Performance review questions help you gain holistic insights into employee performance and learn valuable information about members of your workforce.

In this article, we’ve listed the best performance review questions to supercharge your performance reviews and help you gain valuable feedback!

Here are the different areas to evaluate the performance of your employees. Feel free to check out the employee review questions that are relevant to you.

50+ Smart Performance Review Questions for Employees

Employees who are given value for their hard work tend to stay with the company and perform better. This is why you need to gauge the performance accurately, and for that you need to ask the right set of questions.

Here are some of the best performance review questions to ask your employees.

For overall performance
For employee strength
For finding areas of improvement
For job satisfaction
For future growth and outlook
For employee relationships
For company culture and value

Let's discuss each in detail.

Performance Review Questions: About the Employee’s Overall Performance

These questions touch every part of the job, providing insight into overall performance. The following are some questions you can ask.

What accomplishments this quarter are you most proud of?
What are the ideal working conditions to be the most productive?
Which goals did you meet?
What motivates you to get your work done?
What can we do to make your job more enjoyable?
Which goals feel short?
What was your greatest accomplishment at work?
What do you hope to accomplish over the coming year?
What skills do you have that you believe we could use more effectively?
Tell us about your personal strengths that help you do your job effectively.

Pro Tip: Schedule performance reviews at regular intervals (quarterly is optimal) rather than just annually to provide timely feedback and course correction opportunities.

Here’s an annual performance review template created using ThriveSparrow…

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Performance Review Questions: Employee’s Strengths

This set of questions explores and evaluates the strong areas of an employee. This way, you or the organization can assign more tailored work to them.

Some review questions you can ask are -

11. What makes you the best fit for your position?

12. What kind of work comes easiest to you?

13. Describe the kind of work that inspires you the most.

14. What skills or knowledge do people on your team rely on you to provide?

Performance Review Questions: Areas of Improvement

These questions help you identify the key areas where an employee needs to work. The feedback can essentially help them improve their skills and offer opportunities to grow in their career.

What goals/deliverables were you least proud of? Why?
How will you do those differently in the future?
What 2-3 things will you focus on in the next quarter to help you grow and develop?
What can we do to better meet your goals?
Where do you feel there’s room for you to improve?

Performance Review Questions: About the Employee’s Current Role

The main aim here is to understand how satisfied the employees are at their current position. The answers to these questions can shed light on whether an employee will stay or churn.

Questions you can ask here are as follows.

Which job responsibilities/tasks do you enjoy most?
Which job responsibilities do you least enjoy?
What do you like least about your current role?
What would you change about your current role?
How do you think your role helps the company succeed?
What do you like most about working for our company?

Here’s what you get with ThriveSparrow’s performance reviews...

Individual and team blind gaps and hidden strengths
AI-based personal development plans
Department wise and Individual 360 degree performance reports and scores
Intuitive performance heatmaps and summary

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Performance Review Questions: About Future Growth and Outlook

This is to understand how aspiring the employees are about their future. The questions delve into the employee's desire for promotion, his goals, the type of career they want, and so on.

Read the following questions to get an idea.

What are your most important goals for the next quarter?
What do you see as your biggest challenge next year? How are you preparing for it?
Do you assume your personal goals align with the organizational goals? If not, then why?
What do you want your next position at this company to be?
What professional growth opportunities would you like to explore to get there?
How would your responsibilities change?
What type of career growth is most important to you?
What position at the company do you want to move to next?

Pro Tip : When employees reflect on their current roles and set goals for future growth, a strong and well-written resume often plays a key role. The professional resume writers offers efficient assistance in creating resumes that clearly present an individual’s strengths and accomplishments, which may help in securing promotions or new career opportunities. Some services even include free fax options, making it easier to send your resume quickly and conveniently when needed.

Questions About Relationships With Managers or Other Employees

The employees may be performing well, but are they good with others? It's important that every employee should have a healthy relationship with each other. To assess this, you can try including the following in the performance review survey.

What (if any) concerns do you have when it comes to giving me feedback?
How can I alleviate those concerns?
How do you prefer to receive feedback and/or recognition for your work?
Were you given enough valuable feedback this quarter?
What are two to three things I could do differently to manage you better?
What do I do that is most/least helpful for you when it comes to completing your work?
How have I helped you achieve your goals during the past few months?
What can we do to improve our relationship?
What would you do differently if you were a manager?
Do you feel that the team is working well collaboratively?
Where has management helped and hindered your work?
What would colleagues or clients say about their recent interactions with you?

Questions About the Company Culture and Values

As the name indicates, these questions evaluate the employee's mindset about the company's culture and values. The questions you can ask are as follows.

What are the main drivers of success in the company?
Which of our company values did you live best in the last few months?
Are you comfortable with our corporate culture, and are there areas that need improvement?
What’s your favorite part about working in our company?
How can we make our company more inclusive and diverse?
When have you felt the proudest about being a part of our company?

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25+ Performance Review Questions for Managers

Unlike other employees, performance reviews for managers need a more targeted approach. This is because they not only evaluate their own performance but also their effectiveness in leading teams.

So, for those who are looking to get targeted questions to ask your managers, read the following.

