Assessment questions and categories
Use this to write the questions in an assessment cycle: add a question, set its weight, choose single or multiple choice, write and order its answers, require a comment, and group questions into categories such as Teamwork or Productivity. It also covers importing a whole question set from Excel and managing your company's list of categories.
Where:
- Questions: Performance › Team performance › Assessments › Add cycle or Edit › Assessment Questions
- Categories: Performance › Settings › Categories
You need:
- Create Cycles to write questions in a new cycle, or Manage Cycles to change an existing one
- The Admin right to add, rename or delete categories
How to add a question
- In the cycle form, scroll to Assessment Questions.
- Choose the Self Assessment tab for questions the employee answers about themselves, or Manager Assessment for questions the reviewer answers about them.
- Set the tab to Active.
- Select Add Question.
- Type the Question, up to 256 characters.
- Select Selection type to switch between Single Choice and Multiple Choice.
- Enter the Weight %.
- Pick a Category from the list, or leave it empty.
- Edit the five suggested Options. Use Add Option for more, and the cross to remove one. List them best first.
- Tick Comment required if the answer must be explained.
- Repeat for each question, then select Save.
The weights on an active tab must add up to exactly 100%. If they do not, Save stops and shows the current total.
How to import questions from Excel
- On Performance › Team performance › Assessments, open the cycle's … menu and select Import.
- Choose Questions & Answers and select Download to get the template.
- Fill in one row per question: Question Text, an optional Category, Weight (%), and Answer 1 to Answer 10, best first.
- Select Continue, choose Self Assessment or Manager Review, and upload the file. It must be .xlsx, up to 5 MB.
- Select Validate File, check the summary, then select Import Questions.
⚠️ An import replaces every question in that set, and the answers already given to them. Import before the cycle opens.
Each imported question needs at least two answers, and the weights must total 100. Imported questions are Single Choice. A category name that does not exist yet is created for you.
If you have no questions yet, open Don't have questions yet? for a ready-made prompt to paste into Claude.
How to manage categories
- Go to Performance › Settings › Categories.
- Select Add Category, type the Category Name and select Save.
- To rename one, select its pencil icon, change the name and select Save.
- To delete one, select its cross and confirm.
New companies start with Accountability, Adaptability, Collaboration, Development and Productivity.
What each question setting does
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Active / Inactive | An inactive tab is not asked. At least one tab must be active. With Self Assessment inactive, the cycle is a manager-only review. With Manager Assessment inactive, it completes when the employee submits. |
| Require manager comment | The reviewer cannot complete without writing Manager comments to the employee. |
| Require employee comment | Saved with the cycle, but the self-assessment has no overall comment box, so employees are not asked for one. |
| Question | The text people read. Required. |
| Selection type | Single Choice: one answer, scored by its position. Multiple Choice: several answers allowed, and the question always counts as full marks. |
| Weight % | How much the question counts towards the score. 0 to 100. 0 means it is asked but not scored. |
| Category | Groups the question. Shown on the question in the review window, and used for the category chart on the employee's performance profile. |
| Options | The answers. The first is worth 5 and the last 1, so order is the score. At least one is required. New questions start with Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Below Expectations and Unsatisfactory. |
| Comment required | On the Manager Assessment tab, the reviewer cannot complete without a comment on this question. On the Self Assessment tab it is not enforced yet, so employees can submit without one. |
| Delete | Removes the question, with any answers already given to it. |
Scoring is explained in full in How assessment scores are calculated.
What Happens Next
- Questions are shown to people in the order you list them, numbered, with their weight.
- Editing a question's wording or weight keeps the answers already given, but does not rescore anyone who has submitted.
- Renaming a category renames it on every question that uses it. Deleting a category leaves its questions without one. Neither changes any score.
- Cloning a cycle, or saving it as recurring, copies all its questions and categories.
Tips
- Write separate questions for the two tabs. Ask the employee what they did and how they found it. Ask the reviewer what they observed.
- Use the same five answers throughout, in the same order. Scores then compare cleanly across questions and cycles.
- Keep it short. Eight to twelve questions per tab get honest answers. Forty get rushed ones.
- Put Multiple Choice questions at 0%. They gather information without lifting everyone's score.
- Create categories before building the cycle, so you can pick them from the list.
- Have someone else read the questions before the cycle opens. Ambiguous wording is only found once the answers come in.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: "Weights must sum to 100%" or "The sum of all question weights must equal 100." Adjust the weights on that tab, or in the import file, until they total exactly 100.
Q: "Must specify at least one question if assessment is active." Add a question to the active tab, or set it to Inactive.
Q: I typed a new category on a question but it didn't stick. The Category field only saves categories that already exist. Add it under Settings › Categories first, then pick it.
Q: Adding a category shows "Something went wrong!" A category with that name already exists. Names are not case-sensitive, so "teamwork" and "Teamwork" are the same.
Q: I can see Categories in Settings but can't save. Changing categories needs the Admin right.
Q: The import says "No valid questions were found". Use the downloaded template, and keep its column headings exactly as they are.