Performance review templates
Performance review templates: annual, 360, self-assessment and manager forms
Four free forms that make up one review cycle — a self-assessment, a 360 feedback form, a manager review form and an annual review — each on its own page with usage tips and completed examples, plus a plan to schedule them.
By the CLEAR Talent team
Most performance review templates try to be every form at once: a single document the employee half-fills, the manager overwrites and HR files. The result mixes three points of view on one page and makes it hard to tell what the employee thought, what the manager decided and what changed in between.
A review cycle works better as a set of forms, each written by one person for one job. The employee assesses their own period, colleagues give structured 360 feedback, the manager weighs the evidence and proposes a rating, and the annual review records the outcome. The four templates below follow that order. Each has its own page with a copyable form, tips on using it and completed examples; this page shows how they fit together and gives you a plan to schedule them.
Choose a form
Performance review form templates
The forms are listed in the order a review cycle uses them. Each page has the blank form as a table you can copy into a spreadsheet or a document, tips on using it and three completed examples.
- Self-assessment form templateThe employee’s own view of the period, on the same rows and scale as the manager’s form, written before the review meeting.
- 360 feedback form templateOne form for every rater — manager, peers, direct reports and stakeholders — with a shared scale, an example behind each rating and two open questions.
- Manager review form templateThe manager’s assessment of a direct report at any review point, beside the self-assessment, with a proposed rating and a probation recommendation.
- Annual performance review templateThe year-end record: goals and competencies against what was expected, the final rating, next year’s goals, employee comments and sign-off.
How the forms fit together
Which review form to use, and when
Each form has one author and one job. Keeping them separate means the employee’s view survives intact, raters answer only about what they have seen, and the manager’s decision is written after reading both rather than before.
| Form | Completed by | When | What it feeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-assessment form | The employee | First, one to two weeks before the review meeting | The manager review: the employee’s rating and evidence beside the manager’s on every row |
| 360 feedback form | Manager, peers, direct reports, stakeholders and the person themselves | Alongside the self-assessment, for the people in scope | The manager review and the development plan, as results grouped by rater relationship |
| Manager review form | The line manager | Once the self-assessment and 360 are in, before calibration | Calibration, as a proposed rating with its evidence |
| Annual performance review | The manager, with the employee’s comments added | After calibration, at the review meeting | Next year’s goals and development plan, and the record behind pay and promotion decisions |
Not every cycle needs all four. A small team may skip the 360, and a mid-year or probation review usually needs only the self-assessment and the manager review form.
Across every form
Four rules that make the forms work together
The forms only add up to a fair review if they describe the same things in the same terms. These four rules hold them together.
Four rules
Use the same rows everywhere
The self-assessment, the manager review and the annual record list the same goals and competencies in the same order, so they can be read side by side.
Use one rating scale
Print the scale and what each point means on every form. A “meets” that means one thing to the employee and another to the manager starts an argument, not a conversation.
Collect before you decide
The manager reads the self-assessment and the 360 results before writing a rating. Deciding first and gathering support afterwards is how bias gets in.
Keep authorship visible
Each form records who wrote it. The manager never edits the self-assessment, and the employee’s comments on the annual review are added, not merged.
The review cycle plan template
Template
Review cycle plan
Fill in the cycle details once, then one row per stage, in order. Share the plan with managers and employees when the cycle opens, so everyone knows which form is theirs and when it is due.
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Cycle details | |
| Cycle | Its name and the period it reviews, for example the performance year from January to December. |
| In scope | Who is reviewed in this cycle, and who is not yet — new starters still on probation, for example. |
| Rating scale | The scale every form uses, with a one-line definition of each point. |
| Calibration | Whether proposed ratings are calibrated before they are final, and who attends. |
| Cycle owner | The HR contact who answers questions and follows up late forms. |
| For each stage (up to 6) | |
| Stage | What happens: self-assessment, 360 feedback, manager review, calibration or the review meeting. |
| Form | The template used at this stage, or none for a meeting. |
| Completed by | Who fills it in or attends. |
| Window | When the stage opens and closes, in dates or cycle weeks. |
| Hand-off | What the next stage receives when this one closes. |
As a spreadsheet
One row per stage. Copy the grid below and paste it into the first cell of a spreadsheet, or download the CSV.
| # | Stage | Form | Completed by | Window | Hand-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 3 | |||||
| 4 | |||||
| 5 | |||||
| 6 |
Show the plain-text template
REVIEW CYCLE PLAN Cycle: In scope: Rating scale: Calibration: Cycle owner: STAGE 1 Stage: Form: Completed by: Window: Hand-off: STAGE 2 Stage: Form: Completed by: Window: Hand-off: STAGE 3 Stage: Form: Completed by: Window: Hand-off: STAGE 4 Stage: Form: Completed by: Window: Hand-off: STAGE 5 Stage: Form: Completed by: Window: Hand-off: STAGE 6 Stage: Form: Completed by: Window: Hand-off:
Nothing here is gated: the spreadsheet and the text file hold exactly the fields shown above, with six blank stage rows.
