Interview feedback form: a template you can copy

Why use a structured feedback form

Without a form, feedback arrives as chat messages and hallway remarks. One interviewer says the candidate was great, another says there were concerns, and nobody can say what they were comparing. The loudest voice wins.

A structured form fixes three things. Every interviewer scores the same criteria, so the results can be compared. Writing the evidence before talking to colleagues reduces anchoring on the first opinion spoken. And the form becomes the record of why a decision was made, which matters if a candidate or a manager asks later.

Fields every form needs

Keep the list of criteria to five to eight items. More than ten and interviewers rate everything the same to finish quickly.

Tie every criterion to something the job genuinely needs. If you cannot say why a criterion matters for the role, drop it. Add a note under each criterion saying what a strong answer looks like, so interviewers share the same picture before the interview starts. Keep questions the same across candidates for the same round, so differences in ratings come from the candidates and not from the questions.

Tie every criterion to something the job genuinely needs. If you cannot say why a criterion matters for the role, drop it. Add a note under each criterion saying what a strong answer looks like, so interviewers share the same picture before the interview starts. Keep questions the same across candidates for the same round, so differences in ratings come from the candidates and not from the questions.

• Candidate name and role applied for.
• Interviewer name and role in the process.
• Interview date and round, such as HR screen, technical or final.
• A list of criteria, each tied to the job's real requirements.
• A rating per criterion, using one fixed scale.
• A short evidence note for each rating.
• An overall recommendation.
• A summary comment covering strengths, concerns and open questions.
• A line for anything you could not assess.

A complete interview feedback form template

Copy the lines below into your own document or form tool. Replace the bracketed items.

• Candidate name: [name]
• Role: [job title]
• Interviewer: [your name and role]
• Interview date: [date] Round: [HR screen / technical / final]
• Rate each item from 1 to 5 (1 = clearly below the requirement, 3 = meets it, 5 = clearly exceeds it). Write the evidence you saw or heard. If you did not assess an item, write N/A.
• Criterion 1: [must-have skill, for example, Stakeholder management] Rating: [1-5] Evidence: [what the candidate said or did]
• Criterion 2: [must-have skill] Rating: [1-5] Evidence: [example]
• Criterion 3: [must-have skill] Rating: [1-5] Evidence: [example]
• Criterion 4: [role-specific skill or knowledge] Rating: [1-5] Evidence: [example]
• Criterion 5: Communication Rating: [1-5] Evidence: [example]
• Strengths: [two or three points, each with an example]
• Concerns: [points, each with an example, or None]
• Questions I could not answer: [list]
• Overall recommendation: Strong yes / Yes / No / Strong no
• Summary comment: [three to five sentences that support your recommendation]
• I completed this form before discussing the candidate with other interviewers: Yes / No

A 1 to 5 rating scale with anchors

A scale only works if everyone reads the numbers the same way. Define each number in words and share the definitions with every interviewer before they start.

How to write useful comments

A rating alone tells the next reader almost nothing. A good comment states what the candidate said or did, and why that supports the number.

Write about behaviour you observed, not personality. Avoid words like fit, energy or gut. If you cannot point to something the candidate said, leave the rating lower or write N/A.

Bias traps to watch for

Rules on interviewing and record keeping differ by country. Check local law or take advice, especially on what you may ask and how long you may keep forms.

A simple habit helps with all of these: before you submit, reread each rating and ask what you saw or heard that justifies it. If the answer is a feeling, either find the evidence in your notes or lower your confidence and say so in the comment. Interviewers who do this produce forms that survive a challenge and make the final discussion shorter.

• Halo effect: one impressive answer lifts every rating.
• Similarity bias: favouring people with a shared background, school or hobby.
• Anchoring: letting the first opinion you hear set yours. Write your form before the debrief.
• First impression: deciding in the first five minutes and then looking for proof.
• Recency: weighting the last answer too heavily.
• Contrast effect: rating a candidate relative to the previous one rather than to the requirement.
• Vague words such as culture fit, which let bias hide.

Combining feedback from several interviewers

Collect every form before the group discussion. Then compare, starting with where interviewers disagree, because that is where the useful conversation is.

• Put the ratings for each criterion side by side.
• Look for gaps of two or more points and ask each interviewer for their evidence.
• Check whether a low score is a lack of evidence or evidence of a problem.
• Do not average blindly. A single 1 on a must-have may matter more than three 4s elsewhere.
• Record the final decision and the reason, referring to the criteria.

A worked example

This example uses invented numbers for a customer support lead role with three interviewers.

The only large gap is coaching, where A gave a 2 and B and C gave a 4. In the debrief, A explains that the candidate described coaching only as sharing documents. B points to a concrete example of a weekly one-to-one routine. The group agrees A question was narrower. They decide to ask one more coaching question in a short follow-up call before making an offer.

Interview evaluation form for different round types

Use the same structure for every round, but change the criteria so each interviewer rates something different. If every interviewer rates communication and nothing else, you learn little.

Running the process around the form

• Agree the criteria and the 1 to 5 anchors before the first interview.
• Give each interviewer the same candidate brief and ask them to prepare questions for their criteria.
• Ask for the completed form within a day of the interview, while memory is fresh.
• Keep notes factual and short. Quote the candidate where you can.
• Hold the debrief only after all forms are in.
• Store forms with the candidate record, and delete them according to your retention policy and local law.

Mistakes that make feedback forms useless

• Too many criteria, so interviewers tick the same number all the way down.
• No anchors, so a 4 from one person is a 3 from another.
• Optional comments that nobody fills in.
• Sharing opinions in chat before forms are submitted.
• Changing the criteria halfway through a hiring round, which makes candidates impossible to compare.
• Never using the data: if forms vanish into a folder, interviewers stop taking them seriously.

How Rezumz collects interview feedback

In Rezumz, you add interview rounds for each candidate, such as HR screen, Tech round or Final. Each round has one or more interviewers, and each gets their own private link by email. The interviewer sees a short, factual brief of the candidate and a form with scored points, an overall recommendation of strong yes, yes, no or strong no, and a summary comment.

The scorecard comes from the job. Until you change it, it is the job's must-have skills plus Communication. You can edit it to up to 10 items, each with an optional note on what a strong answer shows, and every new interview link starts from it. Interviewers who already opened their link keep the form they saw.

Access is protected by a one-time code sent to the interviewer's email, which lasts 60 minutes and allows 5 attempts. After the code, access lasts 48 hours, and the link works for 21 days unless you withdraw it.

Submitted feedback is locked. If an interviewer changes their mind, they submit a new version and must say why, and you can see every version (V1, V2, V3) with the latest first. Rezumz flags feedback that looks copied between interviewers, and once two or more candidates have feedback you can rank them from the written evidence, with names removed from that step. Rezumz is a hiring workspace, not an enterprise HRIS, so check the demo if you need deep HR system integration.