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Manager Review Templates: Questions & Examples for 2025

Ready-to-use manager review templates for annual, quarterly, and 90-day employee performance reviews. Includes specific questions, rating scales, and best practices to save time and improve feedback quality.

Managers spend an average of 210 hours per year on performance management activities—that’s 10% of their entire work year. Yet 95% of managers express frustration with their company’s review system.

A well-structured manager review template solves this problem. Templates ensure consistency across evaluations, save hours of preparation time, and help managers deliver feedback that actually improves performance. Rather than starting from scratch for every review, templates provide a proven framework that makes the process faster and fairer.

This guide provides three ready-to-use manager review templates for different scenarios: annual reviews, quarterly check-ins, and 90-day new hire evaluations. Each template includes specific questions, rating scales, and sections you can customize for your team.

Annual performance review template

The annual review is your comprehensive evaluation of an employee’s performance over the past year. This template balances quantitative ratings with qualitative feedback.

Employee information

  • Employee name:
  • Position/Title:
  • Department:
  • Review period:
  • Manager name:
  • Review date:

Performance evaluation

Rate each area on a scale of 1-5:

  • 1 = Needs significant improvement
  • 2 = Needs improvement
  • 3 = Meets expectations
  • 4 = Exceeds expectations
  • 5 = Outstanding

Job knowledge and skills

  • Rating: ___
  • Comments: How effectively does this employee apply technical skills and knowledge to their role? Provide specific examples of projects or tasks that demonstrate their expertise.

Quality of work

  • Rating: ___
  • Comments: Does this employee consistently deliver high-quality work? Are deliverables accurate, thorough, and complete?

Productivity and efficiency

  • Rating: ___
  • Comments: How well does this employee manage their workload and meet deadlines? Are they able to prioritize effectively?

Communication and collaboration

  • Rating: ___
  • Comments: How effectively does this employee communicate with team members, stakeholders, and you as their manager? Do they contribute constructively in team settings?

Problem-solving and initiative

  • Rating: ___
  • Comments: Does this employee proactively identify and solve problems? Do they take initiative on projects or improvements without being prompted?

Reliability and accountability

  • Rating: ___
  • Comments: Can you count on this employee to follow through on commitments? Do they take ownership of their work and outcomes?

Goal review

Previous year’s goals

For each goal from last year:

  • Goal: [State the goal]
  • Achievement status: [Exceeded/Met/Partially met/Not met]
  • Comments: What contributed to this outcome? What obstacles were encountered?

Key accomplishments

List 3-5 specific accomplishments from the past year:

Areas for development

What skills or competencies should this employee focus on developing?

Provide specific, actionable areas for improvement with suggestions for how they can grow in these areas.

Goals for next year

Goal 1:

  • Description:
  • Success metrics:
  • Target completion date:

Goal 2:

  • Description:
  • Success metrics:
  • Target completion date:

Goal 3:

  • Description:
  • Success metrics:
  • Target completion date:

Overall performance summary

Overall rating: ___/5

Summary comments: Provide a 2-3 paragraph overview of this employee’s performance, highlighting their strongest contributions and most important areas for growth.

Development and support

What resources, training, or support does this employee need to succeed?

Examples: mentorship, training courses, new tools, adjusted responsibilities, clearer expectations.

Employee comments

Space for employee to add their perspective, questions, or concerns about this review.

Quarterly check-in template

Quarterly reviews are lighter-weight conversations that keep employees on track between annual reviews. This template focuses on recent progress, immediate challenges, and course correction.

Employee information

  • Employee name:
  • Quarter: Q___ [Year]
  • Manager name:
  • Check-in date:

Progress on current goals

Goal 1: [State the goal]

  • Status: [On track / Ahead / Behind / Blocked]
  • Progress update: What has been accomplished toward this goal this quarter?
  • Adjustments needed: Do we need to modify the goal, timeline, or approach?

Goal 2: [State the goal]

  • Status: [On track / Ahead / Behind / Blocked]
  • Progress update:
  • Adjustments needed:

Goal 3: [State the goal]

  • Status: [On track / Ahead / Behind / Blocked]
  • Progress update:
  • Adjustments needed:

Recent wins

What has this employee accomplished this quarter that deserves recognition?

List 2-3 specific wins, successful projects, or notable contributions.

Current challenges

What obstacles or challenges is this employee facing?

Identify blockers, resource constraints, skill gaps, or other issues impacting performance.

How can I help remove these obstacles?

Performance snapshot

Rate current performance in key areas (1-5 scale):

  • Work quality: ___
  • Productivity: ___
  • Communication: ___
  • Collaboration: ___

Brief comments on ratings:

Development focus

What is this employee working on improving this quarter?

Choose 1-2 specific development areas to focus on between now and the next check-in.

