We're excited to announce the launch of Peer Reviewer Selection Limits, a new feature designed to help organizations distribute peer review requests more fairly and prevent reviewer overload during performance reviews.

What's New?

Administrators can now configure an optional cycle-wide limit on the number of times an employee can be selected as a peer reviewer.

Key capabilities include:

• Set a maximum number of peer review requests an employee can receive within a review cycle.
• Once the limit is reached, the employee becomes unavailable for further peer selection.
• Employees who have reached the limit appear disabled in the peer selection list with a tooltip indicating that the peer limit has been reached.
• Applies consistently across all peer selection workflows, including self-selection, manager selection, volunteer reviews, and admin or bulk imports.
• Employees who have reached their limit are automatically excluded from peer selection within Slack.
• Both pending and approved peer assignments count toward the configured limit. Removed or rejected assignments free up reviewer capacity, allowing the employee to be selected again if they fall below the limit.

• The default setting remains No Limit, ensuring existing review cycles remain unaffected unless the feature is enabled.

We're excited to announce the launch of Goal Percentage Formula, a new enhancement that gives organizations greater flexibility in how goal progress is calculated.

Previously, all goals followed a single default calculation method. With this release, administrators can enable custom percentage formulas, allowing employees to define how progress should be measured for individual goals while still retaining the option to use the default formula.

What's New?

Custom Goal Progress Calculations:

Employees can now configure a custom percentage calculation formula for individual goals based on their specific business requirements.

Benefits include:

• Greater flexibility in measuring goal progress
• Support for unique goal-tracking methodologies
• Ability to continue using the default calculation when preferred

AI-Assisted Formula Generation:

Creating formulas is now easier with AI assistance.

Users can:

• Describe how they want progress to be calculated in plain language
• Let AI generate the corresponding formula automatically
• Review and modify the generated formula before saving

This makes advanced goal calculations accessible without requiring technical expertise.

Supported Variables:

Currently, AI-generated formulas support the following variables:

• Current Progress
• Progress Start
• Progress Target
• Weight

Formulas that require additional variables or external data sources are not supported at this time.

Bulk Goal Upload Support:

To simplify large-scale goal management, we have added a new column to the Goal Upload template: Percent Formula (custom_percent_formula)

This allows administrators and HR teams to:

• Upload goals with predefined percentage formulas
• Configure custom calculations in bulk
• Eliminate the need for manual setup after importing goals

Example:

Default Formula:

((Progress - Progress Start) / (Progress Target - Progress Start)) * 100

Custom Formula Example:

User Request:

Calculate progress as the percentage of the target achieved from the starting value, but cap the result at 100%.

AI-Generated Formula:

MIN(((current_progress - progress_start) / (progress_target - progress_start)) * 100, 100)

This ensures that progress never exceeds 100%, even if the target is surpassed.

✅ Important Notes

• The Goal Percentage Formula feature must be enabled by an administrator before employees can create custom formulas.
• Goals can continue using the default calculation formula if no custom formula is provided.
• Formulas uploaded through the Goal Upload template are validated before being saved.
• Invalid formulas or formulas containing unsupported variables will be rejected.

We're excited to announce support for Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) as a source database for Goals Integration.

With this enhancement, organizations can now connect their MSSQL databases and seamlessly import goal check-ins into Peoplebox, expanding integration capabilities beyond MySQL and making goal progress tracking even more flexible and automated.

What's New?

MSSQL as a Goals Integration Source:

Admins can now connect Microsoft SQL Server databases directly to Peoplebox for goal progress updates.

Support for Manual and Scheduled Syncs:

Choose the integration approach that best fits your workflow:

• Run manual syncs when needed
• Automate updates with scheduled syncs

Bulk Goal Integrations:

A single integration setup can update multiple goals, reducing configuration effort and simplifying large-scale goal management.

Historical and Current Check-In Support:

Import both:

• Backdated check-ins for historical tracking
• Current-date check-ins for ongoing progress updates

This ensures accurate visibility into goal performance over time.

Enhanced Monitoring and Troubleshooting:

Continue to leverage:

• Integration sync history
• Downloadable sync reports

These tools provide greater transparency into integration performance and make troubleshooting easier when needed.

We're excited to announce the launch of Calibration Cycles — a dedicated workspace that helps organizations calibrate manager performance ratings through structured workflows, approval hierarchies, and distribution guidance.

What's New?

Dedicated Calibration Cycles:

Create standalone calibration cycles linked to one or more performance review cycles. Administrators can configure their own calibration workflow, approval hierarchy, and participant structure independently of the original review process.

Calibrate Manager Summary Ratings:

Managers and calibrators can review and adjust employee ratings captured through the Manager Summary Rating question.

