Only 30% of employees believe that performance reviews at their organization are fair and equitable. What’s more, 70% of organizations are reconsidering how they manage performance. Using a performance review template can help you streamline your performance review process, give your employees a better understanding of their development and career progression, and help them see how their role contributes to the success of the organization.
In this article, we’ll explore what an employee performance review is, how to measure performance, and how to create a performance review template that you can follow and customize when conducting appraisals in your organization.
A performance review is a formal, structured process where an employee’s past performance is evaluated. It also involves setting expectations and goals for the future that align with where the employee wants to grow and the long-term objectives of the business. This is a key part of performance management and typically occurs annually, biannually, or quarterly.
An employee’s direct supervisor or manager typically conducts performance reviews, as they are most familiar with the employee’s work and day-to-day performance. HR plays a critical role in overseeing and supporting the entire performance management process, from providing guidelines and templates and training managers on providing constructive feedback to analyzing performance review outcomes.
The purpose of performance reviews is to offer constructive feedback, show them where they can improve, clarify their responsibilities, motivate them, hold them accountable, and help them develop in their careers. Ultimately, this leads to improved employee and organizational performance.
Numerous studies have shown that regular feedback that is fair and diverse results in a significant boost in performance. In addition, workplace research has suggested that meaningful feedback increases employee engagement and helps reduce turnover.
Other types of performance management processes
While many organizations are moving toward continuous feedback, formal performance reviews remain an essential tool for structured evaluation, providing a comprehensive overview of an employee’s progress and areas for development over a specific period. A performance review template is a tool that organizations use to streamline the review process and ensure that both the manager and employee are clear on the goals and next steps.
There are four different types of performance review templates that you can consider using for your performance reviews. Let’s explore each one in more detail below.
A job performance scale allows managers to quantitatively assess an employee’s performance against predefined criteria. The following criteria originate from Goodman & Svyantek’s 1999 job performance scale and are intended for the supervisor to rate the employee on each of the points.
These example questions can be used to accurately measure job performance for employees. You could split the questions into various areas of a particular role and rate the employee’s performance within each one.
For this method, the performance review template should include questions similar to the above with a rating scale, such as the 4-point Likert scale (Strongly disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree).
A job behaviors scale helps evaluate an employee’s workplace behaviors, such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. Yo u can measure t hese behaviors, also called extra-role behaviors, using the following questions.
Again, the supervisor uses these items to rate the employee. For this method, we recommend using a 4-point Likert scale in your performance review template, with additional space for extra comments.
A good performance review template combines job performance with job behavior questions to get a well-rounded picture of employee performance:
The next type of performance review template is based on rating an employee’s performance through competencies. Every job requires multiple competencies to carry out its tasks successfully. These are the so-called job-specific competencies.
In addition to job-specific competencies, there are also core competencies. These are the competencies that everyone in the organization needs. They are often set by the board of directors, and everyone in the organization is expected to have at least a basic proficiency in these competencies. Examples of core competencies are customer focus, financial acumen, and adaptability.
In the employee performance review, aim to select the three or four most important job-specific competencies. Continue with the core competencies of the company. Based on these competencies, you can rate the employee’s behavior over the past period. Usually, this is done by setting behavioral benchmarks for each score on the competency. You can do this by describing the specific behaviors for each competency. Here’s an example, with the competency of communication.
Communication
| Below Expectations | Meets Expectations | Role Model |
| Even with guidance, fails to prepare straightforward communications, including forms, paperwork, and records, in a timely and accurate manner; products require minimal corrections. |
Not all organizations have the luxury of working with clearly defined competency frameworks. Setting up such a framework costs a considerable amount of time and money. However, competencies do enable supervisors to give clearer and more specific indicators of performance to employees. Because the competencies are described in detail, there is more consistency between raters. They can benchmark observable behavior to a predefined behavioral rating scale.
You can also work with a simpler performance review template where the reviewers rate employees on predefined competencies on a scale from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree. Here’s what it could look like:
360-degree feedback is a peer feedback system in which the manager, direct reports, customers, and peers of an employee give input on their performance. This is a balanced approach as the employee is assessed from multiple perspectives.
A performance review template of this kind would look similar to the ones above but with multiple raters and, thus, more feedback. However, there are some drawbacks to this approach.
Simply put, 360-degree feedback doesn’t always have a positive effect, especially if executed poorly. Another drawback is the significant time spent on assessing everyone. If one person has four assessors, it takes four times as long to assess one person. If everyone in the organization is assessed using a 360-degree feedback system, employees (and clients) will have to spend days assessing each other. This is very costly and also runs the risk of favoritism.
360-degree feedback is, therefore, mostly used as a tool for more senior roles, for example, managers.
Creating an effective performance review template plays a key role in performance management at your organization. This document helps you provide vital feedback to your employees while helping them work toward performance improvements and goals that align with the company. Use our templates and tips to create your own performance review template and boost engagement, motivation, and commitment across your organization.
A performance review template helps bring efficiency, transparency, and fairness into the performance review process. It is a standardized framework that ensures consistent criteria and evaluation measures are applied to all employees, facilitating objective assessments and meaningful feedback. Regular feedback has been proven to improve employee performance and reduce turnover.
What should be included in a performance review template?A performance review template should include employee information (such as their name and role), the reviewer’s name, a series of competencies along with a rating scale so the employee can be rated on each one, a space for comments, points of improvement, areas where the employee is excelling, and signatures of both the reviewer and employee.
How do you write a performance review document?Writing a performance review document involves creating a standardized template that ensures consistency and fairness in the evaluation process across the organization. This template should guide managers in assessing their employees’ performance against predefined objectives, providing specific examples of achievements and areas for improvement, and offering constructive feedback. It should facilitate an objective, comprehensive, and development-focused performance review.
