Performance reviews can help you evaluate your employees’ attitude, skills and goals and whether they align with your business or not.
If done right, an effective performance review can lead to incredible, positive changes in your employees, and leave them inspired to do even more and better than before.
In this article, we’ll show you 25 performance review examples to get you confident and in the perfect position to conduct appraisals and evaluations.
We’ve also included expert tips and phrases to use to ensure successful outcomes and help your employees become the best version of themselves.
Ready to create a visual performance review? Use our professional document creator to build engaging appraisal and evaluation forms that employees take seriously.
Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit performance review templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:
A performance review is a meeting between an employee and manager, team lead or HR manager, where they evaluate and discuss past performance, areas of success, areas to improve and future steps to take to ensure success at the company or business.
Performance reviews are also commonly known as performance appraisals, employee evaluations and performance evaluations.
Depending on company policy, performance reviews or employee evaluations can take place monthly, quarterly, yearly or whenever HR sees fit. Thus, they can also be called quarterly employee evaluations, yearly performance reviews and so forth.
A performance review generally includes a few different phases:
Let’s look at some examples and templates of performance reviews to help you create your own appraisal document.
When you use a professional document creator, you can create a visual and impactful performance review that will help your employee see exactly where they stand in the company.
You can use diagrams, graphs and other data visualization tools to help them see how they’ve been doing, their successes, shortcomings and more at a glance.
Below you’ll find 25 performance review examples and templates that can be fully customized and branded to fit your company’s needs to have a successful performance review this quarter.
Find one you like below, be inspired by our design tips and start customizing it immediately!
This performance review template is great for visualizing progress. It's ideal for those in a temporary or basic position, as it's easy to understand at a glance and not very complex.
To make your feedback helpful and easily understood, you can use a rating system of 1-5 to mark evaluation standards from poor to excellent.
Design tip: Use color coding for your rating system to help employees understand their performance at a glance.
Create your own performance review in minutes! Try It For FreeFor example, you can use blue for “excellent”, pink for “mediocre” and pastel orange for “needs improvement”.
You may want to try to avoid harsh colors like bright red as it may be too intense and cause discomfort for employees. Try using one of Visme’s pastel color palettes, as seen in the image above, to instill calm.
KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are crucial for tracking success in a business’ endeavors.
This KPI performance review template can help you and your team measure and visualize the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of a project or task at hand.
This template is fully customizable, as are all of our performance review example templates, and you can add your own branded content to it.
Edit the text surrounding the KPI, the target and the actual outcome to make it your own and inspire your team by visualizing their hard work that has come to fruition.
Everyone needs to be evaluated and this doesn’t exclude team leaders.You can review your team leads and managers with this performance review template.
Show them their strengths and weaknesses by scoring them on administration, communication, dependability and more.
Just click on the text boxes to write a description of their work and add in accurate details to complete this performance review template.
This customer service employee evaluation template is perfect for highlighting your employee’s greatest achievements and giving quick, yet efficient ratings for each task.
In this customer service performance review template, you can see four tasks Jacqueline has accomplished and the quality of her work listed out via the color coding of a star icon next to that task.
You can customize these vectors and add as many or as few tasks as you want on this employee appraisal template. Change out the text and font to match the tasks at hand and then add your employee profile image at the top left.
Design tip: Have a designated, high contrasted area on your performance review document where you list out strengths and areas that need improvement.
Create your own performance review in minutes! Try It For FreeYou’ll want your employee to quickly be able to see the areas of work you’re proud of them for and the places they could still develop.
To make this process easy on both of you, add a shape to your document and make it a color that contrasts well with the background, such as blue on white, as you can see in the image above.
Then, use another high contrast color for the font. In my case, I used white. This will make your employee performance review document look sleek and professional.
Sometimes, to get a better insight into how your company’s performance is going, you can allow for self-evaluations.
In this self-evaluation performance template, you’ll see there are four questions that employees can answer via a percentage rating, based on their true opinions.
This is a great way to assess employee performance self-worth, as they might feel more comfortable being honest when they get to answer on paper rather than in person and you’ll be able to tackle any problems head-on.
