The best examples of performance review template examples for employees in 2025

1. Simple one-page examples of performance review template examples for employees

Let’s start with the format most teams ask for: a simple, one-page performance review template that doesn’t overwhelm managers or employees.

Here’s an example of a one-page review template you can adapt:

Sections:

• Employee information and review period
• Key responsibilities
• Core behaviors/values
• Goals and results
• Overall rating and development plan

Sample wording:

Key Responsibilities
Responsibility: Customer support response and resolution
Manager feedback:

Consistently meets response-time targets and maintains a calm, professional tone with customers. In Q3, reduced average resolution time from 18 hours to 11 hours while maintaining a 4.7/5 satisfaction score.

Employee self-reflection:

I’ve improved my prioritization of urgent tickets but want to build deeper product knowledge so I can resolve issues without escalating.

Core Behaviors / Values
Behavior: Collaboration
Manager feedback:

Frequently supports teammates during high-volume periods and volunteers to mentor new hires. Feedback from peers highlights your patience and clear communication.

This is one of the best examples of performance review template examples for employees who need clarity without a 10-page packet. It works especially well for small teams or organizations just formalizing their review process.

2. Goal-based examples of performance review template examples for employees (OKR / SMART style)

As more companies adopt OKRs and similar frameworks, goal-based templates are becoming the default. Instead of rating vague traits, you evaluate employees against specific, measurable goals.

Core structure of a goal-based review template:

• Summary of goals for the review period
• Progress against each goal (with data)
• What helped or blocked progress
• Updated or new goals for the next cycle

Real example of a goal-based section:

Goal: Increase monthly qualified leads by 20% by December 31.
Result: Increased qualified leads by 24% by November 30, with a 12% increase in conversion from webinar campaigns.

Manager comments:

Exceeded the target by experimenting with new webinar formats and tightening lead qualification criteria. Strong partnership with Sales helped ensure leads were properly followed up.

Employee comments:

I’d like more training in marketing automation to further optimize lead nurturing and better segment audiences.

Goal-based examples of performance review template examples for employees are especially effective in sales, marketing, and product teams where metrics are clear. They also align well with research-backed practices around goal setting and feedback. For instance, Harvard Business School highlights that specific, challenging goals can improve performance compared with generic “do your best” expectations (Harvard Business School).

3. Behavior and competency-based review template example

Not every role has clean metrics, especially in people-focused jobs like HR, teaching, or healthcare. In those cases, behavior and competency-based templates shine.

Common competency categories:

• Communication
• Problem-solving
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Leadership (for managers or aspiring leaders)
• Adaptability
• Ethics and professionalism

Sample competency-based review section:

Competency: Communication
Rating scale: Needs Improvement, Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations, Outstanding
Rating: Exceeds Expectations

Manager feedback:

Communicates clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. During the system outage in August, you provided timely updates that reduced confusion and prevented duplicate work.

Evidence/examples:

• Led weekly cross-functional standups with clear agendas and follow-ups.
• Drafted FAQ for staff that reduced repeated questions by an estimated 40%.

When you’re collecting examples of performance review template examples for employees in complex or knowledge-heavy roles, competency-based formats help anchor feedback in observable behavior instead of vague impressions.

4. 360-degree feedback examples of performance review template examples for employees

For leadership roles, many organizations now use 360-degree feedback: input from managers, peers, direct reports, and sometimes clients. The template has to be structured enough to compare feedback, but open enough for meaningful comments.

Typical sections in a 360 template:

• Leadership and decision-making
• Communication and transparency
• Coaching and support for direct reports
• Collaboration with peers and other departments
• Trust and integrity

Example of a 360 feedback summary section for a manager:

Theme: Communication and transparency
Peer feedback (summary):

Peers consistently describe you as clear and direct. Some would like earlier visibility into major decisions to better plan their team’s work.

Direct report feedback (summary):

Team members appreciate your availability and willingness to clarify priorities. A few mentioned they’d like more context on how their work connects to company strategy.

Manager’s view:

You’ve significantly improved your communication cadence with the team. Next step is to bring more strategic context into weekly updates.

These 360-degree examples of performance review template examples for employees help surface patterns rather than one-off comments. They are particularly useful for succession planning and leadership development.

For guidance on designing fair, bias-aware feedback processes, organizations sometimes draw on research from institutions like the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM.org) and academic resources from universities such as MIT Sloan or Harvard.

5. Modern templates for hybrid and remote employees

Post-2020, performance reviews had to adapt to hybrid and remote work. By 2024–2025, most organizations have realized that “butts in seats” is a terrible performance metric. Instead, templates now emphasize outcomes, communication, and autonomy.

Key sections in a remote-friendly template example:

• Outcomes and deliverables
• Asynchronous communication habits
• Collaboration across time zones
• Use of tools (project management, documentation, video, chat)
• Work-life boundaries and well-being

Realistic example of a remote-focused template section:

Category: Remote collaboration
Manager feedback:

You consistently document project decisions in our shared workspace and summarize key points in the team channel. This helps colleagues in other time zones stay aligned without needing late-night meetings.

Category: Self-management and reliability
Manager feedback:

You reliably hit deadlines and proactively flag risks early. When caring responsibilities impacted your schedule in May, you communicated clearly, adjusted timelines, and still delivered high-priority work on time.

These examples of performance review template examples for employees working remotely recognize that “presence” is about communication and results, not physical location.

