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Performance review phrases are short, specific statements managers use to describe an employee’s work, behavior, and growth areas in a review. Good ones name what happened, explain why it mattered, and point to what comes next. They work best as starting points. Adjust each one with a real example from the employee’s year, because generic wording rarely helps anyone improve.

Filling out the rating form is the easy part of a review. The written comments are where most managers get stuck. Praise ends up vague, criticism ends up harsh, and the employee walks away unsure where they stand.

This guide gives you phrases you can adapt today, a simple formula for writing your own, and a clear list of what to leave out. We’ve kept the original “good, the bad, and the ugly” idea, because knowing what not to write matters just as much as knowing what to write.

Why the Wording of Your Review Comments Matters

The right phrase gives an employee something to act on. The wrong one gives them something to worry about.

The gap between managers and employees is wide. Gallup reports that about 20% of employees say they receive feedback weekly, compared with about 50% of managers who say they deliver it weekly. That means many managers think they are giving feedback while their team does not experience it that way.

Recognition matters too. Among employees who receive both feedback and recognition from their manager at least weekly, 61% are engaged, according to Gallup and Workhuman research. Your review comments are one of the few written records of that feedback, so they are worth getting right.

How to Write a Performance Review Comment (A Simple Formula)

Before you reach for a phrase list, use a short outline. It keeps comments specific and stops you from rambling.

Cover these three parts in order.

• Situation – when and where it happened, so the comment has context
• Behavior – what the employee actually did, in observable terms
• Impact – what changed because of it, ideally with a number

Then close with one line that tells the employee what to keep doing or what to try next.

Here is how it looks in practice.

• “During the Q3 product launch, Nadia coordinated daily check-ins across design and engineering. Because of that, the team shipped two days early. I’d like to see her take on the same role for the Q1 release.”
• “In last quarter’s client calls, Marcus often moved on before confirming next steps. Two clients followed up asking what was agreed. A short recap at the end of each call would fix this, and I’m happy to help you build a template.”

Notice there are no vague qualifiers and no personality labels. The comment describes work, not character.

Positive Performance Review Phrases by Competency

Use these to recognize strong work. Swap the bracketed parts for real details.

Communication

• “Explains complex topics clearly, so stakeholders leave meetings knowing what to do next.”
• “Listens before responding and asks questions that move the conversation forward.”
• “Keeps the team updated on [project] without being asked, which cut down on status meetings.”

Teamwork and Collaboration

• “Shares credit openly and makes teammates feel their input counts.”
• “Stepped in to help [colleague] during [busy period], which kept [project] on schedule.”
• “Builds strong working relationships across departments, especially with [team].”

Quality of Work

• “Delivers accurate, polished work that rarely needs revision.”
• “Catches errors early and fixes them before they reach the customer.”
• “Raised the standard for [deliverable] by introducing [process or checklist].”

Initiative and Problem-Solving

• “Spotted a bottleneck in [process] and proposed a fix that saved roughly [number] hours a week.”
• “Approaches obstacles with a plan, not just a problem.”
• “Took ownership of [project] without being asked and saw it through.”

Leadership

• “Led the [team] through [change or launch] and kept morale steady.”
• “Coaches newer teammates patiently and shares what they know.”
• “Makes tough calls calmly and explains the reasoning to the team.”

Adaptability

• “Adjusted quickly when priorities shifted and stayed focused on results.”
• “Picked up [new tool or skill] in [timeframe] and now helps others use it.”
• “Stays open to feedback and applies it right away.”

Reliability and Time Management

• “Consistently meets deadlines and flags risks early.”
• “Manages competing priorities well, even during peak periods.”
• “Can be counted on to follow through, which makes planning easier for the whole team.”

Constructive Performance Review Phrases

Constructive feedback is not the same as criticism. The goal is to name the gap, show the impact, and offer a path forward.

Here are phrases you can adapt for common growth areas.

• “Your work is strong when you have time to review it. I’d like to see you build in a final check before submitting.”
• “Updates on [project] sometimes arrive late, which makes planning hard for others. A quick weekly note would help.”
• “You have good ideas in one-on-one conversations. I’d encourage you to share them in team meetings too.”
• “Deadlines have slipped on [number] projects this year. Let’s look at workload and priorities together and find what’s getting in the way.”
• “Your technical skills are a real strength. The next step is explaining your decisions to non-technical teammates.”
• “Meetings have started late a few times this quarter. Setting a reminder five minutes ahead should help.”