Interns always benefit from a thorough description of their performance at your company or business and they can be incredibly helpful in their career growth.
What better way to show them their progress than with this internship performance template?
Display their work achievement, knowledge and skills by using cool data visuals and bright colors in this performance review.
Customize the text in the dedicated comment sections, work ethics sections and more to make it personal for your intern.
If you’re looking for a sleek, minimal and professional performance review template, then try this one out. Take advantage of the 8 pre-written performance indicators, or edit the text and create your own.
Once you have your evaluation indicators in place, create a scoring system of your own to show your employees where they stand and how they’re performing.
This classy and sophisticated performance review example is great for sharing employee strengths and skills.
As you can see, all of Rachel’s skills are listed out on the left-hand side and then have a corresponding rating directly below it.
This makes for clear communication on how the employee is doing at their job, with no questions left to wonder after the meeting.
Design tip: Use high-quality vector icons to easily represent tasks and performance.
Create your own performance review in minutes! Try It For FreeAs you can see in the image above, Visme has lots of free, built-in vector icons you can choose from to help represent a task at hand or the quality of a skill.
You can browse through thousands of custom icons or use the search bar to find an icon to work with whatever you had in mind. Or, upload your own icon if you have one!
This modern performance review template is amazing for technology companies and large corporations.
You can give clear feedback by using the graph in the template to specify areas where an employee exceeds expectations, meets them and areas where they need to develop.
You can use a check to mark where they stand or any other icon you’d like.
Add your own images, logo and text and you’ll have your performance review template ready in no time.
A tech shop or any IT company for that matter can benefit greatly from a modern performance review template, like this one.
Full of customizable and professional vector icons for each section and customizable color schemes, it’s a great way to show your appreciation for your employee’s performance over the last period.
Is it that time of year to evaluate your CEOs? Use a professional performance review template like this one to highlight your CEO’s leadership skills, strategy and people management skills!
Once you evaluate them on different criteria, use the comments section in this performance review template to give your CEOs any additional tips, suggestions or things to change in the future.
This no-nonsense performance review template for teachers and educators is clear, concise and straight to the point.
With a bright-gradient scale, it’s easy to show employees where they stand regarding their performance.
List out the performance standard and add the coinciding score to give employees clarity on how well they’re performing.
Design tip: Consider using up to 3 easily readable fonts for headers and body text.
Create your own performance review in minutes! Try It For FreeYou’ll want to make your performance review documents easy to read and keep everything clean.
That’s why we recommend using fonts that are easy to read, such as Helvetica and Arial for example, and using no more than 3 fonts per document, as any more fonts on a single page tend to look a bit messy.
Pro Tip: If you’re unsure of what fonts to use, we’ve listed out 50 amazing fonts that will help level up your next design.
Annual employee performance reviews can be nerve-racking for many, but they’re a great opportunity to look back on the past year and set new goals for the upcoming year.
This annual employee performance review template is perfect for the job.
Encourage your employees by listing out a percentage representing the effectiveness of their performance, quality of work, delegation and more in this template.
Everyone needs to be held accountable, including managers. This is because if the head is healthy, the rest will follow suit.
You can keep your managers on task and accountable by using a sleek managerial performance review template like this one.
The green color scheme of this performance review makes all the information pop and you can customize anything on it, from text to icons. Add in your evaluations and have your review ready in minutes.
A professional career demands a professional performance review and this self-evaluation template stands out for the occasion.
You can replace the logo in this template with your own when you add it to your brand kit. Additionally, add your corporation’s brand colors and other brand elements to make it unique to your brand.
Once you added your own criteria and images to the template, give it to your employees to fill out themselves and see where they think they stand in regards to their performance.
This agency performance review template is broken down into clear sections with graphical representations of efficacy data that is easy for employees to grasp.
By having clear sections with data listed out, it’s easy for employees to see and understand their strengths and weaknesses at just a glance.
Design tip: Use graphs, diagrams, percentages and other means of data visualization to make your designs look professional, sleek and easy to understand.
Create your own performance review in minutes! Try It For FreeIf things are not going as you planned, then having a mid-year employee performance review can be just the thing you need to turn things around for the rest of the year.
