What is the Performance Review template?
Take a look at the past month, quarter, or year with each of your employees to discuss their growth and achievements. Prepare all topics you would like to address in advance and back them up with examples. Conduct the meeting by involving your employee in the performance review process and by asking them to self-evaluate themselves.
Divide the performance review meeting into three parts:
- Preparation — Write down all the topics you want to touch upon and discuss. Provide as many examples of situations as possible when something happened. Ensure it’s a two-way conversation.
- Evaluation — Remind yourself about the objectives you set in the last performance review meeting and measure the outcomes with tangible metrics. Check in with the employee to see if they are happy with their successes and what were the challenges they faced.
- Focus on the future — Ask your employee in which areas they want to develop and which skills they want to improve. Note down action points that both of you (employee and manager) must fulfill.
What are the benefits of the Performance Review template?
Thanks to the Performance Review template, you can:
- Help your employees recognize how important their role is in the company.
- See a clear professional path your employees can follow.
- Spot the areas where your coworkers improved and award them for their accomplishments in the form of bonuses or salary increase.
- Challenge your team members to do a self-assessment exercise.
- Communicate clearly the expectations from a specific role and position.
How to use the Performance Review template in a few steps?
- Open the template or add it to an already created whiteboard.
- Define the primary purpose of the meeting to know if the conversation will be about employee’s future opportunities or specific skills they would like to master. Write down on sticky notes all topics you want to cover. Ask the employee to do the same.
- Move to the evaluation section and review the objectives for the recent timeframe. Remember, the conversation may cover just the last quarter or even the entire year. Note each topic on a separate sticky note to discuss.
- Analyze the outcomes of the employee’s performance by asking if they’ve reached their goals, if they could measure them, and what their conclusions are. Define tangible metrics before the meeting to easier assess the results (for instance, on a scale from 1-5, where 1 means poor and 5 signifies outstanding).
- Discuss the employee’s successes and note down all their achievements and positive attitudes. Provide specific examples of situations where they exceeded your expectations and showed seniority. Ask the employee to do this part of the exercise the same way.
- Signal the things that didn’t go according to the plan and discuss what isn’t working as well as expected. Identify blockers, define what the employee could do better, and discuss solutions. Ask the employee to write down the challenges that caused them trouble.
- Establish the employee’s areas of growth and discuss the direction in which they would like to go. Discuss their career ambitions, sense of fulfillment, or any other important aspects for their development and satisfaction.
- Create an action plan both for the employee and for you (as the manager). Use sticky notes to write down specific steps you will take in a timeframe you agreed to. Use the SMART Goals template to mark your objectives there.
- Get back to the Performance Review template whenever you want to check in or conduct a new evaluation.