How to Create and Manage Assessment Templates

Understanding Assessment Templates

Assessment Templates define what people will be asked to assess and discuss during a performance review.

A template contains the structure of the assessment, including competencies, ratings, reflection questions and other information you want employees and managers to consider.

Templates are separate from Review Cycles.

The Assessment Template defines what will be assessed. The Review Cycle determines who will complete the assessment and when.

You need an Assessment Template before you can use it within a Review Cycle.

Viewing your Assessment Templates

Open Settings and select Assessment Templates.

You'll see any templates that have already been created for your organisation.

If the list is empty, that's normal. Templates can be created as they're needed for different performance and development processes.

For example, you might eventually have templates for an annual performance review, 90-day onboarding review, leadership review or Performance Improvement Review.

Creating an Assessment Template

Select Create Template to begin.

You don't need to build the assessment from scratch.

A new template starts with a common performance review structure already populated. You can use that structure as it is or modify it to suit the type of assessment you're creating.

Give the template a clear name that explains its purpose.

For example, you might create a template called 90-Day Onboarding Review.

Reviewing the default structure

Before saving a new template, review the pre-populated assessment structure.

The default content gives you a practical starting point for a typical performance conversation.

You can retain the sections that are relevant, edit the wording, remove anything you don't need and add additional content where required.

This makes it possible to create a customised assessment without having to design the entire review process yourself.

Managing competencies

Competencies allow employees and managers to assess performance against specific skills, behaviours or expectations.

A new template includes commonly used competencies that you can retain or modify.

You can edit an existing competency, remove one that isn't relevant or add additional competencies that reflect the requirements of your organisation or the particular review.

For example, a leadership review might include competencies around decision making, communication and developing others, while an onboarding review may focus more heavily on role knowledge and understanding key processes.

Using competency ratings

During the review, both the employee and their manager can assess the employee against the competencies included in the template.

This creates a useful comparison between the employee's self-assessment and the manager's assessment.

The rating is only part of the conversation. Comments and examples provide the context behind the rating.

A rating such as Meets Expectations should be understood as a positive result, meaning the employee is performing at the expected level for that competency.

Configuring the Overall Assessment

The template can also include questions that help employees and managers reflect more broadly on the review period.

These might explore achievements, challenges, development priorities or support requirements.

For example, an assessment might ask employees to reflect on what went particularly well, what they found challenging, where they would like to develop and what support they need from their manager.

You can adjust these questions to match the purpose of the assessment.

Making questions required

Where appropriate, questions can be made required.

Use required questions for information that should form a consistent part of every assessment using that template.

Other questions can remain optional where employees or managers may not always have something relevant to add.

The objective is to capture enough information for a meaningful conversation without making the assessment unnecessarily complicated.

Creating templates for different purposes

You don't need to use the same Assessment Template for every performance process.

For example, an Annual Performance Review might provide a broad assessment of performance, achievements and development across the year.

A 90-Day Onboarding Review could focus on how the employee is settling into their role, what they've learned, any areas where they need additional support and priorities for the next stage of their employment.

A Performance Improvement Review could focus on specific performance expectations, progress against agreed improvements, support provided and the next actions required.

Templates can therefore support both organisation-wide processes and much more targeted assessments.

Saving your template

Once you're happy with the structure, competencies and assessment questions, save the template.

It will then appear in your Assessment Templates and become available when creating a Review Cycle.

Saving the template doesn't start a performance review or send anything to employees.

It simply creates the assessment structure that can later be used within a Review Cycle.

Editing and reusing templates

Existing Assessment Templates can be edited when your requirements change.

Templates can also be duplicated, allowing you to use an existing assessment as the starting point for a new one.

For example, you might duplicate your standard annual review template and adapt it for a leadership review rather than building another assessment from the beginning.

Templates can be reused across multiple Review Cycles where the assessment requirements are the same.

They can also be created for a single purpose where you need a more specialised assessment.

Using templates with Review Cycles

Once your Assessment Template is ready, the next step is to create a Review Cycle.

The Review Cycle connects the template to the people who need to complete it and establishes the timeframe and deadlines.

For example, you could take your 90-Day Onboarding Review template and create a Review Cycle for one employee approaching the end of their first 90 days.

Alternatively, you could use your standard Annual Performance Review template in a Review Cycle assigned across your organisation.

This separation between Assessment Templates and Review Cycles gives you flexibility to reuse the same assessment structure while changing who participates and when the review takes place.