Employee Evaluation Forms [+Free Performance Review Templates]

Performance reviews are a critical component for anyone in the workforce. This is a guide to evaluating employees and preparing performance review templates.

Employee performance review templates are a great way for employers to evaluate employees. The “free employee performance review template word” is a free tool that helps employees create their own forms.

An employee assessment form simplifies the performance management process by providing a starting point. There is no one-size-fits-all employee assessment form for every company; criteria such as your industry, employment type, job level, and preferred rating systems should all be considered. To assist you, we’ve put up a customisable template that you may use.

Employee Evaluation Form Template for Free

Our Employee Evaluation Form Template for Free is meant to be a guide for items you may want to include in your performance reviews, or you can use it as is for hourly employees. It is a best practice to evaluate an employee not just on their job performance, but also on their company culture fit and organizational “competencies.”

The template is available in two formats: Word Doc and PDF.

What Are Employee Evaluation Forms and How Do They Work?

Forms for employee assessments, also known as performance review forms, are part of a performance management process that begins with your company’s goal-setting. To begin, you (the employer) must determine what you want the organization to achieve on a regular basis, such as once a year.

Then, at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, and yearly), you check in to see how each employee is progressing toward these objectives. Employee assessment forms aid in the collection of performance data. Read our article on the performance management process for additional information, which covers all of the stages that must be taken, including performing staff evaluations.

Ask yourself these three considerations before picking which employee assessment form or performance review template to use:

• Who is doing the evaluation? Managers? Employees? Peers?
• What exactly are we assessing? What are your objectives? What are your values? Competencies?
• What type of grading system should we use? Three-point? Five-point? Yes/no? Faces with grins?

Templates for Employee Evaluation Forms

Employee assessment forms for performance management come in a variety of styles and sizes to meet the types of workers you have and the job they do. To offer you some alternatives, we’ve compiled a list of job-specific templates that you can download for hourly and salaried staff, as well as occupations like IT, admin, food servers, and managers.

Here are some examples of several types of performance evaluation templates:

Forms for evaluating hourly employees

Hourly employee reviews should be simple to use and understand. They should concentrate on the job objectives or any key performance indicators (KPIs), as well as fundamental work efforts. In addition to outcomes and behaviors, they may involve assessing workers on timeliness and attendance.

For your employee performance evaluations, here are three distinct samples of hourly employee assessment forms to utilize. Take notice of the various scoring methods in use, as well as how different sorts of workers are assessed based on various factors.

By clicking the link and downloading a copy of the form, you may download and personalize each of these employee evaluation forms.

Homebase, a timekeeping company, offers two more hourly performance evaluation forms on its website. After 30 days, one may be utilized for new employees to check in. It incorporates praise into its timekeeping mechanism as well. Homebase is an Excellent alternative for anybody that needs to check attendance as part of their hourly employee performance management process.

Pay a visit to Homebase

Carol Wood, Homebase’s People Operations Director, informed us about several innovative tools that help employees perform better.

At the conclusion of each shift, Homebase’s shout-out function allows peers and managers to publicly applaud their staff. It’s a fantastic way to let everyone on the team know when someone goes above and beyond!

— Carol Wood, Homebase’s People Operations Director

Employee Appraisal Forms for Salaried Employees

When appraising salaried employees, you may wish to include more categories or provide more space for comments. You may also mention how the person performed in terms of their KRAs or business values. Is he or she a team player? Are they effective in their jobs?

You could also want paid employees to do a self-evaluation. Two samples of review forms for salaried staff are shown below.

Management Evaluation Forms

Management performance appraisals should concentrate on areas of their work that need leadership, such as communication and mentoring, as well as quantifiable outcomes, such as team productivity, units generated, or Departmental objectives. They’re usually lengthier, with more space for comments and maybe peer criticism.

While our performance review template is a great place to start, if you’re also going to be rating team or Department supervisors, you may want to add extra assessment criteria to your performance evaluations to make them more successful.

