Employee Performance Review Template
A structured Excel performance review workbook covering goal achievement, competency ratings, development planning, and calibration. Supports both manager and self-assessment with automatic scoring.
What’s inside
- Goal achievement and competency ratings
- Self-assessment and manager assessment side-by-side
- Blank Template + Filled Example
About this download
The Employee Performance Review Template is a structured Excel workbook for running fair, consistent and development-focused performance reviews at scale. Performance review is one of the hardest conversations in any workplace — done well, it compounds into higher engagement, lower regrettable attrition and stronger team performance; done badly, it damages trust, demotivates top performers and produces documentation that HR dreads reading.
The workbook includes a goal-achievement sheet (last period's goals, rated 1–5 with commentary and examples), a competency-ratings sheet built around a configurable framework (the template ships with a widely used 8-competency model covering leadership, execution, collaboration, judgment and growth), a self-assessment tab (employee completes before the meeting), a manager-assessment tab (manager completes independently), a side-by-side comparison view surfacing where perceptions diverge, a calibration summary (team-wide view for manager calibration sessions), a development-plan section (strengths to leverage, gaps to close, specific actions), and a goals-for-next-period tab. Automatic roll-up calculations produce an overall rating with transparency about how it was reached.
This workbook is used by HR business partners, people leaders, heads of engineering/product/sales, CEOs of small businesses, consulting firm partners and any manager responsible for the annual or bi-annual review cycle. It suits organisations of 10 to 1,000+ employees — small teams use the workbook directly, larger organisations often use it as the underlying template behind a people-systems platform.
A high-quality review conversation is structured around three questions: what has this person delivered this period?, what has this person demonstrated in how they work?, and what is the path to their next level? The template is designed to make each of those questions concrete and well-evidenced rather than abstract. Plan at least 90 minutes for the conversation, follow up in writing within 48 hours, and revisit agreed development actions at every 1:1 rather than saving them for the next formal review.
The filled example inside the download shows a complete review for a mid-performer including both strong feedback and difficult feedback, so first-time managers see how hard conversations can be documented honestly and constructively.
Inside Vizually, development actions agreed in the review become cards on the individual's visual growth plan — with owners, dates and completion tracking — so the review doesn't end when the form is signed; it continues as a living commitment.