Use review automations to automate the creation of review cycles with time-based rules. Sample use cases include
- Probation period assessments: A review of a new employee automatically created a predefined number of weeks after they join the company. These reviews evaluate the onboarding progress for the employee and manage performance expectations going forward. All relevant assessment questions are sent to anyone assessing the employee.
- Decentralized annual assessments: Instead of assessing all employees simultaneously, you can review each person asynchronously on a customizable cadence based on their start date (e.g., someone starts and goes through a review every six months after that). That way, performance assessments are spread out over the year, creating a more even workload distribution for managers.
- Centralized annual assessments: To automate centralized review cycles for all employees at the same time (e.g., an end of the year review, each year in December), you can set an automation that is repeating every x weeks based on a predefined start date.
How to set up a new automation
To create a new automation, you will first need to have/create a review template. After you have the template, please navigate to 'Automations' and click 'Actions' > 'Create automation.'
Name
You will first be asked to provide a name for your rule (e.g., 'Probation period assessment' or 'Biannual company-wide review').
Timing
Following that, you should select when your automation should be run:
- You can run the automation once for each employee, a certain number of weeks after he/she/they joined the company. This is the scenario of probation period assessments.
- You can also create repeating automations. Each employee will be included for the first time a certain number of weeks after he/she/they joined, and then again (and again) after your repetition interval has passed. In the example below, an employee who joined on January 1st is reviewed for the first time on February 1st and every 12 weeks after.
- If you want to run repeating reviews for the whole team or company (e.g., each year in December), you can set up an automation based on a predefined day that will repeat every x weeks. In the example below, all selected employees or teams will be included for the first time on December 31st and will then go through the same review again every 52 weeks (1 year).
Note: Changes you make to the template in the meantime will only impact automated reviews that are yet to be kicked off.
Who should be evaluated?
In the next step, select for which employees this rule should be applied. You can create automations for everyone, or based on teams, locations, levels, contributor types, and custom attributes. You can also include a minimum tenure limitation in weeks within the inclusion criteria. The automation will ensure that users who qualify within the minimum tenure and the filters, will be included within the automated cycles. Navigate to 'Who should be included' > specific employees > minimum tenure in weeks.
You can also exclude certain employees based on users, teams, locations, levels, contributor types, and custom attributes as well.
Template
Finally, select the template that you want to use for your automation. Each time a new cycle is created based on your automation, we will use the current version of that template so that you can make changes in between. You can switch the template at any time, but please be aware that it will only affect new cycles and not cycles that have already been created (draft & active).
Please note: Barring any additional permissions to view analytics, individuals marked as template owners will only be granted access to the analytics of cycles created after the point at which they are made an owner.
Important notes on timing
- The system will check for eligible employees every Monday morning (CEST). All employees that matched the criteria in the previous week will be included in a new cycle. When a rule is first applied, anyone who fit the criteria (based on the start/hire date) at any point in the last 30 days will be included.
- Whenever an automation creates a new cycle, it will be "ready for kickoff." The actual kickoff will be triggered 7 days later, so you'll have plenty of time to make changes to your cycle if required. Of course, you can also (manually) kick it off right away by clicking the 'Proceed' button in the cycle dashboard.
- Admins can preview who will be included in their review automation during the next 6 weeks. The preview tracks whether it’s time to enroll a user based on their next assessment based on their last enrolment. If the last automation-based cycle is canceled for a user, it will be skipped and the user will be enrolled in the next automation cadence.
Filtering for automated cycles
To view review cycles that were created with an automation, admins can navigate to 'Reviews' > 'Cycles' and select 'All active automation-based cycles' from the drop-down filter menu. If an automation is deleted, the review cycles that have already been created are not deleted. These must be deleted manually in the 'Cycles' section.
To find automatically created cycles from a specific automation as a super admin, please go to 'Reviews' > 'Cycles > select 'Created by a specific automation' from the drop-down filter. You can then select the automation and will see all cycles that were automatically created by a specific automation.
Setting start / hire dates for employees
If you're using our HRIS integrations, the hire dates will automatically be imported from those systems. If you're using our excel import, please make sure to add the hire date in the appropriate column. You can also edit the start/hire date manually. Go to 'Settings' on the bottom left corner > 'Employees' > search for the employee you want to edit the start date of > click 'Edit' under their name > update the 'Start date' field.
