Six Steps To Performance Reviews
Sample Performance Evaluations

Sample performance evaluations should always pave the way for a positive experience for both the employee and supervisor.

Managers must ensure that they use language that supports discussion, yet does not offend or is perceived as making inappropriate personal judgements.

The following guidelines are helpful to remember when completing our sample performance evaluations form:

• Use objective, behavioral language when describing performance. (Examples will be provided later in the article.)
• Avoid vague, opinionated or judgmental comments. This will only place the employee on the defensive, and is a mis-use of your authority.
• Make sure to comment on every goal, behavioral and/or performance factor. Just giving a rating is not enough. Provide some depth as to how you came to your conclusion.
• Choose specific, concrete examples for each behavioral or performance expectation.
• Elaborate, provide more details for especially high or low ratings. Give the employee a good sense of how you came to your conclusion.

Language to avoid includes:

• I feel that . . . (Personal opinion, leave out.)
• I like . . . (Personal opinion, leave out.)
• She is lazy. (Highly judgemental, serves no purpose – focus only on the behavior itself.)
• He has an attendance problem. (Just state facts, I.e, number of times sick, late, etc.
• She is good with customers. (No basis for the statement, be more specific, and stick to the facts)
• She has a terrible attitude – He is a great leader. She in highly engaged. (All lack specific basis for the statement, and therefore only provide an opinion or judgement. Stay with the facts – facts will relate better what you are wanting to communicate.)

Here now are a few good examples of how to write great narrative that is highly factual, and does not make a judgement that could place the employee on the defensive:

• Tracy has successfully planned, organized and developed the phone center by the stated completion date of 1-4-04. All supplies and equipment have been ordered on time and in an appropriate quantity, staying well below the stated budget. Tracy has trained staff effectively as they are taking 30 calls per hour, well above the projected goal of 20 calls per hour.
• Ken had four separate cash outages during the entire year. Three of the four cash outages were found, leaving total outages for the year at only $6.30. This is a terrific achievement given the fact that Ken achieves so many additional side tasks (balancing coin machine, food stamps, cash advances, and more) while maintaining this level of accuracy.
• Jessie consistently smiles, uses a pleasant tone and calls customers by name. She is a good listener, which is how she so effectively is able to resolve customer issues so effectively. Jessie has receive numerous customer feedback surveys praising her customer service skills. She works well with her co-workers and pro-actively shares best practices with her team in an effort to help her peers.

Proper questioning is very important. Questions should be prepared in advance and should be structured to facilitate open and honest discussion. Managers need to use quality tools, such as our sample performance evaluations form, to maintain a healthy balance between telling, seeking and listening.

Some common but highly effective lines of questioning might include:

• What do you consider to be your most important achievement in the past year?
• What elements of your job interest you the most?
• What do you consider to be the most important tasks for the coming year?
• Tell me more about that?
• How do you feel about . . . ?
• Do you have any ideas for improving . . . ?
• What do you think might have caused that to happen?

Using this type of questioning, the employee will become more involved in their own performance evaluation – and that is what a true leader is working to achieve.

The performance review must be a time when open communication exists and the employee is allowed and encouraged to speak about how they feel their everyday work life is progressing.

Your employees are your company’s future. Using our sample performance evaluations form, now is a terrific time to connect with your employees and investigate just how bright that future is.

Managers cannot allow this process to turn into simply a "yes sir" event. Use our free sample performance evaluations form to make the process more easily achievable.

» Six Steps To Performance Appraisals - Part 4 of 6
Part 4 of our series details how managers should properly prepare for the employee appraisal process.

» Six Steps To Performance Appraisals - Part 5 of 6
Part 5 of our series guides you through the process of establishing performance and employee development goals.

» Six Steps To Performance Appraisals - Part 6 of 6
In this final leadership article in our six-part series you will learn the imporance of proper follow up. In addition, you can quickly request our FREE Word file containing an outstanding performance appraisal tool.

In addition to sample performance evaluations, we're constantly on the lookout for highly effective leadership tools and resources that we can recommend to our readers. Share your own helpful hints and tips here.

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