Manager Review Preparation: Evidence and Questions Worksheet

1. Check the scope before selecting examples

Write the purpose of the review, the period and the responsibilities being discussed. Read the previous record and identify changes in role, staffing, tools or priorities. If the meeting is part of a formal process, use the organisation’s required procedure alongside this preparation.

2. Complete one evidence card for each important point

Choose examples that help explain the work, including progress and difficulty. Look beyond the most recent event. A small set of specific examples is useful when you can explain its limits; it does not automatically represent every part of the employee’s work.

• Expectation: the task or standard, and when it was agreed.
• Observation: what happened and when, using a permitted source reference.
• Result: what you can establish, including what you cannot attribute to one person.
• Context: dependencies, resources and changes that may matter.
• Interpretation: your current explanation, labelled as an interpretation.
• Open question: what information could change that explanation.

3. Audit your own support commitments

Place each promise from the last review beside what you provided. A training commitment, priority clarification or access request should not disappear from the employee’s review because a different person owned it.

• Support promised and responsible owner.
• What was delivered, when and whether it was usable.
• What remained unavailable and which work it affected.
• What you need to resolve before setting the next expectation.

4. Prepare questions before a final conclusion

Turn a broad judgement into a question about work. Instead of “Why are you not proactive?”, identify the decision or action you expected and ask how the employee understood it. Prepare a question about a success as well as a difficulty: understanding the conditions behind good work can reveal support worth repeating.

• What part of this situation am I missing?
• Which dependency most affected the work?
• Where does your account differ from my notes?
• What would make the next attempt more workable?

5. Bring a provisional brief to the conversation

Reduce the preparation to the purpose, the main examples, previous support and open questions. Compare it with the employee’s account before finalising the shared record. Use the linked agenda to document what is agreed, disputed or still to check, then share the appropriate written record.

Why this guide is useful

Use this original worksheet to prepare your side of the discussion. It helps you arrive with a considered view while leaving room for relevant information you have not seen. The linked conversation template provides the meeting agenda and shared decision record; this page focuses on the work before the meeting.

Start with the expectation the employee actually received

Acas recommends fair objectives that reflect usual tasks and workload, regular feedback and sharing the written review record. Apply that starting point to preparation: locate the expectation, check when it was communicated and note any changes during the period. Do not judge the whole period against an expectation introduced at its end.

Concrete example

Fictional example: a store supervisor missed two stock-report deadlines. The manager’s first note says “poor planning”. During preparation, the manager finds that access to the reporting tool arrived late and a promised training session was cancelled. The revised note records the dates and asks how the supervisor managed the workaround. It keeps the missed deadlines visible while leaving the explanation open.

Sources

• Acas: reviews, objectives and written records