Removing employees from an automation
If a specific employee or team shouldn't be included in an automation-based cycle, you can exclude them by entering their name or team name into the optional field 'Exclude the following employees'.
Please note: If you notice that a user is missing in the automated review cycle, please check if one of the following causes apply:
- the start date of the user has not been defined
- the start date of the user has been changed
- the automation rules have been changed
- the automation inclusion or exclusion rules have been changed
- the user doesn't have the active status in Leapsome
Making changes to an active automation rule
When changes are made to one-off automation, the new rule is re-evaluated as soon as the change is saved on Leapsome. The users that were previously included in the rule will not be included again by the automation.
Similarly, when changes are made to recurring automation, the new rule is re-evaluated as soon as the change is saved on Leapsome. Anyone that matches the conditions in a given time window will be included (Note: participants will be added based on the new rule even if they were included shortly before based on a different rule set).
Making changes to a template used in a Review automation
Based on what kind of changes should be made in a template, there are two approaches on how they can be actioned:
- If the change is small, such as spelling or adding a very small number of new questions - you can update the existing template that is being used in an automation.
- If you plan to make bigger changes, such as removing questions or navigating the purpose of the template to a different concept, we suggest creating a fresh new template.
Once you are ready to make the changes, any time between Tuesday-Sunday is recommended, since our Automation runs every Monday.
Frequently asked questions
How can I launch an automated cycle as soon as an employee joins?
If you would like to launch a review quickly after an employee joins, you can set the kick-off of the automation to be '0' weeks after the employee joins. With this setup, if a person joins on a Monday, then the cycle would be created on their first day and would kick off the following Monday (employee's week 2). If the person's first day is not on a Monday, the draft of the cycle will be created the following Monday (employee's week 2), and would kick off the following Monday (employee's week 3).
Is there a safety net, if I update when automation kicks off based on the hire date?
There is a 9-day safety net surrounding hire dates to ensure users who should qualify, are included. For example, if you set up a new automation or change an existing one, and you set an automation based on users who were hired 12 weeks ago, the automation will include users who's start date was 12 weeks ago, as well as up to 12 weeks + 9 days ago.
What happens to deactivated users?
Review automations do not add deactivated users to review cycles. When a user is re-activated, the automation will add a review cycle for the user for the reviews they missed during the deactivation period.
Will invited users be included in the automation?
Yes, invited users will be included in automatons as long as they have a start date.
How to calculate if an employee is being included in the automation:
In this example, our company uses Review Automation for probation reviews. According to the setup, all employees are included in the Automation 24 weeks after they join the company.
Please Note: This is only an example, all Review Automation frequencies can be calculated with the same logic.
The preview shows two employees that will be included in the automation within the next 6 months. In the following, the calculation of the automation rule will be explained:
Gina Linetti, started Oct 18, 2022:
18th Oct 2022 (Start date) + 24 weeks = 4th April 2023 (Tuesday) -> Automations always start on Monday; review cycle will be created on 10th April 2023 (Monday) + 1 week = 17th April 2023 (Kickoff)
Joey Tribbiani, started Nov 06, 2022:
06th Nov 2022 (Start date) + 24 weeks = 23.th April 2023 (Sunday) -> Automations always start on Monday; review cycle will be created on 24th April 2023 (Monday) + 1 week = 01st May 2023 (Kickoff)
What happens with the employees who don’t match the new rules due to the changes made to an active automation rule, and the safety net doesn’t apply?
If the automation rule is being changed for more than 7 days (plus/minus), it is most likely that users to whom the rule has applied before are not included anymore.
An example:
Super-Admin changes the existing Automation rule from 24 weeks to 20 weeks after employees have joined the company. This change was made on March 29, 2023.
Employee: Gina Linetti, started Oct 18, 2022
Based on the old setup
- 18th Oct 2022 + 24 weeks = 10th April 2023 (Cycle created) + 1 week = 17th April 23 (Kickoff)
- Based on the new setup, the cycle would have been created on 10th March 2023 (18th Oct 2022 + 20 weeks)