How to plan a review cycle with these forms
Plan backwards from the review meetings: each form has to close in time for the stage that reads it.
Fix the review meeting dates
Agree the weeks in which managers will hold review meetings, then work back from them. Every other stage exists to feed those conversations.
Decide who is in scope for each form
Everyone completes a self-assessment; 360 feedback may be limited to people managers or to those who ask for it. Note anyone on probation, who follows their own review date.
Agree the rows and the scale
Confirm the goals and competencies each role is reviewed on and the rating scale, and copy them into the self-assessment, manager review and annual forms before the cycle opens.
Set the windows
Give the self-assessment and the 360 a week or two each, running in parallel, then give managers a week to complete their review forms before calibration.
Publish the plan and the forms together
Send the cycle plan with a link to each blank form, so nobody has to ask which version is current.
Three completed review cycle plans
Three hypothetical organisations planning a year-end cycle in different ways: a small team without 360 feedback, a larger company with 360 for its people managers, and a business that runs probation reviews alongside the cycle.
These plans were written for this page to show how the forms combine. They describe no real organisation or CLEAR Talent customer, and the team sizes and windows are illustrative.
Small team, no 360
Example 1: a 35-person agency’s first written cycle
A design agency running its first written review cycle. Managers see everyone’s work daily, so the cycle skips 360 feedback and calibration is one meeting of the founders.
- Cycle
- Year-end review, January to December
- In scope
- Everyone with six months’ service by 1 December
- Rating scale
- Exceeds, meets, needs improvement
- Calibration
- One meeting: the two founders and the operations lead
- Cycle owner
- Operations lead
| Stage | Form | Completed by | Window | Hand-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-assessment | Self-assessment form | Everyone in scope | Weeks 1–2 | Ratings and evidence go to the manager |
| Manager review | Manager review form | Line managers | Week 3 | Proposed ratings go to calibration |
| Calibration | None (meeting) | Founders and operations lead | Week 4 | Agreed ratings go back to managers |
| Review meeting | Annual performance review | Manager and employee | Weeks 5–6 | Signed record and next year’s goals |
360 for managers
Example 2: 360 feedback for people managers, with calibration
A 180-person software company. Everyone completes a self-assessment; people managers also receive 360 feedback from their team, their peers and their own manager. Ratings are calibrated by department.
- Cycle
- Year-end review, April to March
- In scope
- Everyone; 360 feedback for the 22 people managers
- Rating scale
- Four points, with a definition of each printed on every form
- Calibration
- One session per department, led by HR
- Cycle owner
- HR business partner
| Stage | Form | Completed by | Window | Hand-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-assessment | Self-assessment form | Everyone | Weeks 1–2 | Ratings and evidence go to the manager |
| 360 feedback | 360 feedback form | Raters proposed by each people manager and checked by their own manager | Weeks 1–3 | Grouped results go to the manager under review and their manager |
| Manager review | Manager review form | Line managers | Week 4 | Proposed ratings go to calibration |
| Calibration | None (meeting) | Department heads and HR | Week 5 | Final ratings go back to managers |
| Review meeting | Annual performance review | Manager and employee | Weeks 6–7 | Signed record, goals and development plan |
With probation reviews
Example 3: a year-end cycle with probation reviews alongside
A 60-person logistics business that hires through the year. Employees past probation join the year-end cycle; new starters are reviewed at the end of a six-month probation instead, on the same manager review form.
- Cycle
- Year-end review, January to December, plus probation reviews as they fall due
- In scope
- Employees who have completed probation by 1 November
- Rating scale
- Exceeds, meets, needs improvement
- Calibration
- Operations and finance managers with HR, year-end only
- Cycle owner
- HR manager
| Stage | Form | Completed by | Window | Hand-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Probation review | Manager review form, with the probation recommendation | Line manager, with HR | Two weeks before each probation end date | Confirm, extend or do not confirm, recorded on the employee file |
| Self-assessment | Self-assessment form | Employees in scope | Weeks 1–2 | Ratings and evidence go to the manager |
| Manager review | Manager review form | Line managers | Week 3 | Proposed ratings go to calibration |
| Calibration | None (meeting) | Operations and finance managers with HR | Week 4 | Final ratings go back to managers |
| Review meeting | Annual performance review | Manager and employee | Weeks 5–6 | Signed record and next year’s goals |
From templates to a review cycle
Running the same cycle in CLEAR Talent
In CLEAR Talent the four review forms become the stages of one review cycle: self-review, 360° feedback, manager review, calibration and the final rating, ending in a signed-off report. Every stage opens and closes on the dates you set and automated reminders keep it moving, so HR is not chasing forms by email. You can run mid-year, year-end or quarterly cycles, each with its own configurable template.
Self-assessment and manager assessment are compared side by side, so both sides argue from the same facts, and a rating can require evidence — a project, a deliverable or an observed behaviour.
The overall rating combines three streams — goal achievement rolled up from the goals set during the year, evidence-based competency ratings and structured 360° feedback — weighted the way your policy sets. Before ratings go final, calibration shows live heatmaps of ratings across managers and teams and flags outliers, so a rating that is out of line is discussed while it can still change.