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Getting Started with Workbench

Welcome to Workbench! This guide will walk you through setting up your organization, importing employee data, and running your first compensation review cycle.

Estimated time: 30-45 minutes to complete initial setup. You can always come back to configure advanced features later.

Overview

Workbench is a compensation review platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It helps you manage performance reviews, plan compensation changes, and track employee progress over time—all without the spreadsheet headaches.

By the end of this guide, you'll have:

  • Imported your employee data into Workbench
  • Set up your organizational structure (teams and reporting relationships)
  • Configured review stages and workflows
  • Created your first review cycle
  • Invited your team to participate

Core Concepts

Before we dive into setup, let's clarify four key concepts that form the foundation of Workbench:

Review Cycles

What they are: Review cycles are the actual performance review processes you run in Workbench. They're time-bound periods (e.g., "Q1 2025 Performance Review") where you evaluate employees, collect feedback, and make compensation decisions.

Examples: "Annual Performance Review 2025", "Q2 Compensation Review", "Mid-Year Check-in"

How they work: A review cycle brings together all the other concepts—it uses workflow templates to guide participants through review stages, where they evaluate performance using the metrics you've defined. Each cycle has a start and end date, a budget, and includes specific employees or teams. Think of it as the container that orchestrates everything.

Review Stages

What they are: Review stages are the phases or steps that employees move through during a review cycle. Think of them as milestones in your review process.

Examples: "Self Review", "Manager Review", "Calibration", "Final Approval"

How they work: Each review stage represents a specific point in your review process where certain actions need to happen. Employees progress through stages in order, and each stage can collect different types of information (self-assessments, manager evaluations, performance ratings, etc.).

Workflow Templates

What they are: Workflow templates define the sequence of steps and actions that need to happen during a review cycle. They're like blueprints that control how work flows through your organization.

Two types:

  • Review Workflows: Control the review process (which stages happen, in what order)
  • Approval Workflows: Control the approval process for compensation changes (who approves, when)

How they work: When you create a review cycle, you attach workflow templates to it. The workflow then guides participants through the review stages in the correct order. Workflows can reference review stages, assign tasks to specific people or roles, and enforce business rules.

Performance Metrics

What they are: Performance metrics are the criteria or questions you use to evaluate employees. They're the "what" you're measuring during reviews.

Examples: "Quality of Work", "Communication Skills", "Team Collaboration", "Problem Solving", "Leadership"

How they work: You define performance metrics once in Settings, and then they're available to use in review stages. During a review, managers and employees can rate or evaluate performance using these metrics. The data is collected and stored as part of the employee's performance history.

How They Work Together

1. Review Stages define the phases of your review process

2. Workflows organize stages into a sequence and control the flow

3. Performance Metrics are used during review stages to collect evaluation data

4. Review Cycles bring it all together—they use workflows to guide participants through stages, collecting metrics along the way

Simple analogy: A Review Cycle is the journey itself. Review stages are the stops along the way. Workflows are the map that shows the route. Performance metricsare the questions you ask at each stop.

1

Account Setup

If you haven't already, register your organization on Workbench. During registration, you'll:

  • Create your organization account
  • Set up your admin user account
  • Verify your email address

Once registered, you'll be automatically logged in and taken to your Admin Dashboard. This is your command center for managing Workbench.

2

Import Your Employee Data

The fastest way to get started is to import your employee data from your existing HRIS or payroll system. Workbench accepts CSV files with employee information, including personal details, reporting relationships, and compensation data.

Recommended approach: Import your employee data using the CSV template. This ensures all employee records, manager relationships, and compensation history are set up correctly.

View Data Import Guide

To import your data:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Data Import/Export
  2. Download the CSV template
  3. Fill in your employee data (export from your HRIS/payroll system if possible)
  4. Upload the completed CSV file
  5. Review validation results and fix any errors
  6. Confirm the import

Alternative: If you prefer to start small, you can manually create employees one at a time from the Users page. However, importing is much faster for organizations with more than a few employees.

