This guide walks you through the essential tasks you'll perform as a restricted admin when managing performance reviews. We'll cover how to add and remove users, move people between review steps, generate reports, manage contributor feedback, and troubleshoot common issues.
Understanding your access as a restricted admin
As a restricted admin, you have access to manage reviews for specific departments or groups within your organisation. This means you can see and manage only the users within your scope—for example, if you're a restricted admin for the Commercial department, you'll only see Commercial team members when managing reviews.
You can view review settings and understand how a review has been configured, but you cannot change the core review structure. This is managed by super admins to maintain consistency across the firm.
Accessing and navigating reviews
To access reviews, navigate to the Reviews section from your admin dashboard. You'll see all available reviews, which you can organise into folders by dragging and dropping them together. This helps keep different review types (annual reviews, probation reviews, trainee reviews) organised.
Reviews can be in two states:
Draft: Users cannot see the review yet. You can add participants, but they won't receive notifications until the review is activated by a super admin.
Active: The review is live, and any changes you make will be immediately visible to participants. Emails will be sent according to the configured triggers.
Adding participants to a review
Adding people to a review is straightforward. Here's how:
Click into the review you want to manage
Navigate to the Enrolment tab
Click Add New Participants
Select users from your available scope (you'll only see people within your restricted admin access)
Add individuals one by one, or use filters to add groups by role (for example, all Associates)
Review your selection in the assigned users section
Click Add New Participants to confirm
If the review is active, participants will be automatically notified according to the email settings configured for that review.
Managing the enrolment list
The Enrolment tab shows all participants in the review and their current progress. You can use several tools to manage this effectively:
Search: Find specific users by name, role, department, or any other attribute
Filter: Filter by department, location, contribution status, or review step to quickly see where people are in the process
Toggle columns: Show or hide columns to focus on the information that matters most to you
Sort: Click column headers to sort the view
Export: Download the data to Excel for further analysis or reporting
Moving users between review steps
Sometimes you'll need to move a user back to a previous step—perhaps they completed their self-assessment too early or need to make changes. Here's how:
Find the user in the Enrolment list
Click the edit (pencil) icon next to their name to open Edit Participation
Use the step dropdown to select which step to move them to
Click Save
The change happens immediately, and the user will be able to access the relevant step. No notification is sent automatically when you move someone between steps.
Changing participation status
You have several options for managing a user's participation:
Active: The user is participating in the review normally
Inactive: The user is temporarily removed from the review. Their data is retained, and you can reactivate them later if needed
Delete participation: Permanently removes the user from the review. All their data and inputs are deleted and cannot be recovered
To change participation status, open Edit Participation (the pencil icon) and set the participant's step/status.
Managing contributor feedback
If your review includes contributor feedback (360-degree feedback), you can manage this process:
View contributor status: See who has been nominated to provide feedback and their completion status
Reopen feedback: If a contributor needs to edit their feedback, open Manage contributors from the participant's actions, find the contributor, and click Reopen. Their original input will be retained, but the form will return to draft status so they can make changes
Add contributors: You can add additional contributors if needed
Logging in as a user
When troubleshooting issues or supporting users, you can view the platform exactly as they see it:
Find the user in the Enrolment list
Click the edit (pencil) icon to open Edit Participation
Click Login as [user name]
Confirm you want to proceed
You'll now see the platform from that user's perspective. A banner at the top reminds you whose account you're viewing. To return to your own account, click Return to account in the top right corner.
Note: When logging in as a user at step two or beyond, you'll be viewing as the person who owns that step (typically the reviewer), not the reviewee.
Generating reports and PDFs
You can generate PDFs of review data for individual users or in bulk:
Individual PDF: Open Edit Participation (the pencil icon); under Step Actions you can generate or regenerate the step PDF
Bulk PDFs: Select multiple users using the checkboxes, then click Bulk actions and choose Generate PDFs
PDFs include all the information configured in the review settings and are useful for preparing for review conversations or storing records.
