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Appraisals and 360 degree reviews

Run each appraisal as a cycle: weighted goals, reviews by the employee, manager, peers and direct reports, HR calibration and a final rating. That final rating is the one your increment cycle and bonus plans read.
PLANSScale only
Compare plansHow it works

The problem it solves

  • Appraisal forms go round by email as spreadsheets, and HR spends weeks chasing the ones still missing.
  • Ratings are decided in a meeting, and nobody can later show how a person's rating was reached.
  • Peers will not write honestly when the person can see who said what.
  • The increment sheet is typed from a separate ratings list, so a corrected rating never reaches the salary.

How it works

  1. HR sets up the form once: Simple (manager) or 360 degree, and the weight of goals. Also the competencies to rate and the weight of each reviewer group.
  2. HR opens a cycle for an Entity and a period, and clicks Open Goal Setting. One appraisal is made for each eligible employee, with their reporting manager, and each person is told.
  3. Each employee adds goals (KRAs) with a measure and weights that add up to 100. They pick peers for a 360 degree form and click Submit Goals. The manager approves them or sends them back.
  4. HR clicks Start Reviews. Self, manager, peer and direct report reviews reach each reviewer, who rates every competency and submits, or declines a peer review with a reason.
  5. The manager rates each goal, sees the goal score, competency score and a suggested rating, writes strengths and areas to improve, and clicks Submit Rating.
  6. HR calibrates: sets the final rating with a note, or sends it back to the manager. Share with Employee (or Share and Close for the whole cycle) shows the result to the person, who agrees or disagrees and acknowledges.
  7. From the closed cycle, HR or payroll clicks Start Increment Cycle. Each person's final rating goes into the pay review.

Everything it does

Appraisal forms

  • Kind: Simple (manager) or 360 degree
  • Goals / KRAs on or off; Goals Weight % (70 to start with): the share of the score from goals, the rest from competencies
  • Self Review on or off
  • 360 degree: Peers with a minimum number (2 to start with), Direct Reports, and Peers and Reports Anonymous (on to start with)
  • Weight of each group in the competency score: Self 0 %, Manager 60 %, Peers 20 %, Reports 20 % to start with
  • Competencies with a description of what is looked at

Cycles

  • A cycle has a form, an Entity, Period From and Period To, Goals Due and Reviews Due
  • Limit it to some departments, and leave out people with less than a Minimum Service (3 months to start with)
  • Separated employees are left out; each person has one appraisal per cycle
  • Cycle stages: Draft, Goal Setting, Reviews, Calibration, Closed, Cancelled
  • Appraisal stages: Goal Setting, Goals to Approve, Reviews, Manager's Rating, Calibration, Shared, Acknowledged
  • Share and Close refuses while a manager has not rated and names the people still waited for

Goals

  • Each goal has a measure or target, a weight, the employee's achievement and self rating, and the manager's rating and comment
  • Weights must add up to 100 before the goals can be submitted
  • Approved goals are fixed for the employee; the manager can still change them during goal setting
  • With Goals and OKRs, Take In My Goals (OKRs) adds the person's own objectives of the period, with each key result's progress

Reviews and scores

  • Ratings on 1 to 5: Unsatisfactory, Needs improvement, Meets expectations, Exceeds expectations, Outstanding
  • Each reviewer finds their forms under Reviews to Give; the self and manager reviews cannot be declined
  • Goal score: the manager's goal ratings, each counted by its weight
  • Competency score: the average of each group, counted by the form's weights; a group with no reviews is left out and the rest scaled up
  • Overall score: goals and competencies mixed by the Goals Weight %
  • Suggested Rating: the level of the rating scale nearest to the score; the manager can choose another
  • The employee sees only averages per group, never who said what, when reviews are anonymous

Calibration, sharing and the rating that reaches pay

  • HR sets the Final Rating and a Calibration Note, or clicks Back to Manager
  • Until the appraisal is shared the employee cannot see scores, ratings or the manager's assessment, in the form, lists, exports, filters or history
  • The employee answers Agree or Disagree (a comment is needed to disagree) and clicks Acknowledge
  • Increment cycles take the final rating of the latest appraisal shared with the person. An increment policy can give a percent per rating and grade (Rating Matrix) or leave out people below a Minimum Rating
  • Bonus plans can leave out people below a Minimum Rating
  • Start Increment Cycle makes a draft increment cycle for the same Entity and departments, starting the day after the period ends

Reports

  • Performance dashboard: cycles running, goals to set, reviews pending, completed, appraisals by stage and average score by department
  • Appraisal list with filters Mine, My Team and Open, grouped by cycle, stage or final rating

Who uses it

EmployeeSets goals, picks peers, reviews themselves, gives the reviews asked of them, and acknowledges the result.
Reporting managerApproves the team's goals, rates goals and competencies, and submits the rating.
Peers and direct reportsRate the competencies of the person in a 360 degree review, or decline with a reason.
Performance User (HR)Runs cycles, sees every appraisal of their Entities, calibrates and shares.
Performance Manager (HR Head)Also sets up the appraisal forms and the rating scale.

