Launching Your First Campaign

A review campaign helps you manage employee reviews using a workflow you've set up in advance. This guide walks you through creating and launching your first campaign, from selecting the right workflow to starting the review process.

After launch, participants are automatically notified when action is required. You can monitor completion rates, send reminders, and oversee reviews throughout the entire process.

Before starting your first campaign, make sure you have:

A review workflow ready to use

You need at least one workflow with your workflow configured. SeeCreating and Managing Review Workflows if you haven't built one yet.

Questionnaires set up

The workflow should reference questionnaires that exist in your system. If a questionnaire is missing, you'll get an error when trying to launch.

A clear list of who you're reviewing

Know which employees you want to include in this campaign. You can add them individually or by group (department, location, or other criteria).

Time to test (recommended)

For your very first campaign, consider testing with just 3-5 employees before rolling out company-wide. This helps you catch issues in a low-stakes environment.

The easiest way to launch a campaign is using a workflow you've already created.

You can search by name or filter by the steps included (feedback, meeting, signature).

Click Use as campaign draft from the workflow's three-dot menu.

This opens the campaign builder with all your workflow settings pre-filled. You can adjust anything before launching.

The campaign builder shows everything from your workflow. Here's what you can customize for this specific campaign.

Give your campaign a name that helps you identify it later. This is visible to HR and review supervisors, but not to employees.

Examples:

💡We recommend including the review type and timeframe in the campaign name to easily differentiate it from other campaigns.

Include notes about this specific campaign. This helps other employees understand its purpose.

Example: "Annual reviews for the engineering department. Launched Dec 1, reviews due by Dec 31. Using 360 feedback with manager + 3 peers."

Choose which employees will be reviewed in this campaign.

Click Add reviewee and search for employees by name. Select each person you want to include.

This works well for:

Add reviewees by criteria

Use the Groups filter to add multiple people at once.

Groups - Review everyone in Sales, Engineering, etc.

This works well for:

The campaign inherits all settings from your workflow, but you can change anything before launching.

Confirm that the feedback, meeting (with optional preparation), and signature steps match what you want for this campaign.

If you need different steps for this specific campaign, you can:

Make sure the right questionnaires are assigned to each step:

If you need to use different questions for this campaign, select different questionnaires from your workflows.

For each step, check who will participate:

The workflow settings are starting points. You can adjust for this campaign.

Review what each participant can see at each step:

These settings control privacy and transparency. Make sure they match your intentions for this campaign.

Verify who can manage and view reviews in this campaign:

Add or remove people if this campaign needs different oversight than usual.

Before you click launch, verify these critical items:

✓ Reviewees are correct

The right employees are included, no one is missing or incorrectly added.

✓ Participants are assigned

Each step has participants selected (feedback givers, note taker, signature participants, etc.).

✓ Questionnaires are assigned

Each step that needs a questionnaire has one selected.

✓ Visibility is set correctly

You've confirmed who can see what at each step.

✓ Review period is accurate

The date range employees are being evaluated on is correct.

✓ You're ready to communicate

You know how you'll explain the process to employees and managers.

The system will validate required fields and show errors if something is missing.

Once everything is configured, click Generate reviews.

This will generate the reviews immediately. You can then launch the campaign or adjust settings if needed.

If you generate reviews and realize the settings aren't right — wrong participants, missing managers, incorrect workflow configuration — you can go back to draft mode instead of fixing everything manually or deleting the campaign.

Go back to draft when:

Fix manually when:

Here's what participants and you will experience once the campaign is live.

You'll see:

See Understanding Review Status and Progress for details on monitoring your campaign.

Participants receive notifications when it's their turn:

They'll see action buttons in the system prompting them to complete their part.

Reviews move through steps in order:

You control when to move from one step to the next. See Moving Reviews Through Steps for guidance.

Once your campaign is active, several management actions are available from the three-dot menu (⋮) on the campaign page.

Click the three-dot menu and select Edit description to change:

These changes apply to all reviews in the campaign, including completed ones.

Click the three-dot menu and select View campaign workflow to see a read-only version of the workflow settings used for this campaign. This is helpful when:

You can't make changes from this view — it's for reference only.

Click the three-dot menu and select Add reviewees to add new employees to the campaign. See Managing Participants in Active Campaigns for details.

You can also create campaigns without using a workflow. This is useful for one-off reviews that don't fit your existing workflows.

Build without a workflow when:

Most of the time, workflows are faster and more consistent.

The process is identical to using a workflow, but you start with a blank slate instead of pre-filled settings.

Here's how to safely test your first campaign before launching company-wide.

Have your pilot group complete every step:

After the pilot completes, ask:

Based on pilot feedback:

Once the pilot succeeds and you've incorporated feedback, launch the full campaign with confidence.

You can run multiple campaigns simultaneously. Here's how to keep them organized.

Use descriptive names that include:

Good examples:

Each campaign operates independently:

Use the campaign list to switch between them and monitor each one's progress.

If you're running many reviews, consider staggering launches:

This prevents overwhelming HR and ensures you can give each campaign attention.

Here's how different organizations launch campaigns:

Setup:

Uses "Annual Performance Review" workflow. Adds all employees (150 people). Sets review period to "January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025."

Launch approach:

Tests first with the HR team (5 people) in early November. After a successful pilot, launches full campaign on December 1st. Gives employees 3 weeks to complete all steps before the end of year.

Why it works:

Pilot catches any issues. Early December launch gives time for completion before holidays.

Setup:

Uses "Quarterly Check-in" workflow. Creates campaigns by department, launching one department per week. Reviews cover "October 1 - December 31, 2025."

Launch approach:

Week 1: Store managers (30 people). Week 2: Sales team (50 people). Week 3: Corporate staff (40 people). Each group has one week to complete their check-ins.

Why it works:

Staggered launches prevent overwhelming the system. HR can focus on one group at a time and address questions as they arise.

Setup:

Uses "90-Day New Hire Review" workflow. Adds employees individually as they reach their 90-day mark. Review period is "First 90 days."

Launch approach:

Creates small campaigns throughout the year, each with 1-3 employees who joined around the same time. Launches the campaign on day 90 of employment. Gives one week for completion.

Why it works:

Continuous rolling campaigns. Each new hire gets reviewed at the right milestone without waiting for a company-wide review cycle.

Setup:

Uses "Manager 360 Feedback" workflow. Adds only managers as reviewees (12 people). Review period is "Last 6 months."

Launch approach:

No pilot needed (small group, they volunteered). Launches campaign. Gives 2 weeks for direct reports to submit feedback, then 1 week for managers to review and acknowledge.

Why it works:

Small, engaged group. Managers volunteered, so they're motivated to complete it. Focused feedback collection without meetings or complex steps.