Run Performance Review Cycles And Appraisals

A performance review is two halves: HR frames the cycle and decides who is in it, then each reviewer sits down with their team member’s record, scores it, and signs it off. Once signed, an appraisal is permanent and read-only. This page walks both halves end to end, and the side-roads — editing a cycle, saving a draft before you commit, and the guard that keeps an appraisal in the right hands.

Who / when: the HR Manager or HR Officer creates cycles and enrols employees; a Line Manager appraises their team; HR can appraise too. A review cycle is a named review window (Annual, Probation, Quarterly, Half-Year or Project) with a rating scale, say 1–5. An enrolment puts one employee into a cycle with a reviewer. A perspective is whose view an appraisal takes — Self (the employee), Manager (the reviewer) or Peer. The eSign PIN is your 6-digit electronic signature; sign-off finalises an appraisal and locks it. We’ll follow Ada, an HR officer, and Tunde, a line manager.

The main path

1. HR Officer (Ada) — open Human Resources → Performance → Review Cycles and press “New Cycle”.
2. HR Officer — name the cycle (for example “2026 Annual Review”), pick the “Type”, set the “Period Start” and “Period End”, set the “Rating Scale Minimum” and “Rating Scale Maximum” (the max must exceed the min), and press “Create Cycle”. It opens in “Draft”.
3. HR Officer — on the cycle’s row press “Open” to move it from “Draft” to “Open”. Goals and appraisals can only be captured against an open cycle.
4. HR Officer — press “Enrol” on the cycle. In the drawer, search and pick an “Employee”, optionally pick a “Reviewer” (leave it blank to default to the employee’s line manager), and press “Enrol Employee”. Repeat for everyone in scope; the enrolled list builds below with each person’s Self and Manager sign-off state.
5. Line Manager (Tunde) — open Human Resources → Performance → Team Appraisals. This is your inbox. Choose the cycle from the picker to see the employees enrolled to you, or scroll to “My Appraisals As Reviewer” to resume ones you’ve started.
6. Line Manager — on an employee’s row press “Appraise”. Veona opens (creating it the first time, fetching it after) the Manager appraisal for that enrolment.
7. Line Manager — fill the rating sheet. Press “Add Goal” to score one of that employee’s goals (picked from their goals for this cycle) or “Add Competency” to score a named competency, scoring each line on the cycle’s scale with an optional comment, then set the “Overall Rating” and “Overall Comment”. Press “Save Draft” to keep working, or “Submit” when the content is final.
8. Line Manager — to finalise, press “Sign Off”, enter your eSign PIN, and press “Sign & Finalise”. The appraisal becomes “Signed Off” and read-only — the inputs lock and the bound signature snapshots the ratings.

Note

A cycle’s status gates everything beneath it: goals and appraisals are captured against an Open cycle. Create it Draft while you set the scale and enrolments, open it for the review window, and close it when the cycle is done.

Tip

The reviewer defaults to the line manager, so for most people you can leave “Reviewer” blank at enrolment and Veona routes the appraisal to their manager automatically. Set it explicitly only when someone other than the line manager should review.

Other ways this goes

Editing a cycle

1. HR Officer — open Human Resources → Performance → Review Cycles and move the cycle through its lifecycle with the row buttons: “Open” on a Draft cycle, “Close” on an Open one.
2. Closing a cycle ends its review window. Use “Enrol” any time the cycle is live to add a late starter.

Saving as draft versus submitting

1. Line Manager — while scoring, press “Save Draft” to persist your ratings and come back later; the appraisal stays “Draft” and fully editable.
2. Press “Submit” to mark the content final (“Submitted”) without yet signing. Submit signals you’re done editing; the eSign sign-off is the separate, locking step.

Sign-off makes it read-only

1. Line Manager — after “Sign & Finalise”, reopen the appraisal: it shows “This appraisal was electronically signed off … and is read-only.”
2. Every field is locked and only the signed verdict is shown. A signed appraisal is a permanent record — there is no editing it afterwards.

Deny: only the right person can edit

1. Another manager — if someone who is neither the enrolled employee (for the Self perspective) nor the assigned reviewer (for the Manager perspective) tries to open or edit the appraisal, the server denies it.
2. Each appraisal belongs to its subject and its reviewer. HR can act as reviewer, but an unrelated colleague cannot open or score someone else’s appraisal.

What happens next

Signed-off appraisals are locked into the record with their eSign signatures bound, giving you a clean, tamper-evident performance history per cycle. The employee sees their own appraisals — including their self-appraisal to complete — from their self-service hub. When the cycle’s window ends, close it from Review Cycles.

Follow the trail

• Next: Manage The Training Catalogue, Sessions And CPD · Set My Goals For The Review Cycle
• Related: Manage The Training Catalogue, Sessions And CPD · Set My Goals For The Review Cycle · Complete My Self-Appraisal