[Performance Reviews] Instructions for Managers

As a manager, you'll be responsible for not only writing your self-assessment, but also writing manager assessments for each of your direct reports.

Typically you will receive a kickoff email from your HR team letting you know about your timelines and other general guidelines. Any outstanding tasks will also be displayed front and center on your Small Improvements homepage.

Click Reviews on the left navigation bar to see a list of all current and previous reviews you've participated in, either as a reviewee or reviewer.

Once the cycle is open, there are three simple steps involved in a performance review:

Clicking the link in your email notifications or the task on your Small Improvements homepage should take you directly to the questionnaire designed by your HR team. The header information will contain an introduction message and the dates and deadlines set by your HR team. Please contact your HR team if you have any questions about the information displayed here.

Expand the Helpful Resources menu on the right side of the page for easy access to the reviewee's activity throughout our platform. You can pop open Objectives, 1:1 Meeting notes, Praises, and more – without even leaving the page.

Use the AI Writing Assistant to polish up your feedback. As a first step, focus on getting your thoughts down without spending too much time thinking about the delivery. You can even start with a simple list of bullet points. Then, click the AI icon in the upper right corner of the textbox to make your feedback more specific and more actionable.

To save a review as a draft and return to it later, click Save and Close in the lower right corner.

Your HR Team may have chosen to include a Finished Writing indicator so that you can mark your reviews as Written before sharing with the reviewee. Use this to indicate to upper management/HR that the review has been finalized.

Click Share when you are ready to release the results to the reviewee. Depending on your timeline settings, you may be able to share with the reviewee as soon as you are ready, or you may need to return to this step at a later date.

Reviews saved as drafts are not automatically shared after the sharing deadline passes. You'll need to contact your HR team for an extension to finish writing and sharing.

You can unshare and edit a review (as long as you are still within the timeline for writing and sharing) by visiting your Reviews dashboard in the left navigation bar, clicking to Edit the review, and clicking Unshare in the lower right corner. Just be aware that the reviewee may have already viewed the shared draft in the time between sharing and unsharing.

Immediately upon sharing the review, you'll be prompted to include a high-level AI-generated summary. This summary is only ever visible to managers and HR, not the reviewee. If you disagree with any of the bullet points, you can refresh or remove them before submitting (or omit the summary altogether).

If your company is using our 1:1 Meetings feature, you'll also be prompted to create a follow-up meeting with the reviewee. This prompt only appears to reviewers, not reviewees. You can check the box next to any of the summaries to jumpstart your agenda, or leave them unchecked to start with a clean slate.

Reviews should be just the start of the conversation: schedule some time face-to-face to reflect on the review period, set expectations, and design an action plan.

Once both the self- and manager assessments have been shared, both parties will be asked to sign. They'll have the option to leave a comment with their signature.

Signing the review locks it from further editing. If you need to reopen the review after it has been signed, contact your HR team for help with revoking the signatures.

Once your reviews have been signed, the tasks will disappear from your homepage. To access your team's past reviews, visit your Reviews dashboard or search for the employee's profile using the search bar at the bottom of the left navigation menu.

If you have a large number of direct reports, you may want to get a high-level view of their statuses throughout this process. Use the left navigation menu to go to your Reviews dashboard, navigate to the Team tab, and open the cycle overview page for any given cycle.

From the cycle overview page, you can: