Who can see reviews and when

Every new review cycle starts with the same default access rules. They decide who can see each review, and when. Access opens in steps as the cycle moves forward, so nobody sees a review before it’s ready.

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Key terms

• Review details: That a review exists, its type, who writes it, who it’s about, its dates, and its status. Details never include questions or answers.
• Questions and answers: The review form, the submitted answers, and the writer’s drafts.
• The person being reviewed: The employee a review is about. For an upward review, this is the manager who receives the feedback.
• Saved cycle reporting line: The manager relationships Windmill saves for the cycle’s participants. During a cycle, access follows this saved reporting line, not the current org chart. The line goes up only through people who are reviewees in the cycle. For example, Ana reports to Ben, and Ben reports to Cleo. If Ana is a reviewee and Ben isn’t, Cleo gets no access through Ana.
• Managers above someone: Everyone above that person in the saved cycle reporting line, at every level. A skip-level manager or a VP counts, even with no reviews of their own to write.

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Access at each phase

When the cycle is completed, nobody gains or loses read access. Only writing stops.

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Before the cycle opens

The cycle opens when its first scheduled review starts, in any time zone. Until then, only cycle admins can see the cycle’s reviews. Nobody else can see any reviews, questions, or answers. Peer nominations aren’t reviews. Opening the nomination window doesn’t open the cycle, and it doesn’t show anyone a review. A peer review starts when peer feedback collection starts. When the cycle has a peer stage, these people can see the cycle and its peer stage before the cycle opens. The cycle shows in their review cycles list.

• The people enrolled in the peer stage.
• Managers above an active reviewee in the saved cycle reporting line, at every level. This includes skip-level managers and managers with no reviews to write. They also see the nominations of their people.
• Anyone who can read a nomination of that stage.

The peer nomination settings don’t change who can see the cycle, the stage, or the nominations. They control only who can create, approve, or decline a nomination. If a cycle admin moves every start date later, the cycle closes again until the new first start. A cycle with no scheduled reviews doesn’t open.

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After the cycle opens

People with reviews to write can see the details of their reviews, even when their own review hasn’t started yet. Nobody except cycle admins can see the questions or answers of a review that hasn’t started.

• Review writers see their upcoming to-dos: which reviews they’ll write, who each one is about, and when each one opens.
• Managers see the details of the reviews that people below them receive and write. For example, a manager can see that a report has three peer reviews to write and when they’re due, but not what the report writes.
• The person being reviewed sees their own to-dos. They don’t see the peer, upward, or manager reviews about them. If they can see their peer nominations, they can also see each nomination’s status.

The cycle shows for an employee only when they have a review to write or a nomination to see. An employee who is only the subject of a manager review doesn’t see the cycle. If they open its link, they get a “not found” page.

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After a review opens

A review opens on its start date. Its questions and answers become available to the people with access:

• The writer sees the form, writes, saves drafts, and submits.
• Managers above the person being reviewed read the submitted answers of every review about people below them: self, peer, upward, and manager reviews.
• The writer of a manager review, primary or supplemental, reads the self, peer, and upward reviews of the person they review. A supplemental reviewer doesn’t see the other manager reviews of that person, unless they’re also above that person in the saved cycle reporting line.
• Managers of a writer still see only the details of reviews that their people write about someone outside their reporting line. They don’t read those answers.

If your company hides upward reviews from managers, managers above the person and manager review writers can’t read upward reviews. They still read self, peer, and manager reviews. Drafts are private to the writer. Everyone else sees only submitted answers. If a writer edits a review they already submitted, others keep seeing the last submitted answers until the writer submits again. If the writer selects Restart Review, the answers are cleared for everyone.

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After the cycle is completed

Completing a cycle doesn’t change who can read what. Each person keeps the access they had during the cycle. Completing a cycle stops all writing. Nobody can edit, submit, or restart a review, and calibrations become read-only. Cycle admins can still share results that weren’t shared yet. See Shared results.

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Who can see what

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Cycle admins

Cycle admins can read every review, answer, and supplemental data value in their cycle, at any time. Their access starts when the cycle is created. The one exception is reviews about themselves. See Account admins and cycle admins.

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The person being reviewed

• They can read their own self review.
• They can’t see peer, upward, or manager reviews about themselves. This applies even when they’re a cycle admin, a manager above the writer, or a calibration participant.
• If they can see their peer nominations, they can see each nomination’s status. Nominations follow their own rules, not the review rules on this page.
• They see their manager review only after it’s shared, and only the questions marked Visible to employee.

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Managers in the saved cycle reporting line

Managers at every level above a person read the submitted reviews about that person. For example, a VP can read the peer feedback about anyone in their org. If your company hides upward reviews from managers, they don’t read upward reviews. Managers also see the details of reviews that their people write. They don’t see what their people write about others. If the cycle has a peer stage, managers see the cycle, the peer stage, and the nominations of their people, even before the cycle opens. A manager’s access follows the saved cycle reporting line. See Managers, skip-level managers, and HRBPs for what happens when the org chart changes.

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Calibration participants

Facilitators and committee members read the reviews, answers, and supplemental data of the calibration’s reviewees. This access applies only inside that calibration. Joining a calibration doesn’t give access anywhere else in the cycle. See Calibration roles and access.

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Supplemental data

Only cycle admins and calibration participants can see supplemental data.

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People removed from a cycle

When a cycle admin removes a person from their only review in a cycle, that person no longer sees the cycle. Its link shows the same “not found” page as a cycle that doesn’t exist. When a cycle admin removes a reviewee from the cycle, their managers lose the cycle and the nominations that they could see through that reviewee.

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Current managers and HRBPs outside the cycle

During a cycle, the current org chart and access delegation give no access to reviews. A manager who joins mid-cycle, or a human resources business partner (HRBP) with delegated access, can’t see the reviews in the cycle. To give someone access during the cycle, do one of these:

• Make them a cycle admin.
• Add them to a calibration.
• Reassign a manager review to them.

They can also read manager review results through shared results.

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Reviewer names

Reviews aren’t anonymous by default. Anyone who can read a review can see who wrote it. For example, managers and cycle admins see the names on peer and upward feedback. A cycle admin can set a packet PDF export to replace reviewer names with numbered labels. This changes only the exported files.

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Shared results

Shared results, or review packets, give people outside the cycle’s access a way to read results. Today, a packet holds the submitted manager review. The sharing status decides who can read it: A manager who takes over after the cycle reads the shared manager review once sharing is enabled. They don’t see the self, peer, or upward reviews from that cycle. Packets stay readable after the cycle is completed. A cycle admin can still share a pending or enabled packet with the employee.

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FAQs