This feature is available for users who have enabled Workforce HR.
What's included in this article?
Starting a Performance Review
Performance reviews can be initiated by either:
Manually assigning a performance review
Automatically scheduling a performance review
Manually Assign a Performance Review
To manually assign a performance review:
Navigate to the Performance Reviews Templates tab under HR > Performance Reviews.
Click Start A Review next to the relevant template.
Select the Employee you are completing the review for and click Next.
Select the Reviewer if required, and Date the review will be completed.
Choose if you want to notify the employee.
Click Create
Once you've clicked create, the relevant staff will be notified.
See more about who it will notify here
If questions can be answered by the employee, and Notify employee? has been ticked, the employee will receive an email. If it hasn't been ticked, they will not receive a notification.
If the review has questions to be answered by the reviewer, they'll receive an email regardless of whether the notify setting is ticked or not.
Additionally, if any question in the template has been configured to notify a specific group of staff (by position, department, or individually selected people) in the template builder, those staff will also be notified, regardless of whether Notify employee? is ticked.
Automatically Schedule Performance Reviews
Rather than manually assigning common reviews, such as probation meetings, you can configure these to trigger automatically at relevant times. This is done with Schedules.
To set up an automation workflow:
Navigate to the Manage Template page through HR > Performance Reviews
Click the Edit button on the relevant template and click across to the When to send tab
On this page, click + When to Send and choose the frequency this should be sent.
On the menu, specify:
When it should be first sent (must be a date in the future)
How often it should be sent.
Who will receive the review (based on positions, teams, or locations)
When they should be notified about an upcoming review (number of days)
Click Create to save the automation
For example, the below configuration means that it will be sent to staff classified as Bartenders on 10/10/2025, and every 3 months after that:
Accessing a performance review
When issued a performance review to complete, the relevant staff are typically notified via email or app notification.
Mobile App:
In the Workforce.com mobile app, employees and managers will also see a notification of any pending performance reviews on the Overview page.
Clicking into this, you can view all assigned reviews.
Performance Reviews can also be accessed in the mobile app by clicking on your profile picture in the top right:
Desktop Version:
Performance Reviews can be filled out on the desktop version by navigating to the performance reviews page (HR > Performance Reviews) and clicking Complete.
Completing a Performance Review
Once the performance review becomes available, staff can complete it in the Workforce.com mobile app, or in the desktop version if they have access.
To complete a performance review in the mobile app:
Click into Performance Reviews
Select the relevant review in the app
Answer all required questions - progress will be saved automatically
Once complete, click the Submit button at the bottom
Once the employee has completed their performance review, the review will remain as 'pending' until the reviewer has also completed it.
Note: Once the review is completed, employees and managers will be able to see all details in the Review Information section, including who assigned the review, the manager assigned, and the average scores from any ratings.
Access Completed Reviews
All performance reviews can be accessed through HR > Performance Reviews. You can filter by the completed reviews using the Status filter. They can be filtered by:
Employee
Template
Status
Start Date
End Date
To view individual results, click Edit next to the relevant performance review.
You can also run the Details Report and Response Report from this page to see collated information about the completed reviews.
The Performance Review Details Report will give an overview of the report information, such as the employee, the reviewer, the location and team, the date and review statuses.
The Performance Review Response Report lists the actual responses given by staff for the chosen Review Template.
The Performance Review Report will give an overview on the number of reviews in the account (Created, In Progress, Completed, Overdue).
FAQs
How do I send a review to one person?
How do I send a review to one person?
Go to HR > Performance Reviews > Performance Review Templates.
Click Start a review next to the template.
Choose the employee and click Next.
Choose the Reviewer and the Review Date. The date can be today or in the future, not in the past.
Tick Notify employee? if the employee should be told about the review, then click Create.
Why can't I see the Start a review button, or why is it greyed out?
Why can't I see the Start a review button, or why is it greyed out?
The Start a review button only shows if both of these are true:
Your role has the Assign HR Template to Managed User permission, under Staff in your role's permissions.
There's at least one active employee you can assign a review to. For managers, that means an employee in a team they manage.
If the button is there but greyed out, the template is inactive. To make it active, open the template, go to the Setup tab, tick Active and click Update.
Someone isn't in the list when I start a review. Why?
Someone isn't in the list when I start a review. Why?
Who you can choose depends on your role:
Managers can choose active employees in the teams they manage.
Admins, payroll officers and roster managers can choose any active employee.
Temporary staff, inactive employees and you yourself are never listed. If a manager can't find someone, check the employee is in one of the teams that manager manages.
Can I send a review to lots of people at once?
Can I send a review to lots of people at once?
Yes. Add a When to send schedule to the template and choose positions, teams or locations. Start a review sends to one employee at a time.
Who is notified, and are there reminders for reviews?
Who is notified, and are there reminders for reviews?
