Competency assessment is where employees score themselves and each other with question templates. It is independent of goal periods. This article explains how to open the company's first competency period. Users with Performance Management Administrator Permission do this.
The Growth and hiring > Competency review screen has five tabs: Assigned to Me, My Results, Periods, Question Templates and Reports. The admin sees all five tabs. The competency settings (general preferences and question set categories) are on the Configuration > Performance > Competency review settings page; the Settings button in the screen header opens it. Users with Performance Management Employee Permission see only Assigned to Me, My Results and Periods; on Periods they do not see the evaluation progress, the average score or the report buttons. This keeps who evaluates whom hidden from employees when Anonymous Evaluation is on.
Before you start
You have Performance Management Administrator Permission.
Employees' managers are defined in their Position Information. Assessors are found from the organization: the Manager role is the employee's manager, the Direct reports role is the people reporting to them, and the Same branch, department and position role is employees in the same position in the same branch.
There is at least one question set category. A new company has no built-in categories or templates; create them with step 1 below.
Step by step
1. Creating a category
In the left menu, go to Configuration, pick Performance in the list on the left and the Competency review settings card at the top (or click Settings in the header of the Competency review screen). On the Question Set Categories card, type a name in Category name (for example "Leadership") and click Add.
You can Rename a category with the pencil icon or delete it with the bin icon. A category used in a question set cannot be deleted.
2. Creating a question template
Go to the Question Templates tab and click + (New Template).
Type the Template name and select a Category.
The first competency comes as "Competency 1". Enter the Competency name and Description.
Write the first question in Question. Each question gets five default answers: Strongly Disagree (1) … Strongly Agree (5). You can change the Answer and Score fields and add answers with Add Answer.
Add questions to a competency with Add Question and new competencies with Add Competency.
Click Save.
Rules: the template needs a name and a category; at least one competency, at least one question per competency and at least two answers per question; every answer needs a label and a score. A template used in any period other than a draft (published, active, completed or archived) cannot be edited or deleted, because the reports and results of closed periods depend on it. Use Copy and edit the copy.
3. The period wizard (6 steps)
Click New Period at the top right of the page. The Create New Period window opens; move between steps with Back and Next. If you close the window with the X at the top right while there are unsaved entries, you are asked to confirm; if you click Close, your entries are lost.
Evaluation Type: Choose which roles take part.
90°: Only the employee themselves (self assessment)
180°: Employee + their manager
270°: Employee + manager + the people the employee manages
360°: All of the above + employees in the same branch, department and position
Role Weights: Enter each role's share as a percentage or set it with the slider. Next stays disabled until the Total is exactly 100%. The default split is equal. Changing the type resets the weights.
Period Info: Period name, Start date, End date (must be after the start and cannot be in the past), Reminder frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Off; default Weekly), Results visible to employee (on by default) and an optional Message to Employees. The message appears on the evaluation card and on the fill screen.
Question Set: Choose a saved template with Select from Template or prepare a new set for this period with Create New Set. A new set is always saved as a template in Question Templates as well; if saving fails and you try again, the same template is updated instead of creating a copy.
Distribution: For each Assignment, choose a Question set and select the employees to be evaluated by branch, department, position or person. To give different groups different question sets, click Add Assignment. The system finds the assessors for each employee from the organization. If a role cannot be resolved, a warning appears; assign the assessor manually with Select next to the missing role. If even one role is left empty, the period cannot be saved. If the same employee is in two assignments, a warning appears; the employee is evaluated once, with the question set of their first assignment.
Preview: Check General information, Weights and Assignments. Use Save as Draft to continue later or Publish to start the period. After publishing, the type, weights and distribution cannot be changed.
4. Monitoring the period
In the list on the left of the Periods tab, the All, Draft, Published, Active, Completed and Archived tabs filter the periods by status; search with the Search periods... box and sort by period name, dates, participants, completion or status with Sort. The list on the Question Templates tab has a search, a Category filter and Sort too. Select the period. You see the Participants, Completed, Average score and Completion cards, and in the Evaluation Progress section each employee's assessors and their status. A Draft period has Edit and Publish buttons; a Completed period has Close and View. Close also appears on an Active or Published period whose end date has passed with evaluations still missing.
Role weights are used the same way in every score: the Average score card on this tab, the Reports tab and the employee's My Results screen. In each competency, the roles' scores are combined by their weights; if a role has no evaluation (for example an employee without a manager), its weight is shared among the remaining roles. A person's overall score is the average of their competency scores.
Period status | Meaning |
Draft | Saved, not published. Can be edited. |
Published | Published before the start date. Becomes Active automatically on the start date. |
Active | The start date has come; evaluations can be filled in. |
Completed | All evaluations are submitted and the end date has not come yet. |
Archived | All evaluations are submitted and the end date has passed, or the admin clicked Close. |
When all evaluations are submitted, the period becomes Completed and results open to employees. If any evaluation is missing on the end date, the period does not close by itself, and evaluations cannot be submitted after the end date. After the end date, select the period and click Close: the confirmation tells you how many evaluations were not submitted. When you close it, the period becomes Archived and results open with the submitted evaluations. To keep gaps small, follow Evaluation Progress before the end date.
5. Getting the report
On the Reports tab, select the period from Select period. The table shows, for each employee, the score per competency, the OVERALL score, Status (Not started, In progress, Completed) and Progress. If the period used more than one question set, the competencies of all sets become columns; competencies with the same name share one column, and a competency that is not in the employee's set shows "-". Download the table with Download Excel.
6. Settings
On the General Preferences card of the Configuration > Performance > Competency review settings page:
Anonymous Evaluation: When on, the employee does not see who wrote the comments from direct reports and peers. Manager comments always show the name.
Automatic Reminder: When on, people who have not finished their evaluations get a morning email according to the Reminder frequency chosen for the period. A last reminder also goes out the day before the end date, so short periods get at least one reminder. If the frequency is Off, no reminders are sent.
Show Direct Report and Peer Evaluations to Employee (270° and 360°): When off, the employee sees only the self assessment and the manager's assessment in My Results.
Click Save Settings after making changes.
Note: The Auto-send PDF Summary at Period End setting that used to appear on this card was removed from the screen because nothing sends that summary. The weight that would combine the goal and competency scores (default 60% goal / 40% competency) is stored in the system but is not shown on screen and is not used in any score calculation; the goal score and the competency score are tracked separately.
Result
When the period is published, tasks are created for each assessor and assessors get a "You Have Evaluations to Complete" email. Assessors see their tasks on the Assigned to Me tab (Filling in competency evaluations).
Common problems
Symptom: The template does not save; I cannot select a category.
Cause: The company has no category.
Solution: Add a category under Configuration > Performance > Competency review settings > Question Set Categories.
Symptom: Next does not work in the Distribution step.
Cause: An assignment has no question set or no employees, or a role without an assessor remains.
Solution: Assign an assessor with Select for the employees in the warning.
Symptom: The template's Edit button is disabled.
Cause: The template is used in a period other than a draft (published, active or closed).
Solution: Make a copy with Copy and edit the copy.
Symptom: The period ended but did not become Completed; results did not open.
Cause: At least one evaluation was not submitted.
Solution: After the end date, select the period on the Periods tab and click Close. Results open with the submitted evaluations.
Symptom: The Period Info step shows "The end date cannot be in the past".
Cause: If a period that has already ended were opened, nobody could fill in its evaluations.
Solution: Pick today or a later date as the end date.