A manager's written review for one person, sent before they talk: goals, evidence, strengths, next steps.
A review should hold no surprises, and the simplest way to manage that is to send it in writing a few days before you talk. The person reads it alone, gets past their first reaction, and arrives ready to discuss it. Borrow the structure of the one written for a made-up purchasing coordinator at a furniture workshop. The substance has to be what you saw this year.
Who it's for
A manager writing about one person who reports to them. Send it two or three days ahead of the meeting, to them alone.
It prepares a conversation and can't replace one. If your company has a review form or a rating scale, fill that in too, and use the page to explain the boxes you ticked. A first warning about a serious problem needs a meeting, not a page.
What a good one contains
- The goals you agreed, as you agreed them. Four in the sample, set the previous December. Nobody should be judged against goals they never saw.
- A result and a source for each. Days the workshop stopped for missing material fell from 14 to 4, and the production log is named as the source.
- A status in words. "Met." "One day short." "Done, 11 weeks late." A 3 out of 5 tells a person nothing about what to change.
- Strengths, each with the moment you saw it. A supplier sheet so complete that a colleague covered two weeks of leave without one phone call. "Great team player" is forgotten by Friday.
- One or two things to work on, with what you'd like instead. The sample asks for two lines on the day a deadline starts to look doubtful.
- Your own part. The write-up of the late goal says the manager set the date and freed up no time. It makes the rest easier to hear.
- Next period's goals, as proposals. A measure and a date for each, plus what the manager will do and three things to bring to the meeting.
Saying the hard part
Describe what happened and what it cost, and leave character out. "I learned that the inventory move was at risk on June 22, a week before it was due" is a fact the person can answer. "You don't communicate" is a verdict.
If someone first hears about a problem in writing in December, the failure was in the eleven months before. Keep pay out of the meeting too. The sample says salaries are reviewed for everyone in January.
After you've talked, update the page with what you agreed, in the conversation where you made it. If HR must read it, add them by name and tell the person.
How to send it
To named people. It's about one person and written for that person. Name them as the only reader, and nobody else on the team can open it.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