Here are five performance components to include in a manager’s performance review assessment form, for example:

1. Team Performance – Is the team doing well, or do certain members need to work on their skills? (Here, the management has to be held accountable.)
2. Team Member Training/Coaching – Is the manager preparing his or her team for success? Is the manager acting as a coach for the team’s development?
3. Has the management put in place a structure to ensure that the team communicates and that work is completed efficiently? Have there been a lot of misunderstandings or dropped balls among the team members?
4. Corporate Values – How well does the manager reflect the company culture? Do you think the manager is doing a good job of instilling cultural values in his or her team?
5. Is the manager creating a positive example for the team by leading by example? Do they have the respect and confidence of their coworkers?

Here are three distinct types of performance evaluation forms for various management positions.

After you’ve completed your evaluations, you can save salaried employee reviews, monitor increases and bonuses, and pay out performance-based awards using HR and payroll software like Gusto. Gusto is available for a free 30-day trial.

Gusto is a great place to visit.

Forms for Executive 360-Reviews

A conventional management review that focuses on objectives and KRAs may be used to assess executive performance. However, as company leaders, it’s generally beneficial to get input from clients, colleagues, internal customers, and direct subordinates. This is because CEOs are usually quite good at getting things done, but they aren’t necessarily the greatest at managing people.

An assessment form for a 360-degree review may be found here.

You’ll also want to make sure that leaders support and communicate your Values of the Company to the divisions and teams they supervise. When this happens, a 360-degree performance assessment may be more appropriate.

Chris Beyers, CEO of Formstack, offers some thoughts on performance evaluations.

[Employee assessments] serve a crucial role, even if they aren’t the most engaging component of the organization. Workflow automation helps our HR staff keep their sanity with over 100 workers across several states.

Each employee assessment form is created and managed by our talent team using our form-builder technology. Employees fill out an online form to submit their self-evaluation, which is then instantly sent to their manager for assessment and comments. The reviews are immediately forwarded to HR for approval after management approval.

— Chris Byers, Formstack’s CEO

Who Should Have Performance Reviews?

Performance evaluations are appropriate for every business, but the time and style of the forms may vary depending on your culture or sector. Formal performance evaluations, such as those conducted yearly or regularly in regulated businesses where performance measures such as safety or accuracy are crucial, are frequently the best option.

Small organizations may opt to do self-reviews or conduct them more regularly in order to reward top-performing employees with monthly or quarterly bonuses. Others may prefer a brief evaluation form that may be completed by email reply.

Some businesses choose a long-form or 360-feedback performance evaluation tool, which enables peers to provide praise and observations.

The sort of evaluation you utilize should be appropriate for your sector and company culture. Here are a few things to think about depending on your industry:

• Traditional top-down performance review forms that score workers on KRAs, objectives, or performance indicators each year may be appropriate for Regulated Industries.
• More frequent performance assessments that concentrate on innovation and business success while also promoting an entrepreneurial culture may be beneficial to startups; they may incorporate both business results and values. They could opt to include self-evaluation or peer input.
• 360-feedback may be used by consulting companies and others in the customer service industry to get information from an employee’s clients and customers.
• Retail and food service companies with a large number of entry-level workers may choose to use a short form or a performance evaluation app to get just-in-time feedback.

“Turnover is greater for hourly workers, and some organizations don’t want to bother their employees with the time-consuming task of performance monitoring,” Wood said. In reality, from the employee’s perspective, all they want to know is, “What is my raise?” Managers may have the inclination to put every good and complaint on the employee’s assessment form throughout the year, but I prefer a shorter version so they can complete the review faster and more efficiently.”

Features of the Evaluation Form

Most performance assessments include a rating scale in addition to the employee’s name and the review time period on the employee evaluation form. Here are some examples of rating scales you might use. To utilize the scale you wish, most templates can be adjusted with a simple cut and paste.

Scales for evaluating employees

You might, for example, use a yes/no scale to determine whether or not workers completed their goals/objectives. Most forms, however, include a grading system, such as the ones illustrated below. Some businesses don’t use a scale at all, opting instead to give space for comments and criticism.

Below are some examples of employee-rating scales that are depicted and described:

A Three-Point Scale for Employee Evaluations

When you can quickly tell what you’re rating, a three-point scale is the ideal option. In general, 1 equals below expectations, 2 equals meets expectations, and 3 equals beyond expectations. Another basic rating system is 1 for terrible, 2 for OK, and 3 for Excellent. However, because it’s your review form, you may use whatever labels you like, including smiling faces if that’s appropriate for your culture.

