Before You Start
An Appraisal is a component of a performance cycle, set up by an Admin.
It is configured in the Cycle Components step when you create or edit a cycle.
To build or edit an Appraisal, you must have Admin access.
To answer an Appraisal, you must be a Manager assigned to review Talent in the cycle, or a Talent answering questions assigned to you.
An Appraisal becomes answerable only when the cycle reaches its Review step.
Overview
An Appraisal is a set of questions an Admin adds to a performance cycle to evaluate Talent during the review process. Alongside Goals, Competencies, and Potential Rating, the Appraisal is one of the performance areas reviewers complete for each Talent. Answers feed into the cycle's scoring.
In short: the Admin builds the questions once, and every reviewer in the cycle answers the questions assigned to them for the Talent they review.
How Appraisals Fit in a Cycle
The Appraisal is created in the Cycle Components step of a performance cycle. There the Admin builds Appraisal Forms made up of sections and questions. Once the cycle runs, those questions appear to reviewers as the Appraisals performance area during the cycle's Review step.
A question can be assigned to the Manager, the Talent, or both, so each reviewer answers the questions meant for them. After reviewers submit, the answers move forward with the rest of the cycle through any later steps the Admin added, such as Calibration, Approvals, Acknowledge, and Publish Scores.
📝 Note: The Appraisal does not replace Competencies or Goals. It is an additional question set that reviewers complete during the same review.
Building an Appraisal (Admin)
The Admin creates the Appraisal while configuring the performance cycle. This defines the form, its sections, and the questions every reviewer will answer.
Open the performance cycle you want to configure.
Go to the Cycle Components step.
Open the Appraisal component to start an Appraisal Form.
Add a section to group related questions.
Add a question to the section by creating it manually, generating it with AI, or selecting it from the Question Bank.
Choose the question type: Rating scale, Multiple choice, or Open-ended.
Assign the question to the Manager, the Talent, or both.
Mark the question as required if reviewers must answer it.
Repeat for each question and section you need.
Save the Appraisal Form.
💡 Tip: Keep each question focused on one behavior or outcome. Reviewers answer the same set for every Talent, so clear wording keeps responses consistent.
⚠️ Warning: Editing or removing questions after the Review step has started can affect answers reviewers already submitted. Finalize the form before the cycle reaches review.
Adding Questions from the Question Bank (Admin)
The Question Bank lets Admins add off-the-shelf questions to an Appraisal Form. Admins can still create questions manually or generate them with AI, and can now select questions from the Question Bank as another question source.
Open the Appraisal Form section where you want to add questions.
Select Question Bank as the question source.
Use the search field or question type filters to find the questions you need.
Select one or more questions from the list.
Click Add Selected Questions.
The selected questions are added to the section with their configured question type.
📝 Note: Questions from the Question Bank are fixed. Admins can only select from the available questions and add them to the Appraisal Form.
Question Types
An Appraisal can mix three question types:
Rating scale: a scored scale, for example 1 to 5 with labels such as "Needs improvement" to "Outstanding".
Multiple choice: a choice from set options, for example "Excellent", "Good", or "Poor".
Open-ended: a free-text response.
📝 Note: Rating scale and multiple choice answers can contribute to the cycle's score. Open-ended answers add written context to the review.
Answering an Appraisal (Reviewer)
During the cycle's Review step, the reviewer opens the review for a Talent and works through the performance areas, including Appraisals. A Manager answers the questions assigned to managers, and Talent answer any questions assigned to them.
Open the Action Center to find your pending review tasks, or open the cycle's review directly.
Select a Talent from the list to open their review.
Open the Appraisals area to see its questions.
Answer each question using the rating, choice, or text field provided.
Complete every required question before moving on.
Select Submit & Next to save your answers and move to the next Talent.
The review screen tracks progress per Talent and across all Talent, so reviewers can see what is reviewed and what is still pending.
💡 Tip: Use AI Assist to help draft a response, and choose English or Arabic for the suggested text.
⚠️ Warning: Submitting moves the review forward in the workflow. Confirm your answers before you select Submit & Next, as you may not be able to change them afterward.
Reviewing Appraisal Results
After reviewers submit, the Admin can see Appraisal answers as part of the cycle's results and analytics.
Open the performance cycle.
Go to the results or analytics area for the cycle.
Select a Talent, or filter by group, role, or department.
View the Appraisal answers alongside Goals, Competencies, and Potential Rating.
📝 Note: Appraisal results can feed into later steps such as Calibration, where the Admin can adjust scores, and Publish Scores, where participants can see their results.
FAQs
What is an Appraisal?
What is an Appraisal?
A set of questions an Admin adds to a performance cycle to evaluate Talent during the review process.
Where does the Appraisal appear for reviewers?
Where does the Appraisal appear for reviewers?
As the Appraisals performance area in the cycle's Review step, alongside Goals, Competencies, and Potential Rating.
Who answers the Appraisal questions?
Who answers the Appraisal questions?
Whoever the question is assigned to: the Manager, the Talent, or both.
When does the Appraisal become available to reviewers?
When does the Appraisal become available to reviewers?
When the cycle reaches its Review step. Before that, it exists only as Admin configuration in Cycle Components.
Can reviewers get help writing answers?
Can reviewers get help writing answers?
Yes. AI Assist can draft a response, and you can choose English.