Swap These Vague Comments for Specific Ones

The Bad and the Ugly: Phrases to Avoid

Some comments hurt more than they help. If your draft includes any of these, rework it before it reaches the employee.

Personal Attacks and Loaded Words

A review is about work, not the person. Avoid comments about appearance, age, gender, health, family situation, or accent. Words like “pathetic,” “useless,” and “annoying” are demeaning and give the employee nothing to act on.

Comments That Can Create Legal Risk

In the US, comments tied to protected characteristics can create real exposure for your company. That includes age, race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. Keep every comment tied to documented, job-related behavior and results. Have HR or legal review your template if you are unsure.

Vague Praise and Vague Criticism

These phrases sound fine but say nothing.

• “Good job.”
• “Needs improvement.”
• “Great attitude.”
• “Not a culture fit.”

If you cannot attach an example to the phrase, it probably does not belong in the review.

Bias Traps

Watch for these patterns when you write.

• Recency bias – judging the whole year by the last few weeks
• Halo effect – letting one strength color every rating
• Similarity bias – rating people higher because they remind you of yourself
• Gendered language – describing the same behavior as “assertive” for one person and “abrasive” for another

A good habit is to keep notes throughout the year, so your comments reflect twelve months and not just the most recent one.

Phrases for Remote and Hybrid Employees

Review language should match how people actually work today. These phrases fit distributed teams.

• “Communicates clearly in writing, which keeps our distributed team aligned across time zones.”
• “Stays responsive on [channel] and sets clear expectations when offline.”
• “Contributes actively in virtual meetings and follows up with notes.”
• “I’d like to see more proactive updates, since I can’t see your progress day to day.”

Can You Use AI to Write Performance Review Comments?

You can, with care. AI tools can help you tighten wording, soften tone, or turn rough notes into a clear comment. They cannot know what the employee did.

If you use AI, follow these rules.

• Feed it your own notes and real examples, not a blank prompt
• Read every line and delete anything generic
• Never paste confidential employee data into a tool your company has not approved
• Remember the review is your judgment, and the employee will expect to hear it in your voice

How to Deliver the Feedback

Written comments are only half the review. Once the document is done, plan the conversation.

• Share the written review in advance when your policy allows, so nothing comes as a surprise
• Start with what went well, then move to growth areas
• Ask the employee for their view before you give yours
• End with two or three clear goals for the next period

Final Thoughts

Strong performance review phrases are specific, fair, and forward-looking. Use the situation, behavior, and impact formula, tie every comment to real examples, and skip anything that attacks the person instead of describing the work.

If you want a simpler way to collect feedback, track goals, and run reviews all year, request a demo with Engagedly and talk to our team.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is your organization considering the implementation of a 360-degree feedback process? This transformative approach offers a shift from traditional one-on-one feedback, providing a holistic view of employee performance. However, selecting the right tool is paramount to ensure the process’s success.

Continue reading “7 Essential Features of a 360 Degree Feedback Tool”

Feedback is a tricky module and we, at Engagedly, have been doing some in-depth research on it. While exploring various perspectives, we also came across The Feedback Fallacy. This research piece of Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall got us thinking about how best we can refine and implement a feedback procedure that will take us one more step closer to our holistic approach of employee fulfillment and people enablement.

About corrective or constructive feedback, the authors state that,

Focusing people on their shortcomings doesn’t enable learning; it impairs it.

Furthermore, they believe that excellence comes easily when we focus only on the positives, and do not dwell on the negatives:

It’s that people contribute their own unique and growing talents to a common good, when that good is ever-evolving, when we are, for all the right reasons, making it up as we go along. Feedback has nothing to offer to that.

While we do not completely agree to this claim, we do believe that constructive feedback, when put forth with tact and wisdom, can help employees and coworkers more than when we do not share any corrective feedback. Though, we do agree with the Harvard Business Review authors that harping only on the negatives can have adverse effects, and it can hamper employee productivity and engagement.

Also read: Getting Started With Real Time Performance Management

So what’s the best way of providing feedback?

