Culture Amp - Performance Reviews - FAQs

Here are some FAQs regarding the Performance Review process on Culture Amp:

Why do we do performance reviews?

Performance reviews are a valuable opportunity to consider how you have delivered against your goals and objectives over the last 6 months, and to discuss that with your manager in a dedicated meeting. They’re also a development opportunity: time to plan, based on feedback and an evaluation of where you see yourself today.

what kind of feedback is included?

• Self-reflection
• Manager review
• Direct Report feedback (for people managers)
• Peer feedback

Who can take part?

You will need to have at least 6 months length of service to take part. For our newer Mewsers, we have the 14, 45, 90 days frameworks. Please note there will be no pay adjustments without a performance review.

what does the high-level process look like?

Here's a high-level visual of the five stages. You will find a more detailed step-by-step process below.

What does the DETAILED step-by step process look like?

1. Individual receives a notification to complete a self-reflection
2. Individual completes their self-reflection and evaluates their performance over the past 6 months
3. Individual receives a notification to login and nominate peers to get feedback from
4. Individual nominates peers (min 3, ideally 3-5 or more if it makes sense in their context) to give feedback
5. Line Manager of the individual receives a notification to review peer nominations
6. Line manager of the individual reviews peer nominations, with the option to add/delete nominees.
7. Line manager of the individual then launches the performance review cycle
8. Line manager, peers and direct reports of the individual completes their feedback on the individual’s performance over the past 6 months
9. Feedback complete – MANAGERS SHOULD NOT SHARE ANY TYPE OF FEEDBACK WITH THE INDIVIDUAL BEFORE THE CALIBRATION SESSION HAS TAKEN PLACE
10. Calibration session with departmental LT
11. Line manager arranges a review conversation and has it with their people to go through the feedback verbally
12. Once report sharing is enabled, the line manager shares the report with the individual via Culture Amp
13. The individual ticks the ‘Review acknowledgement’ box on Culture Amp to indicate they have had a performance review conversation with their manager and closes the cycle

To follow:

15. The manager and the individual should then have a development conversation to start addressing the development gaps - training will be available for managers on how to have development conversations
16. The individual creates a Development Plan on Culture Amp and then agrees it with the manager
17. The individual starts actioning the agreed development areas and should use Degreed for some of these

** Please note the overall performance rating score will not be shared with the individual via the feedback report. The Line Manager of the individual should share this verbally during the performance review feedback meeting instead. Talent Planning questions will also not be shared with the individual.

What’s the rating scale for the overall performance score?

Needs Development

Consistently Meets Expectations

Often Exceeds Expectations

Sets a New Standard

Please note the overall performance rating score will not be shared with the individual via the feedback report. The Line Manager of the individual should share this verbally during the performance review feedback meeting instead.

what's different from the previous cycle (6/23)

Based on your feedback (thank you!) we have made the following two changes:

1) More time to give feedback

2) Less and more meaningful questions

How do I decide who to nominate to give me peer feedback?

It's best to consider people who:

• You have worked extensively with. The more they’ve worked with you, the more useful feedback and context they’ll have.
• Have different perspectives, whether because they’ve worked on different projects or where they are at Mews (for example, different departments.
• May have constructive feedback you can learn from.
• Please note that some people will receive more requests to give feedback than they will be able to complete and they will need to prioritise. Don't be offended if you don't receive feedback from everyone that you ask it from.

How do I give feedback as a participant?

If someone has requested feedback from you, you will receive an email and a task in your task list. To complete the request, click Give Feedback. You can choose to decline the request if you don’t have feedback for them or haven’t worked with them in a while. Please note that you may receive more requests than it's possible for you to complete. Prioritise and decide based on who you've worked the closest with and/or to whom you may be able to give meaningful developmental feedback.

On the right-hand side, you can flip between all of the colleagues who have requested your feedback.

Your responses will be automatically saved as you write. When you’re ready to submit, click Submit feedback to send the feedback to their manager.

I'm a people manager and feel like I'd benefit from help completing reviews for my people (for example, because the given individual closely works with their skip-level manager or they're new to my team). What can I do?

If you need help completing a review, you can add collaborator(s). Culture Amp lets managers collaborate with another person, for example a skip-level manager, on the review to ensure feedback is timely and actionable. You can add a collaborator to a review once the scheduled Manager Review component has launched.

To add a collaborator:

• From the Performance > Reviews > (select a Current Cycle) > View and complete manager reviews tile > Your direct reports list, find the individual and select three dots icon > manager collaborators Search for users to add new collaborators.

After adding collaborators:

• New collaborators will receive notifications via email
• New collaborators can see the manager review and comment on each question. Those comments can only be viewed by that employee’s manager.

What the collaborators can’t do:

• View or comment on the employee's self-reflections directly.
• Collaborators do not have any additional access to view the full profile of the employee if they are not the person’s manager.
• Collaborator Feedback profile view:

In order for collaborator notes to be visible to the manager and admin, the collaborator must select "share comments" at the bottom of the review form

How do I ensure I’ll rate my people objectively and minimise bias?

Please ensure your ratings focus on a person’s performance over the past 6 months and not on the person themself. Here's also a great article from Culture Amp on the different biases that can impact performance evaluations and what to do to prevent them.

Can feedback be shared anonymously?

No, feedback cannot be shared anonymously. This is largely because of the benefits of attributed feedback, which is more likely to result in thoughtful, balanced feedback and less likely to be abused.

What happens if someone provides inappropriate feedback?

In the unlikely event that a reviewer provides inappropriate feedback that should not be shared back with an employee, admins and PBPs have the ability to delete completed feedback. Please let the People Team know if something doesn't look right. Once deleted, it will no longer appear anywhere in the platform.

Where can I see the different questions that are being asked as part of this Performance Review?

Performance review Questions 122023.xlsx

My department leadership team will hold a calibration session after the feedback has been collected. What are these and what happens in them?

The purpose of calibration sessions is to ensure that all people get a fair and objective performance review. Typically the leadership team of the department, together with their departmental People Business Partner attends. They all work together to review current departmental employee ratings, define what the ratings mean and justify the rating given to each employee to ensure accuracy and consistency of performance ratings. Science shows that when performance ratings are given consistently and accurately, it can increase productivity, encourage employee retention, build team unity and form strong working relationships between managers and their people.

Sometimes the overall initial performance rating that the manager gave can change during a calibration process. That's why it's vital that managers don't share any part of the feedback with their people until after the calibration session has been held. If the rating changes for your people, this will be reflected on Culture Amp and you will be notified. Please speak to your People Business Partner for more information.

What’s the science behind Culture Amp’s performance review templates?

This article will detail the science and the why on Culture Amp’s performance review templates and scales.

As a manager, can I export reviews to PDF?

Yes, as a manager, you can export your direct report’s review to PDF at any time: On the list of direct reports under your manager review (Share manager reviews tile), click on the three dots and select the Export PDF option for the associated row

I have more questions, who can help me?

Please reach out to your department's People Business Partner, your manager, your departmental leader or Tiia Ojamaa or Deb Gallo.