Lifecycle reviews let you run employee reviews according to each person’s individual timeline instead of launching one manual review cycle for a group of employees on the same dates.
Lifecycle reviews are triggered through workflows based on date-related employee attributes. This makes them suitable for processes that should happen at different times for different employees. For example, you can:
launch a probation review before an employee’s probation period ends;
schedule a performance or salary review based on the employee’s anniversary;
use a custom date field to automate a review around a company-specific milestone.
Each employee enters the review when their own workflow conditions are met, so people within the same Lifecycle review can have different start and end dates.
💡Lifecycle reviews are currently available in beta. If the feature isn't visible in your settings and you'd like to try it, contact our customer support team via chat or email at support@peopleforce.io.
Before you start
Before creating a Lifecycle review:
make sure you have the appropriate permissions to create and manage review cycles and workflows;
prepare the question templates you want to use;
decide who should participate as reviewers;
decide which employee date should determine when the review starts;
decide whether the review should start on, before, or after that date.
Step 1. Prepare question templates
Before creating a Lifecycle review, make sure you have the question templates you want to use. You can:
reuse an existing question template from a previous review; or
create a new template specifically for the Lifecycle review.
The template defines the questions reviewers will answer during the review. You will assign the appropriate template when configuring the reviewers in the Lifecycle review.
📚 If you need to create or update a template, see Create and manage question templates
Step 2. Create a Lifecycle review
Go to Performance > Reviews.
Click + New review cycle.
Select Lifecycle review as the review type.
Enter the review name and continue with the setup.
💡 The Lifecycle review configuration is similar to a regular review cycle, but some settings are adjusted because participants enter the review individually through workflows.
Move to the Reviews step.
Select who should provide feedback and assign the appropriate question templates. For example, you can configure the employee’s manager as a reviewer.
The reviewer setup follows the same general logic as a manual review cycle.
📚 For more information about reviewer types and question templates, see Creating a review cycle.
In the Review visibility section, you can allow direct and indirect managers to view their reports’ review results after they are shared or once answers are submitted. You can also allow managers to share review results and comments with employees.
For Peer group and Upward reviewers, you can also configure whether reviewer names should remain anonymous when results are viewed.
Configure scoring if the review requires it. For all details about this section, check the Performance score and competency weights.
Lifecycle reviews do not use one set of fixed calendar dates for all participants because each employee may enter the review on a different date. In the Milestones tab, configure the review timeline relative to when the review is launched for each employee:
Review closes - specify how many days people have to complete the review.
Reminder lead time - specify how many days before the review closes the reminder should be sent.
Configure the kick-off email that participants receive when their review starts.
You can also set reminders before the review submission deadline.
As mentioned earlier, you must have the appropriate permission to create and manage reviews. If you have them, you can access all review cycles across the company. If you want someone to access only one cycle, add them as a Collaborator.
When the setup is complete, save and publish the review.
Step 3. Connect the Lifecycle review to a workflow
To start Lifecycle reviews automatically for employees, connect the review to a workflow.
After creating the Lifecycle review, you can create a new workflow or use an existing one.
📚 For detailed instructions on creating a workflow, see Workflows: Streamline work processes with Workflows in PeopleForce.
Configure the workflow trigger
When setting up the workflow:
Select a Date related employee attribute as the workflow trigger.
Choose the employee date that should determine when the process starts.
Define when the workflow should run relative to that date.
Add any additional conditions that determine which employees the workflow applies to.
The trigger can be based on a standard employee date or a custom date field.
For example:
trigger a probation review 15 days before the end of the probation period;
trigger an annual review based on the employee’s hire date or annivarsary;
use a custom date field to start a review for an internal company milestone.
Because workflows can include conditions, you can also create different review processes for different employee groups. For example, one department may start its review 15 days before a milestone while another uses a different timeline.
Add the Request lifecycle review action
In the workflow:
Click the + icon.
Select Request lifecycle review.
Choose the Lifecycle review you created.
Save the action.
Finish configuring and activate the workflow.
When the workflow reaches the Request lifecycle review action for an employee, PeopleForce creates an individual review for that person.
Because the workflow is evaluated against each employee’s own date, participants within the same Lifecycle review can have different review start and end dates.
Step 4. Monitor Lifecycle reviews
Go to Performance > Reviews > Lifecycle reviews to view and manage your Lifecycle reviews. The list also helps you see which reviews already have workflows connected and which still require workflow setup.
Open a Lifecycle review to see the individual employee reviews that have already been triggered. Since employees enter the review at different times, each participant can have their own:
start date;
end date;
review progress and completion status.
You can use filters to find the employees or individual reviews you need, which is especially useful for Lifecycle reviews that remain active for a long period and gradually accumulate participants.
You can edit the Lifecycle review configuration after it has been created.
Changes apply to new reviews triggered after the update. Reviews that have already been triggered for employees are not updated retroactively.
Lifecycle reviews currently cannot be deleted. If you no longer need a Lifecycle review, you can archive it instead.