This mid-year employee performance review template has four clearly defined sections that are great for highlighting the quality of their work, cooperation, achievements and so on.
Because our performance review templates are fully customizable, you can make the sections read whatever you need them to match your personal needs.
Show your staff where they stand in regards to professionalism and communication with this detailed performance review template.
These two sections of review are incredibly detailed but can be customized to suit whatever criteria you’d like to touch on with your employees. Score them on 5 different criteria, then add a smiley vector icon next to each observation according to their performance.
Some companies prefer quarterly performance reviews over annual reviews as they offer three times the number of opportunities for improvements and changes.
This quarterly employee performance review template is sophisticated, tasteful and simple.
Here, you can praise your employee for their creativity, give them helpful comments and tell them your targets and expectations for the next quarter so you can plan a successful rest of the year.
In this colorful and modern internship performance review template, you can show your interns or junior employees their performance in a fun way.
After all, you can make your reviews a time to let your employee’s best qualities shine and make them relaxed and have an enjoyable time.
This internship performance review example goes by the SWOT model and has sections that highlight strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Customize each section to your intern’s unique set of skills and have your performance review document ready in minutes with the help of Visme.
Design tip: Use a performance review template that matches the style and tone of voice of your company.
Create your own performance review in minutes! Try It For FreeFor example, if you run a clothing store that targets Gen Z, then you may want to use a bright and colorful performance review template that reflects that, like in the image below.
If you work at a law firm, you may want to use a performance review template that is a bit more serious and uses simple fonts and colors, like on the left side menu bar in the image above.
If you're looking for a performance review template that also doubles as a shift inspection report, this template is perfect for your needs.
This evaluation form comes with a table, which makes it easier to mark items as yes or no, and even add remarks or comments in the column on the right.
There's also a dedicated space at the bottom for any additional feedback. You can easily modify this template in Visme by changing the design, or adding or removing rows and columns.
Every industry needs a great performance review document, but especially those in the service industry.
The way your employees treat customers and do their job in the service industry could make or break your business. Be honest and get into the nitty-gritty of their performance in this detailed service industry performance review template.
This versatile performance review template is great for any company, position or time of year for reviews.
This template can be customized with your company branding elements such as your brand colors, logo, fonts and more.
If you’re ready to give your sales team some feedback, this performance review example is perfect for the job.
It has many sections that can be packed full of information pertaining to their target achievements for the quarter, areas that need some improvement, how they manage their customers and so much more.
At the bottom of this performance review example, you can encourage or inspire your employee to do better by leaving them an overall performance rating.
Sometimes, all you need to do is give your employees a quick number or percentage that shows them how well they're doing. This is exactly where a gauge chart template like this comes in handy.
You can use this employee performance gauge template as part of your reports or presentations, or share on its own to give employees a quick glimpse before discussing their work in more detail later.
Performance reviews can be management’s most powerful tool in motivating employees and facilitating real change in the business.
When performance reviews are conducted correctly, they can inspire your team to become their best selves and motivate them to do better than ever before.
On the flip side, if you are harsh and critical without offering the right tools to make a change, you can destroy employee morale and do more harm to the team than good.
Here are 5 tips for conducting performance reviews that have a successful outcome.
It’s normal for employees to get nervous before evaluations, as many times they view it as a moment of judgment.
This is why the first step to a successful performance review as an HR manager is creating a space where employees feel comfortable and not anxious.
After all, you want this meeting to be impactful and have them remember what you discuss to create real change, and that can’t happen when employees are anxious.
By offering a smile when they walk through the door, having a bottle of water on the table when they sit down and starting out with a bit of small talk revolving around things other than work, you’ll calm them down and prepare them for a successful meeting.
One of the most important phrases that one can live by is, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”.
Anything that you need to say, whether positive or negative, can be said in such a way that it’s not hurtful, but actually helpful.
This is all done through the beauty of language and positive criticism. There are lots of different positive criticism methods you can use, but let me just give you one example.
Say an employee is not meeting their established quota for this quarter.
Instead of saying:
You could say something like:
This is just one simple example of positive criticism put into use.
We have an entire section down below dedicated solely to phrases to use during employee evaluations that will help you have a successful outcome. Check them out to help you in your next meeting.