Where you use it

  • Web: Performance and Pay Review > Appraisal (Appraisals, Reviews to Give, Appraisal Cycles) and Configuration (Appraisal Forms, Rating Scale)
  • The SmartMy HRMS app: My appraisal and Reviews to give for employees, Team appraisals for managers, Appraisals under HR work. (Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
  • Not on an employee web portal: there is none; employees use the web back office with their own limited menus, or the app

What you control

Settings

  • Form kind: Simple (manager) or 360 degree
  • Goals Weight %: 70 to start with
  • Self, Manager, Peers and Reports Weight %: 0, 60, 20 and 20 to start with
  • Peers (minimum): 2 to start with; Peers and Reports Anonymous: on
  • Minimum Service (months) for a cycle: 3 to start with
  • Goals Due and Reviews Due dates per cycle
  • Rating scale: five levels, scores 1 to 5, names you can change

Approvals

  • Appraisal goals: the goals an employee submits go to the reporting manager or a Performance User by default, or to the levels of your chain. The employee never approves their own goals

Notifications

  • Set Your Goals: to each employee of the cycle when goal setting opens, by push, email and in the app
  • Goals to Approve: to the approvers of the goals, by push, email and in the app
  • Appraisal Review to Give: to each reviewer when reviews start. Reminded three days before Reviews Due and daily once overdue; by push, email and in the app
  • Appraisal Result: to the employee when the appraisal is shared, by push, email and in the app
  • These go out at once; each person can switch off a channel such as email for themselves, and in-app notices always arrive

Questions

Can peers stay anonymous?

Yes. With Peers and Reports Anonymous on (the default), the employee and the manager see only the average of each group. The names of peers and reports are not shown with their ratings.

Can the employee see the rating before HR has finished?

No. Scores, ratings and the manager's assessment stay hidden from the employee until HR shares the appraisal. This holds in the form, the lists, exports, filters and the change history.

How does the rating reach the salary?

Close the appraisal cycle, then click Start Increment Cycle. The increment cycle takes each person's final rating. Its policy gives a percent per rating and grade, or leaves out people below a minimum rating. Bonus plans can also ask for a minimum rating. See Increments, revision planner and bonus.

Is there a bell curve or a 9-box grid for calibration?

Not as a separate screen. HR sets each final rating with a note, and the appraisal list can be grouped by final rating to see the spread. A forced distribution is not built.

Which plan has appraisals?

Appraisals are in the Scale plan. Increments and bonus start in Growth; the rating link works once appraisals are installed.

Related features

ENGAGEMENT, GOALS AND HR TOOLSGoals and OKRsObjectives with measurable key results for each period, set for the entity, departments, teams and people and aligned to each other. Owners check in with progress and confidence, managers approve, and the goals flow into the appraisal.ENGAGEMENT, GOALS AND HR TOOLSOne-to-ones, feedback and improvement plansRegular one-to-ones with a shared agenda, private notes and action items that carry over. Praise and suggestions with the reader chosen. Improvement plans with goals, reviews, approval and a recorded outcome.ENGAGEMENT, GOALS AND HR TOOLSSkills and competenciesA skill library with levels, and profiles that say what each designation or department needs. Skills are confirmed by the manager, and a gap view shows every person against their role.LOANS, INCREMENTS, BONUSIncrements, revision planner and bonusTry salary revision scenarios against your budget. Run the yearly increment cycle with proposals, approval by HR then top management, letters and arrears. Pay the statutory bonus and your own bonuses through payroll.ACROSS SMARTMY HRMSApproval chains and one approvals inboxEvery HR request, from a day's leave to the full and final, goes through its approval chain and waits in one Approvals inbox. Levels, approvers, reminders, escalation and stand-ins are settings you control, per Entity and kind of request.VIEWS AND REPORTSEmployee 360 and organisation chartOne screen shows everything about an employee: profile, attendance, leave, pay, loans, assets, documents and what is pending. Each viewer sees only the parts their role allows. The organisation chart covers the whole group, with search, CSV export and open positions.

See your own month run in it.

Tell us how many people you have, how you take attendance and how your salary is structured. We will show you SmartMy HRMS set up that way.
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