Introducing Hierarchical Calibration Cycles

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