Education Corner

There are portions of Culture Amp that are customizable. Goals and One on Ones are but the annual review timing and questions are not.

Access is role-based. Employees see their own feedback and goals. Managers can view information for their direct reports. Admins have broader access depending on their permissions and configuration.

Responses are anonymized and aggregated to protect confidentiality. This encourages honest, constructive feedback while safeguarding individual identities.

Admins can manually correct reporting lines within the platform. Notify your administrator if you notice incorrect manager-employee relationships.

You can request feedback from anyone at any time, whether it’s a peer, manager, or colleague in another team. It’s designed to support continuous development.

The platform provides built-in prompts, guidance, and tools like the SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact) model to support objective and well-rounded reviews. It also flags common biases and provides checklists to support fairness.

Contact your admin to confirm you’re included in the correct groups and cycles within Culture Amp.

Culture Amp is user-friendly, and mistakes can usually be fixed. Additionally, Culture Amp support is available to assist with any issues.

Yes, managers can see a list of users who provided Peer and Upward feedback to their indirect reports in a performance review cycle. However, they won't be able to see the feedback content itself in the directory, just the list of contributors. Direct managers will be able to see the full content of any peer and upward feedback provided, however.

When reporting lines change, any new manager or direct report will automatically appear in your Active conversations. Former direct reports will stay in your Active conversations until you archive them. If a former direct report is no longer an active Culture Amp user, they’ll be marked as 'inactive'.

While agenda items and notes can be customized by both participants, check-in questions and reminder notifications cannot be changed.

Yes, both managers and employees can add and view each other’s agenda items and notes.

Yes. When you give Anytime Feedback in Culture Amp, you can include both:

• Skill cards – Select a card like “Rocking it” or “Getting there” to highlight key behaviors or strengths.
• Comments – Add open-text feedback to provide context, examples, or encouragement.

Cascading a goal means aligning a new goal under an existing “parent” goal. This helps teams visually connect individual or team goals to broader department or organizational priorities.

Typically, group goal admins or leaders with permission can cascade goals to teams or individuals below them in the org chart.

Comments added to feedback (via Anytime Feedback) are only visible to the person who received the feedback.

Yes! Goals in Culture Amp can be exported, making it easy to save or share goal data outside the platform. To do this, simply go to the Goals section and click the “Export” tab to download the information.

Yes, Culture Amp offers 24/7 support via email at support@cultureamp.com, along with in-platform chat support for administrators, staffed Monday through Friday for urgent or complex concerns.

Scheduling 1:1s should be a shared responsibility between the manager and the direct report. Either person can initiate the meeting, but we encourage both to connect and find a cadence that works best for them. Regular 1:1s support strong communication, goal tracking, and development.

You’re not limited to just manager-direct report pairs. You can start a 1-on-1 with any colleague via the “New Conversation” option. However, colleagues' conversations are not included in usage reporting.

A goal is the outcome you want to achieve, while a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is the metric used to measure progress toward that goal.

Example:

• Goal: Improve customer satisfaction
• KPI: Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) reaches 90% or higher

In Culture Amp, goals help teams focus on meaningful progress, and KPIs provide a way to track if the goal is being met.

You can give and request feedback anytime through the Anytime Feedback feature, helping create ongoing development conversations beyond formal reviews.

No, Culture Amp’s 1:1 feature does not currently support uploading documents directly into the conversation or notes. If documents need to be shared, consider using email or a shared drive alongside Culture Amp.

There is no time limit. 1:1 discussion history remains available as long as the employee and manager are active in the platform. Past conversations can always be accessed in the History tab of the 1:1 feature.

We recommend connecting with your manager to discuss the next steps, as expectations may vary by department.

No, it is not required. However, we encourage teams to explore the tool as a centralized way to support performance, growth, and development.

Yes. In Culture Amp, managers can view their direct reports’ goals even if the goals are marked as private. This helps support ongoing coaching, alignment, and development conversations.

No. Culture Amp does not sync back to Oracle. Any changes made in Culture Amp, such as updating names, goals, or feedback - do not impact data in Oracle.

Here is the link: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/pcb/performance-management/. This is your go-to spot for information, links, training materials, and more.

No, we are moving away from the Feed Forward model. While departments are not required to adopt the new performance management process, we strongly encourage its use. Culture Amp provides a consistent, skills-based framework that supports ongoing feedback, goal setting, and professional growth, while aligning with our institutional priorities. It offers enhanced tools and resources that make it easier for leaders and employees to have meaningful performance conversations throughout the year.

For more information about performance management and the resources available here at Vanderbilt, please visit the Orion webpage. Much of the content found on the performance management toolkit will be linked on the Orion webpage.

Culture Amp Process Videos & Job Aids

• Scheduling and Running One-on-One Meetings - video
• Goals Setting in Culture Amp- video
• Updating Goals in Culture Amp- video
• Reviewing and Updating Goals in Culture Amp: A Manager’s Guide - video
• Updating and Reviewing Goals – Job Aid
• Setting Goals in Culture Amp – Job Aid
• Scheduling and Running One-on-Ones – Job Aid