Here you can find the most frequently asked questions about Performance Management in TalentHR.

A. General

1. What types of Performance Reviews can I run?

A Performance Review cycle can include:

• Manager & self review: Employees evaluate their own performance, while their Managers review them separately.
• Peer feedback: Selected colleagues provide feedback about an Employee.
• Upward feedback: Employees provide feedback about their Manager.

You can enable one or more of these review types in the same cycle.

2. Who can create and manage Performance Review cycles?

By default, Admins and HR Managers can create and manage Performance Review cycles.

Custom roles can also do so when they include the Manage review cycles permission. This permission allows users to create and edit cycles, configure questionnaires, publish them, activate or deactivate them, clone them, and extend open cycles.

3. Can I save an incomplete review cycle?

Yes. You can save an incomplete cycle as a draft.

To activate an unpublished/draft cycle, you must publish it first. Before publishing, TalentHR validates the cycle’s configuration. For example, each enabled review type must contain at least one question.

4. Can I create recurring Performance Reviews?

Yes. A cycle can run:

• Once
• Every month
• Every three months
• Every six months
• Every twelve months

For recurring reviews, a new cycle can start before the previous one has ended. If a new cycle starts before the previous one ends, both cycles remain open. This is expected behavior. 

5. Is there a limit to the number of Performance Review cycles I can create?

No. There is no hard limit to the number of review cycles you can create.

6. Where can I see an Employee's Performance Reviews?

Open the Employee's profile and select Performance to view their review history and active review cycles.

7. Where can employees see their own Performance Reviews? 

Employees can open My profile > Performance to access their completed and active Performance Reviews.

B. Participants and review assignment

1. Which Employees are included in a review cycle?

Under Applies to, you can include:

• All employees
• A custom selection based on location, division, department, job title, employment status, or specific employees

This selection defines the employees being reviewed. Employees who only provide feedback, such as peer reviewers, do not need to be included in the cycle’s Applies to selection.

2. What happens if an Employee does not have a Manager?

TalentHR cannot create the corresponding manager and self-review pair for an Employee who does not have a Manager. In TalentHR, only the person at the top of your org chart does not have a Manager.

Peer or upward-feedback assignments may still depend on the employee’s position in the relevant reporting relationship.

3. Can I run only a self-review without a manager review?

No. Manager and self reviews are paired and must be enabled or disabled together.

4. Can more than one Manager complete a manager review for the same employee?

A manager review is assigned to the employee’s Manager.

Additional colleagues, including the Manager, may be selected separately as peer reviewers when Peer feedback is enabled.

5. What happens if an Employee changes Managers during an open review cycle?

The current manager relationship may affect who can complete or access the relevant manager review.

• If an Employee's Manager changes while a review cycle is active and the previous Manager hasn't yet submitted their review, the new manager can complete the review.
• Previously completed performance reviews are visible by the new Manager. The new Manager can access the reviews between the Employee and the old Manager from the Performance tab of the Employee’s user profile.  

6. What happens when a new Employee joins during an active review cycle?

If a newly hired Employee matches the review cycle's Applies to criteria, they are automatically included in the active review cycle.

7. What happens if an Employee no longer matches the review cycle's criteria?

If an Employee's location, department, division, job title, employment status, or other assignment changes so that they no longer match the review cycle's Applies to criteria:

• If both the Employee and Manager have already submitted their reviews, the completed review is retained.
• If neither review has been submitted, or only one side has submitted, the review is removed.

C. Review timelines

1. Can all review types use the same dates?

Yes. You can define one start and end date for the entire review cycle.

You can also enable Custom timeline and set separate periods for:

• Self review
• Manager review
• Peer feedback
• Upward feedback

This can be useful when you want managers to receive peer and upward feedback before completing their evaluations.

2. When can participants complete their reviews?

Participants can complete a review only when:

• The review cycle is published.
• The cycle is active.
• The relevant review type’s period is open.

Reviews cannot be completed after their applicable end date unless the cycle is extended.

3. Can a review cycle start today?

Yes. A published cycle whose start date is today can become available once it is activated.