Smiley faces were used to create a three-point evaluation.

Employee Evaluations on a 4-Point Scale

A four-point scale is preferred by certain businesses. There are a few options for doing this. One way is to have just one rating that falls short of expectations, with the other three ratings used to separate ordinary performance from the top tier. The following are examples of possible ratings:

1. Needs to be improved.
2. Average
3. Good
4. Excellent

Another approach to utilize a four-point scale is to let raters pick between Excellent and terrible ratings, with no in-between options. For instance, the review scores may be as follows:

1. Significantly Average or Below Average
2. Average or Below Average
3. Average to Above Average
4. Excellent

Have you noticed that there isn’t a choice for average? This is done on purpose to help people who are grading workers distinguish between those who are above and those who are below the job’s expectations.

Employee Evaluations on a 5-Point Scale

A five-point scale is probably the most common. It gives managers a chance to choose from a range of rating options. The problem is that many managers prefer not to distinguish between average and Average to Above Average performance, and everyone on the team ends up getting rated a three out of five.

Notice, on the first example below, how the company has chosen to have only one Average or Below Average rating, with all the remainder of the ratings focused on average or above. That makes sense, as most businesses terminate below-average performers long before they get to a year-end performance review cycle.

Lattice’s example of a five-point scale

The second example below displays a five-star rating system. For those who rate items or services online, this is all too familiar. This sample is used to offer client feedback on staff and may be all that is required for a service sector hourly workforce.

For a corporation requesting consumer feedback on its employees, an example of a five-point (star) rating scale is shown. Dallas Maids is the source of this information.

Employee Evaluations on a Ten-Point Scale

A 10-point scale merely allows people who are rating to discern each person’s performance more easily. However, if you aren’t utilizing an online system, they may not be the ideal solution since they take extra labor to tally the points. Furthermore, since there is no clear description of what each figure represents, it may be difficult to explain to an employee why they received a seven rather than an eight.

The following is an example of a 10-point rating. They supply terms to assist correlate the 10-point rating system with a three-point explanation, as you can see.

AssessTeam’s example of a 10-point scale

Here’s an example of how CareerLark handles performance evaluations using their own bespoke forms that combine numerous rating scales into a single document.

CareerLark’s example of a micro-review/self-review

CareerLark’s standard manager evaluation

What Should an Employee Review Form Contain?

Here’s what to add whether you’re using one of the templates above or want to make your own employee review form based on the samples we’ve supplied. At the absolute least, you’ll need personnel information, something to assess, and Signatures.

Information on Employees

Basic information about the work, the individual, the time range, and the person doing the evaluation should be provided on each form. The following are examples of fields to include at the top of the form:

• Position Title:
• Department
• Name of the Supervisor
• Name of the Employee
• Review Start Date

You may decide to rename these elements or add new things such as review time period (monthly, quarterly, yearly), or reviewer connection to the form templates above (peer, manager, customer).

Steps to Follow

In addition, a good performance review is going to follow up with a section that allows the manager and the employee to plan Steps to Follow. That might include things like goals and KRAs, or it may be words to document the performance improvement needed. It might also include goals and metrics for the next review period, as we added in our template.

Next Performance Review Goals: 1. 2. 3. Comments:

Signatures

Make sure you capture Signatures in your review form. That way, if you’re ever on the wrong end of an employment lawsuit, you can prove that reviews were done and feedback was provided. This is especially important if the employee is Average or Below Average and you ultimately end up letting them go.

Make sure your review form captures signatures. That way, if you’re ever sued for discrimination, you’ll be able to show that you conducted evaluations and offered criticism. This is particularly crucial if the employee is below average and you must let them leave.

Sections that are optional

There are many areas you may want to include in your performance review, since it is one of the few times a year when workers and managers sit down and discuss the employee’s job, including documentation. Competencies, values, and development areas are examples of stuff you might include.

Competencies for the Job

Leadership or car repair skills are examples of competencies, or job-related talents. They may also be quite codified, for example, if you adopt a competence model. Alternatively, they might be talents essential to your business, such as repair, cake-frosting, marketing, or electrical expertise.

Values of the Company

Beliefs should be closely related to your company’s cultural expectations or fundamental values. Here are a few instances.

