You need a performance review template that turns uncomfortable review sessions into productive conversations.
Performance reviews track employees' growth and challenges, but some managers struggle with conducting reviews because they have the wrong structure.
A performance review template guides the conversation and measures the right metrics for your employees— all you need to do is add a little team flair, and you're good to go.
In this guide, I'll show you 10 kinds of employee performance review templates, and tips on how to implement them for employees.
What's an Employee Performance Review Template?
An employee performance review template is a pre-structured document that evaluates an employee's performance.
It rates their performance against certain criteria, like communication and quality of work, and helps them set new goals.
On this note, every effective review template should have these elements:
- Performance Metrics
They are qualitative and quantitative measurements that measure employee performance . Performance metrics targets criterias like task completion rate, how often an employee is absent from work, their work quality, etc.
- Rating Scales
Rating scales assign grades to different aspects of employees' work. The grades may be numerical (like numbers 1-5) to measure the quality of work for an employee, or textual with description like “unsatisfactory, satisfactory, exceeds expectations).
- Goal-Setting Framework
This section helps the manager and employee create achievable targets. You can add short-term goals to achieve in the coming months or long-term goals for their career growth.
- Evidence Fields
These data let you document specific examples of your employee's accomplishments. Rather than say they're good communicators, you can note that they "led three successful client presentations and trained two new team members.”
- Action Planning
You can create the “what's next” section here to help them determine the next actionable steps.
10 Examples of Employee Performance Review Templates
These are 10 examples of performance review templates you can use to evaluate employees' performance and accomplishments:
1. Simple Performance Review Template
A simple performance review is a straightforward conversation between a manager or reviewer and an employee. It primarily focuses on the employee's;
- Recent accomplishments
- Areas for improvement
- And future goals
This review template is simple and conversational. The goal of this evaluation is to make the review feel like a supportive two-way conversation.
📌 Download our free employee review performance template here.
2. Annual Performance Review Template
The annual review template evaluates an employee's performance over 12 months. You can use this template to make important decisions about their promotions, raises, and career development.
It has more detailed sections, unlike the simple review template, because it captures a full year of work. You may need to gather feedback from multiple sources and review their past performance notes before completing it.
📌 Download our annual performance review template here.
3. Mid-Year Performance Review Template
The mid-year performance reviews happen twice a year. It focuses on forward-looking development. While you'll assess current performance, the main focus stays on future improvement opportunities. This timing gives employees enough runway to improve before their annual review.
4. Quarterly Review Template
Track employees' progress in smaller increments. The quarterly review template focuses on reassessing your employees every three months to improve their development, find their shortcomings, and create goals to help them improve.
ManyRequests lets you track their performance through its project management dashboard. You can track the time they spend on tasks, check reviews from clients on tasks assigned to them, and oversee their performance from start to finish. Sign up for a 7 day free trial to see how it works.
5. 30-60-90 Day Review Template
The 30-60-90 day review template evaluates employees for the first three months at work. At this point, employees may find it hard to settle in, or do their primary and secondary tasks. They may also need to learn how to use different tools and adjust their expectations of working with the team.
The first 30-day review should focus on helping them settle in. It should ask questions, like if they understand the company's work process and tools and if they collaborate well with other team members.
The 60-day review should evaluate whether employees are capable of overseeing tasks without constant supervision. It should also evaluate their contributions to their team— to know if they are doing their part well or not.
The 90-day review is slightly dependent on the outcome of the prior evaluations, but regardless, it should expect that employees are well settled in, and can suggest areas for improvement and goals.
6. Peer Review Template
Here, co-workers who work closely with the employee give feedback about them. The template helps you understand how they work with others and contribute to the team's success.
For example, this is what a peer review template looks like for a marketing team.
📌 Download our free peer review performance template here.
Now, you shouldn't ask questions like “Is Jane a good teammate?”, the replies to this question could be subjective to how the individual feels about the employee in question.
Instead, ask them “How has Jane helped you reach your monthly quota?” Or “How has Sarah contributed to the team project?”. Their response will show strengths and need for improvement that managers may not see in day-to-day interactions.
7. Self-Evaluation Template
The self-evaluation template helps employees assess and reflect on their own work and performance. It gives them a voice in their review process and helps managers understand how employees view their own work.