For every employee, calibrators can view:

• Original Rating
• Calibrated Rating
• Calibration Notes

This ensures a complete audit trail while preserving the manager's original assessment.

Bring Performance Data into Compensation Cycles:

Compensation cycles can now include performance review data alongside compensation planning.

Organizations can:

• Surface performance ratings and review information directly within compensation workflows
• Provide decision-makers with relevant context without switching modules
• Calibrate manager summary ratings directly within compensation cycles

Bell Curve & Distribution Guidance:

Support fair and consistent rating distributions with configurable calibration guidelines. Organizations can:

• Define target rating distributions
• Configure soft or hard quota enforcement
• Apply quota rules to specific employee populations
• Track real-time distribution progress during calibration

Flexible Workflow Management:

Build calibration hierarchies that align with your organization's processes using Central Approval Flow.

Approval rules can be configured based on:

• Manager of Participant
• Skip-Level Manager of Participant
• Custom Approvers

Once participants are added, Central Approval Flow automatically generates the approval hierarchy, ensuring every employee follows the appropriate calibration process.

Additional capabilities include:

• Multi-level approval chains
• Calibration group management
• Submission status tracking across levels
• Workflow updates when organizational structures change

Custom Employee Context:

Bring additional business context into calibration discussions with custom columns and uploaded data, enabling more informed calibration decisions.

Improved Calibration Workspace:

Calibrators now have access to a dedicated workspace featuring:

• Distribution tracking cards
• Advanced search and filtering
• Side-by-side comparison of original and calibrated ratings
• Complete change history for rating updates

Reporting & Visibility:

After calibration is complete:

• Calibrated ratings become the primary ratings displayed across Peoplebox
• Original manager ratings remain available for audit and reporting
• Review summaries and exports reflect calibrated outcomes

We're pleased to announce enhancements to the Survey Bot experience, designed to provide greater flexibility for respondents and a more personalized experience for organizations.

Edit Survey Responses

Users can now edit their most recent survey response directly within the Survey Bot.

Key improvements include:

• Edit the most recent response directly from the Survey Bot.
• Responses and comments can be updated within a single editing workflow.
• Updated responses can be submitted directly from the edit screen.
• To ensure data consistency, subsequent survey questions will be temporarily unavailable while a response is being edited.

Account Logo Support

Survey Bot now supports organization branding by displaying your configured company logo.

• If a custom logo has been configured under General Settings, it will automatically appear in the Survey Bot.
• This creates a more consistent and branded experience for employees across the platform.

We're excited to introduce configurable decimal precision for review scores, giving admins greater control over how calculated scores are displayed across a review cycle.

What's New?

Per-Review-Cycle Decimal Precision

Admins can now configure the number of decimal places displayed for calculated scores at the review cycle level. This setting is managed from a single location and is applied consistently throughout the entire review cycle.

The configured precision applies to:

• Competency Scores
• Goal Scores
• Section Scores
• Overall Calculated Scores

Consistent Score Formatting Across the Platform

All calculated and aggregated scores now follow the same rounding and formatting rules, ensuring a consistent experience across:

• Web App
• PDF Exports
• Calibration Screens
• Slack Notifications

Backward Compatible by Default

Existing review cycles will continue to use a default precision of 2 decimal places, ensuring there is no impact on current review processes unless admins choose to customize the setting.

Organizations can now configure and manage their own SMTP server directly from the platform UI for all outbound emails.

What’s Included?

• Configure SMTP Directly from the UI: Admins can now set up: SMTP host, Port, Username and password, Authentication type, TLS/SSL encryption settings.

• Built-In SMTP Testing: Validate SMTP connectivity and credentials before enabling the configuration. Instant feedback helps identify authentication or connectivity issues early.

• One-Click Enablement: Once enabled, all outgoing emails for the account will be routed through the configured SMTP server automatically.

• Greater Control & Compliance:

1. Use your organization’s mail infrastructure.
2. Align with internal security and compliance policies.
3. Maintain sender reputation and email monitoring within your own systems.

• Flexible Management: Admins can update SMTP settings anytime or disable custom SMTP to switch back to the default email provider.

Where to Configure?

• Navigate to: Settings → Email Configuration
• Supported configurations include: TLS/SSL encryption, Custom SMTP ports, Authentication-based SMTP providers.

⚠️Important Notes:

Once enabled, all outgoing emails will be sent through the configured SMTP server.

Incorrect credentials or connectivity issues may impact email delivery.

We recommend testing the configuration before enabling it in production.

We’ve rolled out important improvements to the Admin "Add Peers" flow in review cycles to make the experience safer, more reliable, and better aligned with cycle rules.