“Teamwork makes the dream work.”
It’s no wonder this phrase is so popular. When everyone has their special part to play in the team, they feel valued and are more inspired to work better.
In the same way that, many times, a team framework works better than a set hierarchy, you need to remember that coaching works better than judging.
If you just point your finger and highlight only employee mistakes without offering a solution, you become a judge.
Instead, be an encouraging coach. Watch how the game is going and offer a game plan of change. You can be kind and still be the strong leader that directs your team to a win.
Pro Tip: Continued training and development can equip your employees with specific skills and knowledge, and improve their performance. Check out our training manual templates to ensure your employee training programs are a success.
Everyone wants to be heard and no one likes to be talked ‘at.’
Make sure that you allow for a two-way conversation and ask open-ended questions that your employee can truly answer.
If they have any grievances, make sure you’ve created a space where they feel safe to let you know what’s been going on.
On the flip side, allow them time to tell you what they’re proud of and things they’ve been loving about the company.
This evaluation can be as much about them as it is about the company. It’s a time to see the areas in which you’re winning or falling short.
Use this time wisely to gather information and make changes on both sides of the camp.
Finally, once you’ve discussed all there is to discuss about past performance, it’s time to look to the future.
Create a roadmap together or prepare a document that breaks down how you, your employee and the entire team can reach their goals together.
For example, if you're overseeing a company project, you can create a communication plan to help your team members collaborate effectively and stay on the same page.
Here's a communication plan template you can use right away:
If you conduct a performance review without presenting or creating a plan for the future, you’ll find your employees exactly where you left them at your next evaluation.
Set them up for success and inspire them by setting clear goals for the future and a plan to achieve them together.
The way you communicate and the language you choose to use during a performance review will directly impact the outcome of your appraisal and how your employee will feel about their job when they leave.
In fact, your language and communication are so important during a performance review that if you use them incorrectly, up to 24% of your staff might consider quitting their job.
Additionally, 74% of employees say that they feel more confused about how their managers actually feel about their performance after an evaluation is finished, rather than before.
With alarming statistics like these, it’s imperative that you make your evaluation count and you use proper phrases and clear communication.
Below we will be sharing 80 performance review phrases to use for administration, leadership, achievements, communication and more that will help make your employee evaluation a success.
1. X always keeps important documents and information organized so as to not create any miscommunication or duplicate files.
2. X continuously comes up with ideas on how to improve company procedures.
3. X put new work processes into place that brought about impressive results, such as [state the results].
4. X created a new way for teams to gather information by [state the task that resulted in this success].
5. X exhibits incredible administrative skills and finds ways to integrate them into daily work tasks.
6. X always delivers time-sensitive tasks with zero delays.
7. X performs well in high-stress situations, can think clearly and provide solutions under pressure.
8. X is a team player and is constantly coming up with solutions to problems within the team.
9. X is constantly looking for ways to improve systems of function to increase team efficacy, time and resource management.