However, if you want an effective self-evaluation, you need to do these three things:
- Encourage them to reflect honestly. Employees should feel safe sharing their successes and struggles. Encourage them to write things like “While I didn't exceed my sales target by 15%, I noticed I could improve my follow up communication with clients”.
- Focus on a growth mindset.
They should identify areas of improvement and not spend the whole evaluation period berating themselves. For example, rather than write, “I'm bad at public speaking”, encourage them to write, "I'm developing my presentation skills and have joined or will join Toastmasters to improve.” Do follow-up checks to see if they've improved as written.
- Encourage them to use data. “I collaborated with the design team on four major projects” sounds better than “I work well with others”.
8. Team Performance Review Template
This review evaluates how well a group works together to achieve common goals. The reviewer would have to look at:
- Collective results. How well does the team achieve its goals?
- Team dynamics. How well do they work together? How long does it take to settle disputes and agree on a thought process?
- Process efficiency. How well does the team organize and execute its projects?
9. 360-Degree Performance Review Template
A 360-degree review gathers feedback from the employee's manager, peers, and clients to understand their impact in the agency. To get the best result from this, you need to follow three principles:
- Each reviewer focuses on their interactions with the employee. Their colleagues evaluate teamwork, direct reports evaluate leadership, and clients can rate their communication skills.
- Reviewers should not be vague. Every review should be nuanced so the employee knows what to improve.
- Reviews should measure how the employee's performance impacts others' work. A team member, for instance, should write that “when Caleb delays his code reviews, it delays our team from making early changes.” They shouldn't just say that Caleb delays turnover time.
10. Performance Improvement Review Template
Use this performance review when you notice an employee is underperforming. It's a bit different from the regular reviews because it focuses on the issues the employee is struggling with and helps create a path to improvement.
How to Implement Performance Review Templates Effectively
Follow these tips to create an effective employee performance review template:
1. Choose the right template for each situation.
Your employees' situations should guide which performance review template you use.
For context, use the 30-60-90 day performance review for new employees and the simple performance review template in your first few reviews.
If you have an employee who's struggling to meet up with work expectations, a performance improvement review template will help them more than a peer review would.
2. Prepare for the review.
Before the performance reviews, managers and reviewers should:
- Collect examples of performance that suit each person's responsibility. Include project outcome, customer feedback, and any metrics relevant to their role.
- Check past documents to see previous reviews, goals, and development plans. It'll help you track progress and identify patterns in employees. If someone constantly struggles with time management, you may need to address this directly.
- Choose a quiet time when both you and the employee can focus.
3. Have productive review conversations.
The review meeting sets the tone for the employee's future performance. It calls out their underperformance and lays out a new action plan to do better, so it's important that you make it as productive as possible. How?
- Start with their perspective.
- Be specific about areas of improvement.
- Give positive feedback, too— you're not there to talk about areas that need improvement alone.
- Talk to them about their plans to improve— what do they think they need to do to be better?
4. Follow through on Review Outcomes
Reviews will only work when they lead to action. Use ManyRequests templates to record all discussions, agreements, and next steps.
Records of reviews create a paper trail that can help you track their progress later on. The best way to do this is to schedule regular check-ins— don't wait for the next formal review to discuss progress with them.
How To Use ManyRequests' Employee Performance Review Template.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use the employee performance review template:
- Download the review template.
- Fill out all basic information (Employee name, role, review period, review type.)
- Rate performance metrics
- Document employees' achievement
- Set new goals.
- Get signatures.
- Schedule follow-ups with employees.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should we conduct performance reviews?
Conduct formal reviews at least annually, with quarterly check-ins for progress updates. New employees need more frequent reviews, so you may use the 30-60-90-day template.
What metrics should we track in reviews?
Track metrics that directly relate to job success. For salespeople, measure sales numbers and customer satisfaction. For developers, track code quality and project completion rates.
How do we handle remote employee reviews?
- Use video calls for remote reviews to maintain a personal connection.
- Share review documents beforehand so employees can prepare.
Conclusion
Performance reviews work best when you treat them as ongoing conversations about your employee's growth and success. These templates provide structure for those conversations. They help you document and track their progress.
You can track employees' progress, get reviews from clients about their communication skills, and oversee their goals with ManyRequests project management software. Sign up for a 7-day free trial (no credit card needed) to see how it works.