• Teamwork/Cooperation/Collaboration Skills
• Excellence/Quality
• Customer-Friendliness/Service
• Dependability and Reliability
• Assurance of Quality and Security

Read our post on Core Value Statements for additional examples of core values.

Developmental Opportunities

Some employee evaluation forms include a section in which the employee’s performance needs to be improved or what abilities he or she needs to gain. If the workers’ performance falls short of expectations, you may want to attach a second form with a performance improvement plan.

• In what areas does the employee need further training?
• Is there any extra training that the employee requires?

Alternatives to Using a Template for a Performance Review

Manually drafting performance reviews or utilizing an employee assessment form template are both viable solutions. In most circumstances, these solutions may save you money by lowering the amount of time managers and staff spend doing performance evaluations. They also save time for HR by handling all paperwork and reporting. Here are three possibilities for employee evaluations that you may want to examine.

Make use of online software.

Performance management solutions are available from several HR/payroll suppliers. Furthermore, there is a whole category of performance management software that can be integrated into your company operations, beginning with goal formulation and ending with monitoring employee evaluations, on almost any cycle you desire.

An example of all of Zoho People’s performance management menu choices.

Make use of an app

New vendors have recently released performance review applications that enable managers and workers to keep track of their performance while on the road. Here’s an example of a platform called Engagedly, which uses a dashboard to monitor the whole performance review process and provides different employee assessment rating choices so that managers and workers can see performance statistics on the go.

Engagedly, for example, has a thorough rating and monitoring system. Engagedly is the source of this information.

Real-Time Praise and Recognition

Some businesses have completely abandoned formal performance evaluations. They’ve ditched the yearly review in favor of more regular one-on-one sessions with managers and peer input. Some companies have acquired applications that enable coworkers to compliment employees or award badges or points in order to encourage them to improve their performance. According to Gallup research, Millennials desire more feedback in particular, however just 17% strongly think that they get relevant feedback on a regular basis.

Read our post on employee recognition ideas from the experts for more praise and recognition ideas.

Throughout my career, I’ve seen firsthand how the power of dialogue can alter a company’s culture and its Conclusion; a motivated, engaged staff is the most valuable asset a company can have. The benefit of employing continuous performance management software is that we can actually observe those interactions and measure the effect they’ve had on employee retention, organizational agility, and leadership pipeline development.

— Diane Strohfus, BetterWorks’ Chief Human Resource Officer

Most Commonly Asked Questions (FAQs)

Answers to frequently asked questions concerning employee assessments are provided here.

Is there any danger in doing employee evaluations?

Yes, supervisors who aren’t adequately educated and who capture discriminatory statements on an employee evaluation form may be placing your company at danger. This may be avoided in three ways.

1. Managers should be trained on how to conduct evaluations, including what not to say and how to fill out a review form.
2. Before the evaluation forms are finished, make sure you or someone from HR goes through them to make sure there are no improper remarks on them. This is something that certain performance management tools may help you with.
3. On your assessment form, you may just utilize rating scales, leaving no place for written remarks. This, on the other hand, isn’t always helpful to the employee because it doesn’t specify what they need to do differently to improve.

What’s the difference between a performance assessment and an employee review?

Annual reviews, quarterly performance evaluations, and 90-day reviews are just a few kinds of performance reviews. They all have one thing in common: they’re all meant to examine and evaluate an employee’s performance at work. To put it another way, employee reviews and performance assessments are almost identical. Read our whole post on performance management to discover more.

Is it necessary for workers to have objectives in order to be evaluated on their performance?

Giving staff a SMART objective to aim toward or KRAs might help them concentrate their performance. Employees might be judged only on their values, such as kindness, collaboration, quickness, and correctness. However, if you don’t tell the employee what the aim is in each of these areas, it will be more difficult for them to attain it.

If you desire 98 percent accuracy but don’t make it a goal for your personnel, they could think 90 percent is good enough. The greatest method to express your specific expectations is to set quantifiable targets.

Conclusion

Evaluations of employees do not have to be complicated. They need thinking and forethought as to what to assess, how frequently to measure it, and how to distinguish between excellent and bad performance. That’s when having a template for an employee assessment form comes in handy. When used as part of performance management, performance evaluations may offer your staff with the information they need to understand how they’re performing.

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