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Create a calibration when manager reviews are mostly or fully submitted and your committee is ready to compare them. A cycle admin creates the calibration, but only people added as facilitators or committee members can open it.

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Prepare manager reviews

Before creating the calibration, check the manager review status for the people you plan to include.
  • Submitted reviews provide the committee with the complete manager assessment.
  • Incomplete reviews can be included, but their packets may not have enough information for a decision.
  • Locked reviews give the committee a stable baseline because managers cannot change answers during calibration.
For most formal cycles, lock submitted manager reviews before calibration. When a calibration is submitted, Windmill automatically unlocks only the locked reviews that receive recommendations or shared unresolved comments. Applying changes without sharing comments leaves each review’s existing lock state unchanged. See Locking and unlocking manager reviews.

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Create a calibration

1

Open the performance review cycle

Go to Performance Reviews and open the relevant cycle.
2

Open Calibrations

Select the cycle’s Calibrations section, then click Create calibration.
3

Name the calibration

Use a short name that identifies its scope, such as Engineering level 4 or Sales leadership.
4

Add participants

Add at least one facilitator. Add committee members who should review packets and participate in the discussion.
5

Add reviewees

Select the employees whose manager reviews the committee will calibrate. A calibration must contain at least one reviewee.
6

Create the calibration

Click Create calibration. Windmill opens the first reviewee in People view.
The person creating the calibration is added as a facilitator by default. A participant cannot also be a reviewee in the same calibration.

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Assign participant roles

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Facilitators

Facilitators run the calibration. They can:
  • View all included review packets
  • Add, reply to, and resolve comments
  • Propose changes to supported structured answers
  • Edit participants, reviewees, and visible questions
  • Regenerate and send the pre-read
  • Submit, duplicate, rename, or archive the calibration
Keep at least one facilitator assigned at all times.

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Committee members

Committee members can view all included packets and collaborate through comments. They cannot propose answer changes, manage calibration settings, or submit the calibration. Use this role for leaders or People partners who should contribute context without owning final changes.

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Reviewees

Reviewees are the people whose manager reviews are being calibrated. They do not have access to the calibration, even if they are a cycle admin or would normally have access to other employees’ review packets.

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Choose visible questions

All questions from the included manager reviews are visible when a calibration is created. A facilitator can open Settings > Visible questions and remove questions the committee does not need. Hide questions that contain especially sensitive information or are outside the committee’s purpose. At least one question must remain visible. Structured questions with a defined set of choices—such as ratings, yes/no, single select, NPS, and bounded scales—can be changed during calibration. Free-text answers and other answers without a selectable set remain read-only. Participants can comment on them, but the committee cannot rewrite the manager’s text.
Keep evidence questions visible even when they cannot be edited. Written context often explains why a manager chose a rating.

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Update an active calibration

Facilitators can change the calibration while it is active:
  • Rename the calibration from its title
  • Add or remove facilitators and committee members in Settings
  • Add or remove reviewees
  • Change which manager review questions are visible
Roster and question changes can make an existing pre-read outdated. Regenerate it before participants rely on it.

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Duplicate or archive a calibration

Use the calibration’s Actions menu to manage repeated or unused sessions:
  • Duplicate calibration creates a separate calibration with the same roster, description, and visible-question settings. This is useful for a second round with a different committee or for reviewing the same group again. Facilitators and cycle admins can duplicate a calibration; duplication does not give an off-roster cycle admin access to its contents.
  • Archive calibration removes an active calibration from normal use without deleting its record. Archive a session created by mistake or one your team no longer plans to run.
Adjust the duplicated calibration before starting the next round. Each round has its own comments, proposed changes, pre-read, History, and submission.

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FAQs

A cycle admin can create one. Creating a calibration does not automatically let every cycle admin open it; each person who needs access must be added as a facilitator or committee member.
No. Participants and reviewees must be separate within a calibration. Use a different calibration if a committee participant also needs to be reviewed.
Yes, but its packet may be incomplete. Return to the packet after the manager submits the review.
Yes. A facilitator can update participants and reviewees while the calibration is active, as long as at least one facilitator and one reviewee remain.