Contents
- Overview
- Anytime Feedback
- Scheduled Feedback
- Requests to Edit: Submission, approval & denial
- Feedback AI Assist
- FAQs
Overview
Our feedback feature has a variety of use cases, including:
-
General feedback which can be requested or given at anytime
-
360 feedback for a year-end review to receive input from peers and others (no self-reflection)
-
Upward feedback for evaluating managers
All feedback templates can be accessed by going to:
Admin → Program Management → Feedback → Settings
Anytime Feedback
There are 3 types of anytime feedback:
1. Feedback that a manager requests on behalf of a direct report
2. Feedback that a user requests for themselves
3. Feedback that a user gives to another user unprompted
Manager requested
Step 1: Name this feedback
The feedback name and description will be visible to all participants. The description is a great opportunity to give participants some context around the feedback as well as to provide links to any relevant company resources:
Allowing the manager to add a custom note can help them elaborate on the quarter, project, or presentation for which they're requesting feedback.
Step 2: Set Permissions (who can view feedback)
If a feedback template has been configured so that providers remain anonymous (i.e. "Employee can view feedback, but not provider"), administrators won't be able to see the provider of their own feedback in reports.
Note: If a direct report is assigned to a new manager after feedback is requested, but before it's been provided, the new manager won't see the pending request on their end (since they're not the manager who initiated the request). However, if/when the feedback is provided, the new manager will be able to view the feedback content.
Step 3: Write a question
The question types are...
- Paragraph: Open text
- Note: Paragraph answers can be configured to have a hard word limit that is less than the default 10,000-character limit.
- Scale: 1-2 through 1-25
- Star Rating: Up to 5 stars
- Note: Historically, the rating only went up to 4 stars. Reporting for feedback completed before the rating change will not be impacted and will still have a max of 4 stars. However, to avoid confusion when comparing historical and current reports, the max rating will now be indicated (i.e. "[#] out of 4 stars" or "[#] out of 5 stars").
- Multi-select: Up to 25 options and up to 250 characters per option.
Questions can be optional or mandatory. They can also be cloned by clicking the double-screen icon to the right of the question.
Step 4: Set up notifications
Determine if you'd like feedback participants to be informed and/or reminded about the feedback.
Note: If system notifications are completely disabled, these notifications will not be sent out.
Step 5: Activate this template
By default, the number of days to complete feedback is 28. The maximum is 300. The minimum is 1. However, if a feedback provider declines the request or allows it to expire, they can be selected again.
Note: "Undeploying" an anytime feedback template will delete all in-progress feedback forms that are using the template. This action will also remove the data from feedback reports. However, completed feedback forms will not be impacted.
User Requested
Step 1: Name this feedback
The feedback name and description will be visible to all participants. The description is a great opportunity to give participants some context around the feedback as well as to provide links to any relevant company resources:
Allowing the user to add a custom note can help them elaborate on the quarter, project, or presentation for which they're requesting feedback.
Step 2: Write a question
Step 3: Set permissions (who can view feedback)
If a feedback template has been configured so that providers remain anonymous (i.e. "Who can view feedback providers?"), administrators won't be able to see the provider of their own feedback in reports.
Step 4: Setup notifications
Determine if you'd like feedback participants (and/or the direct report's manager) to be informed and or reminded about the feedback.
Note: If system notifications are completely disabled, these notifications will not be sent out.
Step 5: Activate this template
By default, the number of days to complete feedback is 28. The maximum is 300. The minimum is 1. However, if a feedback provider declines the request or allows it to expire, they can be selected again.
Note: "Undeploying" an anytime feedback template will delete all in-progress feedback forms that are using the template. This action will also remove the data from feedback reports. However, completed feedback forms will not be impacted.
Given Unprompted
Step 1: Name this feedback
Step 2: Set permissions (who can view feedback)
If a feedback template has been configured so that providers remain anonymous (i.e. "Who can view feedback providers?"), administrators won't be able to see the provider of their own feedback in reports.
Step 3: Write a question
The question types are...
