Peer Review Settings for Your Workspace
Settings > Peer Reviews is where Administrators set the workspace-wide defaults that every peer review request inherits: which teammates a Manager can choose as reviewers, whether new requests start anonymous or named, who is asked to nominate peers, and which automated reminder emails FeedbackPulse sends. Changes save automatically and apply to requests created afterwards, not to peer reviews that already exist.
Who can open Peer Review settings
Section titled “Who can open Peer Review settings”Only Administrators can view or change these settings. Managers and Employees have no access to the page. The page is also unavailable if peer reviews are not enabled for your workspace.
To get there, open Settings and select Peer Reviews. The page holds four settings sections plus your Peer Review Questions library.
Who Managers Can Request Feedback From
Section titled “Who Managers Can Request Feedback From”This setting controls which teammates a Manager can pick as reviewers when requesting peer feedback for one of their direct reports.
| Option | What Managers can choose |
|---|---|
| Direct reports only | Only people who report to that Manager directly |
| Same department | Teammates from the selected employee’s department |
| Whole company | Any active teammate, except the employee and their own manager |
Whole company is the default if the setting has never been changed.
Rules that always apply, whichever option you pick:
- Administrators are never limited. Admins can always select any active teammate as a reviewer.
- The employee and their own manager are always excluded from the reviewer list, so a peer review never doubles as a self-review or a manager review.
- This does not change who a Manager can request feedback for. Managers can still only request peer feedback for their own reports. The setting changes who they may select as reviewers.
- Same department requires a department. If the employee has no department set on their profile, no reviewers are offered under that option.
Default Review Privacy
Section titled “Default Review Privacy”This sets the anonymity mode that new peer review requests start with.
| Option | Effect on new requests |
|---|---|
| Anonymous by default | New peer review requests start as anonymous |
| Named by default | New peer review requests start with the reviewer’s identity visible |
Anonymous by default applies if the setting has never been changed.
- Whoever sends a request can override the default for that individual request.
- Existing peer reviews keep the privacy they were created with. Changing this setting does not retroactively hide or reveal reviewer names.
- Anonymous reviews hide reviewer names from employees, managers, and admins. Feedback is shown in aggregate. When 3 or more peers are requested, partial results can appear once at least one response is complete.
This default also drives the Managers review direct reports and Direct reports review managers bulk actions described in Bulk Assign Reviewers. The Random peer reviewers bulk action ignores this setting and is always anonymous.
Employee Nomination Defaults
Section titled “Employee Nomination Defaults”These defaults decide who is asked to nominate their own peer reviewers when a new review cycle uses employee nominations. Existing cycles keep the audience they launched with.
Nomination audience offers four presets:
| Preset | Who is expected to nominate |
|---|---|
| Ask everyone to nominate peers | Every active employee, manager, and admin |
| Ask employees only | Active users who are not managers or admins |
| Ask managers only | Active managers, including admin-managers |
| Ask admins only | Active admins, including admin-managers |
Ask everyone to nominate peers is the starting default.
You can narrow the audience further with Departments and Office locations filters. Leave a filter completely unchecked to include every value on your roster. FeedbackPulse shows a running count of how many people match your saved default.
Two email toggles sit alongside the audience, both on by default:
- Send initial nomination emails emails expected nominators when a cycle launches.
- Send nomination reminder emails emails expected nominators who have not nominated peers yet.
Peer Review Lifecycle Emails
Section titled “Peer Review Lifecycle Emails”These toggles control automated reminder and escalation emails as peer review due dates approach or pass. All four are on by default.
| Toggle | What it sends |
|---|---|
| Enable automated lifecycle emails | Master switch for all due date and overdue emails |
| Send reviewer reminders | Emails reviewers before, on, and after their due dates while the cycle is active |
| Send grouped manager and admin summaries | Emails grouped overdue summaries to managers and configured cycle notification recipients |
| Send weekly overdue summaries | Sends one consolidated overdue email on Tuesdays while work remains incomplete |
Turning off Enable automated lifecycle emails disables the other toggles. Turn the master switch back on to reach them again.
Saving changes
Section titled “Saving changes”There is no save button on these sections. FeedbackPulse saves each change automatically as soon as you make it, and the page stays where you are scrolled.
Does changing the anonymity default affect peer reviews already in progress? No. Each peer review stores its privacy setting when it is created. Changing the workspace default only affects requests created after the change.
Why can a Manager only see a few people when requesting peer feedback? The Who Managers Can Request Feedback From setting is probably set to Direct reports only or Same department. Switch it to Whole company if Managers should be able to pick any active teammate. The reviewee and their own manager stay excluded either way.
Do these settings limit the bulk assign actions? The reviewer scope setting applies to Managers requesting feedback, not to the Administrator-only bulk actions. Bulk assignment follows its own rules, described in Bulk Assign Reviewers.
Why does the Peer Reviews settings page not appear for me? You need Administrator access, and peer reviews must be enabled for your workspace. Managers and Employees cannot open the page.
Where do the peer review questions themselves live? On the same page, under Peer Review Questions. See Peer Reviews for how those questions are answered and reported.