For data on remote work trends, you can explore reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS.gov) and research from institutions like Stanford University, which has published multiple studies on productivity in remote and hybrid environments.

6. Development-focused and growth-oriented template example

Not every review should feel like a verdict. Many organizations now run a separate, development-focused review that looks forward more than backward.

Typical sections in a development-focused template:

• Strengths to double down on
• Skills to build in the next 6–12 months
• Career interests and potential paths
• Learning activities (courses, stretch projects, mentoring)
• Support needed from the manager or company

Example of a growth-oriented review section:

Strengths:

• Analytical problem-solving
• Building trust with cross-functional partners

Development areas for the next 12 months:

• Presenting to senior leadership with more confidence
• Prioritization under pressure

Planned actions:

• Co-present Q2 roadmap with manager to executive team.
• Complete internal workshop on strategic prioritization.
• Shadow senior product manager for two major customer calls.

This type of template is one of the best examples of performance review template examples for employees early in their careers. It sends a clear message: the review is about growth, not just grading.

7. Examples include templates tailored to different roles

If you’re building a library of examples of performance review template examples for employees, it helps to tailor them by role type rather than reinventing the wheel for every job title.

Template example for individual contributors

For individual contributors (ICs), the template usually focuses on:

• Quality and impact of work
• Reliability and ownership
• Collaboration with teammates
• Learning and skill development

Sample IC template snippet:

Impact of work:

Delivered all assigned features for the Q4 release with minimal defects. Your work on the onboarding flow led to a 9% increase in user activation within 7 days.

Ownership:

When a production bug surfaced, you took responsibility, coordinated with QA, and communicated a clear timeline for the fix.

Template example for managers

For managers, the lens shifts to:

• Team performance and health
• Hiring, onboarding, and retention
• Coaching and feedback habits
• Strategic contribution

Sample manager template snippet:

Team performance and health:

Your team delivered 95% of planned roadmap items while maintaining a sustainable on-call rotation. Engagement survey scores for your team improved from 72 to 80.

Coaching and feedback:

You hold regular 1:1s and provide specific feedback. Several team members mentioned feeling more supported and clear on expectations.

These role-specific examples include the same core elements but shift the emphasis to what actually defines success in that role.

8. How to choose the right example of performance review template for your organization

With so many examples of performance review template examples for employees floating around, the temptation is to copy-paste the first decent one you find. That usually backfires.

When choosing or designing your own template, consider:

Your culture and values
If your company talks constantly about customer obsession, collaboration, or innovation, those ideas should show up explicitly in the template.

The type of work people do
Roles with clear metrics (sales, support) benefit from goal-based and data-heavy templates. Creative, research, or early-stage roles may need more narrative and competency-based formats.

How often you review performance
Annual-only cycles tend to create anxiety and surprises. Many organizations now use lighter quarterly check-ins plus a more structured annual review. Your template can have a “full” version and a shorter quarterly version.

Your tools and systems
If you’re using HR tech or performance platforms, make sure your examples of performance review template examples for employees translate into that software: rating scales, comment boxes, goal fields, and 360 workflows.

For guidance on fair evaluation practices and avoiding bias, you can look at resources from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC.gov) and research on performance management from universities like Cornell or Berkeley.

9. Common mistakes when using performance review templates

Even the best examples of performance review template examples for employees can be misused. A few frequent problems:

Over-focusing on scores, under-focusing on examples
A rating without evidence is just an opinion. Good templates nudge managers to provide specific, recent examples to support each rating.

Copy-paste comments
Employees can tell when feedback is generic. Encourage managers to use the template as a guide, not a script.

One-sided reviews
If the template doesn’t include space for employee self-reflection, you’re missing half the story. Many modern templates start with the employee’s own assessment.

No follow-up
Reviews that live and die in a PDF do little good. The strongest examples include a section for next steps and dates for follow-up conversations.

10. Quick FAQ on performance review template examples

Q1. What are some real examples of performance review template examples for employees I can start with today?
Real examples include a one-page summary template for small teams, a goal-based template for sales and marketing roles, a competency-based template for knowledge workers, and a 360-degree feedback template for managers and leaders. You can mix and match elements from these examples to fit your organization.

Q2. What is an example of a good rating scale to use?
A simple, behavior-focused scale works well, such as: Needs Improvement, Partially Meets Expectations, Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations, Outstanding. The important part is that each level has clear descriptions and examples so managers apply ratings consistently.

Q3. How often should we use these templates?
Many organizations now pair an annual review with lighter quarterly or mid-year check-ins. The same template structure can be reused in a shorter form for those check-ins (for example, fewer competencies or only current goals and next steps).

Q4. Are there examples of templates that combine performance and development?
Yes. Some of the best examples of performance review template examples for employees include both a backward-looking section (results, behaviors, ratings) and a forward-looking section (skills to build, career interests, development actions). This hybrid approach keeps accountability and growth in the same conversation.

Q5. How do we adapt templates for different countries or cultures?
Keep the core structure (goals, behaviors, development) but adjust language, rating labels, and legal disclaimers to match local norms and regulations. Partner with HR or legal experts in each region to make sure your templates are fair and compliant.

If you treat these examples of performance review template examples for employees as starting points—not rigid forms—you’ll end up with a review process that actually drives performance and development, instead of one more bureaucratic ritual everyone dreads.