> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.gowindmill.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Participants and assignments

> Define stage participation and the people who complete each review.

## Reviewees and reviewers

**Reviewees** are the employees who receive feedback in the cycle. **Reviewers** are the people who write feedback about them.

The employee selection sets the cycle's reviewees. The **Review assignments** step uses the current org chart to suggest who should complete each review. For each reviewee, you can add or remove a review stage or choose a different stage of the same type.

The person who receives the feedback must be a selected reviewee. The person who writes the feedback can be outside the reviewee list.

## Check the default assignments

* **Self review:** The reviewee reviews their own work.
* **Manager review:** The reviewee's current manager writes the review by default.
* **Upward feedback:** The reviewee's active direct reports write the feedback by default.
* **Peer feedback:** The reviewee nominates peers first. Approved peers receive the feedback work later.

When a cycle has several stages of the same type, Windmill uses the first one by default. The same reviewer and reviewee pair cannot have active assignments in several stages of the same review type.

## Change reviewers

You can assign a manager review to a different active workspace member. You can also add or remove active workspace members as upward reviewers. Peer nominees and upward reviewers do not need to be reviewees in the cycle.

Only active workspace members can receive review work. Feedback from a reviewer outside the reviewee list still appears in the reviewee's packet.

## Save and change assignments

Before you create the cycle, Windmill updates suggested manager assignments when the org chart changes. It keeps a manager that a cycle admin selected manually.

When you create the cycle, Windmill saves the reviewees, managers, and assignments. Later org chart changes do not update the active cycle automatically.

During an active cycle, a cycle admin can add or remove review work. They can also reassign manager and upward work. Reassignment archives the previous assignment, and the new reviewer receives new work.

When you reassign a manager review, you can transfer the previous manager's submitted answers to the new reviewer. Unsubmitted drafts and chat history do not transfer. Learn more about [reassigning managers and reviewers](/features/performance-reviews/reassign-managers-and-reviewers).