A temporary Direct Manager supports an employee through a single review cycle, without changing the employee's official reporting line. The assignment lasts only for that cycle, and access ends when the cycle is locked.

Why assign a temporary Direct Manager?

You may assign a temporary Direct Manager if:

A new manager hasn’t been onboarded yet.
An official manager is on leave.
A project lead or non-manager needs to collaborate on the review.
An employee is in transition during a reorg or reassignment.

Who can assign a temporary Direct Manager?

The following roles can assign a temporary manager:

Executives
Collaborators
Direct Manager (if they oversee the reporting line)

You can assign any active employee who has product access, except the reviewee or their current Direct Manager. Only one temporary Direct Manager can be assigned per employee at a time.

Assign a temporary Direct Manager

Log in to Workleap and go to Performance.
Open the review cycle from the Overview or Manage cycles page.
In the Reviewee column, select the three-dots button next to the employee. Search or filter the list if needed.
Select Assign a temporary Direct Manager.
Start typing the person's name, select them from the list, then select Assign.

The temporary and official Direct Managers are both notified.

Update or remove a temporary Direct Manager

Open the cycle and select the three-dots button next to the employee.
Select Update temporary Direct Manager.
Choose a new person, or select the X next to the current name to remove them, then select Update.

If you remove the temporary Direct Manager, the employee reverts to their official Direct Manager only.

Note: The assignment applies only to the selected employee and the selected cycle. It does not carry over if the cycle is duplicated.

If you've been assigned as a temporary Direct Manager

Being assigned means you've been asked to support an employee through one review cycle. It doesn't change their official reporting line, and your access ends when the cycle is locked.

As a temporary Direct Manager, you can:

Open the employee's review tasks for that cycle.
Complete and submit the manager review.
Assign peers, when the cycle includes peer reviews.
Share the review with the employee.

Find your tasks on the Overview page under your to-dos, or open the cycle from Manage cycles. Your assignment email and the daily digests also link straight to the review.

Complete the manager review

Log in to Workleap and go to Performance.
From Manage cycles, open the active cycle and select Start next to your assigned employee.
Answer the questions and select Submit. The form saves automatically, so you can leave and come back.

Assign peers

If the cycle has peer reviews, assign peers for your employee.

Log in to Workleap and go to Performance.
From Manage cycles, select Assign peers next to the active cycle.
Start typing a name, select the person, and repeat until you reach the recommended number of peers.

Tip: Talk with the employee about who to assign as their peers.

How the two managers collaborate

Only one manager review is submitted per employee.
Both the temporary and official Direct Managers work on the same review. Either can edit, but only the most recent edit is saved.
Both can see who made the last edit.
The employee sees both managers in the review header, and which one submitted the review.

What a temporary Direct Manager can access

A temporary Direct Manager only sees data for the cycle they're assigned to.

If they already manage other people, they keep full review access, including timelines and cycle progress.
If they have no direct reports, they can complete the core tasks (edit, submit, assign peers, share) but can't see performance analytics or cycle progress.

Notifications

Notifications go out by email and your connected communication app, if you have one.

When you're assigned as a temporary Direct Manager, you're notified by email.
When a temporary Direct Manager is assigned over someone, that person's official Direct Manager is notified too.
When a temporary Direct Manager is replaced or removed, the previous one is notified.
If several people are assigned to you within a short window, the assignments are bundled into a single notification, so you don't get one per employee.
During the cycle, the temporary and official Direct Manager both receive a daily digest at 9 AM on business days, summarizing outstanding review tasks and updating as reviews are submitted, acknowledged, or fall overdue.