Performance reviews
Introduction
Performance reviews are one of the most recurring and critical HR processes. They often involve multiple stages, distributing feedback forms, assigning reviewers, collecting self-assessments, and ensuring timely completion.
Automating this process reduces manual follow-up, eliminates delays, and ensures a consistent employee experience across the organization.
Importance of the Use Case
For growing teams, manually handling reviews can become time-consuming and error-prone. HRs often struggle to remember who has or hasn’t submitted their forms, and managers spend time chasing reminders.
Automation ensures:
Reviews are triggered on time (e.g., quarterly or semi-annually).
The right forms and reviewers are assigned automatically.
HRs can focus on insights instead of admin work.
Use Case Explanation
In this automation, we’ll focus on distributing Performance Review Forms automatically to all employees who fall under a specific cycle or time frame, for example, “Q4 2025 Review.”
We will configure this automation such that:
When a review cycle starts,
A form is distributed to the employees within that cycle segment (e.g., all permanent employees in Engineering or Marketing),
Reviewers and HR team members are automatically assigned,
Scenarios Where This Applies
Quarterly or annual review cycles - e.g., “FY 2025 H2 Review.”
Probation period evaluations - e.g., after 90 days from joining.
Promotion or role change reviews.
Department-level check-ins (e.g., “Engineering Mid-Year Reviews”).
Challenges Faced by Users
Without automation, HR teams often:
Spend hours sending and tracking review forms manually.
Miss reminders for overdue reviews.
Forget to assign the right reviewers.
Lack visibility into progress until the review deadline.
Automation eliminates these pain points completely.
Pre-requisites
Before configuring the automation rule:
Ensure the Performance Review Form template is already created and enabled for automation distribution.
Define a User Segment, for example, all active employees in “Engineering Department” or “All employees who joined before September 2025.”
Automation Process
Step 1: Create a New Rule
Navigate to the Automation Rules section in UpRaise.
Click Create New to start defining a new automation rule.
Basic Details
Name: Provide a meaningful name for your rule (e.g., Bi-Annual Review Cycle).
Enable Toggle: Use the toggle to enable or disable the rule as needed.
Select a Trigger
UpRaise provides three trigger types to choose from:Manual Trigger: Run the automation manually whenever needed.
Scheduled at Interval Trigger: Automatically execute the rule on a recurring schedule.
Frequency: Choose how often the rule should run (e.g., Monthly for Bi-Annual Review Cycle).
Start Date: Select the date from which the automation should begin.
Time: Set the exact time when the forms should be distributed.
Occurrences: Define how long the automation should continue (e.g., 1 year, 2 years etc.).
Profile Attribute Change: Automation triggers whenever a profile updated.
Notifications on Success/Failure
Decide how you want to be notified about the execution of the rule:Notify Only When Rule Fails to Execute (default).
Notify For Every Rule Execution.
Do Not Notify.
By default, the user creating the rule will receive the notifications, but you can also select additional users if required.
Save & Proceed
Once the above details are filled in, click Save and Next to move to the Pre-condition step, where you will define the segment of users (e.g., employees who joined on or before 30th September 2024 will have their bi-annual review cycle automation triggered on 1st April 2025 and will receive the performance review form).
Click Save & Next to continue.
Step 2: Precondition Step
Once you have created the appropriate user segment(s), during rule creation you will have to simply select the relevant segment in the Precondition step.
Select the User Segment, for instance, April Review Cycle - All India Employees.
You can filter further if needed, e.g., Employment Type = Full-time or Status = Active.
This ensures that only relevant employees receive the review form.
Click Save & Next to move to the action setup.
Step 3: Add Action – Distribute Form
Now, click Add Action and choose Distribute Form from the list of available actions.
Action Name: Enter a descriptive name such as Distribute Bi-Annual Review Cycle Form.
Select Form Template: Choose your existing review form, e.g., Bi-Annual Review Cycle Form - April Cycle.
Only forms that are enabled for automation will appear in this dropdown.
Identify Team Members: Automatically pulled from the user segment configured in the precondition.
Identify Reviewers:
You can select a specific user attribute such as Manager so that each employee’s direct manager is automatically assigned as the reviewer.
Alternatively, select a specific user (e.g., HR Head) for centralized review.
Identify HR Users: Add HR team members responsible for reviewing or closing review forms.
Set Form Duration: Define how long the form should remain open (e.g., 14 days).
Add Reminder: Enable the reminder toggle to auto-send reminders 3 and 7 days before the form due date.
Click Save to store this action.
Step 5: Save and Activate the Rule
Once you’ve added all the actions, click Save & Activate.
The system will now automatically:
Distribute performance review forms to relevant employees,
Assign reviewers and HR users,
Send timely reminders before due dates.
Tips for Optimizing Performance Review Automations
Plan cycles in advance: Schedule triggers quarterly or half-yearly to match your review cadence.
Segment smartly: Use filters like “probation completed” or “joined before X months” for better targeting.
Combine with feedback forms: You can add another action to distribute peer feedback forms automatically right after distributing the main review form.
Conclusion
By automating the Performance Review workflow, organizations ensure that reviews are conducted consistently, reminders go out automatically, and HR doesn’t spend hours managing forms manually.
This not only improves compliance and transparency but also enhances employee experience by keeping the process structured and predictable.
Call to Action:
👉 Set up your first automated performance review cycle today and let the system handle distribution, tracking, and reminders, while you focus on meaningful conversations, not admin work.