10. X follows and respects company policies and inspires others in the team to do the same.
11. X uses constructive criticism to help redirect his colleagues and team in times of need.
12. X delegates their team efficiently and uses company resources to the best of their ability.
13. X is always willing and ready to help where they are needed.
14. X makes everyone’s opinions heard and facilitates real change.
15. X is able to take on grievances from the workplace and make changes that help team members and co-workers.
16. X encourages open communication and helps team members speak their minds.
17. X pays credit where credit is due and makes everyone feel appreciated for their work.
18. X uses active listening skills to make team members feel seen and heard.
19. X is a prime example for fellow co-workers to follow and be inspired from.
20. X always motivates their team to do better than the day before.
21. X constantly achieves and exceeds goals set by the team.
22. X creates a plan and meets with others to achieve the goals set by the team.
23. X exhibits great brainstorming qualities and troubleshooting skills to solve a problem.
24. X is eager to look for areas to improve and ways they can help.
25. X has exceeded their goal of the quarter, from X to X.
26. X uses careful planning and takes calculated steps to ensure they can meet the expectations set by management.
27. X takes initiative in projects to ensure they get tasks done within the established time frame.
28. X goes above and beyond company set goals to ensure the highest quality results.
29. X took initiative and developed a solution to the problem X.
30. X sets real, achievable goals for themselves and their team to deliver great results to a task at hand.
31. X excels at communicating tasks and deadlines to the team.
32. X keeps all team members in the loop so no one is left behind.
33. X takes the time to explain tasks in great detail to other team members to ensure quality results with minor issues.
34. X takes criticism and applies it extremely well.
35. X fosters a comfortable environment for coworkers to speak freely and share ideas.
36. X makes sure everyone feels heard and listens to all ideas and suggestions.
37. X ensures that everyone understands the project and task at hand before moving on to anything else.
38. X communicates clearly to all members of the team so that there is no miscommunication on what is expected of them.
39. X excels at communication and delivers all information clearly, without need of further explanation.
40. X handles conflict within the team extremely well, handling all situations with poise and grace.
41. X is able to remind team members of company policies without making others feel less than.
42. X can break down technical issues in such a way that anyone can understand and makes everyone feel like they're on the same page.
43. X is a natural leader and divides tasks seamlessly amongst team members.
44. X motivates team members by delegating tasks and presenting inspiring rewards.
45. X delegates tasks to new team members to help them gain experience and learn the ropes.
46. X communicates set timelines and deadlines of a task with coworkers and ensures everyone respects that timeline.
47. X knows how to distribute tasks amongst the team to get a job well done.
48. X allows and encourages creativity from individuals to get the job done in their own way, as long as the results are positive.
49. X clearly explains tasks to each team member and explains the desired end results to ensure a minimal amount of hiccups.
50. X supports team members wherever they can to make sure they reach the intended end goal.
51. X is able to identify the right task to the right person with just the right skill set.
52. X will take the time to learn the skill set of each new employee to ensure they delegate appropriate tasks to them.
53. X gives clear instructions along with each delegated task to ensure everyone is on the same page.
54. X is always eager to take on new tasks.
55. X understands the value of teamwork and helps where they are needed.
56. X is always willing to help a colleague in need.
57. X is always open to sharing information and helping others learn a new skill.
58. X is able to delegate multiple teams at once and have them all cooperate successfully.
59. X always boosts team productivity by leading by example.
60. X is a great team player and works well with anyone on the team.
61. X is always on time for meetings.
62. X always comes in first to the office.
63. X can successfully conduct and respect the time limit for meetings.
64. X has set a standard for other coworkers by always being punctual to work.
65. X has had a perfect attendance record in the past quarter.
66. X is always reliable when it comes to being punctual to meetings.
67. X comes to work prepared and on time every day.
68. X can always be counted on in regards to punctuality.
69. X shows immense amounts of respect by always being punctual.
70. X always finishes all tasks and projects before the specified deadline.
71. While X has been on time for many meetings in the past, there is room for improvement in this area.
72. Although deadlines are communicated, X has been late in delivering certain tasks and projects.
73. X is sometimes reluctant to help colleagues in need, even when asked.
74. X can be reluctant to accept new ideas or processes presented by other team members.
75. X can improve in active listening and taking on constructive criticism.
76. X has great leadership skills but can benefit from delegating tasks in more of a team manner.
77. X can be biased when hearing other’s ideas and opinions and can benefit from active listening.
78. X has great ideas for change but needs to learn to communicate them respectfully and humbly.
79. X needs to learn to be objective when solving issues with others or within the company.
80. X can be extremely honest but needs to learn to communicate their honesty respectfully.
Performance reviews can be a stressful time for everyone. But with proper preparation and appropriate language, you can make them enjoyable and help guide your employees to become the best version of themselves.
We hope you’re feeling inspired by these performance review examples and are excited to take on your next performance review meeting.
If you want to customize any of the performance review examples you saw in this article or want to create your own from scratch, then you should try out Visme's professional document creator.
It comes packed with features like data widgets, free fonts, built-in icons and vector graphics, animation, the ability to embed links and videos, and much more to help you create engaging and interactive performance reviews that leave a powerful impact on your employees.
Explore all of our performance review templates, or browse through other categories like training manual templates, employee handbook templates and more to take your business to success.
