Skip to main content

How Admins Can Support Managers During Performance Reviews

Help managers use Wonderlic Develop to prepare for performance reviews, deliver actionable feedback, and drive future growth.

P
Written by Product
Updated yesterday

Admins and HR leaders play a key role in making performance reviews more effective. By equipping managers with the right tools, training, and framing, you can help ensure reviews aren’t just backward-looking evaluations, but future-focused growth conversations.


Why Develop Matters in Review Cycles

Traditional reviews are often stressful for managers and unsatisfying for employees.

Develop helps by:

  • Providing role-critical insights that highlight what drives performance

  • Giving managers a structured way to connect results to day-to-day responsibilities

  • Making it easier to turn evaluations into clear, actionable plans

  • Reinforcing consistency between 1:1s, coaching, and review conversations


Steps for Admins to Support Managers

1. Set Clear Expectations

  • Remind managers that Develop is not a performance rating tool, but a development lens.

  • Emphasize the goal: connect past performance to future growth through actionable behaviors.

  • Share guidance on how Develop complements, not replaces, your existing review framework.


2. Provide Training and Resources

  • Host a short enablement session for managers before review cycles.

  • Walk through how to use individual results, action plans, and team dynamics reports in reviews.

  • Share conversation guides and templates for structuring review feedback.

  • Encourage managers to review employee action plans in advance.


3. Coach Managers to Focus on Behaviors, Not Scores

  • Reinforce that Develop measures effort and tendencies, not ability.

  • Encourage managers to connect results to specific goals, projects, or team priorities.

  • Provide examples of how to frame disconnects as growth opportunities, not weaknesses.


4. Reinforce Continuity

  • Position reviews as a natural extension of ongoing coaching and development.

  • Remind managers to revisit prior action plans and carry forward progress.

  • Use consistent messaging across reviews, 1:1s, and team sessions.


5. Monitor and Share Best Practices

  • Check in with managers during review cycles to learn what’s working.

  • Collect success stories that show how Develop makes reviews easier and more effective.

  • Share these examples across leadership to build adoption and confidence.


The Admin’s Role in Driving Better Reviews

By integrating Develop into your performance cycle process, you:

  • Reduce prep time for managers

  • Ensure reviews are tied to job-relevant behaviors

  • Help employees leave reviews with clear, actionable growth plans

  • Build organizational consistency in how development conversations are framed


Tip for Admins: Pair review cycles with optional Wonderlic coaching sessions (available at additional cost) to give managers extra support in interpreting results and framing development conversations.

Did this answer your question?