A review process asks people to do something that could seem unfamiliar to them, usually while they are busy. Most of the questions that land on an admin's desk — what am I meant to write here? is this visible to my manager? when is this due? — can be answered before they are asked, by putting the right words in the right place.

Performance Leader gives you five ways to do that. This guide explains what each one is for, where to configure it, and how to choose between them — whether you are designing a review for the first time or updating one you have run before.

The useful distinction is push versus pull. Emails are the only channel that reaches someone who is not already in the platform. Everything else is waiting for them when they arrive.

A page alert is a banner across the top of the Reviews module. Every user who opens Reviews sees it, so it is the right tool for something that applies to everyone, and the wrong tool for anything targeted.

To configure one, go to Settings > General > Applications, click Configure on Reviews, then open the Page Alert tab and click Configure.

You set:

Best practice. The alert is module-wide and stays up until you turn it off, so treat it as a noticeboard rather than a permanent fixture. Write the removal date into your cycle plan at the same time you write the alert — a banner announcing a deadline that passed three weeks ago teaches people to ignore the banner.

An empty state is what someone sees when they open Reviews and have nothing waiting for them. There are two, and they are configured separately:

Both live under Settings > General > Applications > Configure on Reviews > Empty States.

Each one shows you the default heading and default description, with a custom heading and custom description underneath. Leave the custom fields empty and the default is used.

Best practice. The defaults are based on best practice and cover the general case. Override them only when you have something more specific to say - for example a specific framework used at the firm.

This is also the screen most often forgotten when a process changes. If your cycle dates move or the process is renamed, check the empty states still describe reality.

Page instructions are the first thing people see when they start the form — they set the tone. It is tempting to use this space to cover every eventuality, but that usually turns into a long preamble that stops people engaging with the form.

Aim for two to three lines at the top of the page, then place additional guidance next to the relevant inputs.

To update page instructions, simply click into the blue area at the top of the page and click edit.

Best practice. Keep it short and focus on what everyone needs to know to complete the form. Guidance for specific inputs (how to set goals, where competency frameworks live) should sit closer to the relevant section.

If a page needs three paragraphs of preamble before anyone can start, the page is probably doing too much — consider splitting it.

A tooltip is detail available on demand — the reader clicks or hovers rather than reading it by default. That makes it the right home for anything that is genuinely useful but too long to sit on the page: a competency definition, worked examples, the expectations at a particular grade.

Tooltips are managed as a reusable library. From Manage Apps > Reviews, click Tooltips, then Add New Tooltip. Once a tooltip exists you can attach it to fields across your forms.

Best practice. Because they are reusable, tooltips reward being written once and properly. A firm with a capability framework should have that framework in tooltips, not pasted into each form. When the framework changes you update it in one place.

For step-by-step instructions, see Create a tooltip.

Emails are the only channel that reaches someone who is not already in the platform, which makes them the most powerful and the easiest to overuse.

There are two kinds:

Step emails are part of the review itself. A cycle sends initiation emails when it opens, and step completion emails as each step finishes, with separate messages available for the employee, the supervisor and the second supervisor. These are configured per cycle through Manage Emails on the review. See Create email notifications within a review process.

If someone loses or never receives one, you can resend it — see Regenerate PDF or resend the step email.

Email campaigns are separate from the review and are how you chase, remind and encourage. They can target a dynamic audience — for example, everyone who has not completed their current step — so you are not emailing people who have already done what you asked. See Use email campaigns to nudge review completion and Create a new email campaign.

Best practice. Step emails should say what has happened and what to do next. Campaigns should be aimed only at people who still need to act — a reminder sent to someone who finished last week costs you credibility for the next one. Note also that a due date set on a step is a prompt to the user, not an enforcement: nothing stops someone continuing past it, so if a date matters, it needs a campaign behind it.

A rough decision order:

Comms drift more than configuration does. When you roll a cycle over or change a process, these are worth a deliberate pass:

Running Test review design quality with Compass AI before you launch will catch some of this, including pages with no substantive content.