Best Employee Performance Review Template & Tips to Motivate the Workforce

You can find many employee performance review templates on the web. It's challenging to determine which one of those is the best, especially if we consider that each business is different and that we can measure performance in diverse ways. Nevertheless, these reviews allow you to know how to achieve a productivity improvement in the long term.

The best employee review template is the one that focuses on the specific areas where you think that a determined part of the workforce is underperforming. In addition, there are diverse performance evaluation criteria to consider, such as the person's goals or the obstacles they've been facing to achieve them. We dive deep into these factors later on in the article.

Either way, here we’ll include two employee performance review samples you can take into account if you'd like to have a place to start. You will also find a few tips you can use to keep your employees motivated and improve their mood, efficiency, and productivity simultaneously.

Employee Performance Review Samples

One of the following employee performance review templates should be helpful for you based on your employee performance review goals. Once you've determined the elements that you'd like to analyze, it will be easier for you to figure out the questions you'll ask during the review.

In the meantime, you can get some inspiration from the following samples. Keep in mind that you should follow certain performance review guidelines before starting the process. Both of the templates included here are basic, so you can complete them with more information as you need.

1.   G.O.O.D Performance Review

We recommend using this employee performance review template in a one-on-one conversation, so it’s important to practice good communication skills in management. It is focused on a person’s skills due to the "G.O.O.D" acronym: Goals, Obstacles, Opportunities, and Decisions.

As you can see, you have four different areas, and each one allows you to make diverse questions that will let you find potential solutions for the problem while also giving you a better insight into that's specific employee's skills.

• The "Goals" section can compile elements like long-term, and short-term goals agreed between the company and the employee, how much they have done towards accomplishing those goals, and so on.

• The "Obstacles" section has easier questions. Here you can consider asking them what's causing them not to be able to pursue those goals and why. You can also tell them the problems that you've noticed. Then, you can ask them what they are willing to do to solve these inconveniences. You can also propose solutions to the problem.

• The “Opportunities” section focuses on the employee’s potential. Here you can ask them about their dreams, skills they think that go unnoticed, and what you can do to make the workplace a more suitable place for them.

• The "Decisions" are all about the actions that both parties will take moving forward. "What will both of you do next time you have to face these problems?" is a good question to contemplate, for instance.

2.   Basic Employee Performance Review Template

This template is similar to the previous one, but it's a bit easier to manage as every point is specific. It has three areas.

The first area is the one you can see below. It has four points, being “4” or “outstanding” the highest and “1” or “unacceptable” the lowest.  Below each point, you can leave a blank space where you can mark your comments based on your perception of the employee. Remember to be respectful at all times during the employee performance review process.

The second areas have seven skills that, again, you can evaluate by four points. Besides every skill, you'll find a blank space to put a comment based on the employee's performance regarding that specific ability. Again, you can follow the example below, or you can modify the skills based on your preferences or organization.

The last area is dedicated to two elements already discussed in the previous template: strengths and weaknesses. You can choose not to include them as the skills written above are a good compilation of everything you need to know about an employee’s performance. However, please keep in mind that evaluation team members are more than what a piece of paper says.

Employee performance review best practices

After an employee performance review, many of your employees may feel less motivated than usual, and that’s completely normal. Here we have a few employee motivation techniques you can use to boost their morale and encourage them to give their best.

• Keep in mind that, although you're evaluating the employee, a performance review is a two-way conversation. Invite the personnel to engage in the process so each party can contribute something different to the conversation. Employees should be as invested as the company for their preparation.

• Focus the performance review in the long term. It's impossible to change the past, so you should use the information acquired through these techniques to help them know how to shape their future. Reflecting on the past is a good thing as it allows us to learn from our mistakes, but we can only move towards the future.

• Make this a transparent process. If you’d like to make your employees more engaged in the process, try to make them involved in the preparation.

• Last but not least, please try to keep this process as objective as possible. Subjective performance reviews don’t have a place in a world where we’re constantly surrounded by tons of data – which is augmenting on a daily basis. You can back up yourself with different data, such as goal progress reports or recognitions given recently.

Conclusion

As you can see, an employee performance review isn’t complicated to manage. However, it should be a thorough-planned process as it focuses on long-term goals. Organizations that excel in performance reviews and conduct them more often (quarterly or monthly, for instance) will experience performance and productivity improvements more often than companies that make them once per year.