What is calibration?
Calibration helps ensure performance ratings are fair and consistent across teams.
Instead of evaluating employees in isolation, managers review and compare ratings together to:
Align on performance standards
Reduce bias
Make better talent decisions
What you’ll do in calibration
During calibration, you will:
Review your team’s ratings
Compare them with other managers
Discuss and adjust where needed
Align on performance and potential
Access calibration data
You can access calibration from the Calibration tab within a performance cycle.
Once reviews are submitted:
Go to Performance
Open a review cycle
Go to the Calibration tab
In this tab, you can view:
The list of employees included in the cycle
Their performance ratings (and potential, if enabled)
Their positioning in the 9-box view
Understand how calibration works
Calibration is based on two questions configured during cycle setup by an HR Admin (Executive or Collaborator role in Performance):
A performance question (used for performance rating)
A potential question (used for potential rating)
These two ratings determine each employee’s position in the 9-box grid.
Only the manager’s rating is used for this positioning.
Important:
If these questions are not configured during setup, the 9-box and calibration data will not be available. Managers cannot modify this configuration.
Review employees in calibration
In the Calibration tab, you can:
Explore ratings in two views
Use two complementary views depending on what you need:
List view — Review individual employees and inspect detailed ratings
9-box view — Understand distribution and identify talent groups
List view
In the list view, you can review and compare employees individually.
Selecting an employee opens an inspection panel showing:
Performance and Potential score cards — The employee’s score (e.g. 3/5), alongside department and role averages
Note:
Averages are hidden when fewer than 4 people are included to protect individual ratings.
Compare to previous cycle
View how ratings changed over time (one cycle at a time)AI-assisted calibration brief
Generate a concise, evidence-based summary from performance data to prepare for calibration discussionsCalibration Notes
Add notes to build your rationale
Note:
Calibration notes are only available to managers who reviewed employees.
View review
Opens the employee’s full review
Note:
Calibration is a preparation and review step — ratings are not adjusted directly in this view. To update a rating, open the employee’s review via View review.
9-box view
Switch to the 9-box view to visualize how employees are distributed across performance and potential.
The grid is organized with Performance (Low / Med / High) on the X-axis and Potential (Low / Med / High) on the Y-axis
Each cell includes a label (e.g. Core Contributor, High Performer) to indicate talent positioning
Employees appear as avatars in their corresponding cell
Interact with the 9-box:
Select a cell to focus on a specific talent group
The employee list updates to reflect the selected group
Select an employee (from the grid or list) to open their inspection panel
Note:
The 9-box grid is only available when both performance and potential questions are configured.
Prepare for calibration
Add calibration notes
You can add notes for each employee to prepare your talking points.
Notes are private to the author and help structure your arguments during calibration discussions.
If a manager changes during the cycle, notes are automatically transferred to the new manager.
If a temporary manager is assigned, notes are shared; the last edit is saved and all changes are timestamped with the author’s name.
Use AI to prepare
You can generate a calibration summary using AI.
To generate it:
Select an employee
Click Generate now
The AI provides a structured summary including:
Performance positioning
Key evidence
Context and comparisons (when available)
Areas that may be challenged during calibration
This helps you build a clear and defensible narrative.
Key takeaway
Calibration helps you prepare for discussions with:
Clear visibility on your team
Structured context for each employee
The ability to compare and validate ratings before meetings