Performance review template
Free to download for Word or Google Docs, with guidance on using it well.
A performance review template gives a manager and an employee the same structure for looking back over a period and agreeing what comes next. This one is built around the objectives agreed at the start of the period, because a review that rates people against anything else is rating impressions.
Free performance review template
Seven sections with guidance notes, a defined five-point rating scale and space for both signatures. Delete the grey guidance text once you have filled it in.
Download the template (.docx)Free, no sign-up. Opens in Word, Google Docs or Pages; edit it to fit your organisation's own process.
What is in the template
| Section | Who completes it | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Objectives for this period | Manager, before the meeting | Results against the measures agreed at the start, with evidence |
| Employee self-assessment | Employee, before the meeting | What went well, what was harder, what support would help |
| How the work was done | Manager, before the meeting | Behaviours that matter for the role, each with an example |
| Overall summary | Both, in the meeting | The manager's view and the employee's comments, side by side |
| Development plan | Both, in the meeting | What the employee will learn or practise next, and the support |
| Objectives for the next period | Both, in the meeting | Assessable objectives linked to team or organisational goals |
How to use it
Send the self-assessment section a week before the meeting. Fill in the objectives section from the evidence kept through the year, not from what you remember in the week of the review; if there is no evidence, that is the first thing to change for next year. Decide provisional ratings, and be ready to move them after hearing the employee's account.
In the meeting, start with the employee's view before giving yours, and tie every rating to the measure agreed at the start. Agree the development plan and the new objectives together, and close by reading back what was agreed. Write it up within two days.
Writing objectives the next review can use
The last section of this year's template becomes the first section of next year's, so the quality of next year's review is decided here. An objective needs three things to be assessable: what will be delivered, the measure, and the date. "Improve client satisfaction" cannot be rated. "Raise the account's satisfaction score from 7.1 to 8.0 by the September survey" can.
Related templates
For feedback from peers, direct reports and customers as well as the manager, use the 360 performance review template. Where the review shows a gap that needs a formal plan, use the performance improvement plan template, written with the employee rather than for them.
Questions
What should a performance review template include?
At minimum: the objectives agreed at the start of the period with their measures, the results and evidence against each, the employee's self-assessment, how the work was done, an overall summary, a development plan and next period's objectives. Without the agreed measures, the ratings have nothing to be measured against.
Who fills in the template?
The employee completes the self-assessment before the meeting. The manager prepares the objectives review and provisional ratings before the meeting. The development plan and next period's objectives are agreed in the meeting itself.
Should we use a five-point rating scale?
A five-point scale is common and works if every point has a written meaning tied to the agreed measures. A scale with no definitions produces ratings that mean different things in different departments, which is the problem the scale was supposed to solve.
The Manager's Review Pack
Checklists for preparing, running and following up the review, and a phrase bank for writing it, in which every phrase needs evidence attached. Free by email.
Learning to run reviews properly
A template gives the review a structure; it does not make the conversation go well. Planning and managing appraisals, including 360 feedback and self review, is module 6 of the Certificate in Performance Management, and the subject of performance appraisal training for managers. The course is online, about ten hours, and assessed by exam, with a free trial module before you pay.