How do Feedback Cycles work?

Creating a new Feedback Cycle

To start, navigate to 360° Feedback > Feedback Cycles in the menu and click + Add.

General Settings

• Name (required): Give your feedback cycle a descriptive name.

• Question set: Select a suitable 360° feedback question set.

• Start date: On this day, reviewers will be automatically invited via email.

• End date: The deadline for all feedback within this cycle.

• Feedback cycle editors: Here you can add individuals who are authorized to edit this cycle (even if they do not have admin rights).

Defining Reviewees and Groups

Who receives feedback?

In the Reviewees field, specify the individuals who are to receive feedback in this cycle.

Feedback Groups & Logic

With feedback groups, you define which perspectives the feedback should come from (Self evaluation, Managers, Direct reports, Colleagues). There are two central settings for each group (except Self evaluation):

1. Required number of reviewers (Invitation limit): This defines how many people you must nominate per reviewee at a minimum. Invitations for this group will only be sent on the start date once this number is reached.

2. Required number of responses (Anonymity limit): This is the limit for the evaluation. Results will only be displayed on the dashboard if at least this number of feedbacks has been submitted.

Setting up Permissions & Visibilities

In the lower section of the creation page, under Permissions & Visibilities, you define who is allowed to see which evaluations on the dashboard.

Who do these settings apply to?

• Reviewees: Defines what the evaluated person is allowed to see of their own received feedback.

• Managers: Defines what individuals who have given feedback as a manager are allowed to see of the results of the respective reviewee.

• Admins & Cycle editors: These settings always apply to all feedbacks within this entire cycle, as these roles are not directly tied to specific reviewees.

What do the checkboxes mean?

You can finely adjust which areas of the dashboard are visible for each of the groups mentioned above:

• Heatmap (scale questions): Enables the heatmap view for scale questions.

• Answers: Enables the answers card view on the dashboard (showing e.g., average scores per question).

• Comments: If this box is unchecked, users will see the quantitative scores of the scale questions in the answers section, but no text responses. This applies to both answers to open questions and comments to scale questions (so, answers to context-specific follow-ups).

• Individual sources: This setting controls the depth of anonymity.

  • Unchecked: The viewer only sees aggregated groups (e.g., "Direct reports"). It is not possible to trace whether multiple answers came from the same anonymous person.

  • Checked: The responses are divided into "feedback threads." In the heatmap, groups can be expanded (then visible as e.g., Feedback 1, Feedback 2). Comments will also indicate which specific feedback thread they originate from. The individuals naturally remain anonymous, but it becomes apparent which answers and comments were given by the same person within this cycle.

Managing Reviewers

After saving, you will see your cycle on the overview page. Click the arrow to expand the accordion.

• Status Icons: An orange warning symbol indicates that the required number of reviewers has not yet been reached. A green checkmark means: Invitations are ready to be sent on the start date.

• Edit: Click the pencil icon next to the respective reviewee to search for and assign specific individuals as reviewers (e.g., specific colleagues).

Status and Analysis

A feedback cycle can have four statuses:

• Draft: The cycle is still being prepared by you and has no start date yet.

• Planned: The cycle has not yet started, but the start date and all other important information have been set.

• Active: The start date has been reached, invitations have been sent, and feedback can be submitted.

• Completed: The end date has been reached.

Tracking response rates: As soon as the status becomes active, you can see the current response rates in your feedback cycle via the progress circles.

• Orange line: The anonymity limit has not yet been reached; if the cycle were to end now, no results would be visible for this reviewee in this feedback group.

• Green line: The evaluation limit has been reached.

Deleting Feedback Cycles

You can delete feedback cycles via the 3-dot menu.