---
title: Launching, tracking and closing a campaign
description: Launch a prepared campaign, track its progress, chase late reviewers, catch up new joiners and close the cycle.
url: "https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/performance-launch-and-track/"
updated: "2026-11-01"
category: "Performance & Goals"
---

# Launching, tracking and closing a campaign

This article is for HR staff and administrators who run a review campaign, and for managers who follow their team's campaign. It explains how to launch a prepared campaign, what happens next, how to track progress, remind late contributors and catch up newcomers, and then how to close the cycle. Preparation (steps, forms, participants) is described in [Setting up a review cycle and campaign](https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/performance-review-cycles/).

## Before you start

- Launching a campaign: "Launch a review campaign", **Execute** level (by default: administrator and HR). The **Access** level opens the cycles screen and the pre-launch check.
- Tracking progress: "Track campaign progress", **Access** level (by default: administrator, HR and manager). Sending reminders and catching up missing reviews: **Execute** level (administrator and HR).
- Activating without the check and reopening a cycle: "Settings — Review cycles (steps, population)" and "Launch a review campaign", both at **Execute** level. Closing: "Settings — Review cycles (steps, population)", **Execute** level. By default, only the administrator can do this.
- The cycles screen sits in Settings: it also requires the "Settings — Access" permission, which by default only the administrator holds. Grant it to the HR or manager roles that need to run campaigns from this screen. Without it, a manager follows progress in the "Campaign progress" report (see below).
- Permissions are set in **Settings › Manage Employees › Employee Roles**.

## Checking the population

Open **Settings › Performance › Review cycles** and expand the cycle to launch. Before launching, the administrator can check in the **Participants** tab that the rules target the right people: the counter shows how many employees are targeted.

![The Participants tab of an expanded cycle: Include and Exclude criteria, counter of targeted employees, Save rules button, then the Cycle participants block with the Resync button](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/performance-launch-and-track-01.en_.png?resize=800%2C572&quality=80&ssl=1)
The Participants tab: checking the population before launching.

## Launching the campaign

On a cycle in Draft status, click **Launch**. The "Launch campaign" window shows what the launch will produce:

- three counters, **Participants**, **Steps** and **Reviews**, and the number of steps that start straight away (the others will open on their date);
- blocking issues, which grey out the **Launch** button: a campaign that targets no employee, or steps that open at launch without a form;
- the "To check before launching" list: upcoming steps without a form, a form deactivated since, employees without a supervisor (no manager review) or without direct reports (no upward review), a supervisor who is no longer active, reviewers without the right to fill in the review, a dependent step that will not open for some employees, a peer review whose peers still have to be nominated. Launching is still possible: these cases simply produce no review.

1. Read the counters and the points raised; if needed, fix the cycle before coming back.
2. Leave the **Notify contributors of the steps starting now** box ticked so that everyone is told, or untick it.
3. Click **Launch**. The message "Campaign launched." appears.

Launching records the population from the rules, makes the cycle active, then creates the reviews in the background: they may take a few minutes to appear. A launched cycle never goes back to draft.

### Activating without the check

The **Activate** button, next to **Launch**, opens the period without going through the check window. The effect is the same: the population is recorded, the reviews of steps already started are created and their contributors are notified. Activation is refused if a step that is already open has no form.

## What happens next

- Each reviewer receives the "Review to complete" notice in the Performance tab of the bell, and an e-mail: "Your review for <cycle> is open" for a self review, "A review is waiting for you — <person>" for someone else's review, with the step deadline.
- Reviews to complete appear in the **To fill** tab of each person's Performance space: see [Completing and approving reviews](https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/performance-reviews/).
- Upcoming steps open automatically each morning on their start date: their reviews are created and their contributors notified that day.
- A review in a step that waits for another step stays "Waiting for the previous step" until that step has been submitted for the employee concerned.
- For a peer review, the people who must propose or nominate the peers are notified ("Peers to choose", or a grouped notice for HR); peer reviews are created once the peers have been nominated and, where required, approved.

## Tracking progress

Expand the active cycle (chevron "View steps and participants", or "View campaign progress" if you do not configure cycles) and open the **Progress** tab. The "Progress" block shows:

- the total of reviews submitted out of those expected, and the number of reviews never created, a sign that the population or a form needs fixing;
- for each step: its status, the number of reviews submitted and a progress bar;
- the "View late reviews" chevron, which lists "Late" reviews with their expected author, and those "Waiting for the previous step", whose author cannot act yet;
- "By department": the progress of self reviews and manager reviews, department by department.

For Peer review and Upward review steps, tracking only gives numbers: it names neither the authors nor the people reviewed. Tracking is always limited to the scope of your role: a manager sees the progress of their own population.

### Reminding late contributors

On a step of an active cycle that still has reviews in draft, click the "Remind late contributors" bell. The authors receive the "Reminder: review to complete" notice and an e-mail ("Reminder: your review for <cycle>" or "Reminder: review of <person>"). Reviews waiting for the previous step are not reminded; the confirmation message says how many reminders were sent. Illizeo sends no automatic reminders: remember to send them before the deadline.

### Catching up a newcomer

After a new hire, the administrator adds the person to the cycle with **Resync** in the **Participants** tab. In the **Progress** tab, **Catch up missing** then creates the missing reviews of steps already started and notifies their authors; the message gives the number of reviews created, or "Nothing to catch up.".

### Contracts without a supervisor

Above the list of cycles, a banner may report contracts without a supervisor: their objectives appear for no manager. The **See the list** link details them. Enter the supervisor on each contract concerned to restore tracking.

## The Campaign progress report

In **People Analytics › System reports**, the "Campaign progress" report gives these figures for all running campaigns within your scope: completion rate, overdue reviews, signed review files and review files to sign, then a table by campaign and step (expected, not started, drafts, submitted, finalized, signed, never created, overdue, rate). It requires the "Track campaign progress" permission at Access level.

![The Campaign progress report in People Analytics: Completion rate, Overdue reviews, Signed review files and Review files to sign tiles, then the table by campaign and step](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/performance-launch-and-track-04.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
People Analytics › System reports › Campaign progress.

## Closing and reopening the cycle

Once the period has passed, the cycle shows "Period ended — to close". Click **Close** and confirm: objectives, steps and participants can no longer be changed, and no review can be filled in any more. The module's screens then show that the cycle is closed and its content frozen.

As long as no end-of-cycle dossier has been signed, **Reopen** makes the cycle active again: the population is recomputed from the rules, missing reviews of steps already started are created, and the contributors of those steps are notified by notification and e-mail, including those who had already finished. Once a dossier has been signed, the cycle can no longer be reopened.

## Good to know

- Only a cycle in Draft status can be launched or activated.
- A passed deadline does not block input: only closing freezes the content.
- The population, tracking, reminders and catch-up are limited to the scope of your role; only active employees are included.
- Review notices follow each person's "Performance reviews" preference (Personal Settings, Notifications tab). Their wording is fixed: it cannot be changed in the e-mail templates.
- Creating, duplicating or closing a cycle sends no notice.

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