What’s improved?

Admins can now add peers only after both required phases are completed for a reviewee:

• Peer Selection phase is closed for the reviewee.
• Peer Approval phase is closed for the reviewee’s manager.

If either phase is still open, the Add Peers option will remain disabled, along with a clear explanation in the UI.

Peer selection now also follows the cycle’s “Limit peers to participants” setting:

• When OFF: Admins can select any active employee in the account, excluding ineligible users such as the reviewee, existing peers, and direct reports.
• When ON: Admins can only select users already participating in the cycle (as reviewees or reviewers), while the same exclusions continue to apply.

These updates help ensure a more controlled, predictable, and seamless review administration experience.

We’ve introduced a new Automation Framework for Review Cycles that helps admins automate reviewee onboarding and downstream phase launches without repetitive manual setup.

Automation Management:

A dedicated Automations tab is now available within the Review Cycle Management screen. Admins can create, manage, enable, disable, and monitor automation workflows from a centralized location while also tracking the current status of each automation.

Add Reviewee Automation:

Admins can configure flexible Trigger → Filter → Action workflows to automatically add employees into a review cycle.

The framework includes an advanced query builder with support for nested AND/OR conditions across multiple employee attributes such as Employee ID, Department, Division, Business Unit, Location, Title, Level, Employment Type, Gender, Date of Joining, and Date of Exit.

Supported operators vary by field type and include:

• In / Not In for multiselect fields
• Numeric operators such as =, ≠, >, <, >=, <=, and Between
• Date-based operators including Before, After, Between, Last X Days/Months, and Exactly X Days/Months Ago

Admins can also preview filtered reviewees before saving the automation. Existing reviewees are automatically skipped to prevent duplicate additions.

Automation Execution:

Automations execute based on the configured trigger frequency in the account’s local timezone, typically during evening low-traffic hours.

On first enablement or after trigger updates, automations follow the next eligible execution window automatically.

Phase Launch Automation:

The new Phase Launch Automation allows one or multiple phases to be automatically launched whenever a new reviewee is added, either manually or through Add Reviewee Automation.

Admins can configure:

• Instant launches
• Specific date launches
• Relative launch timing based on days, weeks, or months

End timing can also be configured using global dates, fixed dates, relative timelines, and user-level overrides.

Multiple phases can be chained together under a single automation rule, with each phase functioning independently.

Notifications & Conflict Handling:

Phase launches support Slack, Email, MS Teams, and Silent Launch notification options with fully configurable notification content.

If a phase has already been launched for a user, the automation automatically relaunches it with updated timelines to ensure consistency.

Logs & Daily Digest:

A dedicated Logs tab provides complete automation run history, including employee ID, timestamp, execution status, and error details. CSV download support is also available from the centralized logs page.

Additionally, review cycle admins receive a daily digest email after each successful run whenever employees are added. The digest includes processed counts, success and failure summaries, and employee-level failure reasons for easier debugging and monitoring.

Duplication & Archival Support:

Duplicating a review cycle also duplicates its automations, while keeping duplicated automations disabled by default for safety. Archived review cycles automatically stop all automation executions.

Why This Matters:

This framework reduces repetitive manual setup for recurring review cycles, ensures employees are added dynamically through configurable filters, and automates downstream phase launches at scale.

With detailed logs, digest summaries, configurable execution windows, and instant staging execution support, admins now have better operational visibility and control over review cycle automation workflows.

We’re introducing Goal Digest Notifications, a new enhancement designed to improve visibility into goals that require follow-up and action.

With this release, goal owners, creators, managers, and admins can receive structured daily digest emails highlighting goals that have become Overdue, moved to At Risk, or are marked as Behind. Instead of tracking updates individually, all relevant goal updates are consolidated into a single scheduled digest for easier review and action.

Goals will continue appearing in future digests until corrective action is taken, such as updating the status, changing the due date, or completing the goal.

Recipient Experience:

• Goal Owners and Goal Creators receive goal status updates along with existing activity log updates, helping them stay informed about progress and changes.

• Managers and Admins receive status-only summaries focused on goals across their teams or organization, enabling better visibility into goals that may require intervention.

What’s Included in the Digest?

• Each digest email includes the goal name, current status, due date, progress details, last activity timestamp, and a direct link to access the goal quickly.

Configuration Details:

• At present, Goal Digest Notifications are managed through backend configuration and do not yet have a dedicated UI within Admin Settings.

By default:

• Notifications for Goal Owners are enabled for all accounts. Notification preference records are created only for accounts that explicitly require creator, manager, or admin notifications.

This enhancement is aimed at improving goal visibility, enabling timely follow-ups, and helping teams proactively address goals that may be drifting off track.