviewers. You can use it to create a sense of urgency, and (depending on your subscription) update the template over time to increase that urgency as a deadline approaches.
You can send this manually from the Notify menu, or set a regular cadence for nomination nudges in the Automations section of your cycle settings.
Approvals
Inform managers to approve reviewers
Depends on cycle settings
When setting up your cycle, you can choose to have this email sent automatically. It goes out once per day after the nomination period closes and the approval window opens, and only to managers who have nominations to approve. Notifications are bundled, so each manager receives a single email even if they have multiple employees to review.
Note: If you do not enable automatic sending, you will need to trigger this manually under the Notify menu.
Like the automatic notification, this only goes out to managers whose team members have actually nominated anyone. Notifications are bundled, so each manager receives only one email, even if they have multiple people to approve.
If this option is greyed out, one of the following is likely:
You are outside the approval timeframe. Check your cycle timeline to confirm.
You have already notified all managers with pending approvals.
You did not include a manager approval step in your cycle setup.
This option is not available in cycles where HR Admins assign reviewers.
Nudge managers to approve reviewers
Triggered manually
This sends a reminder to all managers with outstanding approvals. Note that the 24-hour limit does not currently apply to this nudge, so it will go out to all managers with pending approvals each time you trigger it.
Inform manager when a reviewer for their team member declines to provide feedback
Triggered automatically
When a reviewer declines to provide feedback, the reviewee's manager is notified automatically. This is automatic because the manager may need to act quickly, for example, by selecting a replacement reviewer or following up with the person who declined.
Inform reviewee when one of their nominated reviewers declines to provide feedback
Triggered automatically (depending on cycle settings)
This is an optional setting, turned off by default. You can enable it in the Visibility and Anonymity section of your cycle settings. When enabled, the email is generated automatically.
Providing Feedback
Inform reviewers to provide feedback
Triggered automatically
Once a manager or HR Admin approves the reviewers for an employee, the reviewers are automatically notified. Notifications are bundled to avoid email overload and are sent by default every hour.
If you use Slack, your employees will receive a private Slack notification.
Nudge reviewers to provide feedback
Depends on cycle settings
You can nudge your reviewers to remind them to write feedback. Small Improvements will email every reviewer in this cycle who has not yet shared the feedback they were invited to provide. These emails are bundled, so each reviewer only receives one.
You can nudge an individual reviewer as well.
You can also set a regular cadence for nudges in the Automations section of your cycle settings.
With this enabled, your reviewers will receive a weekly nudge.
If you use Slack, your employees will receive a private Slack notification.
Shared Feedback
Inform reviewees about feedback that became available
Depends on cycle settings
The HR Admin does not need to manually generate this notification. This email will only be sent if your employees are allowed to see the provided feedback.
If they are allowed to see the feedback, there are two ways this email is triggered:
The manager can trigger it by manually sharing the feedback with an employee. This depends on your cycle settings.
The email will be sent automatically when the deadline for releasing feedback is reached.
If you use Slack, your employees will receive a private Slack notification.