How well did you meet the goals agreed at the start of this review period?
Not met / Partly met / Met / Exceeded
Anchors the rating to goals both people can see, not to general impressions of the period.
Human Resources (HR)Forms
Performance review form: rate against goals, not impressions
A performance review form asks a manager or employee to rate observable work against goals agreed earlier, then to explain the rating in their own words. Use the same questions and scale each cycle so the results can be compared. The form records assessments; it does not set pay, decide promotions, or replace the review conversation.
What people search
Performance review form: 210 average monthly searches.Google Ads Keyword Planner · 2026-10-09 · United States
Performance review template: 4,400 average monthly searches.Google Ads Keyword Planner · 2026-10-09 · United States
Question bank
Questions that connect a rating to the work
Which part of your work took more time than planned, and what caused it?
Open response
Surfaces planning and workload problems that a rating alone would hide.
How clearly were priorities explained to you during this period?
Very unclear / Unclear / Neither / Clear / Very clear
Checks whether the employee had what they needed to meet expectations before the result is judged.
What is one skill you want to build over the next six months?
Open response
Gives the development plan a specific starting point instead of a general goal.
What support would make the next period easier to deliver?
Open response
Turns the review into a short list of decisions the manager can actually make.
Field blueprint
One form for each person and review period
| Field | Type | Required | Why you ask it |
|---|---|---|---|
Employee name | Short text | Required | Keeps one record per person and period, which a later comparison depends on. |
Role and team | Short text | Required | Lets reviewers compare people in similar roles. Use the job title from your HR records. |
Review periodFor example: January to June 2026. | Short text | Required | States the dates the goals cover, so the rating is about that period only. |
Who is completing this formEmployee (self-assessment)Manager (assessment of a direct report) | Single choice | Required | Separates a self-assessment from a manager's assessment, so the two views are not blended into one score. |
Overall rating for goalsRate against the goals written into the review, not against colleagues. Not metPartly metMetExceeded | Single choice | Required | Gives the headline result. The questions above explain what drove it. |
Accomplishments in this period | Long text | Optional | Records specific work that supports the rating, with dates or outcomes where you have them. |
Areas to improveDescribe what to do differently, not what kind of person to be. | Long text | Optional | Names one or two changes the person can act on. General descriptions of character are not actionable. |
Development goal for the next period | Long text | Optional | Turns the feedback into a goal someone can check at the next review. |
Employee comments | Long text | Optional | Lets the employee respond in writing to the manager's view before the review is final. |
Date of the review conversation | Date | Optional | Records when the two people discussed the review. This is separate from the date the form was submitted. |
Try it
Check the order of the questions before you publish
Read the results
Read self and manager views side by side
Export before you compare
Use the CSV export to place the self-assessment and the manager's assessment for each employee in adjacent columns. The form does not compare the two for you.
Look at the gap before the score
A large difference between self and manager ratings is the subject of the conversation. Ask each person what evidence they used before deciding which view is more accurate.
Count ratings instead of averaging them
With four categories, an average hides how the ratings are spread. Report how many people fell into each category instead.
Write down what was agreed
Record the development goal and the support the manager will provide in a separate note. A completed form is not yet a plan.
Mistakes to avoid
Errors that make a review unfair or hard to use
Linking the rating to pay inside the form
The form records an assessment. Pay and promotion decisions belong to your compensation process, under a standard applied consistently across managers. Write down what each rating means, so two managers mean the same thing by Met.
Rating personality instead of work
Words like attitude or fit describe no behavior the employee can change. Write what the person did and what it led to, so they know what to keep doing and what to change.
Judging the whole period from the last few weeks
Recent events often weigh more heavily in memory than earlier ones. Ask the manager to list examples from across the review period before choosing a rating.
Asking for a review without the goals in view
If the agreed goals are not written into the introduction, the rating can only be about impressions. Copy the goals into the introduction before you publish.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free performance review template I can use in Word?
This page gives the questions and the scale for an online form. No Word or PDF file is produced, so copy the list into your own document if you need one.
What is the difference between a performance review form and a template?
A template is a document you fill in under the same headings each cycle. A form collects answers through a link, which makes it easier to compare responses across people and periods. Either works if the questions and the scale stay the same.
How many questions should a performance review include?
Include enough questions to cover goals, strengths, gaps, and development, and no more. The blueprint above has ten fields, which suits an annual review. A mid-year check-in can use fewer.
Should employees complete a review of their own work?
A self-assessment shows the employee's view before the conversation starts. Keep it on a separate copy from the manager's assessment, so the two can be compared as described in the reading notes.
How often should performance reviews happen?
Choose a cycle your organization can keep, such as an annual review with a mid-year check-in. Use the same questions each time, because a change in wording makes results hard to compare.
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How to build it
Choose a category and a form type in the wizard. Answer three Atty Suggestions questions, then give the form a title. Atty builds the fields in the background. Edit the fields and ask Atty to refine them, then publish and share the /f/ link.