It’s a million dollar question! The humans of Engagedly believe in sharing feedback that is constructive and reformative, yet encouraging. Here are some pointers that we like to keep in mind while sharing feedback:

Don’t assume:

While providing feedback, don’t assume what motivation or intention the feedback receiver had behind their actions. Our job is not to build up any stories around anything. It is important to keep aside anything that is not tangible truth and concentrate on articulating what your feelings are around it. You need to approach it from a position of humility, from your own point of view and express your experience and subjective observations.

Express with clarity:

It’s not a happy job to point out flaws in tasks or people. We are not asking you to… because they are not flaws. They are just roadblocks, which once removed, can serve as an impetus for tremendous growth. So when you share feedback with your employees or coworkers, express it with clarity. Let them know that, from your perspective, a slight change can bring about positive outcomes.

Don’t generalize:

Feedback that’s shared with the intent of growth and motivation, cannot focus on general statements and judgements. Because of our subjective opinions and perspectives towards situations, we do not hold the capability to share generalisations or judgements. Target specific behaviours or lack of them, and how that is affecting the output. That’s all should be the content of your feedback. It’s a direct and clearcut way of sharing feedback, without beating around the bush.

Example 1:

Manager: “Robert, your presentation could’ve been more elaborate. I could not get a hang of what you wanted to convey.”

The above example expresses a manager’s concern at not getting a clear picture out of a presentation, but he fails to convey, in which area it lacks clarity. When the same feedback is expressed differently, it can have a very positive impact on Robert.

Example 2:

Manager, “Robert, in my opinion, your presentation was crisp and precise. I loved the insightful information about conversions. But in the sales section, it would have helped me if the information was represented in numbers as well.”

In the above example, the manager is very clear that it’s a subjective feedback, where Robert’s presentation helped him in certain ways, but failed to keep him well-informed with certain other data. There are no generalizations or judgements involved here.

Also read: Why Healthcare Administrators Should Set SMART Goals

Intention matters:

Yes, last but the most important point that we believe in, is intention. Anything you do with the right intention, will always reap the right outcome. So when we share feedback, we keep the intention of positivity and growth in our minds. We always strive to deliver feedback that help individuals detect the roadblocks and turn them into propellers towards success. We let the feedback receivers know that we care for them and wish for them to correct themselves and move towards fulfillment.

Without feedback, we cannot always know or be aware of the little roadblocks that are holding us back from achieving greatness. So it’s important for them to keep coming our way. It’s not the concept of feedback that is wrong, it’s how we share it, that makes the difference.

Now that we have shared our thoughts with you on how to share constructive feedback and whether feedback is an important element for success, we would love to know your thoughts on this matter. Feel free to drop in your comments below!

Engagedly is offering a suite of products part of its Remote Work Toolkit free to any organisation, until Sept 30th, 2020. 

The Coronavirus has affected the way we work today and for months to come. Unprecedented events require unprecedented measures. We at Engagedly believe it is our responsibility as socially conscious corporate citizens to help equip organisations with additional tools and resources during this time of crisis.

Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you with seamless Performance Evaluation? Then request for a live demo.

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The COVID-19 crisis has changed how organisations operate. Most companies are now moving towards a hybrid setup and crafting strategies to manage their remote and hybrid teams.

In the last two years, employees’ morale and motivation have taken a major hit. Since the start of the crisis, employees have had to bear the brunt of the sudden transition to a remote setup that has impacted their productivity and engagement levels. Even now, when most organisations are adopting a hybrid setup, it is challenging for employees to maintain a higher level of motivation towards their work. The major impediments to employee morale are missing social cues and employee bonding.

Employees miss cheering on floors for each other, team outings and lunches, praising team members for their support and exemplary work, and most importantly, getting recognition for their contributions.

As organisations now prepare themselves to manage geographically dispersed teams, it is imperative for them to know how employee recognition and rewards work in this hybrid era.

This article will touch upon different aspects of employee recognition in a hybrid setup and provide some expert ways to keep your hybrid workforce motivated.

Continue reading “Employee Recognition & Rewards In Hybrid Era”

Getting feedback from employees is probably the most common way for managers to know what their teams think of them and how to improve themselves. But getting all employees to give honest feedback isn’t an easy job. Here are 4 must do’s to elicit honest employee feedback.

Continue reading “4 Must Do’s When Eliciting Employee Feedback”

In a recent report by SHRM/Globoforce, 89% of HR leaders agree that giving feedback to peers is the key to employee success.

