How to Create an Employee Evaluation Form (+ Templates)

Ever sat through a Parent Teacher meeting and actually discovered something helpful? No? Well, if you had, that would have been something like what an employee evaluation form is made for. Similar to performance reviews, an employee evaluation form assesses an employee's performance within a given role and overall fit within the company. Which is crucial to maximize an organization’s performance and competitiveness. For several reasons. But we’ll get into those later.

For now, let’s get into what you can expect from this article. In this guide on how to create an employee evaluation form, we’ll be discussing the following.

Not to state the obvious, but an employee evaluation form is a form used to evaluate employees. Evaluation forms can come in different styles and types but, regardless of the look or method, they all circle back to the purpose of measuring an employee’s performance, contributions, and effectiveness within a role.

This is key to the health of an organization, and employees, for several reasons. 

1. Feedback and development

For starters, having a system in place to regularly generate employee evaluations is good for feedback and development. This is because the constructive feedback from these evaluation forms encourages continuous improvement, thereby contributing to better employee performance and company growth.

2. Goal Setting and alignment

Secondly, an employee performance evaluation form can actively measure the progress an employee is making towards goals and aligning with company objectives. In this way, employee reviews can open up the dialogue between bosses and subordinates, encouraging constructive feedback and leads to greater employee productivity.

3. Recognition and rewards

A study by McKinsey found that, even without annual or monthly employee evaluations, organizations still need evaluation forms to make decisions about promotions (ie. employee recognition and rewards). That’s because employee evaluation forms help compile examples of good behavior, making it easier to nail that decision on who gets the promotion because you already have it in writing.

4. Data for decision-making

Since employee evaluation forms assess areas of strength and weakness, it is easier for employers to make decisions about projects, assess project completion deadlines, and to consider the quality work produced from insights gathered through the data from employee evaluation forms.

5. Succession planning

It’s in your interest to get that employee evaluation form up and running because Harvard Business Review says that feedback from employee evaluations accounts for 70% of individual professional development. With companies urging their employees to grow and learn - and aim to succeed - this may just be your ticket for company domination.

Whatever the type of employee evaluation form that you lean towards, you should make sure that they push for employee development and managing employee performance. With that said, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ form for all of your performance evaluation needs, even if there are more generally applicable evaluation forms, like our employee evaluation template.

Not sure which type of employee evaluation form you should be using and what are the benefits to using an employee evaluation form? Here are seven to consider:

Annual Performance Review Form

Annual employee evaluation forms are common and can take the form of whatever you want them to. Assessed by a manager, they evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of an employee, as well as their areas for improvement, over the course of the year.

Probationary Period Evaluation Form

Probationary Period Evaluation Forms, also known as the 30-60-90 day review, are employee evaluations specifically for new hires. They offer feedback on employee progress and share company expectations. These employee evaluation forms are great for onboarding, making it easier for new employees to see exactly where they need to improve. 

Self-Assessment Form

As it says on the tin, a self-assessment form helps employees reflect on their own performance, contributions, and areas of weakness. This is a benefit in itself, but could be viewed as a disadvantage if not taken seriously.

Manager's Evaluation Form

These evaluation forms incorporate the reviews of managers and employees to communicate areas of improvement, reaching of goals, and a progress report. It’s a great way to open the dialogue between the two, but only if managers are willing to take the time to steadily go through the process.

Peer Evaluation Form

These employee reviews are completed by an individual’s manager and colleagues, usually to assess how a project is progressing and to find out the areas that an individual is contributing. Using peers is a good way to get a different perspective, but be careful to anonymize and review feedback so as to minimize employee resentment over results.

Project-Specific Evaluation Form

This employee evaluation form assesses employee performance against the specific goals or targets for a project, indicating whether the areas of strength and weakness. As such, it provides clear cut results, however it is just focused on project performance rather than overall.

Training Needs Assessment Form

This evaluation form assesses an employee’s current competencies and compares them to the level required for their position. Conducted by managers, this employee evaluation form can help inform areas for improvement, but also can be pretty disheartening if reviewed carefully.

360-degree Feedback Form

360-degree feedback forms are a good type of employee evaluation form to use when wanting the full picture because they take into account the reviews of employers, peers, subordinates, clients, and a self-review from the employee themselves. This results in a reduction of bias, however it can also lead to a large influx of feedback that is often inconsistent and contradictory.

With the theory under our belts, let’s move on to the nitty gritty: how to create an employee evaluation form? Or more importantly, what should be included in an employee evaluation form? Follow these steps to accurately include all that needs to be there. Note the tips on how to make your employee evaluation form more effective at the end of this section!

1. Define the purpose and scope

First, the purpose of the form; why are you doing this and what should be included in an employee evaluation form (metric-wise) to achieve this purpose.

2. Choose the method of evaluation

You can’t bake a cake without an oven (or skilled toaster oven), so don’t head straight into the art of employee evaluation form-making without knowing how you want to evaluate employees. Is this going to be a 360° ordeal or do you want to make it a personal pizza? In other words, will you need to gather evaluation forms from multiple people or just the employee themself?

3. Define the criteria

Keep it clear by defining the evaluation criteria, such as competency skills, job responsibilities, or project benchmarks. These performance dimensions can change and will depend upon the role or department that you're evaluating for.

4. Set expectations

Evaluation criteria can be a good stepping stone for setting clear expectations for employees, particularly if there’s a list of core competency skills tailored for that particular role.

5. Create an unbiased rating scale

While the kind of rating scale used depends on the type of employee evaluation form, the scale should remain unbiased, regardless of quantitative or qualitative preferences. 

6. Come up with a clear form layout

Employee evaluation forms aren’t complicated as long as you come up with a clear form layout. Employee information usually comes first, with things like Name, Department, Position, Date, Reviewer name, and Review period needing to get filled in.

Next comes what you’re actually looking to assess. Structure of forms for this middle section will depend on the type of employee evaluations. This is generally followed by an Additional Comment section and employee and reviewer signatures. Check the employee evaluation template for a better idea on layout.

7. Do a final review and pilot test

Before releasing your new employee evaluation form onto your unsuspecting employees, check your work. And do a pilot test. It won’t look good if there’s a typo or no one can understand how to use the form. Plus, think of all the trees you’ll save by planning ahead.

8. Monitor and update continuously

Like with any shared document, make sure to closely monitor feedback to the employee evaluation form, including employee and reviewer feedback. It may come to light that the rating scale isn’t appropriate for a certain role, or that reviewers are struggling with the types of evaluation forms. In that event, be sure to update the evaluation forms adequately.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s see how you can make your newly crafted employee evaluation form that much more effective with the following tips on what to include:

Below are some example template styles for an employee evaluation form. While they’re not ‘one-size-fits-all’ - none of the following employee evaluation templates are - they’re likely to be the styles and types that you’ll most commonly come across when looking for performance review examples.

Generic Employee Evaluation Form

Employee Self Evaluation Form

New Hire Employee Evaluation Form

In this article, we’ve covered the whys and whats of employee evaluation forms, including what they are, why you should use them, the consequences of not using them, the seven most common types of forms for employee evaluations, all the elements you need to know for how to create an employee evaluation form, and effective tips when crafting. Oh, plus three killer employee evaluation templates. All in a day’s work.

So, next time you’re thinking about how to motivate the office and get more productive, think about introducing employee evaluation forms. And CakeResume, because we have tons of helpful content tailored to helping employers in the office, in candidate recruitment, and so much more. Check out our blog now and see why CakeResume makes navigating work life a piece of cake!

--- Originally written by Eva O'Mara ---