Annual review.
A pared-down annual review built for organisations that run a once-a-year cycle. Two pages, three rating dimensions, one page of forward-looking goals. Lean by design.
Annual Review — [Year] Employee: [Name] Manager: [Name] Role at year-end: [Title, Level] Headline assessment [Three to five sentences summarising the year. What stood out, what landed, what should change.] Ratings Outcomes: [Rating] — [One sentence of evidence] Behaviours: [Rating] — [One sentence of evidence] Growth: [Rating] — [One sentence of evidence]…
What's inside the document.
Review period dates, employee, manager, role and level at start and end of period.
Three to five sentences. What stood out, what landed, what should change.
Outcomes · Behaviours · Growth. Rated against your scale; one sentence of evidence per rating.
Two of each, specific, with examples. Generic 'communicator' / 'detail-oriented' is not allowed.
Three goals with measurable success criteria. Tied to team strategy.
Employee + manager + skip-level for calibration sign-off.
A complete document set.
- Word document (.docx) — fully editable
- PDF — signature-ready
- Google Docs — one-click copy to your Drive
- 12 months of updates to this document
- Commercial-use licence for internal and client work
Three formats, one document.
- Word document (.docx) — fully editable
- PDF — signature-ready
- Google Docs — one-click copy to your Drive
5 steps from download to use.
- 01Set the review period dates and the role at start vs end of period.
- 02Write the headline assessment first — it forces the rest of the document to be coherent.
- 03Rate each dimension with one sentence of evidence; refuse to rate without an example.
- 04Calibrate with the rest of the management team before sharing.
- 05Walk through in person; share the document and goals afterwards.
The right document at the right moment.
Use the annual review for organisations on a once-a-year performance cycle who want a tight document rather than the longer employee performance review. The structure is lean — three dimensions, two pages — and is read in full.
If you run twice-yearly or quarterly reviews, use the employee performance review template instead. Two short reviews are usually better than one long one, but the cadence is yours to choose.
Honest answers before you download.
- Two pages — is that enough?
- Yes, if the headline assessment and the three dimensions are written with specificity. The most common review failure is over-documenting platitudes; brevity that bites is more defensible than length that doesn't.
- What rating scale should I use?
- Whatever yours is. Most organisations use a 3 or 5-point scale tied to a competency framework. The template's rating fields are placeholder labels you replace with your own.
- Do I have to include goals?
- Yes. A review without forward goals is a record, not a tool. The three-goal limit forces prioritisation.
This annual review template is a professionally drafted starting point and is not legal advice. The clauses follow current US and AU practice; adapt the document for your specific jurisdiction and have qualified counsel review any clauses you add before signing or distributing. Full disclaimer.