Peer reviews are a great way of getting different perspectives on how well an employee is doing. They allow managers to assess performance and guide how best to drive the employee's development. If you're looking to learn best practices for peer reviews then check out our article on running a great performance review.
How to decide which template to use?
More information is better, obviously. But at what cost? Running 360-style reviews takes up a lot of your people's time. They could spend that time on other valuable activities like driving revenue.
With that in mind, you should always consider the impact of every question in the template and how it drives your particular talent objectives.
Consider:
- The frequency of reviews
- Time available to staff for those reviews
- Nature of the relationship between the reviewee and reviewers
- Who will see and act on the feedback provided
Giving good feedback is a skill that your team will need to hone over time. We've got some great 360 degree feedback examples to you started.
Once you've had a chance to ponder the above, the suitable template should be clear. Please take a look at some of our sample evaluation templates below.
Template 1 - The simple Start, Stop, Continue Peer Review Template
This template asks three simple, open-ended questions. It's an easy template to comprehend and will catch general reviewer feedback. It also forces reviewers to consider what's working and what could be improved for more balanced feedback.
- [Open-Ended] What should the reviewee start doing?
- [Open-Ended] What should the reviewee stop doing?
- [Open-Ended] What should the reviewee continue doing?
Template 2 - General Performance Peer Review Template
This template is a generic template that will work well in almost any organisation. It covers key elements of any job that should be addressed and evaluated.
How would you rate the reviewee's Job Knowledge?
- Unsatisfactory
- Meets Most Needs
- Fully Meets Needs and Sometimes Exceeds Them
- Consistently Exceeds Needs
- Far Exceeds Needs
How would you rate the reviewee's Work Quality?
- Unsatisfactory
- Meets Most Needs
- Fully Meets Needs and Sometimes Exceeds Them
- Consistently Exceeds Needs
- Far Exceeds Needs
How would you rate the reviewee's Attendance and Reliability?
- Unsatisfactory
- Meets Most Needs
- Fully Meets Needs and Sometimes Exceeds Them
- Consistently Exceeds Needs
- Far Exceeds Needs
- How would you rate the reviewee's Productivity?
Unsatisfactory
- Meets Most Needs
- Fully Meets Needs and Sometimes Exceeds Them
- Consistently Exceeds Needs
- Far Exceeds Needs
How would you rate the reviewee's Communication/Listening Skills?
- Unsatisfactory
- Meets Most Needs
- Fully Meets Needs and Sometimes Exceeds Them
- Consistently Exceeds Needs
- Far Exceeds Needs
How would you rate the reviewee's Overall Performance?
- Unsatisfactory
- Meets Most Needs
- Fully Meets Needs and Sometimes Exceeds Them
- Consistently Exceeds Needs
- Far Exceeds Needs
Do you have any additional comments to add that could improve performance or aid future development?
- Open-Ended
Template 3 - The Behavioural, No-Ratings Peer Review Template
Instead of rating skills or elements of an individual's performance, this template focuses on assessing the frequency of desirable behaviours. This template can drive development without the anxiety of ratings and can work well in more sensitive scenarios.
Note how this works well for a self or peer review.
I / The Reviewee listen(s) well to others.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
I / The Reviewee create(s) space for different ideas or opinions to be voiced.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
I / The Reviewee collaborate(s) effectively with others to achieve shared goals.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
I / The Reviewee share(s) skills and learnings with peers when needed.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
I / The Reviewee seek(s) to understand a problem before working on a solution.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
I / The Reviewee am(is) able to admit mistakes.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
I / The Reviewee recognise(s) the contributions of teammates and peers.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
I / The Reviewee provide(s) kind and constructive feedback when needed.
- Almost always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
What next?
As you build out your performance management system, these templates should get you started. Some ideas to play with as you grow:
- Consider measuring value alignment, ideally through desirable behaviours.
- Research different rating scales and find the ones that best match your culture.
- Build a competency library that best fits your work's nature and values.
