This slideshare offers the pros and cons of 17 different performance review templates.

1. 17 Performance
Review Templates to
Motivate Employees

2. After reflecting on
the past, you and
your employee
need to look
toward the future.
Managers need to
act as coaches, not
judges. You’re on
the same team,
after all.
Reflection is the
standard for most
performance
reviews. Take the
time to look back
on behaviors and
accomplishments.
If you want your
performance review
to really stick with
employees, it must
be a two-way
conversation, with
both sides
contributing.
Must haves for a superhuman
performance review:
Reflection Coaching
Clear Next
Steps
Discussion

3. Start saving the world (or employee
performance, at least) with these
17 performance review templates:

4. One-Page Performance Review
This quick, straightforward performance
review template has the added bonus of a
defined rating scale.
It leaves very little room for additional
information and doesn’t encourage discussing
the results with the employee.
PRO:
CON:
1.
Intended to be a fair and balanced assessment of an employee’s
performance, this template is a simple, one-page review.

5. Essay Performance Review
This essay evaluation allows for additional
context and detail. It also has sections for both
the employee and the manager to complete.
It will take longer to complete than a scored
evaluation.
PRO:
CON:
2.
In this review, the manager prepares a written statement about the
employee that evaluates the employee’s job performance and courses of
actions to improve

6. Self-Assessment
3.
Use a self-assessment to instill reflective habits in employees. Make sure
additional peers and managers are consulted, too, for the most accurate
view of performance.
Encourages employee involvement,
reflection, and responsibility.
A self-assessment has potential for
dishonest, bias responses.
PRO:
CON:

7. Numeric Scale Review
4.
Allows for quick completion and easy
comparison of peers.
A numeric scale doesn’t allow for
“grey” areas or relevant context.
PRO:
CON:
A numeric scale uses numbers to represent employee performance.

8. Descriptive Scale Review
This is essentially the same as a numeric scale performance review, except
it doesn’t use numbers. Some organizations may prefer the descriptive
scale format.
5.
This template is more descriptive than a
typical numeric scale review, so answers
are more meaningful and precise.
Occasionally, the descriptions will be so in-
depth that they may not be relevant to a
specific employee.
PRO:
CON:

9. Narrative Review
6.
A narrative performance review does
not have much structure, so it allows
for deeper conversation.
PRO:
CON: This can make it difficult to compare
multiple employees.
Allows a manager and an employee to tell a story together regarding
performance.

10. Peer Review
7.
It’s a great idea to include peers in the
performance review process – after all, they
spend so much time working with the
employee. This peer review template is easy
to use.
PRO:
CON: This template lacks a space for peer
comments.
A process by which peers are reviewed by another in the same field/area
of work.

11. 360 Performance Review
8.
A 360 degree review is a great addition to any
performance strategy: the entirety of an
employee’s actions are visible, not just what the
manager witnesses.
The scale in this particular template may be
difficult for some employees to accurately judge.
PRO:
CON:
Employee performance review by which peers, subordinates, co-workers,
and managers anonymously rate the employee

12. Statement-Agreement Review
A statement agreement performance review is similar to a scaled review,
but employees are rated on more complex concepts (not just general
behaviors).
9.
These templates contain the elements of
objectivity that result in correct presentation of
employee performance during a certain time
period.
PRO:
CON:
Does not provide in-depth information of
the employee performance during a certain
time period.

13. Performance Agreement Plan
10.
Use this performance agreement template before
a performance cycle to align expectations, then
bring it back to see how well those expectations
were executed.
This particular template is fairly general.
PRO:
CON:
Defines accountability for specific personal and organizational goals. The
overall goal is to come to an agreement that supports your organization’s
strategy and the employee’s personal goals.

14. Job Responsibilities Review
The foundation of a job responsibilities review is employee goals and job
description.
11.
This template makes it easy for employees to
know what they will be evaluated on. It also allows
for managers to leave comments on their ratings.
Because this template strives for objectivity, it is
rigid, meaning it does not offer much
differentiation between employees.
PRO:
CON:

15. Assessment of Potential
12.
This type of performance review solicits comments from
the employee and several managers.
Templates like this can often reek of favoritism.
PRO:
CON:
Use an assessment of performance potential when you’re trying to identify
high potential employees or those who warrant promotions.

16. Performance Review for Manual Work
Those who do manual labor have slightly different performance criteria
than those who work in an office. This performance review template
includes room for employees’ and managers’ comments.
13.
Includes great action-planning questions.
There is less structure to this template as it
allows for so many comments.
PRO:
CON:

17. Paired Performance Reviews
In a paired performance review, both managers and employees fill out
mirrored reviews, then meet to discuss the answers.
14.
Most paired performance reviews offer a variety of
question types, including scaled, essay, and progress
questions.
Potential for disagreement or disparity between manager’s
answers and the employee’s.
PRO:
CON:

18. Mid-Year Performance Review
15.
This template for a mid-year performance check
is a great way to encourage manager-employee
discussion.
There’s not much room to record and organize
the discussion.
PRO:
CON:
Conducting helpful and productive mid year review discussions is a
fundamental way in which managers can support a culture of on-going
feedback and recognition, not to mention achieving better results

19. GOOD Performance Review
16.
This template encourages conversation,
reflection, and future planning.
It doesn’t include metrics by which to measure
and/or compare employees (not that we
encourage that, anyway).
PRO:
CON:
This is Quantum Workplace’s favorite template: It includes discussion of
Goals, Obstacles, Opportunities, and Decisions.

20. Group Evaluation
17.
Use this group performance review template if you’re looking to evaluate
performance for a team or department: You calculate individual scores,
then average them together to find an overall score.
Invites discussion and fosters differing opinions.
Extremely high or low performing individuals
could skew the results.
PRO:
CON:

21. While improving the performance review is a great place to
start, go a step further and consider eliminating the annual
performance review all together by downloading our ebook:
10 steps for ditching the annual review