- Paragraph: Open text
- Note: Paragraph answers can be configured to have a hard word limit that is less than the default 10,000-character limit.
- Scale: 1-2 through 1-25
- Star Rating: Up to 5 stars
- Note: Historically, the rating only went up to 4 stars. Reporting for feedback completed before the rating change will not be impacted and will still have a max of 4 stars. However, to avoid confusion when comparing historical and current reports, the max rating will now be indicated (i.e. "[#] out of 4 stars" or "[#] out of 5 stars").
- Multi-select: Up to 25 options and up to 250 characters per option.
Questions can be optional or mandatory. They can also be cloned by clicking the double-screen icon to the right of the question.
Step 4: Activate this template
Note: "Undeploying" an anytime feedback template will delete all in-progress feedback forms that are using the template. This action will also remove the data from feedback reports. However, completed feedback forms will not be impacted.
Scheduled Feedback
Scheduled feedback is generally used by an organization to run a more formal review process. The feedback name and description will be visible to all participants. The description is a great opportunity to give participants some context around the feedback as well as to provide links to any relevant company resources. Changes made to the name and/or description of a feedback template that has a cycle in progress will be applied immediately and pushed out to all participants.
Step 1: Name this feedback
Step 2: Select Participants
Your selections for feedback recipients and providers do not have to match. For example, you have the ability to select "Include all employees (recommended)" for recipients and "Custom participant list via CSV upload" for providers. Choosing a custom participant list for providers limits who can be selected as a provider. Download this simple template to use with the "Customer participant list via CSV upload" option. Only participant email addresses are needed.
Note: If you create a scheduled feedback cycle that is missing users, this can be caused by users being added to an "in-progress" feedback cycle; as a result they were missing from the system-generated providers list. As the cycle was already in progress, the newly added users will not be added to the cycle by default. If the cycle is still in the nomination phase (aka the selection phase), the users can be added manually from Feedback>Request section.
Note: If you select "Include all employees (recommended)" to either receive feedback or to provide feedback, and you have the "Feedback has started" notification enabled (Step 5: Set up notifications), everyone will receive it, even if they don't end up participating in the feedback cycle.
Default providers are only suggestions and can be changed. Furthermore, while the limit will prevent the Betterworks application from selecting more than X number of feedback providers, feedback cycle participants can manually add more feedback providers; going over the limit.
Managers will always receive a notification as soon as feedback is submitted even if the template is configured so that the recipient is notified after the cycle ends.
Note: If you select "After cycle ends", the feedback will be sent 1 day after the cycle ends. However, if there is a grace period (Step 6: Scheduled feedback cycles), the feedback will be sent 1 day after the grace period ends.
Step 3: Specify who can view and request feedback
Feedback providers are informed of who can view the feedback (i.e. “This feedback is visible to…”) via a note at the top of the feedback form. Due to this communication, permissions cannot be edited while a feedback cycle is in progress.
Note: If a direct report is assigned to a new manager during the feedback cycle, the feedback will be redirected as long as the new reporting structure is defined via user management. As such, the new manager will be able to view the nominated feedback providers while the previous manager will no longer be able to view them.
Step 4: Write the questions
The question types are...
- Paragraph: Open text
- Note: Paragraph answers can be configured to have a hard word limit that is less than the default 10,000-character limit.
- Scale: 1-2 through 1-25
- Star Rating: Up to 5 stars
- Note: Historically, the rating only went up to 4 stars. Reporting for feedback completed before the rating change will not be impacted and will still have a max of 4 stars. However, to avoid confusion when comparing historical and current reports, the max rating will now be indicated (i.e. "[#] out of 4 stars" or "[#] out of 5 stars").
- Multi-select: Up to 25 options and up to 250 characters per option.
Questions can be optional or mandatory. They can also be cloned by clicking the double-screen icon to the right of the question.
Step 5: Set up notifications
Note: If system notifications are completely disabled, feedback notifications will not be sent out.
