Performance review templates
Self-assessment form template for performance reviews, with completed examples
A self-assessment form the employee completes before the review meeting, built on the same goals, competencies and rating scale as the manager’s form, with tips on using it and three completed examples.
By the CLEAR Talent team
A self-assessment is the employee’s chance to put their own evidence on the record before the manager decides anything. Done well, it gives the manager facts they did not have, shows where the two of them see the period differently and turns the review meeting into a discussion of those differences rather than a verdict.
Most self-assessment forms work against that. They ask open questions — “What went well this year?” — that invite either modesty or a list of adjectives, and they use different headings from the manager’s form, so nothing lines up. This template rates the same goals and competencies, on the same scale, as the manager review form, and asks for evidence on every row.
Before you send it
What a useful self-assessment form asks for
Three design choices make the difference between a self-assessment that informs the review and one that is filed unread. All three are about making the employee’s view comparable with the manager’s.
Three design choices
The manager’s rows, in the manager’s order
Copy each goal and competency exactly as it appears on the manager review form. When the two forms list the same rows, the manager can set them side by side and see at a glance where the ratings differ.
The same rating scale, defined on the form
Print every point of the scale with its definition. An employee who rates on a private scale — “a 4 means I worked hard” — produces ratings nobody can compare.
Evidence, not adjectives
Ask for what happened, when and with what result on every row. “I am a strong communicator” tells the manager nothing; “I rewrote the onboarding guide and new starters stopped raising the same three questions with the help desk” is something they can check.
The self-assessment form template
Template
Self-assessment form
Fill in the details, then one row per goal or competency — the same rows, in the same order, as your manager’s review form. Write the evidence before you choose the rating.
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| About the review | |
| Name and role | Your name, job title and team. |
| Review period | The dates this review covers. Leave out work from before them, however good it was. |
| Rating scale | The scale your manager will use, with what each point means, copied from the manager review form. |
| What I am most proud of | One or two pieces of work, with the result and how you know it made a difference. |
| What got in the way | Obstacles you met and what would help next time, including anything your manager or the team could change. |
| What I want to develop next | One skill or experience for the next period, and why it matters for your role. |
| Support I need | What you need from your manager to do that: time, a project, training or feedback. |
| For each review area (up to 6) | |
| Goal or competency | Copied from the manager’s form, with the measure or level expected. |
| My rating | A point on the scale above, for this row only. |
| Evidence | What you did, when and the result: figures, a deliverable or feedback someone else gave you. |
| Next step | What you will keep doing, change or learn on this row next period. |
As a spreadsheet
One row per review area. Copy the grid below and paste it into the first cell of a spreadsheet, or download the CSV.
| # | Goal or competency | My rating | Evidence | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | ||||
| 4 | ||||
| 5 | ||||
| 6 |
Show the plain-text template
SELF-ASSESSMENT FORM Name and role: Review period: Rating scale: What I am most proud of: What got in the way: What I want to develop next: Support I need: REVIEW AREA 1 Goal or competency: My rating: Evidence: Next step: REVIEW AREA 2 Goal or competency: My rating: Evidence: Next step: REVIEW AREA 3 Goal or competency: My rating: Evidence: Next step: REVIEW AREA 4 Goal or competency: My rating: Evidence: Next step: REVIEW AREA 5 Goal or competency: My rating: Evidence: Next step: REVIEW AREA 6 Goal or competency: My rating: Evidence: Next step:
Nothing here is gated: the spreadsheet and the text file hold exactly the fields shown above, with six blank review-area rows. Change the fields to suit your process — the form is a starting point, not a validated instrument.
How to use the self-assessment form
The form works best when the employee has time to write it and the manager reads it before forming a view of their own.
Send it with the manager’s rows filled in
Pre-fill the goals and competencies before you send the form, so the employee rates exactly what the manager will rate, and send the rating scale with it.
Give the employee a week or two
A self-assessment written the night before the meeting is a list of recent work. Time lets the employee go back through notes, goal records and feedback from the whole period.
Write the evidence first, the rating second
Suggest the employee writes what happened on each row before choosing a rating. A rating chosen first tends to attract only the evidence that supports it.
Read it before writing the manager review
The manager reads the self-assessment, and any 360 results, before completing the manager review form, and notes every row where the two ratings differ by a full level.
Spend the meeting on the differences
Discuss the rows where you disagree and the support the employee asked for. The rows you agree on need a sentence, not a debate.
