Create and launch a feedback cycle

What this achieves

A feedback cycle collects structured feedback about a group of people from a defined set of reviewers, all at once. Creating it settles who is reviewed, who reviews them, what they are asked, and whether reviewers are named.

Required role: Administrator.

Before you start

Build the template first if you want the cycle to ask specific questions. A cycle can run without one, but reviewers then have only the overall summary fields to write in.

Steps

Go to Feedback & 1:1s → Cycles.
Select New Cycle.
Under Basics, enter the Cycle Name, choose the Cycle Type, set the Start Date and End Date, and write the Description.
Under Template, choose a template, or take Skip — no template.
Under Participants, choose the Target Scope and pick the departments, teams, grades, or people it covers.
Under Settings, set the reviewer mix and the anonymity switch, and set Min Peer Reviewers and Max Peer Reviewers.
Under Review, read the summary back.
Select Save as Draft, or Create & Launch to start it now.

Cycle type

Option	Description
360 Review	Comprehensive multi-rater feedback from peers, managers, and direct reports.
Peer Feedback	Collect feedback from selected peers.
Upward Feedback	Direct reports provide feedback on their manager.
Manager Review	Manager evaluates direct reports.
Self Assessment	Employees evaluate their own performance.

Target scope

Option	Description
All Employees	Every active employee.
By Department	One or more departments.
By Team	One or more teams.
By Grade	One or more job grades.
Specific Employees	A list of individuals you hand-pick.

For department, team, and grade scopes, the participant count is computed when the cycle launches, not when you pick the scope.

Example: scoping a cycle to HC Corp’s Engineering department covers 34 people. Scoping it to the People department covers 6, and at that size everyone can work out who said what however the results are presented.

Settings

Option	Description
Anonymous Responses	Hide reviewer identity in results.
Self Review Required	Subject employees fill in a self-review.
Manager Review Required	The subject’s manager submits a review.
Allow Peer Nomination	The subject can nominate their own peer reviewers.
Include Direct Reports	The subject’s direct reports are auto-assigned as reviewers.
Min Peer Reviewers	The fewest peers a subject must have.
Max Peer Reviewers	The most they may have.

Anonymity is decided here and only here

Anonymous Responses hides reviewer identity in the results. Reviewers are told, on the form they fill in, that their responses are anonymous and that the subject will see ratings and comments but not their name.

Settle this before you launch and then tell people the same thing the product tells them. The one thing that kills a feedback programme is a promise the tool does not keep.

Anonymity also has a floor set by arithmetic, not by a switch. Where a subject has two peer reviewers, an anonymous comment is attributable by anyone who can count. Min Peer Reviewers is the control that protects it.

Example: HC Corp running an anonymous 360 with a minimum of four peer reviewers gives a subject a genuine pool. A minimum of two does not, whatever the results screen says about anonymity.

Peer nomination

With Allow Peer Nomination on, the subject picks their own peer reviewers within the minimum and maximum. That produces reviewers who have actually worked with them, and it produces a friendlier sample. With it off, reviewers are assigned.

Example: James Whitfield nominating four peers gives Olivia Bennett feedback from people who saw the work. It also gives him a hand in who is asked, which is a trade you make deliberately rather than by leaving a default alone.

Launching resolves the scope

Create & Launch creates the participants and reviewers from the cycle’s settings. The interface states that drafts cannot be re-edited from this point.

The target scope is locked once the cycle is created — departments, teams, grades, or hand-picked employees cannot be changed afterwards. To change the scope you cancel the cycle and create another. Dates and the peer reviewer minimum and maximum can still be edited.

Example: launching a cycle scoped to HC Corp’s Sales department fixes the 21 people in it. Someone who joins Sales the following week is not swept into the running cycle.

What happens next

Reviewers are assigned and can begin submitting. Where peer nomination is on, subjects are asked to nominate first. Track completion on the cycle, chase with reminders, and close it when responses are in. Results are generated per participant after that, and the bias report runs over the submitted responses.