Review workflows act as reusable blueprints for your company's performance evaluations. Instead of rebuilding your process from scratch every cycle, you can configure a workflow once—such as for annual performance reviews—and reuse it infinitely for future campaigns.
This article guides you through building a review workflow, configuring its distinct steps, managing visibility rules, and organizing your workflow library.
💡 Still using our previous review system? See Classic Reviews documentation for help with one-on-one and 360 reviews.
Understand workflows vs. campaigns
To get the most out of the Performance module, it helps to understand how workflows and campaigns interact:
Workflow: The structural recipe or blueprint for your review process. It establishes which steps are included, who participates, which questionnaires are filled out, and who holds visibility permissions.
Campaign: The actual execution of that blueprint. When you launch a campaign, you apply an existing workflow to a specific timeline and a chosen group of employees.
You create workflows once and reuse them many times. You launch campaigns whenever it is time to kick off active reviews.
Create your workflow
Workflows are built and stored within the Performance tab.
Access the workflow builder
Navigate to Performance > Workflows in the left-hand navigation menu.
Click on the New workflow button.
You'll see the workflow builder with several sections to complete.
Set basic information
Workflow name: Enter a descriptive title that helps identify the review type (e.g., Annual 360 Review, Quarterly Check-In).
Workflow description: Provide clear context detailing when and why managers should select this specific blueprint.
💡 Tip: Create separate, specialized workflows for different evaluation types rather than trying to force one workflow to fit every company scenario. Consider setting up distinct pipelines for annual reviews, peer feedback, or new-hire probations.
Configure reviewees, supervisors & viewers
Every workflow requires defined structures for who is being evaluated and who is managing the process behind the scenes.
Select reviewees
Define the target audience or the criteria for employees who will be evaluated under this specific workflow setup. You can include all employees, or target specific groups and users.
Configure review supervisors
Review supervisors oversee the manual operations of an active review. They can add or remove individual participants, advance reviews through workflow steps, and close finalized evaluations.
Automatic supervisors: Users with HR and Group HR system roles (restricted to their specific group parameters) automatically act as review supervisors and campaign admins. You do not need to add them manually.
Managers as supervisors: Check this option to automatically turn managers into supervisors for their own team members' reviews. This allows them to handle day-to-day timeline adjustments without relying on HR intervention.
Specific users: Add individual team members by name if they require supervisory oversight across every campaign launched from this workflow (e.g., a specific talent partner or executive).
Establish review viewers
Review viewers require read-only access to review content but cannot make operational changes or alter timelines. This is ideal for skip-level managers, HR business partners, or executives who need visibility for talent calibration.
You can grant viewer permissions using two methods:
By role: Select Managers to give skip-level visibility for direct reports, or pick other pre-defined organizational roles.
By user: Look up and assign individuals who must see all generated review content for the specific workflow.
💡 Tip: Be highly intentional when adding review viewers. While organizational transparency is valuable, some employees may feel uncomfortable sharing verbatim feedback outside of their direct reporting line. Align these settings closely with your company culture.
Set up the feedback step
The optional Feedback step uses specific questionnaires to gather structured input from multiple sources across the company.
To configure a feedback collection phase:
Enable or disable feedback: Toggle the feedback step on or off. If you disable it, you must enable the meeting step (you need at least one of the two).
Name the step: Customize the title participants see (e.g., Peer Input, 360 Feedback).
Add a description: Provide instructions or context explaining how the feedback will be utilized.
Choose a questionnaire: Select a template from your pre-built questionnaire library.
📌 Note: There is no longer a functional split between one-on-one and 360 questionnaire templates. However, during the current beta phase, questions relating directly to goals, skills, and training tracking will be skipped automatically.
Select feedback givers
Determine who should contribute written feedback by selecting groups, individual users or organizational roles:
Manager: The direct manager of the reviewee.
Peers: Coworkers who share the same direct manager.
Direct reports: Employees managed directly by the reviewee.
Reviewee: The employee themselves, creating a self-reflection phase.
Manager N+2: The reviewee's skip-level manager.
Feedback visibility rules
Feedback givers can never see each other's responses—this rule is hardcoded to prevent bias and ensure psychological safety. Responses only become visible to meeting or signature participants if explicitly configured in the subsequent setup sections.
Set up the review meeting step
The Review Meeting step provides a collaborative space for participants to talk through performance, review accomplishments, and document a final summary.
📌 Note: Your workflow must contain at least one core interactive phase. If you disable the Feedback step, you must enable the Review meeting step.
To configure a review meeting phase:
Enable or disable review meeting: Toggle the review meeting step on or off. If you disable it, you must enable the feedback step (you need at least one of the two).
Name the step: Customize the title participants see.