4. Can I extend an open review cycle?

Yes. Use Extend to add more days to an open cycle.

Extending a cycle changes its end date without changing its questionnaires or removing submitted work.

Only review types whose end date matches the overall cycle end date are extended. If the Peer selection deadline also matched the original cycle end date, it is extended as well.

D. Questions and questionnaires

1. Does each review type have its own questionnaire?

Yes. Each enabled review type has its own questionnaire:

• Self review
• Manager review
• Peer feedback
• Upward feedback

Questions are configured within the specific review cycle.

2. What are standard questions?

TalentHR provides predefined standard questions for each applicable review type.

You can enable or disable the complete set of standard questions for each review type. You can edit their wording, but you cannot change their question type.

Standard questions that use scored answers contribute to Performance Reports.

3. Can I add custom questions?

Yes. Custom questions can be added separately to each review type in a cycle.

The currently available custom-question types are:

• Text
• Long text
• Single selection
• Multiple selection
• Link
• Rating (0-10)
• Likert scale (Strongly Disagree - Strongly Agree)

Custom questions are included in exported review data where applicable.

4. Can I rearrange questions?

Yes. Use the six-dot handle next to a question to drag and drop it into a different position.

Reordering questions does not reset the current cycle. However, if a cycle is already in progress, you must deactivate it before editing its questionnaire.

5. What does the Clear button do?

Clear removes all questions from the cycle’s questionnaires.

Use it carefully, particularly when editing a cycle that is already in progress.

6. Can I edit questions while a cycle is in progress?

Yes, but you must first deactivate the review cycle.

Important: Structural changes to the questionnaire recreate the current review cycle and remove any draft or submitted responses in that cycle. These changes include:

• Adding, removing, or replacing questions
• Editing question wording
• Changing a question’s type
• Adding, removing, or editing the options of a selection question
• Changing whether a manager question is private

To avoid losing responses, make these changes before the cycle starts or after it ends whenever possible. Past completed cycles are not affected.

7. Do question changes affect previous completed cycles?

No. The current implementation snapshots questions for each cycle.

Structural edits may recreate a cycle whose dates currently include today, but past-ended cycles and their completed reviews remain intact. This replaces the legacy behavior described in the old FAQ, which stated that question edits affected previous cycles.

E. Manager and self reviews

1. When is a manager and self-review pair considered complete?

The pair is considered complete after both the Employee and the Manager have submitted their respective reviews.

2. Can the Manager see the Employee’s submitted self-review before submitting their own review?

Yes. If the Employee submits their self-review first, the Manager can view it before submitting their own manager review.

The Manager's own responses remain independent from the employee's review.

3. Can the Employee see the Manager’s responses?

The Employee can see responses to questions configured for Manager & employee visibility after the manager submits the review.

Responses configured as Manager remain hidden from the Employee and are available to the Manager and users with the View employee performance reviews permission.

4. Can Managers use Peer and Upward feedback while reviewing an Employee?

Yes. Managers can use Peer and Upward feedback as additional context when they are permitted to view that feedback.

This information is separate from the manager questionnaire itself.

5. Can a Manager schedule a review to be submitted later? 

Yes. A manager can save a manager review as a draft and schedule it to be submitted automatically on a future date.

The review remains editable until the scheduled submission date.

F. Peer feedback

1. How are peer reviewers assigned?

Peer reviews are not assigned automatically.

During the peer-selection period, the reviewed employee’s Manager, an HR Manager, or an Admin can select peer reviewers.

2. How many peer reviewers can be selected?

Up to ten active employees can be selected as peer reviewers for an employee.

3. Who can be selected as a peer reviewer?

A peer reviewer:

• Must be an active Employee.
• Cannot be the Employee being reviewed.
• Does not need to be included in the cycle’s Applies to selection.
• Can be the Employee’s Manager.

4. When can peers be added or removed?

Peers can be added or removed from the start of the Peer feedback period until the Peer selection deadline.

After that deadline, the peer selection can no longer be changed. Selected peers can continue submitting their reviews until the Peer feedback end date.

5. What happens when a peer is selected?

TalentHR creates a Peer feedback form and notifies the selected employee.

