Set up
Try a plugin
The Human Resources plugin ships with /performance-review and other people-ops skills as a starting point, already structured to gather input, score against competencies, and draft a review. If your admin manages plugins and it's not available yet, skip this; nothing below requires it.
Connect your tools
Claude Cowork is more powerful when it works directly with your systems. You control permissions and access. Learn about tool access(opens in new tab).
Navigate to Customize → Connectors in Cowork to set up.
Set your working folder
Drag the files you'll use (your performance framework, the rating definitions, the review template, the cycle instructions you send managers) into one folder on your machine, then point Cowork at it. Cowork reads from it to build the skill and writes the skill file back to it. If you administer the cycle each half, create a Cowork project(opens in new tab) from that folder so the framework, instructions, and memory stay attached.
The prompt
Copy this into Claude Cowork
Help me build the /performance-review skill for our managers. The skill should walk a manager through gathering input, scoring against our competencies, and drafting the review in our template. It should quote our rating definitions verbatim and never invent criteria that aren't in the framework.
Why this works
Ask for a reusable process. "Help me build the /performance-review skill" makes the output the reusable process, so you author it once and every manager inherits the same steps.
Say what it must not make up. "Quote our rating definitions verbatim and never invent criteria" keeps the skill anchored to the document in the folder, so calibration is comparing like with like.
List the steps in order. Listing gather input, score, then draft tells Cowork the order your cycle instructions expect, so the skill matches the process you already trained managers on.
Let the working folder supply context. The framework, rating definitions, and template sit in the working folder, so the skill is built from your current cycle documents and updates when you replace them.
Get a better draft
Add an example to match. Drop an example you like into the folder and Cowork matches your structure and voice.
Ask it to flag uncertainty. Add "flag anything you're not confident about" so you know where to look first when you review the draft.
Make Cowork work for you
A plugin skill is a starting point — customize it with your own practices and expertise. A few minutes of conversation and it runs with your standards from then on.
Make what we've done in this task so far into a skill, or edit the /performance-review skill with my feedback.
Make it repeatable
Run it when the cycle opens
The cycle opens on the same date each half. Type /schedule in the prompt, or open Scheduled in the Cowork sidebar, and Cowork reminds every manager to run /performance-review and refreshes the skill from the latest framework in the folder.
/schedule Every Monday at 9am, if a new cycle folder is in People/perf-cycle, refresh /performance-review from those files and post the kickoff note with instructions to the managers channel.
Refreshes /performance-review from People/perf-cycle and posts the manager kickoff note when each review cycle opens.
Share with your teammates
Your customized /performance-review now carries your framework, your rating language, and your template. Share it so every people manager runs the same process, and calibration compares reviews that were written against the same bar.