Employee evaluation software
- Overall review score, percent
- 76
- Competency score, percent of scale
- 76
- Ratings to fill in
- 9
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. The only constants HeadcountDesk supplies are the published federal payroll tax rates and the overtime multiplier, each cited where it is used. The defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
Employee evaluation software for a small employer is a scoring sheet and a record, and it should be judged on those two things. The sheet has to weight competencies against goals in a way the employee was told about at the start of the period, produce one score a manager can defend, and connect that score to the merit increase the budget allows. The record has to hold the last review when the next one comes round. Neither needs a talent-management platform to do it.
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Fix the weights before the period starts
The single most common complaint about a review is that the scoring was decided after the work. Setting the competency and goal weights, the scale and the goals themselves at the start of the period, and recording them, is what makes the score at the end a measurement rather than an opinion.
Score competencies and goals separately
Reliability, quality and teamwork are judgements on a scale; goals are either hit or not. Mixing them into one gut-feel rating hides which is which. The review template on this site takes an average competency rating and a percentage of goals achieved, weights them, and shows the two contributions before it shows the total.
Tie the score to the money in the open
If a fully met review earns the merit budget and a partly met one earns a share of it, say so on the form. The template takes the merit percentage for a full score and pro-rates it, so the raise is a consequence of the review rather than a separate negotiation.
Employee evaluation software: common questions
Is there free employee evaluation software?
The review template on this site scores a review from your competency rating, goals achieved and weights, and shows the merit increase that follows, free and with no account. HeadcountDesk Pro saves each review against the employee, so the next one starts from the last, and prints it under your company name.
What rating scale should a small business use?
Whichever one managers will use consistently. Three-point scales are blunt but hard to game; five-point scales give more room and drift towards the middle. The template supports three, four and five and converts the rating to a percentage of the scale so the weighting works the same on any of them.
How often should reviews happen?
A formal one a year, tied to the merit cycle, and a short one at the end of probation. Anything more frequent works better as a conversation than a form. The record matters more than the frequency: a review nobody can find next year did not happen.
HeadcountDesk Pro
Keeping what you make
The answers are free forever. Pro turns them into your paperwork: your logo on the handbook and the contract, no watermark, every employee's documents saved against their record, reminders to the people who need to sign, and clean exports.
- Download as PDF
- No HeadcountDesk watermark
- Save and reopen later
- Your logo and company name on it
- Bulk export documents
- Signing and review reminders emailed to your employees
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
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Will it do what you need for Employee evaluation software?
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Cite or embed this figure
A review that weights competencies at 60% and goals at 40%, on a five-point scale, gives an employee rated 3.8 on competencies who hit three-quarters of their goals an overall score of 76%, and the merit increase follows from that one number.
Employee review template (Overall review score, percent): 76, HeadcountDesk, worked example.
Cite as: "Employee evaluation software, HeadcountDesk", updated 2026-09-02, https://headcountdesk.com/employee-evaluation-software/.