Step 6: Schedule feedback cycles
The selection phase (aka the nomination period) can be as short as 1 day. Once the nomination period has passed, participants will not be able to request feedback unless the "Allow employees to nominate feedback providers any time during the cycle" option is enabled. If a feedback provider declines the request, they can be nominated again during the same cycle.
Note: If a nominated feedback provider is removed prior to giving feedback, the feedback form will be removed from their list (Feedback → Give → To do). The "Feedback to give" count in the Feedback Adoption Report will also be reduced.
Once the giving phase has passed, feedback providers will not be able to provide feedback unless the "Add a grace period for your employees to provide feedback" option is enabled. The grace period is based on consecutive days, not business days.
These options can be enabled while the cycle is in progress.
Step 7: Deploy feedback cycles
Note: "Undeploying" a scheduled feedback template while a cycle is in progress will delete all data associated with the cycle. This action will also remove the data from feedback reports. However, completed cycles will not be impacted.
Requests to Edit: Submission, approval & denial
If a feedback provider would like to edit their response or decline the request after the deadline, they'll need to submit a request to edit. This can be done by going to Feedback → Give → Completed, selecting the specific feedback form, and clicking the "Request to edit" button:
This action will add the feedback provider's name to the list of requests that are sent via automated email to administrators at approximately 5 PM (your organization's time zone). Clicking the "Manage Request(s)" button in the email will redirect you to:
Admin → Program Management → Feedback → Settings → Request to edit
From there, you can select "Allow" or "Deny". If you allow the request, the feedback provider will receive an automated email informing them of the decision. They'll then have an additional 7 days to reshare their feedback. During this time, their feedback form will disappear from the requester's view so that the provider can make the necessary edits. If the feedback is not edited within the 7-day window, it will be reshared as is. If their edit request is denied, no email will be sent, giving you the opportunity to contact the feedback provider directly and discuss the policy and/or reason.
Feedback AI Assist
Feedback AI Assist leverages an API integration with OpenAI ChatGPT version 3.5 turbo. The outputs and explanations are those provided by this integration. However, it is an opt-in-only feature. Your organization will not automatically be enrolled. To learn more about the feature, see this article.
FAQs
When do scheduled feedback cycles launch?
By default, scheduled feedback cycles launch at approximately 12 AM (your organization's time zone) on the cycle start date. This means the feedback template will be available in the participants' Feedback module from that point forward.
Can multiple feedback cycles run at once?
Yes. You can run cycles of different template types at the same time.
Can I clone questions and/or templates?
Yes. You can clone questions within the same template and can clone a template itself.
Is feedback data reflected in the Usage Dashboard?
No, feedback data is not available in the Usage Dashboard. However, feedback data is available in the Manager Insights Dashboard.
Is there a character limit for questions and/or answers?
- Questions: The limit is 1,000 characters.
- Answers: The limit is 10,000 characters (unless you've set a shorter hard word limit in the feedback template).
Is there a limit on how many feedback providers can be requested?
As the participant requesting feedback, there is no limit to the number of feedback providers that can be selected. During the configuration of a feedback template, the option "Set a limit for how many feedback providers can be suggested by the system" only limits how many are suggested.
If a participant has already received 5-6 feedback requests, a warning message will appear informing the requester so that they may consider selecting another user. However, if the requester decides to proceed, the feedback request will go through.
Can I add/remove participants after I deploy a scheduled feedback cycle?
To add participants, you'll need to upload a new CSV file that includes the original participants as well as the new participants. To remove participants, you'll need to upload a new CSV file with only the participants that you'd like to remain in the cycle.
Can I delete a feedback cycle?
Yes. However, deleting a cycle (whether or not it's in progress) will delete the data associated with it. As such, deleting a cycle is not recommended.
Can I delete a feedback template?
You cannot delete default feedback templates. However, Super Admins can delete all other feedback templates by going into the template and clicking the trash can icon in the top-right corner. Deleting the template will not delete the data associated with scheduled feedback cycles.
Note: You cannot delete a scheduled feedback template while the cycle is in progress or in the grace period.