When a review is created:
The reviewer is notified, if the template has questions for the reviewer.
The employee is notified, if Notify employee? was ticked and the template has questions for them.
Anyone assigned questions by position or team is notified.
When a review is completed: the people chosen in the template's Notifications setting are notified.
Reminders: if a review isn't complete, Workforce sends a reminder on the review date and again two days later.
The reviewer gets reminders if they have questions to answer.
The employee gets reminders only if they have questions to answer and Should employee see other reviewers' answers? is ticked on the review's Access tab. This is off by default.
When does a review become Overdue?
When does a review become Overdue?
The day after its review date, if it isn't complete.
What do the performance review statuses mean?
What do the performance review statuses mean?
Status | Meaning |
Created | The review has been sent and isn't finished yet. |
Overdue | The review date has passed and the review isn't finished. |
Completed | Everyone has submitted their part. |
The Details report also shows a separate status for the employee's part and the reviewer's part (In Progress or Completed), so you can see who still needs to finish.
The employee submitted, so why isn't the review complete?
The employee submitted, so why isn't the review complete?
The reviewer hasn't submitted their part yet. A review is only Completed when everyone with questions has submitted.
Can I change the reviewer?
Can I change the reviewer?
Yes, as long as the template has questions for the reviewer and the review isn't finalised. A review is finalised once it's completed and its review date has passed.
Open the review and go to the Access tab.
Choose a new Reviewer.
Click Update.
You can choose from the employee's managers, admins, payroll officers and general managers.
I put the wrong date on a review. How do I fix it?
I put the wrong date on a review. How do I fix it?
Open the review and go to the Access tab.
Change the Review Date.
Click Update.
Admins and the review's reviewer can change the date.
Can I delete a review that was sent by mistake?
Can I delete a review that was sent by mistake?
Yes. You can delete a sent review, for example one sent to the wrong person, a duplicate, or one with the wrong template, even if it's already been started or completed.
Go to HR > Performance Reviews. This lists sent reviews, not templates.
Find the review, click ⋮ next to it and select Delete.
Confirm with Delete.
The review is removed for everyone, including the employee and the reviewer, and it can't be restored. Deleting a sent review doesn't affect the template, so you can send a new review straight away.
Who can delete sent reviews?
Admins, by default. Other roles need the Delete Managed User's HR Template Submissions permission. To turn it on, go to Settings > Permissions > Show Advanced Settings > Customise access & roles here, open the role, and switch it on under Staff. Managers with this permission can only delete reviews for staff they manage.
If you don't see Delete in the ⋮ menu, your role doesn't have this permission. Ask your account administrator.
Can I archive completed reviews or hide them from the list?
Can I archive completed reviews or hide them from the list?
Not currently. Use the status and date filters to hide the ones you don't need.
Where do I find my reviews?
Where do I find my reviews?
On desktop, go to HR > Performance Reviews. In the mobile app, they show on your Overview page and in the Performance Reviews section.
Can I download a review?
Can I download a review?
Yes. Open the review and click Download PDF. You can't download every review as a PDF in one go. To get everything in one spreadsheet, export the Details or Response report to CSV.
Which reports are there for performance reviews?
Which reports are there for performance reviews?
Find them in Reports, or in HR > Performance Reviews.
Performance Review Report: how many reviews are in each status.
Details Report: each review's employee, reviewer, template, location, team, status, scores and date.
Response Report: the answers given.
You can filter by template, employee, location, team, employment basis, status, date and score.
My scores aren't showing in the report. Why?
My scores aren't showing in the report. Why?
Scores only appear when the template has scored multiple choice questions and that person has submitted their part. Otherwise the score shows as "-".
How do I see who has a review due or overdue?
How do I see who has a review due or overdue?
Use the Details report and filter by status. It only lists reviews that already exist, not ones a schedule hasn't sent yet. To see upcoming scheduled sends, check each template's When to send tab.
Can I add reviews from before we used Workforce?
Can I add reviews from before we used Workforce?
Yes. Admins can bulk upload old reviews, and other HR documents, from a zip file.
Go to Settings > Import & Export and choose HR Documents under HR.
Prepare a zip file with a folder for each employee, named with their name, email or employee number. To set the document type, put the files in a subfolder named after it, for example "Alex Smith/performance reviews/".
Click Upload file and upload the zip.
Under Who can see these files, choose whether Employee can view and Employee's managers can view. You can change this for individual files in the next step.
In Review and assign, check the employee and document type for each file. Fix any marked Needs review, or tick Don't import for files you want to skip.
Click Preview contents, then finish the import.
Imported reviews show in HR > Performance Reviews with an Imported label, and you can open them with View. They're stored as files, so they don't have scores.
To add a single review, upload it as a file to the employee's profile instead.
Learn more Bulk Import HR documents.