Assessments start based on the New Window Start Date field configured in a review cycle setup (Settings > Performance > Review Cycles). We recommend beginning assessments at least one week in advance to ensure you have time to set up the review cycle, and the system will send out all email notifications on time when the assessment window starts.

There can be a total of fourteen questions with four standard questions and up to ten custom questions.

Extensive research has found that assessments are most helpful when they are simple. This simplicity allows the manager and employee to focus on the most important aspects of an employee's work. We understand that there are other thought-provoking questions out there, so we allow up to ten custom questions.

You may not feel that this is enough based on previous performance reviews you have conducted, but we are challenging that. The performance reviews of BambooHR are different in that they focus on what is most important. If you truly need to store additional performance information, there is an option to upload scanned documents to the assessment.

Yes. However, we get real with our default questions by embracing the idiosyncrasies and flaws in human judgment. We ask managers what they would do if their employee received a job offer elsewhere to discover how truly valuable the employee is to the company. The answers reflect the sentiment that may be uncomfortable when recognized. The following questions help managers to start or continue a crucial dialogue with their employees.

• Do the employees feel valued by their organization?
• What can help them perform more of their best work every day?
• How is their attitude and engagement?

These questions include what the employee does well and how they could improve: industry, company, role, location, tenure, and culture agnostic. They work for anyone because they are at the core of self-evaluation and continuous improvement. We feel that these questions are the ones necessary for assessing performance in a way that focuses on the employee's needs.

With BambooHR®Performance Management, employees cannot submit an assessment on their manager. However, employees can submit upward feedback on their manager if you have the Pro package. To learn more, click here.

Ten custom questions. The more answers we require from managers and employees in our assessments, the less thoughtful and effective they become. We want to help remove unnecessary details and focus on what is most meaningful. This simplicity enables a process where managers and employees are delighted by a refreshingly straightforward analysis of an employee’s standing perceived by the manager and employee. We continue to see success by companies who switch to this method of thinking, throw away their multi-page assessment forms, and empower their managers to manage performance successfully.

The standard assessment questions are industry, company, role, location, tenure, and culture agnostic. They work for anyone because they are at the core of self-evaluation and continuous improvement. We recommend setting up separate review cycles if you wish to individualize custom questions by different employee groups.

Humans are poor at judging other humans. Ratings often say more about the rater than the rate (a symptom known as the idiosyncratic rater effect). The issue that most companies have is ignoring this problem to tie a “number” to each employee and simplify business decisions. Because the math used to arrive at the number is flawed, so are the choices. The questions are often subjective, based on or influenced by personal feelings or opinions. Instead, we focus on output and the employee’s development instead of the review itself and use accurate data to decide how to improve.

Yes. You can do this manually with the supported languages listed in Settings.

No. By design, the employee doesn't have access to their manager's responses to the first two questions on the manager assessment, however they can view all other responses.

No. The system will automatically assign the assessment to the manager listed in the Reports To field in the employee's Job Information table.

To have an assessment done, employees (including the CEO) will need to have someone they report to in the system. We have found most CEOs do not need an assessment or track performance on themselves.

Although performance-based raises and bonuses are appropriate, we disagree that conversations about pay should happen at once with performance assessments. Doing so makes the whole experience about the money. Employees try to justify a raise, and managers try to justify their decisions regarding raises. The whole point of performance reviews is to measure (and improve) performance, which can get lost in compensation. Let’s assess the employee. How are they doing? How can they improve? Are we aligned? Then, a few months later, talk about money.

Yes, both the manager and the employee will receive an email notification when the other party has completed their assessment.

By default, assessments in BambooHR are double-blind, meaning managers must complete their assessment before they can view an employee's self-assessment.

If you turn off the double-blind assessments setting, managers can review an employee's completed self-assessment before submitting their own assessment.

This setting only changes the manager experience. Employees will complete their review the same way regardless of whether the setting is enabled or disabled.

When you launch a review cycle that includes assessments, it will notify employees when the assessment is open and the due date you selected. It will then remind them to complete the assessment with scheduled reminders until completion.

There is a button that will allow you to view the previous assessment, and it will take you there to fill those out whenever. The timeline is only for due dates, and we send reminders to have those completed on time. Managers and employees can fill out assessments after the assessment due date.

You can change assessment questions ONLY if no assessments are complete yet. We lock those down otherwise.

Yes. Their manager will have the option to skip the assessment if they do not want to include the new employee. Or, you can use the By Hire Date option when setting up your review cycle to prompt the employee to complete an assessment based on the hire date.

Yes! Once a manager submits the assessment, they can pick the future date they would like to have it published for the employee to see.

We currently do not support this. However, admins can unlock an assessment if there are mistakes or errors to correct. This action allows the employee or manager to resubmit an assessment.

Yes, managers have access to the employee's Performance tab and can view assessment data on the employee from previous managers.

Uploaded files stay attached to that specific assessment on the Performance tab, and you cannot move it.

Yes. Once both assessments are complete, the manager will have the option to add a follow-up note regarding the assessments.

There is no timeline on when the admin can unlock an assessment. When a full admin unlocks an assessment, the manager and/or employee can resubmit the assessment as they normally would.

If an assessment is unlocked with a corresponding assessment completed, the completed assessment will not longer be shown until the unlocked assessment is resubmitted. If unlocked, the manager will again have the option to future-date when they resubmit their assessment.