6. Can a submitted peer review be removed?

A peer can be removed while the selection window is open, even if the review has already been submitted. The associated peer review is then removed.

After the Peer selection deadline, peers can no longer be added or removed.

7. Can a peer review be reopened?

No. Peer reviews cannot be reopened after submission.

8. Can the employee see peer feedback submitted about them?

Regular Employee reviewees cannot see peer feedback submitted about them.

Peer feedback is available to the Employee’s Manager, HR Managers, and Admins. An Employee who is also an HR Manager or Admin may still have access through those elevated permissions.

9. Is peer feedback anonymous?

No. Peer feedback is not anonymous to the users who are permitted to view it.

G. Upward feedback

1. How is Upward feedback assigned?

When Upward feedback is enabled, TalentHR automatically creates a form for each active direct report of every Manager included in the review cycle.

It is not created for every Employee in the cycle, but only for active Employees who report to an included Manager.

2. Who can view Upward feedback?

The Visible to setting determines whether feedback is visible to:

• The Manager being reviewed only
• The Manager’s Manager only
• Both the Manager being reviewed and their Manager

For Upward feedback, this selection takes precedence over the user-role permission for viewing performance records. The selected viewers can access the responses regardless of that permission.

3. Can Upward feedback be anonymous?

Yes. Enable Anonymous in the Upward feedback settings.

When enabled:

• The reviewer’s identity is hidden from everyone, including Admins and HR Managers.
• The submitted answers remain visible to the users selected under Visible to.
• Anonymous Upward feedback cannot be reopened.

In very small groups or heavily filtered reports, the respondent may still be apparent from context.

4. Is the reviewer’s identity shown in Performance Reports?

For anonymous Upward feedback, the reviewer’s name and identifying information are hidden.

The answer itself remains visible to users who are permitted to access that feedback. Anonymity hides who submitted the response, not the response content.

H. Reopening submitted reviews

1. Who can reopen a submitted review?

Admins, HR Managers, and custom roles with the Reopen individual reviews permission can reopen eligible reviews.

2. What happens when a review is reopened?

When reopened:

• The review returns to draft status.
• The reviewer receives an email notification.
• The reviewer can edit and resubmit their answers.

3. Which reviews cannot be reopened?

The following cannot be reopened:

• Peer reviews
• Anonymous Upward feedback
• Reviews belonging to an inactive cycle

A review that is already in a reopened draft state must be resubmitted before it can be reopened again.

I. Managing review cycles

1. Can I edit an active review cycle?

If the cycle’s dates currently include today, deactivate the cycle before editing it.

The recommended flow is:

1. Disable the Active toggle.
2. Edit the cycle.
3. Save the changes.
4. Activate the cycle again.

Participation is paused while the cycle is inactive.

2. Which changes can reset an ongoing cycle?

The following changes recreate the current review cycle and remove any drafted or submitted reviews and responses:

• Adding, removing, or replacing questions
• Editing question wording
• Changing a question's type
• Changing a manager question's privacy setting
• Adding, removing, or editing the options of a selection question
• Changing the recurrence
• Changing the cycle's start date

The following changes don't recreate the current cycle:

• Renaming the questionnaire
• Reordering questions
• Changing the review scope
• Changing the cycle's end date
• Adding or removing review types
• Changing Upward feedback visibility
• Enabling Upward feedback anonymity

Disabling Upward feedback anonymity during an active anonymous review cycle isn't allowed unless another change already recreates the cycle. 

If the review cycle is currently active, you must deactivate it before making changes.

3. Can I clone a review cycle?

Yes. Cloning creates a new, inactive draft with the same settings and questionnaires.

Existing cycle occurrences, reviews, answers, and results are not copied.

4. Can I delete a review cycle?

Yes. Deleting a review cycle removes the cycle setup and its associated responses.

Deleted Performance Review data cannot be restored, so use this option carefully.

5. What happens when I deactivate a cycle?

Participants can no longer access or complete reviews while the cycle is inactive.

The dated cycle still exists, but participation is paused until it is activated again, provided its review periods have not ended.

