Create and launch a review cycle

A skills review cycle is a campaign in which chosen people (the reviewees) are rated on their skills by one or more reviewers during a given period. You create it with a four-step wizard from Skills › Reviews.

Before you start

• You need the Manager creator role or above. The New cycle button is only shown to these roles.
• Every reviewee should have a job title (set on their profile, see Edit and deactivate users), and each job title should have skills in the framework. If your company has no cycle yet, a Before you create a review cycle window reminds you of these two prerequisites, with the links Assign job titles to members (Settings) and Define skills per job title (Framework); close it with Got it. You can open it again with the information icon next to New cycle.
• To use a scale other than 1-3, custom skills or a specific question order, create a template first.
• To have the 4-box matrix ready at launch, an admin can save a configuration in Skills › Company matrix (see Talent matrix).

Start a new cycle

1. Go to Skills › Reviews (or Skills › Reviews › See all to open the Review Cycles page).
2. Click New cycle (on mobile screens, the floating New cycle button).
3. If you left a cycle unfinished earlier, OpenAleph asks Create review cycle from draft ?. Click Yes, resume draft to continue where you stopped, or No to start from scratch (the draft is then lost).

The wizard, Create review cycle, has four steps (a progress bar shows where you are) and saves your choices as a draft while you go. Use Next and Back to move between steps.

Step 1: Configuration

1. Enter the Cycle title (mandatory).
2. Under Period, click Cycle period and pick the start date, then the end date, in the calendar, and confirm with OK (mandatory). The end date is the deadline shown to reviewers.
3. Under Template assignment, choose how participants get the right set of skills and questions to rate:

4. In Automatic mode (selected by default), choose the options:
   • Allow comments on rating questions (ticked by default).
   • Include true/false question, then type the True/false question.
   • Include open question, then type the Open question.
   • Include next job title question, then check the Next job title question wording. It is asked last.
   • Click Preview template to see an example form.
5. In Single template mode, pick it in the Template list. The eye icon previews it.

Step 2: Select reviewees (or Assign templates)

Automatic and Single template modes: the step is called Select reviewees.

1. Search the member list, or narrow it with the filters (Access level, Manager, Gender, Hire date, Job title, Work location and your other profile fields). The table shows each member's Job title and Manager.
2. Tick the people to review. The checkbox in the header selects everyone matching your search and filters at once.
3. As the note at the top says, "Add only participants with job titles to ensure they have a skill set to review". This matters most in Automatic mode, where the form is built from the job title.

Multiple templates mode: the step is called Assign templates. Participants who are not assigned to any template are skipped at launch.

1. Click Assign template.
2. In Assign template to participants: under Step 1, Choose a template (use the eye icon to preview it, or No template yet? Create one); under Step 2, Select participants.
3. Click Save. The assignment appears in the list with the template and the number of Participants assigned.
4. Repeat for each group. Use the ⋮ menu of an assignment to Preview template, Edit it or Remove it.

Step 3: Owner and reviewers

Review Owner: the owner oversees the reviews of each reviewee in the cycle. They can manage reviewers and view all the reviews about that person. In the Review Owner list, choose:

• Reviewee's manager (default): each reviewee's direct manager becomes their owner. A reviewee without a manager has no owner until you set one.
• Specific person for everyone: then pick one Specific person who owns all the reviews of the cycle.

Reviewers: tick one or more reviewer groups (Direct manager is ticked by default). Each reviewer writes their own, separate review of the reviewee.

If you don't select any reviewer, OpenAleph asks Continue without reviewers?. You can continue and add reviewers later from the cycle page.

Step 4: Summary

Check the Cycle title, the Template (or the template assignments), the number of Reviewees, the Reviewer(s) (for example "Direct manager, Self-assessment"), the Owner and the Cycle period. Use Back to correct a step.

Under Talent matrix (4-box), choose the Configuration the cycle's 4-box matrix will start from:

• Group default uses the configuration marked as default in the company matrix.
• Or pick another saved configuration.
• If no configuration is saved, the summary reads "No configuration saved yet — the matrix can be set up on the cycle once it is launched." If the group has no usable default, a message warns you that the cycle will launch without a matrix.

Launch the cycle

1. On the summary, click Launch cycle.
2. OpenAleph asks Send invitation emails? ("Do you wish to send invitations by email for this cycle?"):
   • Yes, send emails: every reviewer receives an invitation (email and in-app notification) and every owner an email telling them they own a reviewee's reviews. If the cycle starts in the future, these are sent on the start date.
   • No: nothing is sent to reviewers and owners. You can send invitations later from the cycle page.
3. The message "Cycle has been launched successfully" confirms the launch and the cycle appears in Review Cycles in Progress with its completion, due date and number of reviewees. The reviews are created in the background, which can take a few moments for large cycles. As the creator, you receive an email "Your skills review cycle ... is launched!" with a link to the cycle.

What happens at launch:

• One review is created for each reviewee and each reviewer (a reviewee with three reviewers has three separate reviews).
• Each review's form is a snapshot: later changes to the framework or templates don't change it.
• Reviews appear in Your reviews for reviewers from the cycle's start date.
• A reviewee in an Automatic cycle who has no job title gets no review.

After the launch

• Only the Cycle title and Cycle period can still be changed (⋮ › Edit cycle on the cycle page). The template mode, options, reviewer rules and owner rule are fixed.
• You can still add or remove reviewees, change owners and reviewers, and share reviews with contributors: see Manage a review cycle.
• To run the same cycle again with the same settings, use Relaunch cycle.

Common questions

I don't see the New cycle button.

Creating cycles requires the Manager creator role or above.

Can I save a cycle and launch it later?

Yes. The wizard keeps your work as a draft. Next time you click New cycle, choose Yes, resume draft. Only your most recent draft is offered.

Some people I selected have no review.

In automatic mode, people without a job title are skipped. In multiple-templates mode, people not assigned to any template are skipped. Check the job titles in the settings, then add the people again from the cycle page.

Reviewers didn't receive any email.

You probably answered No to Send invitation emails?, or the cycle starts in the future (emails go out on the start date). Send them from the cycle page with Send invitation email.

Can I change the scale after launch?

No. The scale comes from the template (or 1-3 in automatic mode) and is fixed at launch. Relaunch a cycle with another template if needed.