How to Prepare for and Run an Annual Review in Ninety

An Annual Review is a formal, documented conversation between a Manager and a Team Member, typically held once a year. It follows the same workflow as a Quarterly Review, but it's designed for a more thorough, on-the-record discussion: both parties complete their forms, the meeting runs inside Ninety with a side-by-side comparison of responses, and each party signs the completed Review.

The steps to complete an Annual Review are:

The Manager creates the Review.
Both parties fill out the forms prior to the scheduled meeting.
The Manager starts the meeting on the agreed-upon date in Ninety to view both responses side by side.
The Review is signed and completed.

Note: All Reviews and answers are saved within Ninety. They can also be printed as a PDF. For role permissions and how to edit or delete a Review, see Quarterly and Annual Reviews.

How an Annual Review differs from a Quarterly Review

Annual Reviews use the same Manager and Team Member assessments as Quarterly Reviews, with additional questions added to the Team Member's form. The three default additional sections are:

Strengths and Accomplishments.
Improvement Areas.
Plan to Get on Track.

Owners, Admins, and Coaches can edit these questions or add their own from the Review Settings page. See Customizing 1-on-1 Review Questions.

Creating the Annual Review

Anyone can create an Annual Review between two people, including assistants, HR professionals, and meeting facilitators.

Navigate to the 1-on-1 tool and click the Annual Reviews tab.
Click + Create Review.
On the Overview tab, title the review and add an optional description.
Choose a Time Period date range to pull in the managee's Rocks, To-Dos, and KPIs.
Set a Due Date for both parties to complete their forms before the meeting.
Confirm the Manager (this defaults to the user creating the review).
Add managees: click Select All My Direct Reports to create a separate review for each direct report, or click Add Managee(s) to add individual team members.
For each managee, select their Seat from the dropdown.
Click the Settings tab to adjust any review-specific settings before creating.
Click Create Review. Ninety sends a notification email to both the Manager and each managee.

Preparing the forms

After creating the Review, click Start Form or Edit Form on the right of the screen. The Team Member assesses their performance and then their Manager's. The Manager reviews their performance and then the Team Member's.

Click Start Form. The first section assesses the Team Member on the company's Core Values; their Competency, Commitment, and Capacity for the Seat; their performance data on Rocks, To-Dos, and KPIs from each of their teams; and the annual question sections, such as Strengths and Accomplishments.
Next, the Manager is assessed. Ninety uses the Lead, Agree, Coach assessment for Managers.
Click Finish on the bottom left of the screen to submit your form, or click Save for Later to return to the form at a later date.

Completing the forms

Click Save for Later to save your progress at any time.
After completing the forms, click Finish.
The other Review member sees that the form is complete.
Even after completing, clicking the pencil icon allows you to edit your responses.
After completing the form, click the PDF icon to export and print responses.
Clicking on the Review opens the details panel on the right showing both parties' responses after the submission.

Holding the meeting

After both parties have submitted their form responses, the Start Meeting option displays. When started, the meeting shows a side-by-side comparison of the form responses.

Tip: Run the Review from only one person's computer. All entries are editable within the Review by either party.

At the end of the meeting, each party electronically signs and dates the form, which concludes the session. Users then mark the Review complete and archived. A record of the completed Annual Review remains in Ninety for future reference.