Skip to main content

Performance Reviews Setup and Analytics

Build, customize, and manage performance review cycles for employees, managers and peers

Written by Efrat Barak Zadok

To get started:

  1. Navigate to the "Performance Reviews" section in the left-hand menu.

  2. Here you'll find:

    • All review cycles.

    • Key details such as cycle name, timeline, status (draft, scheduled, running), creation date, and creator.

Creating a New Performance Review Cycle

  1. Click the "Create New Cycle" button at the top of the page.

  2. Choose from the following options:

    • Select previous performance cycle – ideal for repeating reviews (e.g., Q1, Q2).

    • Blank performance cycle – create a fully custom review.

    • Smart cycle generation – input key focus areas (e.g., talent development, employee ownership) with AI-assisted setup.

Customizing the Cycle

Once your cycle is created:

1. Edit the cycle name and guidelines.

  • Guidelines will be visible to all participants.

  • You can select a previous cycle to track past goals and help assess progress over time.

2. Customize review forms for employees, managers and peers:

  • You can build cycles using any mix of forms:

    • Employee self-review

    • Manager review

    • Peer review (assign as many peers as you want to each employee)

      …or any combination (self + manager, self + peer, all three, etc.)

  • Edit forms using:

    • Pre-filled AI questions (fully customizable).

    • Drag-and-drop from the question bank.

    • Question types: long answer, rating scales, multiple choice, and more.

    • Sections and breaks to structure forms by topics.

    • Mark questions as 'required' to ensure key questions are answered.

Manager-Only Cycles: Hidden from Employees

Performance cycles configured with only a manager review form are automatically hidden from employees. Because these cycles require no employee input, they are excluded from the employee's performance dashboard to reduce clutter.

  • Employees: The cycle is hidden and will not appear in their performance view.

  • Managers, Admins, and Super Admins: The cycle remains visible and can be accessed as normal.

When setting up a new cycle with only a manager review form selected, a notification will appear in the creation wizard as a reminder that the cycle will be invisible to employees. No further action or configuration is required.

3. Manager Form Visibility Settings:

  • Hide sensitive questions (e.g., "Would you rehire this employee?") from employees, even after the review is published.

Selecting Participants

You can assign reviews to:

  • Entire organization

  • Specific offices

  • Teams

  • Individual employees

Finalizing & Launching the Cycle

  1. Review the summary page:

    • Preview forms.

    • Check visibility.

    • Confirm participants.

  2. Click "Save" to keep the cycle as a draft.

  3. To launch:

    • Click "Launch Cycle".

    • Select start and end dates.

    • Participants will receive email notifications when the cycle begins.

Launch Type: Fixed Dates or Dynamic Anchor Date

When launching a cycle, choose between two ways of setting participant timelines:

  • Fixed dates – the same start and end date apply to every participant.

  • Dynamic anchor date – each participant's cycle launches automatically based on their own lifecycle date (e.g. Start Date), instead of one fixed date for everyone.

For a dynamic anchor date cycle, set:

  • Launch trigger – how long after (or before) the anchor date the cycle should launch for each participant, e.g. "3 weeks after Start Date."

  • Completion time – how long each participant has to complete their review once their cycle launches, e.g. "2 weeks."

Example: with a launch trigger of 3 weeks after Start Date and a completion time of 2 weeks, each participant's cycle starts 3 weeks after their individual start date and stays open for 2 weeks.

Recurring Cycles

A fixed-date cycle can be set to repeat automatically on a schedule instead of being recreated manually each time. Toggle on Repeat this cycle and set how often it repeats (e.g. every 3 months).

Choose how the recurrence ends:

  • After a set number of occurrences

  • On a specific date

  • Ongoing, with no end date

Each occurrence appears as its own entry in the Performance Reviews table, labeled with its occurrence number, so you can track the cycle's history at a glance.

Good to know: Recurrence is only available for fixed-date cycles.

Managing a Live Cycle

Once a cycle is live, click "Manage" to view:

  • Completion status for all employees and managers.

  • Whether reviews have been started, submitted, or published.

  • AI-generated summary insights for each participant.

  • Historical goal tracking, including:

    • Goal names and progress.

    • Goal weighting.

Performance Insights

Navigate to the "Insights" tab to access:

  • AI-generated cycle summary (company-wide).

  • Completion metrics broken down by employee and manager.

  • Response breakdown for single select, multi select and rating questions.

Hover over data visualizations for more detailed stats.

Reviewing Individual Performance

As a Super Admin, you can:

  1. Go to an employee's profile.

  2. Open the Performance Reviews tab.

  3. View:

    • All cycles they're part of.

    • Submission status.

    • Their review responses.

    • AI summaries for a quick overview.

Please note: any employee that started working within 30 days of the cycle start date will not be included in the performance review cycle.

Managing Participants in Review Cycles

  • Add or remove participants after a cycle has been launched

  • Add peers to any participant once the cycle is live (managers can also do this for their reports)

  • Re-open employee or manager forms after they've been submitted

  • Change manager during the cycle

Extending or Reopening a Cycle's End Date

You can change a running cycle's end date directly from the cycle's menu — useful when participants need more time to finish their reviews.

If a cycle has already ended, you can bring it back: set a new end date and the cycle returns to Running with a fresh deadline.

Good to know: This applies to fixed-date cycles only. Rolling (dynamic) cycles have no fixed end date, so this option isn't available for them.

Admin Permissions

Performance review permissions are split into two separate controls, which Super Admins can assign per Admin Role:

  • Cycle operation management – create cycles, define the review structure and questions, and edit or delete cycles.

  • People & reviews management – set participants, launch cycles, track submission status, and view performance answers.

These can be granted independently or together, so one group of admins can build and structure cycles while a different (or overlapping) group is responsible for setting participants and launching them. Admins with either permission can manage performance reviews from one central view, with quick access to all the employees they're responsible for.

Manager Notifications for Review Submissions

As a cycle manager, stay informed with real-time updates when reviews are submitted for your team.

Notification Triggers

You will receive automated alerts when the following events occur:

  • Self-Reviews: An employee submits their own self-review.

  • Peer Reviews: A peer completes and submits a review for an employee.

Notification Channels

Alerts are sent through your enabled channels:

  • Email

  • Slack Direct Message

  • Microsoft Teams Direct Message

How to Customize Notifications

  1. Navigate to My Settings in your Shapes dashboard.

  2. Select Performance Reviews.

  3. Toggle the switches for your preferred communication channels (Email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams) ON or OFF.

Note: Notifications respect your existing channel preferences by default. No additional setup is required to start receiving these alerts.

Did this answer your question?