Build a feedback template

What this achieves

A template is the set of questions people answer when they review somebody. It is built once and reused, and it is the same library that both feedback cycles and performance review cycles choose their forms from.

Required role: Administrator.

Before you start

If you want questions tied to a competency or a skill, those have to exist first. The question builder picks from your existing competency and skill library rather than creating entries.

Steps

Go to Feedback & 1:1s → Templates.
Select Create template.
Enter the Template name, and a description if it helps whoever picks it later.
Select Add Section and enter the Section title.
Select Add Question within the section.
Enter the Question text and choose the Type.
Mark the question Required where an answer is compulsory.
Fill in the settings the chosen type reveals — see the table below.
Repeat for every section and question, using Move section up and Move section down to order them.
Switch to the Preview tab to read the form as a reviewer will see it.
Select Save & Close.

Question types

Option	Description
Rating Scale	A numeric scale. Set the Min and Max, and the Labels (comma-separated) shown against each point.
Open Text	A long-form written answer.
Competency Rating	A rating against a Linked competency chosen from your competency library.
Skill Rating	A rating against a Linked skill chosen from your skill library.
Multiple Choice	A choice from a list you write under Options, adding each with Add option.

Example: an HC Corp engineering template rates four competencies on a 1–5 Rating Scale with labels, then asks two Open Text questions. The ratings give a comparable number; the text gives the reason it is that number.

Label your scales

A Rating Scale with no labels is a row of numbers, and different reviewers will read the same number differently. Writing the labels is what makes a 3 mean the same thing to Olivia Bennett and to Priya Raman.

Example: labelling a five-point scale Needs work, Developing, Meets, Strong, Exceptional costs one line and removes most of the argument about what a 3 was supposed to mean.

Linked competencies and skills

A Competency Rating or Skill Rating question is tied to a named entry in your library, which is what lets its answers reach the person’s profile later. An open text question about the same competency does not, however carefully worded.

Use the linked types where you intend the answers to feed a skills profile, and open text where you want reasoning.

Generating questions with AI

Generate with AI drafts questions for you. The screen asks for the Subject role, optional Subject context, the Competencies to assess, which Relationships the questions are for, Questions per relationship, and up to five Focus areas. It states that generation costs 2 credits.

What comes back is a draft. You review the generated questions, choose which to keep with Add Selected, and edit them like any other question. Nothing is added to your template until you select them, and the wording you publish is yours.

Example: generating questions for a Senior Software Engineer at HC Corp returns relationship-specific drafts — what a peer is placed to answer differs from what a direct report is. Keeping four and rewriting two is a normal outcome, and better than accepting twelve.

Managing templates

Option	Description
Edit	Change the template.
Duplicate	Copy it as the starting point for a variant.
Archive	Take it out of active use. Archived templates appear on the Archived tab.
Activate	Return an archived template to active use.
Delete	Remove it. The interface states this cannot be undone.

Archive rather than delete once a template has been used. A cycle that ran on it is easier to interpret later if the questions it asked still exist.

Templates carry a type — 360 Review, Peer Feedback, Upward Feedback, Manager Review, Self Assessment, or a generic one — shown on the template in the list, which is how you tell at a glance which form is meant for which job.

This is also the performance review form builder

The templates you build here are the ones a performance review cycle picks from when it asks for a self review template and a manager review template. There is not a second builder elsewhere.

That means one library serves both, and a change to a template affects whatever picks it up next. Duplicate rather than edit when an existing template is in live use.

What happens next

An active template becomes selectable when somebody creates a feedback cycle or a performance review cycle. A cycle holds the template it was created with, so building the questions properly is work done once rather than per cycle.