Run a calibration session

What this achieves

Calibration adjusts manager ratings so they mean the same thing across a cohort before results are released. Every adjustment carries a reason, and locking the session is what makes the outcome final.

Required role: Administrator or Manager. Calibration is available on higher subscription plans.

Before you start

Manager reviews should be submitted first — calibration adjusts ratings that exist. Decide who is facilitating and who is authorised to change ratings before you create the session.

Steps

Open the cycle and select Go to Calibration.
Select New session.
Enter the Session name.
Choose Departments to scope the session, or leave the list empty to cover the full cohort.
Choose the Facilitator.
Choose the Calibrators.
Set the Scheduled date and add Notes (optional).
Create the session.
In the session, set Adjust to for each rating you are changing and enter a Reason.
Select Lock session when the cohort is agreed.

Scope

Leaving the department list empty covers the entire cycle cohort. Naming departments limits the session to participants whose employee record sits in them.

Scope by department where cohorts are genuinely separate populations, and run one session where the point is comparing across the whole group.

Example: HC Corp UK Ltd runs an Engineering session for its 34 engineers, and a separate session for Sales — comparing a sales quota against an engineering delivery goal in one room helps nobody.

Facilitator and calibrators

Option	Description
Facilitator	Runs the session. Typically the HR partner.
Calibrators	Users authorised to adjust ratings inside this session.

Both must have a linked user account. Humavera warns you when a chosen person does not — a facilitator without an account cannot act as facilitator, and calibrators without accounts cannot adjust ratings.

Example: if HC Corp UK Ltd names Sophie Clarke as facilitator, she needs a user account, not only an employee record.

Every adjustment needs a reason

The table shows each participant’s Manager rating, their Calibrated rating, an Adjust to control, and a Reason. A reason is required for an adjustment.

Write the reason as the justification it is. Calibration changes an outcome a manager arrived at, and an adjustment history is kept — a reason that says what the cohort comparison showed is defensible; “moderated” is not.

What the employee sees

An employee whose rating was changed at calibration sees that it was. Their results mark the final rating as adjusted at calibration rather than presenting it as the manager’s own.

That transparency is deliberate, and it is worth managers knowing about it. A manager who tells their report one rating and is calibrated to another cannot rely on the difference staying invisible.

Locking is permanent

Lock session is permanent — no further rating adjustments can be made in that session. The confirmation says so.

Lock when the cohort is genuinely agreed, not to tidy the screen. Where the cohort is unfinished, leave the session open.

What happens next

Calibrated ratings are what finalisation writes as the permanent rating records. Finalising the cycle releases results to employees, including any adjustment made here, and cannot be undone — so complete and lock calibration before finalising.