What is a performance review?

A performance review is a formal written evaluation of an employee, typically written by a manager, supervisor or team leader. These reviews create a record of employees’ contributions and behaviors and can help employees understand performance expectations.

Performance reviews may involve assigning grades, filling out a questionnaire or writing a long-form paragraph. Most performance reviews include similar information, regardless of format, including:

• Quality of work
• Ability to meet deadlines or follow schedules
• Technical skills
• Organizational skills
• Attitude and professional behavior
• Teamwork
• Reliability

A well-written performance review acknowledges strengths, addresses areas for improvement and offers guidance for success. It also helps company leaders make decisions about compensation and promotions or develop performance improvement plans (PIPs).

What to include in a performance review

You may choose to build your template with these sections:

• Employee details: This section includes basic information, such as the employee’s name, job title, department and the review period. It also includes the name and title of the manager conducting the review.
• Review of goals and objectives: This part of the review revisits the goals set in the previous evaluation period. You can use key performance indicators (KPIs) and other data to determine whether the employee met, exceeded or did not meet each goal.
• Key responsibilities and performance: This section evaluates how the employee performed their main job duties. You may choose to use a rating scale or a written narrative to assess the quality of work and their efficiency.
• Strengths and areas for improvement: This section provides balanced feedback. You may first identify the employee’s strengths, with specific examples. You can then list areas for the employee to develop.
• Future goals and development plan: The manager and employee can collaborate to set new, measurable goals for the next review period. This might include a development plan for new skills, training or leadership opportunities.
• Employee comments: Many companies include a section for the employee to add written comments. Workers may use this space to respond to the review, provide their perspective on performance or add context to the manager’s feedback.

Performance review methods and systems

You can choose a performance review method based on your company’s size, culture and the position being evaluated.

Rating scales

A common method involves assessing performance on a numerical scale, such as 1 to 5. Each number relates to a performance level:

1. Needs improvement
2. Partially meets expectations
3. Meets expectations
4. Exceeds expectations
5. Outstanding

Managers can rate employees on various criteria, such as quality of work, technical skills, communication and teamwork. Having a clear system provides quantitative data for comparing performance across a team, but consider supporting feedback with written comments.

Written narrative

Some companies prefer a descriptive approach, which involves writing a free-form paragraph summarizing the employee’s strengths and overall performance. This format allows for more detailed, personalized feedback, but can be more challenging to compare reviews.

Self-assessment

A self-assessment requires the employee to review and rate their performance before the meeting. The manager then reviews the self-assessment while writing their own evaluation. Self-assessment can provide managers with insight into the employee’s self-awareness and help start a collaborative conversation.

360-degree feedback

For the 360-degree method, you collect feedback from multiple sources, not just the direct manager. For example, you might also speak with their colleagues or clients, consolidating this feedback into the final review. The 360-degree method can provide a more complete assessment, but it typically works best on teams with open communication.

How to write an effective performance review

Writing a review generally requires preparation. A clear process can help develop more effective, objective and helpful evaluations.

Consider following these steps:

1. Prepare and gather information: Encourage managers to gather specific information from the entire review period. Strong sources could include project records, sales data, attendance reports, notes from one-on-one meetings and any formal recognition or disciplinary actions.
2. Provide balanced feedback: Address strengths and areas for improvement. Recognizing specific achievements helps motivate employees. When addressing areas of development, you can frame them as opportunities for growth.
3. Set clear goals: The review’s final section is typically a collaborative plan for the future. Managers and employees work together to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals. For example, instead of “improve communication,” a better goal may be, “Complete the company’s presentation skills workshop by the end of the second quarter.”

Performance review samples and templates

The content of performance reviews can vary depending on the industry or the company culture. Here’s an example of a narrative format:

Narrative review sample

Since Samantha James began working as a technical trainer, she has consistently met and occasionally exceeded manager expectations. She adapts her teaching style to suit individual employees and maintains a positive attitude during challenging projects. Samantha has strong attention to detail.

Samantha sometimes focuses on a single employee’s training and misses overall deadlines. Samantha is an excellent communicator, and the trainees report learning from her. However, some training sessions have shifted into off-topic discussion during the allotted class time. She could benefit from refining her time management skills.

As an individual, Samantha is considerate and respectful of others, which supports a positive training environment. Samantha never speaks harshly or acts impatiently with trainees. The atmosphere in the training room has improved since Samantha joined our team.

I am certain that with additional guidance, Samantha has the potential to be a high-performing employee. I would recommend a one-on-one meeting with a supervisor to discuss this review and to set goals for long-term improvement. With a clear development plan, Samantha could position herself for career advancement within the year.

Sample phrases for a rating scale

Here are examples of objective phrases you can provide to managers, using a 1-5 rating scale:

1: Needs improvement

• Quality of work: Work frequently contains errors and must be redone.
• Communication: Fails to respond to emails or messages within 24 hours.
• Deadlines: Missed four of six project deadlines this quarter.

3: Meets expectations

• Quality of work: Consistently completes tasks accurately and on time.
• Communication: Communicates clearly in team meetings and in writing.
• Deadlines: Meets all deadlines for assigned projects.

5: Outstanding (Goes far beyond the job description)

• Quality of work: Developed a new process that reduced errors by 20%.
• Communication: Proactively communicates project status to all collaborators, preventing confusion.
• Deadlines: Completes all projects ahead of schedule and uses the extra time to assist others.

Needs improvement review sample

Samantha has met expectations in the area of data entry, where work is consistently accurate. However, in the core job area of client communication, Samantha’s performance is currently rated as Needs Improvement.

Over the last quarter, Samantha missed 10 client check-in calls and received two formal client complaints regarding slow response times. We have discussed this in our last three weekly check-ins.

To support improvement, we will set a new goal for the next 30 days: Achieve a 100% response rate to client emails within one business day. Samantha will enroll in the company’s ‘Client Communication Best Practices’ workshop next week, and we will move our check-ins to twice per week to monitor progress.

How to avoid bias in performance reviews

Bias can affect the accuracy of performance reviews. Managers should strive to be objective and focus on behaviors and results. Bias can involve several factors:

• Recency bias: Occurs when the manager focuses only on the employee’s most recent behavior, forgetting the first 10 months of the review period. Managers can keep notes throughout the year to avoid this.
• Halo/horn effect: Allows one very good (halo) or one very bad (horn) trait to overshadow everything else the employee does.
• Leniency or strictness bias: Happens when a manager rates all their employees too high (leniency) or too low (strictness). You can help managers avoid this by providing clear, written definitions for each rating level.
• Personal bias: Leads to higher scores for employees with relationships with the manager.

Using objective data and recognizing common biases can make performance reviews more accurate and fair. They may help you guide employees, improve productivity and establish yourself as an employer that values professional growth.

Employee performance review templates for PDF and Word

Download these employee performance review templates to objectively assess employees’ performance and potential.

*Indeed provides these examples as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your HR or legal adviser, and none of these documents reflect current labor or employment regulations.