Key takeaways
Performance management software can simplify the review process. Browse top solutions in our Performance Management Software Guide to get started.
What is a performance review?
A performance review is a formal feedback process in which a manager monitors performance over a designated review cycle, assesses performance against preset goals and standards, and then discusses performance and future goals with a direct report. The reviews may occur monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually, but, regardless of their frequency, they should include formal documentation and individualized employee feedback.
What is an employee review template?
An employee review template is a structured document or framework that managers and HR professionals can use to structure employee performance reviews. These templates can either be used as is or as a baseline for creating your own employee performance review template.
What are the benefits of a performance review?
Performance reviews help employees and their managers get on the same page about their performance, what’s going well, and where the employee is struggling. Managers have formal opportunities to coach and share constructive feedback with their employees, employees have a platform to voice concerns and questions, and both parties have space to discuss future growth, training, and professional development opportunities.
More on this topic: Why Is Performance Management So Important?
Performance review best practices
If your organization is just getting started with performance reviews, here are a few quick tips and best practices to consider:
What to include in a performance review template
Performance review templates serve an important purpose: adding structure and standardized processes to reviews for all employees, ensuring everyone gets a fair chance to discuss their performance and opportunities for growth within the organization.
For teams that want to create performance review templates from scratch, regardless of industry or department, it’s important to include basic employee information, a clear scoring system, a self-evaluation, core competencies, quantitative KPIs or OKRs, qualitative feedback, future goals, and a signature section.
Employee information
Your performance review form should include space for the employee’s name, department, role, review period, and any other information that’s relevant for archival purposes.
Clear scoring system
Each evaluation category in your review template should require reviewers to give a quantifiable performance rating — one to five, for example. This makes it easier to standardize and compare performance across individuals, teams, and departments who are doing different kinds of work.
Self-evaluation
Employees should be given space to assess their own job performance during the past review cycle, highlighting any big wins, questions, concerns, and goals they have for the future. This is one of the most important parts of your performance review because it gives employees a chance to steer their own careers and communicate candidly with their managers.
Core competencies
Core competencies will typically be role- or department-specific, covering all of the bases for what an employee must be able to do in order to succeed in their role. It’s important to customize this section; managers, individual producers, and interns will all have different core competencies that make sense for their positions, for example.
Quantitative KPIs or OKRs
Include KPIs and/or objectives and key results (OKRs) to judge how this individual, their team, and their department performed against specific goals during the review cycle. This is a necessary review component for judging employee productivity against the organization’s most important goals.
Qualitative feedback
Employees should be evaluated on qualities that are harder to quantify, such as communication skills, leadership skills, organizational skills, and how they measure up against specific company values. Though this part of the review template can be expressed through numeric scores, it’s important to leave room for comments and written feedback to contextualize the ratings.
Future goals
This area of the template should cover goals the manager has set for the employee as well as any goals the employee wants to accomplish before the next review cycle; these goals can focus on training and development and/or areas for improvement and development.
Signature and date
At the bottom of the template, designate space for a signature and date to make it easier to confirm the process has been followed and the review completed. Ideally, both the reviewer and the reviewee should sign off on the document.
Space for notes and unstructured feedback
Leave additional space for reviewers to leave comments for the reviewee if desired.
Space for updated financial and role information
Consider having a specific template area to denote any changes in role or compensation, including promotions, raises, and bonuses for that review cycle.
Continue reading about the importance of performance-based bonuses: How Performance Bonuses Help Avoid Bias and Increase Productivity.
Performance review templates and tools
If you’d prefer to get started with a performance review template from a trusted source, a number of HR leaders, software vendors, and job boards have designed review templates and resources that anyone can access.
Performance review template examples
Performance management software examples
Want to browse other performance management tools? Explore our Performance Management Software Guide to find expert recommendations and a full catalog of top solutions.
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