Add a description: Provide instructions or context explaining how the review meeting step will look.
Choose a questionnaire: Select a template from your pre-built questionnaire library.
Enable preparation notes
Turning on the preparation phase allows participants to draft notes and answer questions individually before sitting down together.
When to use preparation: Ideal for comprehensive annual reviews where both parties need deep reflection time to prevent rushed conversations.
When to skip preparation: Ideal for light, frequent check-ins or informal touchpoints where spontaneous conversation is preferred.
Set preparation visibility: Choose whether participants can read submitted peer feedback while writing their preparation notes, or if feedback should remain hidden until the live meeting takes place.
Configure the meeting summary
The summary locks in the official performance documentation. Every meeting step requires explicit parameters defining who controls the text:
Select the note taker: Choose exactly one person—typically the Manager or the Reviewee—who holds exclusive rights to fill out and edit the final summary questionnaire.
Select meeting participants: Add the stakeholders who will attend the conversation or need real-time visibility into the summary draft as it is being written.
Set summary visibility: Define whether the note taker and participants can refer back to the Feedback responses, the Preparation notes, or both while finalizing the summary.
Set up the signatures step
The Signatures step allows participants to formally acknowledge that the review took place and was mutually discussed.
Enable or disable signatures: Toggle the signatures step on or off.
Name the step: Customize the step title participants see. (e.g., Review acknowledgment, Sign off, Final approval).
Add a description: Provide instructions or context for signature participants.
Assign your signature participants: Specific roles, users, or groups.
Set signature visibility: Choose what sign-off participants are allowed to review before signing. You can grant access to the entire history (Feedback, Preparation, and Summary) or restrict their view strictly to a specific step.
Validate and save your workflow
Before saving, the builder automatically validates your configuration to prevent operational bottlenecks. The system cross-checks for:
Missing required fields (such as unassigned questionnaires or unselected note takers).
Missing participants on active steps.
Structural compliance (ensuring at least the feedback or meeting step is fully functional).
If an issue is detected, an alert will highlight the exact step requiring adjustment. Once validated, click Save button to commit the workflow blueprint to your organization's library.
Manage your workflow library
Manage all existing templates by navigating back to the main Performance > Workflows dashboard. From here, you can search, track creation dates, and see at a glance which steps (Feedback, Meeting, Signature) are tied to each workflow.
Click on the workflow to open it. You will see three dots next to the Save button, which allow you to perform the following actions:
Delete: Remove an unwanted workflow template.
Duplicate: Clone a workflow structure. This is highly useful when you need to make slight departmental variations (such as distinct questionnaires for different teams) without rebuilding from scratch.
Use as campaign draft: Enter the campaign builder with all the workflow's settings pre-filled. For details on customizing settings for specific campaigns, see Launching Your First Campaign.
⚠️ Important: Deleting a baseline workflow from your library does not alter or delete historical campaigns that were previously launched from it. Those active cycles will continue running normally.
Example
Building a complete 360 annual review cycle
An HR Administrator sets up an "Annual 360 Assessment" workflow.
They turn on Feedback, setting the givers to include Manager, Peers, and Reviewee to capture an all-around view.
Next, they enable the Review meeting step, turning on Preparation for both the manager and employee so they can review peer feedback in advance. They designate the Manager as the sole note taker.
Finally, they add a Signature step requiring mutual sign-off from both the employee and the manager.
Once saved, this template remains locked and ready to use every December without any further configuration.
FAQs - Frequently asked questions
Can I edit a workflow that's being used by active campaigns?
Can I edit a workflow that's being used by active campaigns?
Yes, but your changes won't affect campaigns already launched. Only new campaigns will use the updated workflow.
Can I use the same workflow for different departments?
Can I use the same workflow for different departments?
Yes. Workflow are organization-wide. You can set the participants in the workflow or when you launch a campaign by selecting specific departments or groups.
What happens if I delete a workflow that was used for old campaigns?
What happens if I delete a workflow that was used for old campaigns?
Nothing. Past campaigns keep running and historical data remains accessible. Deleting a workflow only prevents you from launching new campaigns from it.
Can I have different questionnaires for different employees in the same campaign?
Can I have different questionnaires for different employees in the same campaign?
No. All employees in a campaign use the same questionnaires defined in the workflow. If you need different questionnaires, create separate workflows and run separate campaigns.
Who can create and edit workflows?
Who can create and edit workflows?
HR and Group HR roles can create and edit workflows. Other users can't access the workflow builder even if they're review supervisors.
Can I create a workflows without choosing questionnaires yet?
Can I create a workflows without choosing questionnaires yet?
No. You must select questionnaires when building the workflow. However, you can change which questionnaire is used when you launch a campaign from the workflow.
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