Trackers & Forms

Performance Appraisal Form: Free Template (PDF & Excel)

A performance appraisal form structures a review period into rated performance areas, documented goals, and both employee and manager comments, ending in a clear overall outcome — so a review is a record, not just a conversation that happened. Download the free PDF and Excel version below.

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What This Form Covers

  • Employee details and review period
  • Performance areas rated 1–5 with weight and comments: quality of work, productivity/timeliness, communication, teamwork, problem solving, customer/stakeholder focus, initiative/ownership, and overall performance
  • Goals and development areas, with employee comments, manager comments, and an action/target date
  • Overall rating, recommendation/outcome, employee acknowledgement, and reviewer date

How to Use This Template

  1. Set performance area weights to match what actually matters for the role — a support role and a sales role shouldn't be weighted identically
  2. Fill in specific comments and evidence per area, not just a number — a bare rating is hard to act on or defend later
  3. Give the employee a genuine chance to add their own comments before the manager's view is finalized, not after
  4. Set real target dates on development areas and actually follow up at the next cycle — a goals section nobody revisits is just paperwork

Disclaimer: this is a general template, not legal advice. Review it against your company policy and applicable law before use.

Related: Exit Interview Form · Employee Handbook Template · Employee Database Software

Frequently asked questions

Rated performance areas with comments, documented goals and development areas with target dates, an overall rating and outcome, and space for both employee and manager input.

Varies by company — common cadences are annual, half-yearly, or quarterly. What matters more than frequency is that the goals section is actually followed up on at the next cycle.

Practices vary; some companies share ratings in advance to make the conversation less of a surprise, others discuss first and finalize after. Either way, the employee comments field should be filled in with their genuine input, not an afterthought.

That link is a separate policy decision for your company to make — this form documents performance, which can then feed into (but isn't the same as) a separate compensation review process.

Generally yes, accessible only to the employee, their manager, and HR — performance records are sensitive and should be handled with the same care as other confidential employee data.

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