Performance review questions are always a hard thing to do for many reasons. It is one of the more confrontational things you can do in an office environment, it really comes down to creating an employee performance review in front of a person, and it is overall a hard thing to do right.

But here are we to help! Performance review conversation does not have to be problematic. With our help, you can find some great performance review questions to highlight employee strengths and weaknesses in a performance evaluation.

The manager-employee relationship is essential, and a performance review is one of the most direct and efficient ways to strengthen it. Professional growth is impossible without going back from time to time and looking at your own performance from a perspective. It’s also impossible to do a job effectively without being able to receive feedback.

We’ve prepared a number of employee review questions to help you out in this process. Performance questions, employee feedback, personal goals - everything you can think of - we’ve got you covered!

So, without further ado, let’s dive into our guide to performance conversations!

The best question to start with, indeed. What really are performance review questions? Well, it’s a series of questions that allow team managers and HR to better understand the situation in the company and each individual employee's strengths and weaknesses.

The performance review process is an essential part of every company’s professional development. It allows professional growth opportunities and creates employee engagement on a completely another level.

Creating an environment where employees get reviewed regularly allows managers to best use their strengths and avoid anything that would make them feel uncomfortable or could harm the company. With the right questions, you can gain valuable insights into a team member’s view on the company.

There are many ways to use performance review questions. Can the company succeed without doing it? Well, it depends on the company. In reality - probably yes. But it’s not only about keeping the company going, it’s about developing.

Performance review is a key component of every company culture where career growth is important. The team members get regularly questioned on their performance so that they can better understand their abilities and personal strengths.

In most cases, managers use it to motivate their employees and asses their usefulness to the company. It can be done quarterly or yearly, depending on the type of business.

So, now that we know what is a performance review, what kind of software to use when creating review questions, we can now focus on what’s important - the actual questions.

We’ve decided to divide the questions into branches that can be of interest to you and your company. 

We’ve also added a little introduction so that you can better understand what happens every step of the way. With that in mind, let’s get into it.

Of course, it’s all about performance review, but you have to first think about what you’re trying to gain by doing a performance review. You have to know what you’re trying to accomplish as a manager, and what kind of resources you’re trying to allocate to what kind of activities.

The literature states that there are really only two most important objectives of a performance review: evaluation and development.

Evaluation

Performance management is not the easiest thing to do. That is why, as a manager, you have to be on top of your game when evaluating your employees. You need to understand them and know what they are capable of.

The performance review is a great way to appreciate your employees who exceeded expectations and see who really did not meet what was expected of them. It’s also a great time to talk about promotions and bonuses. 

Development

This one is a bit more tricky, as it can be understood in many different ways. First, you can see it as a development of an employee who tries to better understand their role in the company and what they can bring to the table.

The other is - the development of the company itself. It’s really important to let the employee know the difference between the two. An employee who identifies themselves with the company can be a real asset and will gladly advance in the company’s hierarchy. Doing an employee development performance review cycle will bring the best out of them for themselves and the company.

One of the most important things to include in the questionnaire is the part with community questions. It really shows in studies that humans need not only to know their self-worth but also how they situate themselves in the hierarchy and among peers. Here are some questions that could be asked in different Community-based sections:

Employee (On Themselves)

• What am I good at?
• What have I accomplished since the last review?
• What am I the proudest of?
• How do I want to develop in the company?
• What should I improve upon?
• What was the hardest part of my job?
• What was the easiest part of my job?
• What do I want to accomplish in the next performance review?
• What do I like about my job?
• What do I not like about my job?

Peers (On The Employee)

• Did this person do a good job in the last performance review cycles?
• Did you have good relationships with this person?
• How would you rate this person when it comes to how useful they are to the company on a scale from 1-10?
• Did this person meet their expectations?
• What were some successes of this person since the last employee’s performance review?
• What were some failures of this person since the last employee’s performance review?
• Is this person dependable? Have they met all the deadlines?
• Did this person influence your work in any way? If yes - how?

Manager (On The Employee)

• Most of the above +
• Was this person of value to the company?
• How did this person work in a team environment?
• Did this person cause any problems?
• What was your relationship with this person?

The other side of the employee performance report is the manager evaluation form where employees can state their needs and issues with the manager. There should be some questions in the questionnaire on this topic as well. Direct reports are a great way to add to the company’s value some managerial development as well.

• Did the team progress since the last performance review?
• Did this person manage to motivate other team members?
• Did this person accomplish all their goals?
• Was this person a value to the company?
• Would you want to work with this person again?
• How did this person treat other team members?

Questions on skills can really determine if the person in question is of value to the company. Because of that, it’s really necessary to be thorough with this investigation. It can really make or break some employees’ careers, so proceed with caution. Here are the questions divided into branches of interest.

Personal

• Did this person meet all the deadlines?
• Did this person grow in the company?
• Was this person able to develop new skills?
• Was this person able to meet all the KPIs?
• Was this person a creative problem solver?
• What was this person’s quality of work?

Team

• Was this person able to communicate with the team effectively?
• Was this person a good team player?
• Was this person getting into conflict with other employees? If so, how were those handled?
• Was this person considerate and empathetic?

Company

• Was this person active during company events?
• Was this person actively involved in organizing company events?
• Does this person represent the company's values?

Next position on our list is the quantitative and qualitative questions. Managers agree that it helps them better understand what kind of employees they have under them if they can evaluate them in a well-rounded way.  

In this part of the questionnaire, it’s all about details and cold hard data. Here are some examples of it:

Quantitative

• Did this person achieve their goals? In what percentage?
• How did this person's work affect the overall well-being of the company?
• How much did the company earn because of this person’s work?
• How does this person place compared to the average employee in this company?

Qualitative

• To what extent was this employee an asset to the company?
• To what extent was this employee a valuable worker?
• To what extent did this employee work hard?
• To what extent is this employee a self-sufficient person?
• To what extent is this employee a problem-solver?
• To what extent did this employee useful in the team environment?

Of course, there are many ways you can do it. And - there is no really the best one that has no flaws and should all be created according to the situation in your company. So, with that in mind, check out the template we’ve prepared for you to get inspired by.

Template #1

The first one is pretty straightforward, as you can see. There are just some numbered questions and blanks to fill in by the employee. Nothing really special, but it gets the job done.

You can download it for free from Template.net.

Template #2

Here you have a detailed version of the first one, with an introduction in which you can see what the goals of said template are and what we want to gain from creating such a performance review.

You can also download this one for free from Template.net.

You can really go either way, as the most important thing is that you can translate your thoughts onto a piece of paper with clarity and no issues whatsoever.

Thanks for checking out our article on performance review questions. We just hope it will not cause us to get a performance review afterward. 

As always, thank you for being with us and checking out our materials, we strive for the best and we’re glad that you can appreciate it in the end. Also, if you have any ideas on what we should cover next in the software/gaming/business world - we’d be more than happy to help you out with that.

See you at the next one! Stay safe!