Performance management templates are the four documents a review cycle runs on: the objectives sheet set at the start of the period, the self-appraisal the employee completes, the review form the manager rates and comments on, and the outcome sheet that records the merit increase, the development plan and next period's objectives. Companies search for them as separate downloads and end up with four formats that do not agree. This page sets out the four as one set, gives performance management examples from companies of ten to two hundred people, says what performance management human resources owns and what the manager owns, answers why is performance management important at that size in plain terms, and describes what the companies with best performance management practices do that the rest do not.
The four templates, as one set
The objectives sheet: three to six objectives per employee, each with a target and a measure, agreed and dated. The self-appraisal: the same objectives, with the employee's evidence and self-rating against each. The review form: the same objectives, with the manager's rating and comment against each, an overall rating and final comments. The outcome sheet: the calibrated rating, the merit increase, the development plan and the objectives carried forward. The self-appraisal and the final comments worksheets on this site are two of the four, worked from the operator's own figures with no vendor named, and the same objective list runs through all four.
Examples from small companies, and who owns what
A twelve-person agency runs one cycle a year with quarterly check-ins; the founder reviews everyone, so calibration is unnecessary and the outcome is a conversation about pay. A sixty-person distributor has six managers and runs two cycles; HR owns the calendar, the templates and the calibration meeting, and each manager owns the objectives, the ratings and the comments for their own team. A hundred-and-fifty-person software company adds 360 input for managers. In every case performance management human resources owns the process and the record; the manager owns the judgement. A template that blurs that line produces reviews written by HR about people HR has never worked with.
Why it matters at fifty people, and what the best do
At fifty, a company has stopped being able to remember everyone's year, and the merit budget is large enough that spreading it evenly is noticed and spreading it unfairly is resented. A cycle with objectives, a self-appraisal, a rating with comments and a calibrated outcome is how the company explains its pay decisions to itself. The companies with best performance management practices have short templates, a fixed calendar, calibration across managers, feedback captured during the year and one record per employee across cycles. The employee appraisal software guide on this site says what buying that record costs; Reviewvo Pro is that record for a small company.
Questions people ask about performance management templates
What templates does a performance management cycle need?
Four, sharing one objective list: the objectives sheet, the self-appraisal, the manager's review form and the outcome sheet with the merit increase, development plan and next period's objectives.
What does HR own in performance management and what does the manager own?
HR owns the calendar, the templates, the calibration meeting and the record. The manager owns the objectives, the ratings, the comments and the conversation. Reviews written by HR about people it has not worked with are the sign the line has blurred.
Why is performance management important for a small company?
Because past a few dozen people nobody remembers everyone's year, and the merit budget is large enough that unfair or even distribution is noticed. The cycle is how the company explains its pay decisions to itself and to each employee.