Three completed self-assessment forms
Three hypothetical employees: one who had a strong year and backs it with evidence, one who is candid about a missed goal, and one who is new to the role. Each rates the same rows their manager will.
These forms were filled in for this page to show a workable level of detail. They describe no real employee or CLEAR Talent customer, and every figure in them is an illustrative placeholder, not a benchmark.
A strong year
Example 1: a payroll specialist with a strong year
Four years in role in a 300-person manufacturer. A high self-rating, backed by evidence the manager can check. The manager’s form for the same review is the first example on the manager review form template.
- Name and role
- Payroll specialist, finance
- Review period
- January to December
- Rating scale
- Exceeds, meets, needs improvement
- What I am most proud of
- Moving overtime approvals from email into the payroll system, which ended the scramble for missing approvals on payroll day.
- What got in the way
- Late starter paperwork from two sites. A fixed cut-off date agreed with the site managers would help.
- What I want to develop next
- Year-end reporting, so I can cover it when the payroll manager is on leave.
- Support I need
- Shadowing the payroll manager through the next year-end close.
| Goal or competency | My rating | Evidence | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accurate, on-time payroll: no errors reaching employees | Exceeds | Twelve monthly runs on time. Two errors caught in my own checks before approval; none reached employees. | Write my checks into a list the team can use. |
| Process improvement (proficient) | Exceeds | Moved overtime approvals into the payroll system in March; approvals now arrive before the cut-off instead of on payroll day. | Look at expense claims next, which still arrive by email. |
| Communication with employees (proficient) | Meets | Answered payslip queries within two working days. Two queries in the autumn needed a second reply because my first answer was unclear. | Use the template replies the team agreed in November. |
A missed goal
Example 2: a marketing manager who missed a goal
Two years in role. One of three goals was missed; the form explains why without excuses and rates it honestly.
- Name and role
- Marketing manager, B2B services
- Review period
- January to December
- Rating scale
- Exceeds, fully meets, partly meets, does not meet
- What I am most proud of
- The partner webinar series, which became our main source of qualified enquiries in the second half of the year.
- What got in the way
- Losing our content writer in May. I took on the writing myself instead of re-planning, and the website rebuild slipped.
- What I want to develop next
- Planning and delegating when the team changes, rather than absorbing the work myself.
- Support I need
- A monthly check on the plan while we rehire, and a budget for freelance writing.
| Goal or competency | My rating | Evidence | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generate 120 qualified enquiries | Fully meets | 131 qualified enquiries in the year, 58 of them from the partner webinars started in June. | Keep the webinars monthly and test a second partner. |
| Relaunch the website by September | Does not meet | Not delivered. The design was signed off in July, but I paused the build when the writer left and did not raise the delay until October. | Agree a new date in January and report progress monthly. |
| Team leadership (proficient) | Partly meets | Kept the two remaining team members on track, but I absorbed the writer’s work instead of reallocating it, and our one-to-ones lapsed over the summer. | Restart fortnightly one-to-ones and agree a cover plan before anyone leaves. |
New to the role
Example 3: a customer success associate in their first year
Joined eight months before the review. Some rows are hard to rate yet, and the form says so instead of guessing.
- Name and role
- Customer success associate, mid-market accounts
- Review period
- March to December
- Rating scale
- Exceeds, meets, needs improvement
- What I am most proud of
- Taking over twelve accounts in my third month and keeping every one of them through renewal.
- What got in the way
- Not knowing the product well enough to answer technical questions without escalating them.
- What I want to develop next
- Product knowledge, to the point where I can run a configuration review on my own.
- Support I need
- Two product training sessions a month and a named person in support to ask.
| Goal or competency | My rating | Evidence | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account health and renewals | Meets | All twelve accounts I took over renewed. Two needed help from my manager on the commercial terms. | Lead the commercial conversation on my next renewals, with my manager reviewing. |
| Product knowledge (developing) | Needs improvement | Escalated most configuration questions to support in my first five months; by December I was answering the common ones myself. | Complete the admin training track by the end of March. |
| Customer communication (proficient) | Meets | Customers replied positively to my quarterly account reviews, and one asked for the format to share with their own team. | Keep the quarterly review format and add a usage summary. |
From form to review cycle
Self-assessments inside a CLEAR Talent review cycle
In CLEAR Talent the self-assessment is the first stage of the review cycle — self-review, 360° feedback, manager review, calibration and the final rating. It opens and closes on the dates you set, and automated reminders keep it moving, so nobody chases a form by email.
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. Once the manager releases the review, the employee sees every competency rating and narrative section.