Components of a Trakstar Review Form

Whether you're updating review forms that have been used for years or creating entirely new ones for your organization, it's important to design review forms that are simple, effective, and easy to use.

Well-designed review forms play a critical role in the success of your performance management process. When forms are clear, relevant, and thoughtfully structured, employees and managers are more likely to embrace the review process and engage in meaningful performance conversations.

This guide explores the key components of an effective review form and provides best practices for designing forms that support consistent, valuable evaluations.

The Case for Competencies

Competencies provide a consistent framework for evaluating employee performance across your organization.

Including competencies on your review forms helps you:

Communicate shared performance expectations for all employees.
Create a fair evaluation process by measuring employees against consistent standards.
Gather measurable performance data that can be analyzed across teams and the organization.

Best Practices for Using Competencies

Keep It Simple

Less is more.

Employees are more receptive to feedback when they are evaluated on a focused set of competencies rather than an extensive checklist. Fewer ratings help reviewers provide more meaningful feedback while giving employees clear areas for improvement.

Consider Job-Specific Competencies

In addition to organization-wide competencies, consider adding competencies that reflect the responsibilities of specific roles.

Job-specific competencies can further define expectations for certain positions, although they may not be necessary for every review form.

Choose Broad Competencies

Select competencies that represent broad categories of workplace behavior.

Broad competencies often encompass many day-to-day responsibilities, allowing you to evaluate performance without requiring a long list of individual competencies.

Using broader competencies also supports the principle of keeping review forms concise and manageable.

Avoid Overlapping Competencies

Choose competencies that are distinct from one another.

When competencies overlap, reviewers may unintentionally evaluate the same behavior multiple times. Unique competencies provide clearer, more meaningful performance data.

Use Clearly Defined Performance Levels

Pair each competency with descriptive performance levels that align with your organization's expectations.

Well-written rating descriptions help reviewers:

Apply ratings more consistently.
Reduce reliance on subjective judgment.
Match employee performance to clearly defined behaviors.

Clear performance level descriptions also improve consistency across departments and review cycles.

Gather Input Before Finalizing Competencies

Competencies are most effective when they reflect your organization's values.

Consider sharing a proposed list of competencies with managers, leaders, or other stakeholders and asking them to identify the competencies they believe best represent your organization's expectations.

Use that feedback to narrow the list to a core set of competencies.

Weight Competencies Appropriately

If certain competencies are more important than others, assign weights that reflect their relative importance.

Weighting competencies allows review scores to better align with your organization's priorities and values.

The Case for Goals

While competencies create consistency across the organization, goals recognize each employee's unique responsibilities, projects, and contributions.

Goals encourage employees and managers to focus on growth, development, and achievements that extend beyond the core responsibilities of a position.

There are several ways to structure a goals section on a review form. Choose the approach that best fits your organization's culture, workforce, and performance management philosophy.

Open-Ended Goals

An open-ended goals section allows employees or managers to add as many goals as needed.

This approach works well when:

Project sizes vary significantly between employees.
Employees may work on one large initiative or several smaller projects.
The number of goals cannot be predetermined.

When using an open-ended structure, determine whether goals can be added by:

Managers
Employees
Both managers and employees

Fixed-Quantity Goals

Some organizations require every employee to have a specific number of goals, such as two or three.

This approach helps ensure that all employees are working toward measurable objectives beyond their routine responsibilities while maintaining consistency across the organization.

One advantage of this structure is that every employee is evaluated against the same number of goals.

Mandatory Goals

Organizations may also choose to assign one or more mandatory organizational goals to every employee.

This approach allows organizational priorities to cascade throughout the company while allowing each employee to document how they personally contribute to those objectives using SMART goal details.

The Case for Narrative Response Questions

Narrative response questions encourage thoughtful performance conversations by allowing employees and managers to provide detailed, open-ended feedback.

Unlike fixed rating scales, narrative questions require reflection and allow individuals to explain their experiences, perspectives, and accomplishments in their own words.

Including narrative questions helps ensure that employees and managers feel their voices are heard while providing valuable qualitative insights that ratings alone cannot capture.

Common Uses for Narrative Questions

Narrative questions can be customized to meet your organization's needs. For example, they can be used to:

Encourage employees to reflect on their performance and accomplishments.
Provide managers with additional context about employee performance.
Gather employee feedback about the organization.
Identify trends related to employee engagement, morale, or workplace sentiment.
Support more meaningful conversations during the performance review process.

Thoughtfully written narrative questions complement competency ratings and goals by adding context that helps create a more complete picture of employee performance.