Constructive feedback has always been crucial for employee growth. It helps increase employee engagement, decreases turnover, and also helps in professional development. Constructive feedback is observation-based and aims to identify weaknesses in individuals, and find a solution. It helps in providing actionable suggestions and reinforces positive behavior. Considering the pandemic-stricken times, it has become more important now more than ever.

Sometimes, giving constructive peer feedback to colleagues is challenging because it tends to discourage them. But, it gives you an opportunity to contribute to regular performance reviews without involving salary appraisals or other negotiations. More importantly, peer feedback helps build a positive culture in your team as well as the whole organisation. Constructive peer feedback, when done right, has a plethora of benefits.

How To Give Constructive Feedback To Peers

1. Plan Well In Advance

It is important to be prepared in advance to give feedback to your colleagues. Feedback meeting with peers is a difficult conversation to have; why not prepare ahead for it?

Preparing in advance for the feedback meeting allows you to put across your point with ease and more confidence. This allows you to help your colleagues improve themselves and achieve the team goals. Always remember to keep the objective of the meeting clear.

Also Read: Planning To Set OKRs For Your Sales Team?

2. Focus On Specific Peer Feedback

There are many articles that talk about the importance of giving both negative and positive feedback together so that the employees aren’t demotivated. But when you are giving it to your peers, it is important to be specific about what exactly you want to convey. You don’t need to add positive performance aspects just for the sake of having them.

Being specific allows your peers to focus on the right thing and improve themselves.

3. Make It A Conversation 

One of the most common problems with giving feedback to peers is that peers aren’t encouraged to participate in it. Phrase your comments properly to encourage your colleagues to participate. For example, if you want to talk about their negative performance and suggest solutions, ask them how they are planning on improving their skills and how it contributes to organisational success.

Also Read: 5 Benefits of Continuous Feedback

4. Be Supportive

When you have chosen to give feedback to your peer, first put yourself in their shoes and understand where they need to improve themselves. Give them suggestions on how they can improve themselves. This helps them understand what you’re expecting of them and how they can meet those expectations. Make a proper action plan for your peers.

5. Summarise Peer Feedback

Summarise the main points discussed in the meeting and emphasise on the action plan that you have created for your colleague. This practice helps you avoid misunderstandings and be clear about what you discussed. In short, state your expectations, the results of their performance, the problems with their performance, the practices they should stick to and your solutions to help them improve.

6. Follow Up Is A Must 

This is optional when you are just a peer. But following up on feedback is a good practice. Feedback is purposeless unless it has an effect on the employee performance. So, follow up and see if they need your help; this makes your peers stay motivated and productive.

7. Be Empathetic

Being empathic in feedback conversations results in better outcomes. It is not easy to take criticism, and employees may get embarrassed or uncomfortable while having feedback discussions. It is therefore important to point out that the intent behind the feedback is good and directed towards improvements in the employee’s performance. Another point to keep in mind is to avoid using personal statements, as they can demoralize the employees and make them reluctant to accept the feedback.

8. Show Respect

Feedback is supposed to help employees understand their strengths and weaknesses. And in such conversations, it is imperative to have respect for each other to fulfill the purpose of the feedback. Being disrespectful during conversations can make employees defensive and even challenge the feedback, or sometimes disregard the whole conversation.

9. Leverage Feedback Tools

The right feedback tools assist in taking notes, recording meetings, and providing real-time feedback to employees. They make it easier to establish the process and have a clear peer feedback loop in the organization.

Tools such as Engagedly allow employees to initiate the feedback process from their end and ask their peers to provide them feedback on their performance. The feedback recorded during the process can be directly fed into the learning and development module to assist employees in improving their performance.

Also Read: 10 Best Employee Feedback Tools To Track Performance

Important: How you give feedback to your peers mainly depends on the nature of your relationship with them. For example, you cannot make an action plan for the CEO of your company and then follow-up on it; while you can do it easily for a colleague who’s on the same level as you. This is something you must absolutely keep in mind when giving feedback to peers.

Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability – Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox.

According to research, organizations with highly engaged employees have 17% higher productivity and 21% higher profitability.  Engaged employees thus work harder and stay for a longer period of time in the organization since they don’t have a reason to move out. 

Employee engagement not only measures the happiness level or quantity of work done by an employee, it does much more than that. In fact, it takes into account how connected and motivated an employee is with their role, work, and organization. 

