The Visibility settings of a performance review control who sees submitted answers and when. You can give managers early access to their team's answers, keep feedback from others hidden from the evaluated employee, and hide the names of peer reviewers.
Before you start
- You can set visibility in the last step of the New review wizard, or later in Edit > Visibility.
- Visibility can be changed while the review is a Draft, Scheduled or Active. It's locked once the review is Finished.
The settings
| Setting | When on | When off | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grant managers early access to responses | Managers see their direct and indirect reports' submitted answers, scores and AI insights while the review is Active. | Managers see them only after the review is Finished. | On |
| Restrict results visibility | Evaluated employees only see the answers they wrote themselves. Feedback written by their manager and peers stays hidden. | Evaluated employees see their submitted results once the review is Finished. | Off |
| Make peer review anonymous | The evaluated person sees peer answers without the peer's name. | The evaluated person sees who wrote each peer review. | Off |
Step by step
- Go to Performance > Reviews and open the review.
- Click Edit at the top right.
- Open Visibility.
- Turn each setting on or off. Changes save immediately.
Who sees submitted answers, and when
| Person | While the review is Active | After the review is Finished |
|---|---|---|
| Admins with Review Process Full Visibility | All submitted answers | All submitted answers |
| Review owners | Submitted answers of people they can see | Same |
| Manager (direct or indirect) | Only with Grant managers early access to responses | Yes |
| Evaluated employee | Their own answers. Managers being evaluated also see their direct reports' answers if early access is on and visibility isn't restricted. | Their results, unless Restrict results visibility is on |
| Reviewer | The evaluations they wrote | The evaluations they wrote |
Rules and behavior
- If Make peer review anonymous is on, then admins, review owners and the evaluated person's manager can still see who wrote each peer review.
- If Make peer review anonymous is on, then peer reviewer names are also hidden in the review export.
- If an action plan is started, then the manager and the employee can both see the self review and manager review answers, even if Restrict results visibility is on.
- If Grant managers early access to responses is on, then managers are notified when a direct report submits or edits a self review.
- If the review was migrated from the older version of Reviews, then Edit > Visibility shows Anonymous responses: peer and direct report answers are anonymous for everyone, including admins.
- Potential scores are never shown to the evaluated person, whatever the visibility settings.
- Self reviews and manager reviews are never anonymous.
- If a review uses the Direct reports to manager review type, then those answers are never anonymous: the evaluated manager sees who wrote each one. This is by design; Make peer review anonymous only applies to peer reviews.
Limitations
- You can't make direct report (upward) reviews anonymous.
- You can't hide the reviewer's name from admins.
- You can't set a separate "results release" date. Results are shared when the review is Finished.
- You can't change visibility after the review is Finished.
Troubleshooting
- Symptom: "My employee says they can see what their manager wrote, but we restricted visibility." → Cause: an action plan was started, which shares the self review and manager review answers. → Fix: this is expected. Start action plans only when you want to share the answers.
- Symptom: "Managers can't see anything yet." → Cause: Grant managers early access to responses is off and the review is Active. → Fix: turn it on or wait until the review ends.
- Symptom: "Employees can't see their results after the deadline." → Cause: Restrict results visibility is on. → Fix: it can't be changed after the review is Finished. Share results through action plans.
FAQ
1. Can employees see their score?
Yes, after the review is finished, if Restrict results visibility is off. They never see the potential score.
2. Are peer reviews anonymous by default?
No. Turn on Make peer review anonymous.
3. Can the manager see who the peers were?
Yes. The manager, admins and owners always see peer assignments.