6. Can multiple cycles from the same recurring review be open simultaneously?

Yes. A recurring review can have more than one open cycle at the same time. For example, if a new cycle starts before the previous one has ended, both cycles remain open. This is expected behavior for newer recurring review templates. 

J. Notifications

1. Which Performance Review notifications are sent?

Depending on the enabled review types and cycle configuration, notifications can include:

• A review period starting
• Reminders before a review period ends
• Peer-selection opening and approaching its deadline
• A manager/self pair being completed
• A review being reopened
• A cycle ending

The specific recipient and timing depend on the review type and the action involved.

2. Who is notified when a review is reopened?

Only the reviewer whose review was reopened receives the reopen notification.

K. Reports and AI insights

1. Which Performance Review reports are available?

TalentHR provides:

• Company Performance Reports
• Employee Performance Reports

Access requires the applicable Performance Review plan and the View performance reports permission.

2. Are custom questions included in reports?

Custom questions are included in exported review data.

Standard scored questions are reflected in the Performance Reports interface.

3. What are AI-powered Performance insights?

TalentHR can generate concise summaries from:

• Peer feedback
• Upward feedback
• Combined peer and upward feedback

AI insights are not generated from self or manager reviews.

4. When is an AI insight generated?

A Peer insight requires at least one submitted Peer review.

An Upward insight requires at least one submitted Upward review.

A combined insight requires both Peer and Upward feedback.

If AI generation fails, the review is still submitted successfully, and a summary may be generated after a later qualifying submission.

5. Who can view AI insights?

Managers can view an AI insight only when they can access the feedback it summarizes.

AI insights follow the same visibility rules as the underlying Peer or Upward feedback.

6. How do I enable AI insights?

Enable Allow performance feedback summaries under:

Settings > Domain settings > General > AI Options

7. Can HR Managers view their own performance data in Performance Reports?

Yes. HR Managers are included in Performance Reports in the same way as other employees. Since HR Managers have full visibility over reports, they can access their own performance data in Performance Reports. 

L. Troubleshooting

1. Why can’t a user create or manage a review cycle?

Check that:

• The company is subscribed to the Premium plan.
• The user’s role includes the Manage review cycles permission.

2. Why can’t I publish a cycle?

Each enabled review type must contain at least one question.

Also confirm that all required dates and the Peer selection deadline, where applicable, are valid.

3. Why can’t I activate a cycle?

The cycle may still be a draft, or Performance Reviews may not be included in the company’s current plan.

Publish the cycle before activating it.

4. Why can’t I edit a current cycle?

The cycle is likely still active.

Deactivate it, make the changes, and then activate it again.

5. Why did current reviews disappear after I edited the questionnaire?

Structural questionnaire changes can recreate a cycle whose dates currently include today.

Drafted and submitted answers in that current cycle may consequently be lost. Past-ended cycles remain unchanged.

6. Why doesn’t an Employee have a self-review?

Check whether:

• The Employee is included under Applies to.
• Manager & self review is enabled.
• The Employee has a Manager.

7. Why can’t I add or remove a peer?

Possible reasons include:

• The Peer selection period has not started.
• The Peer selection deadline has passed.
• The cycle is inactive or closed.
• Peer feedback is not enabled.
• If the maximum number of peer reviewers has already been selected, you will not be able to add more. However, when this happens, you can freely remove peers and add others. 

8. Why is Upward feedback missing for an employee?

Upward feedback is created for active direct reports of managers included in the cycle.

It is not created for every employee included under Applies to.

9. Why can’t I reopen a review?

A review cannot be reopened when:

• It is a Peer review.
• It is anonymous Upward feedback.
• It is already in a reopened draft state.
• It has not yet been submitted.
• Its cycle is inactive.
• The user does not have the Reopen individual reviews permission.

10. Why is an AI insight missing?

Check whether:

• Allow performance feedback summaries is enabled.
• The company has access to Performance Reviews.
• At least one qualifying Peer or Upward review has been submitted.
• Both feedback types have submissions when expecting a combined insight.
• The viewer can access the underlying feedback.