But employee engagement does not remain constant and should be measured and nurtured from time to time, or it shall until it dissipates. Although there is no specific way to measure employee engagement, here are some of the tools that have made it easy to measure employee engagement. 

Surveys

If you want quick and most effective methods to measure employee engagement, then your go to option should be to conduct surveys. It not only helps in measuring engagement, it also helps in employee motivation, and getting ideas from employees. This two-way communication is very important in having an engaged workforce. HRs and managers should frequently send simple, small, and actionable surveys to the employees of the organization asking them about work. It will help HRs, managers, and the organization to know how engaged their employees are and also help them understand the temperament of the organization. Be sure to focus your survey questionnaire on three basic metrics: Satisfaction, Alignment, and Future orientation.

Engagedly’s inbuilt survey feature helps you create and assign surveys without a hitch.

Stay / Exit Interviews

Employees leave the organization at different points of time, but as a manager or an HR, you need to know the actual cause behind it. Often employees cite that they didn’t feel engaged or excited with the work they do, as the reason behind leaving the organization. Conducting exit interviews and stay interviews help the managers and the HRs to know which areas they should work on to improve employee engagement. 

Exit interviews help in understanding what you could have done differently to improve engagement, whereas stay interviews let you know what you are already excelling at and what not.

Some common questions for both exit and stays interviews are:

• What do you like most about your job?
• What makes for a great day of work to you?
• What do you look forward to everyday at your work?
• What’s your relationship with your manager like?
• What do you dislike most about your job?
• If you could, what’s one thing you would change with your role?
• What makes you want to stay with this organization?
• What makes you want to leave this organization?

This helps in preventing another employee leaving the organization for the same reason.

Also Read: 7 Successful Strategies To Conduct  A Stay Interview

One-to-One Meetings

From time to time, HRs and managers should have one-to-one meetings with their employees. As one-to-one meetings are in person with the manager or the HR, the employee feels free to share information and express themselves. This should be done regularly, probably weekly once or every fortnight is advisable.

Also Read: Know How To Conduct One-On-One Meetings Effectively

Focus Groups

When organizations are very large it might be difficult for you to conduct a one-to-one meeting with your employees. In this case, focus groups could be formed. Often members of the same team or different teams can be grouped for this. As a manager or an HR, you should be well prepared with a set of 5 to 8 questions, based on asking the employees whether they feel that their work is important or whether they have all the tools to do their work. This will help organizations to know what they can do more to improve employee engagement and productivity.

Also Read: A Manager’s Guide To Review Remote Employees

Recognition Activity

According to a recent study, 69% of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were better appreciated.

Employees recognition and rewards activities are a good way to identify engaged employees. It is already known that recognition and rewards have a direct impact on employee engagement. The reverse also stands true, identifying the number of employees receiving rewards and recognition helps managers and HRs to identify employee engagement in their organization.

Also Read: Things To Consider When Recognizing Remote Employees

Retention Rate and Productivity Metrics

Retention rate and productivity metrics of employees will help determine how engaged the employees are in the organization as employee engagement will have a direct effect on the retention rate and productivity metrics. 

Also Read: 6 Stay Interview Challenges To Be Aware Of

Thus it cannot be stressed enough how important employee engagement is and why it should be measured from time to time to keep your employees motivated and retain them in your organization. So if you have not been doing so, now is the time you should incorporate employee engagement measurement strategies and tools. If you wish to know hoe Engagedly can help you, just fill in the form below and reach out to us.

Engagedly is offering a suite of products part of its Remote Work Toolkit free to any organisation, until Sept 30th, 2020. 

The Coronavirus has affected the way we work today and for months to come. Unprecedented events require unprecedented measures. We at Engagedly believe it is our responsibility as socially conscious corporate citizens to help equip organisations with additional tools and resources during this time of crisis.

Get in touch with us to know more about the free remote working tool-kit. 

Don’t we all love a little pat on the back once in a while? Some employees crave it more than others do, but for the most part a little recognition goes a long way.

Continue reading “The Power Of Positive Employee Recognition”

360 feedback reviews and performance reviews might seem like they are one and the same thing, but in reality, these two processes review two completely different things.

Continue reading “Framing The Right Questions To Ask In A 360 Feedback Review Form”