Action items

Manager commitments:

  • Action 1
  • Action 2

Employee commitments:

  • Action 1
  • Action 2

Next check-in

Scheduled date: ____

Focus areas for next conversation:

90-day new hire review template

The 90-day review evaluates how well a new employee is adapting to their role and the organization. This template focuses on onboarding progress, cultural fit, and early performance indicators.

Employee information

  • Employee name:
  • Position:
  • Start date:
  • 90-day review date:
  • Manager name:

Onboarding and integration

How well has this employee integrated into the team and company culture?

Consider: relationships with colleagues, understanding of company values, comfort asking questions, engagement in team activities.

Has this employee completed all required onboarding activities?

  • Training modules
  • System access setup
  • Team introductions
  • Policy acknowledgments
  • Other: ____

Role understanding

Does this employee understand their role, responsibilities, and expectations?

Rating: [Strongly disagree / Disagree / Neutral / Agree / Strongly agree]

Comments: What areas are clear? What might need clarification?

Skills assessment

Technical skills:

  • Rating: ___/5
  • Comments: Is this employee demonstrating the technical skills needed for their role? Are there any skill gaps that need attention?

Learning and adaptability:

  • Rating: ___/5
  • Comments: How quickly is this employee learning new systems, processes, and information?

Communication:

  • Rating: ___/5
  • Comments: Is this employee communicating effectively with the team and stakeholders?

Work quality:

  • Rating: ___/5
  • Comments: For the work completed so far, what is the quality level?

Early accomplishments

What has this employee accomplished in their first 90 days?

List specific contributions, completed projects, or milestones achieved.

Areas needing support

What challenges is this employee facing?

Identify areas where they’re struggling, skills they need to develop, or resources they’re missing.

What support can I provide?

Specific actions you’ll take to help this employee succeed.

Goals for next 90 days

Goal 1:

  • What:
  • Success looks like:

Goal 2:

  • What:
  • Success looks like:

Goal 3:

  • What:
  • Success looks like:

Overall assessment

Is this employee on track to succeed in this role?

  • Yes, exceeding expectations
  • Yes, meeting expectations
  • On track but needs support in specific areas
  • Struggling and requires intervention
  • Not on track for success

Summary comments:

Provide feedback on overall performance during the first 90 days. Be specific about strengths and areas for development.

Next steps

Follow-up actions:

  • Schedule regular 1:1 meetings
  • Provide additional training on: ___
  • Connect with mentor: ___
  • Adjust responsibilities: ____
  • Other: ____

Next review scheduled: ___

Best practices for using review templates

Prepare with specific examples

Templates work best when you fill them with concrete examples. Before the review, gather specific instances of both strong performance and areas needing improvement. “You consistently deliver high-quality work” becomes more meaningful when you add “such as the client presentation you created last month that led to closing a $50K deal.”

According to Culture Amp research, specific, evidence-based feedback is more likely to drive performance improvement than general statements.

Customize for your context

These templates are starting points. Adapt them to your organization’s competencies, values, and review philosophy. Add or remove sections based on what matters most for your team. A sales team template might emphasize metrics and pipeline management, while a design team template might focus more on creativity and collaboration.

Make it a conversation, not a lecture

Performance reviews should be two-way conversations. Use these templates as a discussion guide rather than a one-sided presentation. Ask employees for their perspective on each section before sharing yours. Research shows that employees who participate actively in their reviews are 2x more engaged in their work.

Document throughout the review period

Don’t wait until the review is due to fill out the template. Keep running notes throughout the quarter or year. When an employee handles a difficult situation well or misses a deadline, jot it down immediately. This prevents recency bias and ensures your review reflects the entire review period, not just the last few weeks.

Focus on growth, not just evaluation

While templates include rating scales and assessments, the most valuable part is the development planning. Spend significant time on the “areas for development” and “goals” sections. Employees who receive clear development guidance are 1.4x more likely to stay with their organization.

Streamline your review process

Even with templates, performance reviews remain time-intensive. Managers must gather context from scattered sources—project updates, Slack messages, task completions, and meeting notes—then synthesize this information into coherent feedback.

Modern performance management tools can accelerate this process significantly. Platforms like Windmill integrate with your existing business tools (GitHub, Jira, Asana, Salesforce) to automatically compile employee activity and accomplishments. The AI assistant, Windy, gathers context from these integrations plus conversational check-ins with employees, then helps managers draft reviews in minutes rather than hours.

By automating the context-gathering phase, managers can focus their time on the most important part of reviews: having meaningful conversations about growth and development. Companies using AI-enhanced performance management report reducing review time from 3+ hours per review to 6 minutes for the administrative work, allowing managers to invest their time in coaching rather than paperwork.

Whether you use these templates as-is or combine them with automation tools, the goal remains the same: consistent, fair, and actionable feedback that helps employees grow and improves team performance.