Performance reviews are like cats on the wall. The results can go either way – motivate and encourage employees to perform well in the future or squash down their morale and decrease employee engagement. It all depends on how the reviews are conducted and what’s discussed. Having a set performance review template will help managers clarify the discussion and prevent them from missing out on vital points that create positivity around reviews.
Here are some really interesting stats about traditional performance review processes that should bring you to reality.
All these stats tell us something clearly – it is time we invested in an effective employee performance review template worth all the efforts the HR team, the managers, and the employees make in going through the process multiple times a year.
Employee review templates are pre-defined structures that help you when you conduct any review meeting or session. Having a template is useful in multiple ways. It helps you cover everything intended for the session and allows for healthy back-and-forth communication.
An employee performance review template also ensures that you use the session for its intended purpose and your specific goals and pointers to take back after the discussion.
Below are six employee review templates that may help curate your own model for the next review sessions. Try conducting a session randomly with such a structured template and see the difference in their effectiveness.
What | Why | |
Quarterly performance reviews are also called performance snapshots and are conducted once every quarter to highlight short-term goals and make short action plans. | A quarterly performance review template is created to ensure the review sessions are focused and concentrate only on pre-decided, short-term goals and action plans. Managers specifically prevent talking about broad or long-term goals/requirements here. |
This performance review template usually ends up making plans for the next quarter. The session should include a rough game plan for the next 90 days, and identify ways of achieving these goals. The manager should ask the employee for the support they need to achieve the goals intended and note these down.
What | Why | |
Mid-year employee performance reviews are conducted every six months and done to discuss larger goals, challenges, achievements, and progress in the last half a year. | A mid-year performance review template works when the team cannot find the bandwidth to do quarterly reviews but find annual reviews too inconsistent. This is a space to identify performance patterns and problem areas and correct them for the second half of the financial year. |
Managers should intend on making slightly more elaborate goal(s) since this is a twice-a-year session. Make sure you use techniques like OKR along with this performance review template to follow through on these goals and monitor their progress over the next six months. The managers may ask for a one-on-one session before the next review meeting if they feel the employees are straying away from their intended goals and requirements.
What | Why | |
An annual performance review template is not often preferred these days, just because the gap between two such sessions is 12 months, and follow-ups get missed or ignored. This review happens once a year and is pretty detailed and long. | An annual employee performance review template works when the organization and the employees have clear-cut goals in mind and achieving these goals is going to take the whole year. So it may not make sense to meet multiple times a year for a review. |
The managers and the employee sit together to chart a detailed goal plan for the next year, and since this is a once-a-year process, setting the right goal and making sure it aligns with the organizational goals is essential. This template for employee evaluation should also include the possible support the employee may need over the year to achieve these goals.
What | Why | |
G-Goals O-Obstacles O-Opportunities D-Decisions This employee performance review template talks about everything that affected employee performance in the last period and is a great comprehensive template to follow. | A GOOD performance review template will answer many vital questions for the employees and the managers, including – what were the obstacles faced, what kind of opportunities the employees had, the decisions that had to be taken on either side with explanations, and how all these helped or prevented achieving goals. |
A GOOD performance review template is flexible in a way that it can be conducted quarterly, mid-yearly, or yearly and still work. Future plans include identifying goals for the next review period and resolving past obstacles.
What | Why |
The self-assessment performance review template helps understand employee performance and behavior from the employee’s own perspective. | This will help get a clearer idea of who the employee is, what they want in terms of workplace expectations, and what may be holding them back. |
Use the performance review template to identify ways of improving employee performance, identify barriers that may have prevented the employee from achieving goals in the past. Rework on problem areas and talk about how the management can support the employee for the next review period.
What | Why |
This is a great performance review template for managers. This asks for feedback and reviews about the manager’s performance from employees and is usually anonymously shared. | A manager needs to honestly know how they have been as a leader and what they can do to match employee expectations on them. |
This performance review template should be the basis for discussion when the managers go through performance reviews. This will provide an honest opinion on the past performance as a leader and identify areas of improvement.
Technology can help create a customized and effective performance review template for your workplace. Do remember that there is no one-size-fits-all here. Some templates may work for certain kinds of industries and teams better than others.
The first step is to identify which of these employee review templates work for you and then build them appropriately. PossibleWorks specializes in creating PMS tools that not only create the perfect template for you but also monitor progress, identify problem areas, and fine-tune the process until you see these review sessions opening up a plethora of opportunities to both the employees and the management.
Our tools do everything, from creating OKRs, monitoring them, building a 360-degree feedback and communication culture, and improving employee engagement.
Get in touch with us to find out the perfect performance review template for your team and design them for maximum effectiveness.
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