AI-powered summaries
If your firm has subscribed to AI features, you can access automatically generated summaries of review inputs. These summaries scan feedback, self-reflections, and other inputs to provide a structured, short overview. They're visible to the reviewee, reviewer, those with leadership views, and you as a restricted admin.
To view AI summaries, click the AI summaries icon next to a user's name. You can also run AI analysis in bulk by selecting multiple users and choosing Run AI analysis from the bulk actions menu.
Using bulk actions
When you need to perform actions on multiple users at once:
Use the checkbox at the top of the list to select all users, or select individual users
Click Bulk actions Choose your action: - Move to a specific step - Generate PDFs - Run AI analysis (if available)
Confirm the action
Bulk actions save significant time when managing larger review groups.
Monitoring review progress with analytics
The Activity & Engagement view provides a snapshot of how your review is progressing:
Click into the review module
Open the Activity & Engagement tab
You'll see:
Total number of participants in your scope
Distribution of users across review steps
Contributor feedback completion rates
Review activity frequency (how often people are logging in)
Workload distribution (which managers have the most reviews assigned)
This information is useful for reporting, identifying bottlenecks, and ensuring the review process is on track.
Understanding review settings
Whilst you cannot change review settings, understanding them helps you support users effectively. Scroll through the review page to see:
Review description and purpose
Number of steps in the workflow
Whether fast feedback and objectives are included
Contributor feedback settings
Report and PDF settings
A graphical timeline showing the complete workflow
The Review Overview screen is your central hub for monitoring and managing an active performance review cycle. As a restricted admin, you'll use this screen frequently to check cycle status, understand the review configuration, and access key management functions.
The top section breaks down your review into three key areas.
The Steps & Forms Panel shows you have 2 employee/manager steps with 8 form pages total, and indicates which features are enabled (such as Fast Feedback import, objectives display, and AI implementations).
The 360/Contributor Feedback Panel reveals that this cycle allows unlimited contributors, both employees and managers can nominate contributors from the review dashboard, and there's no minimum threshold for displaying feedback.
The PDF Report Settings Panel confirms that PDF reports are available both during and after the review cycle.
Understanding the Workflow Visualisation
The graphical timeline at the bottom is the most valuable part of this screen for day-to-day admin work. It shows exactly how the review progresses from start to finish. So from the example above:
Pre-Step: Contributor Feedback – Before the formal review steps begin, contributors are invited to provide 360 feedback. Note there's no due date set, which means contributors can submit feedback at any point during the cycle. The email invitation automatically goes to contributors when they're nominated.
Initiation Emails – When the review starts for an individual, emails are automatically sent to the employee, their supervisor, and second supervisor (if applicable). This ensures everyone knows the review has begun.
Step 1: Self-assessment – The employee completes their self-reflection across five pages: Overview, Feedback, My contribution, Looking forward, and Confirm. Once submitted, completion emails notify all relevant parties.
Step 2: Reviewer assessment – The primary supervisor completes their assessment across three pages. This is where managers evaluate the employee's contribution and provide their overall assessment. Completion emails again notify all parties.
Refer to this screen when managers ask questions like "What forms does my employee need to complete?" or "When will I be notified that they've finished?" You can see exactly which pages are in each step and who receives emails at each stage.
When troubleshooting access issues or moving people between steps (covered in the Enrolment section), this workflow visualisation helps you understand where someone should be in the process and what they should be able to access.
Common support scenarios
Here are some typical situations you'll encounter and how to resolve them:
User completed their self-assessment by mistake: Move them back to step one so they can re-access and complete it properly
User needs to make changes after submission: Move them back to the relevant step. Their previous inputs will be retained
Contributor gave feedback to wrong person: Reopen the feedback so they can edit or withdraw it. Their inputs will be retained.
User can't see their review: Check their participation status is Active, and verify they're at the correct step. Act as the user to validate.
Manager needs to see what employee submitted: Use Login as to view from the employee's perspective, or generate a PDF