360 reviews people actually finish
One cycle says who is reviewed and which form they answer. Each round opens, collects the self review, peer feedback and the manager review, and a separate anonymous upward packet, then closes. Optional goals freeze when the round opens. Peer answers are named to the reviewer and never reach the person reviewed.
A round, with a date on every part
Self review, peer feedback, the manager review and anonymous upward feedback each have their own due date. The person submits their own words. Upward answers stay unnamed and appear only from three responses.
A round that runs on its dates
A cycle sets who is reviewed, which form they answer and which parts it asks for, once or every 3, 6 or 12 months. Four built-in forms are a starting point. Standard 360, Engineering 360, Quarterly conversation and End of probation. Each round opens on its day, reminders go out before and after each due date, and it closes on its own.
Performance · Cycles
Standard 360 · 12 people · self, peer, manager and upward
- Heads-upSep 24
- OpensOct 1
- Self & peer dueOct 11
- Manager dueOct 22
- ClosesNov 21
Reminders: 3 days before each due date, on the day, then when late.
Four directions, one round
The person writes a self review. Colleagues they worked with give peer feedback. Their manager writes the review with those answers beside the questions. Direct reports can answer about the manager anonymously, in a separate packet that shows only when at least 3 people responded. Each part has its own date.
Due Oct 22Role performance
Delivery
Delivers more than agreed and unblocks others
Led the billing migration and shipped it two weeks early.
Emily Saputra
The person I want next to me on an incident.
Adam Nowak
Declined: we did not work together this quarter.
For you only. Tomasz never sees these answers or names.
Goals, frozen when the round opens
Goals are optional. The person and their manager keep a monthly check-in. When a round opens, up to five open goals freeze into it, and later updates do not change what the review rates. Free keeps three open goals per person. Paid plans have no cap. Included in the $4 per active person per month, with no add-on.
Peer answers stay with the reviewer
Peer feedback reaches the reviewer with the writer's name and never the person reviewed. Admins see only that it was sent. Every part of a review has a fixed set of readers.
Performance · Who sees what
Upward results show only where at least 3 people answered.
Upward feedback without names
A manager's direct reports can answer about them anonymously. Results arrive together once collection closes, as counts and unnamed comments, and a question shows only where at least 3 people answered. Nobody, admins included, sees who wrote what.
3 of 4 answeredSets clear expectations
Not sure: 0
“Every 1:1 ends with a clear next step.”No name
Nobody, admins included, sees who wrote what.
Anytime feedback
Between rounds, a colleague can send a note with their name or confidentially. A confidential note arrives with no notification. Always named, in review settings, makes every note show its author. One confidential note about the same person is allowed every 7 days.
Shared on purpose
The cycle decides whether a finished manager review is shared automatically, when the reviewer chooses, or not at all. A shared review is never edited or unshared. A fix goes in as a dated correction the person confirms.
Should Tomasz see this review?
Share with Tomasz
Tomasz can read it as soon as you finish.
Keep private for now
Only you and admins can read it.
A draft is not a decision
An assistant can read the review its author was asked to write and save a draft beside their answers. It may suggest wording, evidence and a rating. The rating that counts is the one the author picks, and the author submits in SquadBear. It cannot submit, share or rank anyone. Peer answers reach it as Peer 1, Peer 2, in submission order, with no names. It never reads upward feedback.
Saved Oct 18 · Only you can see it.
Delivery
Suggested: ExceedsLed the billing migration and shipped it two weeks early, with no customer-facing incidents.
Ratings are never copied. You pick each one.
Why teams pick it
Dates, not a pile of forms
Open, self and peer due, manager due, then close. The round tells you where it is.
Peer feedback stays private
The person reviewed does not see who said what about them.
Sharing is a choice
Automatic, the reviewer's choice, or not shared. Set once on the cycle.
Ratings, never a score
People pick each rating themselves. Nothing averages them, ranks anyone or predicts who will leave.
Questions, answered
Does it score or rank people?
No. Reviews can ask for ratings, and each one is picked by the person writing and shown as picked, never averaged into a score. There is no ranking, no attrition prediction and no hiring screen. How this maps to the EU AI Act is set out on /security/eu-ai-act/.
Who sees peer feedback?
The reviewer, by name. Peer answers do not reach the person reviewed.
Can an assistant submit a review?
No. It can save a draft the author edits. The author submits, and sharing stays with the cycle's sharing mode. The assistant cannot approve that for them.
Is performance a paid add-on?
No. It is included in the $4 per active person per month. Free includes it for up to 5 people, with three open goals per person. Paid plans do not cap open goals. A review freezes up to five of them.
One suite for the whole people-ops day
Leave, time, attendance, team health, performance reviews and the employee record work as one, so the picture is always joined up - a booked holiday is known everywhere, a new hire's day one starts itself, and a quiet team never slips through.
Time off should be the easy part
When booking leave is effortless, people actually rest, managers stop firefighting, and you always know where the business stands.
Know where the week actually went
Time tracking only matters when it's honest and effortless.
Clock in. That's the whole job.
Four buttons for the day.
Know how your team is really doing
Great teams quietly drift long before they visibly break.
Day one, already handled
The moment someone is hired, their record exists, their onboarding tasks have owners and dates, and the policies that need signing find them by themselves.
Run HR from the AI you already use
SquadBear is the system of record.
From the blog
Practical guides on policies, edge cases and rollouts - for HR leads, founders and managers running modern teams.
EU AI Act and Performance Reviews: What AI Must Never Decide
Annex III point 4(b) in plain language: why a composite score is a different object from a draft a human submits.
Read the guide →Engineer Self-Reviews From GitHub and Jira, Without AI Slop
A worked engineering self-review: behavioral anchors, why pull-request counts are clues, and a draft that links the work you shipped.
Read the guide →Performance Reviews Are Broken: Here is a Simple Alternative
Performance reviews fail because one meeting does three jobs: pay, feedback, and legal cover. How to split them, plus a two-question check-in template.
Read the guide →Less admin. More time for people.
Let your assistant handle routine leave, time and HR admin. Make room for the conversations and support your team needs.