Questions on Leadership Effectiveness
Questions on Team Development and Support
Questions on Communication and Feedback
Questions on Goal Setting and Performance Management
Questions on Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making
General Questions to Ask Your Manager

Let’s discuss each in detail!

Questions on Leadership Effectiveness

These questions are used to assess how well the managers lead their teams. And more importantly, how has that affected the end results.

Some review questions you can ask here are.

How would you describe your leadership style, and how has it evolved over the past year?
Can you provide examples of how you have motivated your team to achieve their goals?
What challenges have you faced in leading your team, and how did you address them?

Questions on Team Development and Support

Here, the focus is on how managers nurture their team's growth and potential. This include identifying the challenges faced by the team and offering solutions or help to surpass them.

Some questions gauge this are -

What steps have you taken to identify and develop the strengths of your team members?
How do you ensure that your team has the resources and support they need to succeed?
Can you share an example of a successful coaching or mentoring experience with a team member?

Questions on Communication and Feedback

This set of review questions is used to evaluate how managers communicate with their teams. The communication can be anything from discussing expectations to providing feedback.

Questions you can ask here are as follows.

How do you approach giving constructive feedback to your team members?
In what ways do you encourage open communication within your team?
How do you handle conflicts or difficult conversations with team members?

Questions on Goal Setting and Performance Management

You can ask the following questions to assess how managers set goals and manage performance.

How do you align your team's goals with the broader organizational objectives?
What methods do you use to track and measure your team's performance?
How do you celebrate successes and recognize achievements within your team?

Questions on Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making

This set of questions is asked to understand the manager's approach to planning and decision-making. The following are some review questions you can ask to assess.

How do you prioritize tasks and projects within your teams?
Can you describe a recent decision you made that significantly impacted your team?
What strategies do you employ to anticipate and mitigate risks in your project?

Questions on Personal Development and Self-Reflection

The idea is to encourage managers to reflect on their growth and areas of improvement. The answers to these questions can shine light on how they think of themselves at workplace.

You can ask the following questions to assess your manager.

What skills do you believe you need to develop further to enhance your effectiveness as a manager?
How do you seek feedback on your performance from your peers and team members?
What resources have you found the most beneficial for your professional growth?

General Performance Review Questions to Ask Your Manager

Apart from what we have discussed above, here are some general review questions you can include in your annual or mid-year performance review. Here are the general appraisal questions to ask your managers.

What role does [name] have on the team, and what impact have they had?
Describe a meaningful contribution that [name] has made this quarter
Which company value have you seen [name] emulating well in the last few months
Describe how you have impacted [name]’s ability to succeed and grow in their position
What types of projects does [name] excel at?
How has [name] done with creating and meeting goals in the last few months?
What are some areas of focus/projects that could benefit [name]?
In what ways did [name] contribute to the company’s current goals of [closing more deals, launching new campaigns, etc.]
What are some positive interactions you’ve noticed between [name] and others?

Sales Performance Review Questions

Sales teams require specialized performance review questions that focus on metrics, customer relationships, and revenue generation. Here are key questions to evaluate sales performance effectively:

28. How have you performed against your sales targets/quotas this period?

29. Which sales strategies have been most effective for you in closing deals?

30. How do you prioritize your sales pipeline?

31. What steps have you taken to improve your product knowledge?

32. How do you handle objections from potential customers?

33. What has been your biggest sales challenge, and how did you overcome it?

34. How do you maintain relationships with existing customers while pursuing new leads?

35. What tools or resources would help you improve your sales performance?

36. How do you collaborate with marketing to generate qualified leads?

37. What sales skills would you like to develop further?

Pro Tip: When reviewing sales performance, balance both quantitative metrics (quota attainment, conversion rates) and qualitative aspects (relationship building, problem-solving) for a complete evaluation.

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Remember that performance reviews should be a two-way conversation, not a one-sided evaluation. When employees feel heard and valued during the process, they’re 4.6 times more likely to perform at their best.

Final thoughts

Performance review questions help you get feedback that delivers new insights into your employee’s performance and how you can effectively motivate and engage your workforce.

When done right, employee review questions can really help them see how well they are meeting expectations and how they can make improvements and build on their strengths. We hope this article will help you effectively evaluate the performance of your employees.

Are you looking to create and conduct performance reviews by yourself? ThriveSparrow provides you with everything you need to create and conduct conversational surveys!

Conversational surveys typically tend to boost survey responses and create pleasant experiences. Most of your employees will complete your survey as they would be pleased to take surveys that are conversational in nature.

These surveys are different from the long, boring forms you’ve seen on the internet.

ThriveSparrow provides you with a simple drag-and-drop interface and free performance review templates.

If you’re looking to boost your survey responses and create pleasant experiences, take the conversational way and try ThriveSparrow today!

Have you got any questions about conducting employee reviews? Got any interesting tips or hacks for creating an effective performance review? Let us know in the comment section below.

If you’re wondering whether ThriveSparrow is the right fit for you and would rather have someone walk you through our platform, reach out to us for a free, personalized demo!

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75+ Performance Review Questions for Employees, Managers and Sales Teams