3

Set Up Your Organization Structure

After importing employees, verify that your organizational structure is set up correctly:

Teams

If you included team names in your import, teams should be automatically created. Verify them in Teams and create any additional teams as needed.

Manager Relationships

Check that manager relationships are correctly established. Employees should have their primary (and optionally secondary) managers assigned.

4

Configure Review Stages

Review stages define the phases of your review process. Common stages include:

  • Self Review: Employees complete their self-assessment
  • Manager Review: Managers evaluate their direct reports
  • Calibration: Leadership team reviews and calibrates ratings
  • Final Approval: Final review and approval of recommendations

To create review stages:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Review Stages
  2. Click "Add Review Stage"
  3. Enter a name (e.g., "Self Review")
  4. Select the stage type (e.g., "self_review", "manager_review")
  5. Set the order (stages are processed in order: 1, 2, 3, etc.)
  6. Save the stage

Tip: Start simple with 2-3 stages (Self Review, Manager Review, Final Approval). You can always add more stages later as your process evolves.

5

Create Workflow Templates (Optional but Recommended)

Workflow templates define how review cycles should flow. While you can create review cycles without workflows, using workflows gives you more control and consistency.

You'll typically create two workflow templates:

Review Workflow

Defines the sequence of review stages. For example: Self Review → Manager Review → Calibration → Final Approval

Approval Workflow

Defines who needs to approve compensation changes and in what order. For example: Manager → HR → Finance → CEO

To create a workflow template:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Workflows
  2. Click "Create Workflow"
  3. Enter a name and description
  4. Select the workflow type (Review or Approval)
  5. Add workflow steps, referencing your review stages where appropriate
  6. Set the order of steps
  7. Save the template

Note: If you skip workflows for now, Workbench will use default behavior. You can always add workflows later and attach them to future review cycles.

6

Set Up Performance Metrics

Performance metrics are the criteria you'll use to evaluate employees during reviews. Define metrics that align with your organization's values and performance expectations.

Common performance metrics include:

  • Quality of Work
  • Communication Skills
  • Team Collaboration
  • Problem Solving
  • Leadership
  • Initiative
  • Technical Skills

To create performance metrics:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Performance Metrics
  2. Click "Add Metric"
  3. Enter a name and description
  4. Select the scale type (numeric, binary, custom options, text, etc.)
  5. Configure validation rules if needed
  6. Save the metric

Tip: Start with 5-7 core metrics. You can always add more later. Too many metrics can make reviews overwhelming for both employees and managers.

7

Create Your First Review Cycle

Now it's time to create your first review cycle! This is where everything comes together.

To create a review cycle:

  1. Navigate to Review Cycles
  2. Click "Create Review Cycle"
  3. Enter cycle details:
    • Cycle name (e.g., "Q1 2025 Performance Review")
    • Start and end dates
    • Budget information (total budget, increase budget, bonus budget)
  4. Select participants (all employees, specific teams, or individual employees)
  5. Attach workflow templates (if you created them in Step 5)
  6. Save and launch the cycle

Congratulations! Once you launch your review cycle, employees and managers will be able to participate according to the workflow you've defined.

8

Invite Your Team

If you imported employee data with email addresses, user accounts may have been automatically created (with temporary passwords). Otherwise, you'll need to invite team members manually.

User account creation:

  • Automatic: If employees were imported with email addresses, user accounts are created automatically with temporary passwords. Users will be prompted to change their password on first login.
  • Manual: Navigate to Users and click "Add User" to create accounts manually.

Note: Users need accounts to log in and participate in review cycles. Employees without accounts can still have employee records, but they won't be able to access the system.

Next Steps

You're all set! Here's what to do next:

Monitor Review Progress

Track how participants are progressing through review stages in your active review cycles.

Manage Approvals

Review and approve compensation recommendations as they move through your approval workflow.

Track Performance

View performance history and compensation trends for individual employees and teams.

Refine Your Process

Adjust review stages, workflows, and metrics based on what you learn from your first cycle.

Quick Reference Links

Data Import/Export Guide
Complete guide to importing employee data
Settings Overview
Access from Admin Dashboard → Settings
Workbench

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