Exporting Performance Review Data – Prosper

Exporting your Performance Review data turns individual reviews into the dataset that drives calibration, talent decisions, and trend analysis. With consistent templates and a clean export, you can track ratings over time, compare across teams and sites, and build the reporting your leadership team needs.

Who this is for: Administrators and Managers

Read time: 5 minutes

What you can export

The Performance Review export gives you a structured file containing every completed and in-progress review against the templates and date range you select. A typical export includes:

Review metadata — review name, status, start and completion dates.
Participant details — reviewee, reviewer (manager), site, department, role.
Question responses — every question answered, with the response text or selected answer.
Manager Ratings — the rating selected for each Manager Rating question, plus the manager's comment.

Prerequisites

You must have Administrator or Manager permissions in Prosper.
The Performance Reviews module must be enabled for your organisation.
At least one review must have been started or completed against an enabled template.

How to export Performance Review data

Step 1 — Navigate to Performance

From the Prosper main menu, select Performance > Manage Reviews.
Open the Active or Closed list or reporting view where exports are run.

Step 2 — Run the export

Select ⋮ > Export. Prosper will prepare the file in the background and notify you when it's ready.

Step 3 — Download the file

Once the export is ready, download it from the notification.

Understanding the export structure

Most organisations work with the CSV or XLSX export in Excel, Google Sheets, or a BI tool like Power BI. The structure is designed to be analysis-ready:

One column per review per question. This "long format" makes it easy to pivot, filter, and aggregate.
Reviewee and reviewer columns appear on every question, so you can group by either.
Question identifiers are stable across reviews of the same template version, making time-series analysis possible.
Manager Rating values appear in their own columns alongside the question response and comment.

Tip: If you want a "one row per review" summary instead, use a pivot table in Excel or Google Sheets, with the reviewee as the row label and questions as columns.

Common analyses

Rating distribution

Group all Manager Ratings by rating value to see your overall distribution. Healthy distributions usually show most employees clustered around "Meeting Expectations", with smaller groups at the extremes. A skew toward the top of the scale across the board often signals grade inflation worth addressing in calibration.

Site or team comparison

Pivot Manager Ratings by site or team to see how distributions vary across the business. Significant variation between similar teams is a strong signal to run a calibration session before the next cycle.

Trends over time

By exporting across multiple cycles using consistent template versions, you can track how ratings shift over time — both at an individual level (development trajectory) and at an organisational level (capability uplift).

Manager consistency

Group by reviewer to see each manager's rating distribution. If one manager consistently rates well above or below the organisational average, that's a coaching opportunity for them and a calibration input for you.

Open-text response analysis

Comment columns can be reviewed manually for themes or run through a sentiment or thematic analysis tool. Look for patterns in development areas, capability gaps, and reasons for high or low ratings.

Working with exports safely

Performance Review data is among the most sensitive data your organisation holds. A few principles:

Limit who has access. Restrict exports to administrators and senior HR or People team members with a clear need. Managers can export and review data for their team members only.
Store securely. Save exports to a controlled location — an HR-only folder in your document management system, not a shared drive or personal device.
Delete when no longer needed. Once the analysis is complete and any required record is retained in your system of record, delete working copies.
Treat email with care. Avoid emailing raw exports. Share via secure links with controlled access where possible.
Mind the legal context. In many jurisdictions, performance data is regulated personal information. Make sure your handling aligns with your organisation's privacy policy.

Tips and best practices

Export at consistent points in the cycle. Running the export at the same milestone each cycle (for example, two weeks after the close date) makes period-on-period comparisons cleaner.
Use template versions to your advantage. Cloning your template per cycle (rather than editing in place) keeps your historical exports stable and comparable. See Cloning and Versioning Review Templates.
Build a standard report template. Set up a standing Excel or BI dashboard that ingests the export and produces your calibration view automatically — far faster than rebuilding it each cycle.
Review the export before sharing. Open the file and sanity-check row counts, date ranges, and that the right templates are included. Catching an off-filter early saves rework.
Pair exports with qualitative input. The numbers tell you what's happening; manager and HR commentary tells you why.

Troubleshooting

The export is empty.
The most common cause is a filter that excludes all reviews — for example, a date range with no completed reviews, or a template version that hasn't been used yet.

Some reviews are missing from the export.
Check the status filter — reviews that have not yet been completed by the employee are excluded.

Comments appear truncated or wrap awkwardly in Excel.
This is an Excel display issue, not an export issue. Widen the column and enable Wrap Text. The underlying data is complete.

The export is taking a long time.
Large exports — for example, organisation-wide annual reviews across thousands of employees — are processed in the background. If it's been pending for more than an hour, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Can I schedule recurring exports?
Not currently — exports are run on demand. We recommend setting a calendar reminder aligned to your review cycle close.

Administrator's Guide to Publishing Performance Reviews
Creating a Performance Review Template
Setting Up Manager Ratings
Cloning and Versioning Review Templates

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