Performance Review Academy

The course is designed for HR managers, founders, entrepreneurs, and team leaders in SMB companies with anywhere from a dozen to several hundred employees. It works whether your company has never had performance reviews at all, or has been running them in Excel or through informal conversations.

You can go through the Academy in two ways. If you prefer to learn at your own pace, you can jump directly into the modules and go through them whenever you want. If you prefer a regular rhythm, drop your email — you'll get a notification about a new lesson straight to your inbox once a week. Both options give you access to the same materials and downloadable tools.

No. The Academy is open to everyone, regardless of what HR tools you use or whether you use any employee management system at all.

The key is simplicity and repeatability. Instead of copying corporate processes, start with a basic review form and one conversation per year. Module 2 of the Academy shows you exactly how to build that framework from scratch — no specialized knowledge or major time investment required.

A 180-degree review is a mutual assessment between the employee and their manager. A 360-degree review additionally involves peers, direct reports, and sometimes clients. In SMB companies, a 180-degree or a simplified 270-degree review tends to work best — they're reliable enough without the administrative overhead. We cover the choice of method in detail in Module 1.

Calamari is an HR tool used by over 130,000 employees in more than 100 countries. For over 10 years, we've been talking to companies about what challenges them most in people management. The Academy was created in partnership with Martyna Lempert from TeamBoost, who has implemented performance review systems in dozens of organizations.

Yes. Calamari offers a Performance Review module that lets you run the entire review process in one place — from configuring forms, through collecting feedback, to manager summaries. It supports 90-, 180-, 270-, and 360-degree reviews, self-assessments, and peer reviews. The system automatically sends reminders and collects responses, so you don't have to manage anything manually.

The Academy teaches you how to design the process — Calamari's module helps you run it.