What is an Upward Review? An Upward Review (also called Manager Feedback or 360 Feedback from Direct Reports) allows employees to provide feedback about their manager. This helps managers understand how they're perceived by their team and identify areas for leadership development.

You have two options when building your form:

Option A: Questions Only

Option B: Questions Connected to Custom Fields

Need help deciding? Contact your Customer Success Manager to discuss which approach fits your organization's needs.

For Upward Reviews, we recommend Manager Only access:

Important: Upward reviews are sensitive. Most organizations keep this feedback visible only to the manager receiving it and potentially their skip-level manager for coaching purposes.

Identified (Recommended): Skip-level managers can see who provided feedback, but the manager being reviewed typically cannot

Note: ChartHop allows you to control who sees the identity separately from who sees the responses, giving you flexibility in how you handle anonymity.

People Ops Tools → Forms → Create Form → Upward Review

Provide guidance to employees giving feedback to their manager:

Choose question types that capture leadership effectiveness:

Common Upward Review Questions:

For questions connected to custom fields:

1. Who is this form about?

2. Who can complete this form?

3. Should this form automatically appear on profiles?

Choose based on your review process:

1. How should the identity of the respondent be recorded?

2. Who can see the identity of the respondent?

3. Who can view the form responses?

1. Allow saving drafts?

2. Populate form with previous responses?

3. How would you like your form to display?

Approval

Release

Editing

Export

Email responses to:

Choose based on your preference:

Note: We typically don't notify the manager being reviewed for each individual submission (to maintain some anonymity during the collection period). Managers can view aggregated feedback on their profile once all responses are in.

Profile tabs display upward review feedback on manager profiles.

Navigate to Admin → Profile Content.

To create a new tab:

To add to an existing tab:

1. Display on the profile of:

Upward reviews only apply to people who have direct reports, so use a filter:

Why this matters: Individual contributors don't need an Upward Review tab since they don't have direct reports providing feedback.

2. Visible to:

Alternative: Some organizations choose "The person, and the person's managers" if they want managers to access their own feedback, but this is implicit in most access settings.

3. Columns:

Here's the typical flow once the form is active:

Best Practice: Consider holding a team discussion where managers share key themes from their upward feedback and commitments to improvement (without revealing individual responses).

Before launching organization-wide:

How many direct reports should participate for meaningful feedback? Most organizations require at least 3-4 direct reports for upward reviews to protect anonymity. With fewer respondents, individual feedback can be too easily identified. Consider setting a minimum threshold for participation.

Can managers see who wrote each piece of feedback? By default with our recommended settings, no. The manager sees the feedback content but not who wrote it. Skip-level managers (the manager's manager) can see identities for coaching purposes, but this can be adjusted based on your needs.

Should upward reviews be anonymous? Most organizations use "Identified" in the system for accountability, but control visibility so the manager being reviewed doesn't see individual identities. This balances honest feedback with quality control.

When should upward reviews happen? Common timing:

What if a manager only has 1-2 direct reports? Consider whether upward reviews are appropriate for this situation, as feedback can be too easily identified. Alternatives:

Should managers share upward review results with their team? This is a cultural decision. Some organizations encourage managers to:

This transparency can build trust, but it's not required.

Can a manager's skip-level boss see the upward feedback? Yes, with our recommended settings. Skip-level managers can see upward feedback to help coach the manager through development areas. If you prefer to keep feedback private to the manager only, you can adjust the visibility settings.

What if someone writes inappropriate feedback? This is rare, but if it happens:

Communication is Key:

Minimum Participation:

Follow-Through:

Frequency: