Filipino VA Performance Review Template (Quarterly + 90-Day)

Why Most Filipino VA Relationships Die Without a Performance Review

Ask 20 US employers who've had a Filipino VA leave after 12–18 months, and you'll hear the same story: no formal review, no clear feedback, no structured growth conversation. The VA felt unseen, started looking, and left for a better client. The employer was shocked because "things seemed fine."

Performance reviews serve three purposes with Filipino remote workers: documented feedback, mutual expectation setting, and — critically — signaling that you're invested in their growth. All three drive retention. Without them, the relationship silently decays.

This article gives you two ready-to-use templates: a 90-day review for new hires and a quarterly review for ongoing team members. Both are designed to take 45–60 minutes total per person and produce durable documentation.

Template 1: The 90-Day Review

Use this at the 90-day mark of every new Filipino VA hire. It's the "formalization" milestone — confirm fit, reset expectations, and lock in the relationship (or end it).

Pre-work (sent to the VA 48 hours before the meeting)

Ask them to complete a short self-assessment:

1. What are you proudest of in your first 90 days?
2. What task or category still feels unclear or frustrating?
3. What do you want to take on in the next 90 days that you don't own today?
4. What do you need from me (the employer) to do your best work?
5. Rate yourself 1–10 on: quality of output, speed, communication, independence.

You complete a parallel assessment:

1. Three things they did well in the first 90 days (specific examples)
2. One area for growth (specific, actionable)
3. The scope you plan to expand over the next 90 days
4. Rate of rate increase (if any)
5. Any explicit concerns

The Review Itself (60 minutes)

Run this as a structured conversation, not freestyle:

Minutes 0–10: reflection. They walk through their self-assessment. You listen. Ask probing questions but don't argue with their assessment yet.

Minutes 10–25: your feedback. Start with specific wins (named tasks, measurable outcomes). Move into one area for growth, framed as development not criticism.

Minutes 25–40: alignment. Where do your assessments agree? Where do they diverge? Divergences are where real insight lives. A VA rating themselves a 9/10 on communication when you'd rate them 6/10 is a conversation you need to have.

Minutes 40–55: the next 90 days. What new scope, what removed, what goals. Specific and measurable.

Minutes 55–60: compensation. Confirm ongoing rate or announce a raise (typical 90-day raise: 5–10% for strong performers, rate-flat with specific improvement plan for borderline cases).

Outputs

• A written summary shared with the VA within 24 hours
• Updated job description (if scope is changing)
• Next review date locked in the calendar
• Rate change (if any) documented

Template 2: The Quarterly Review

For VAs past their first 90 days, run this every 90 days. It keeps the relationship current, catches drift early, and signals continued investment.

Scoring Rubric

Score on five dimensions, 1–5 each:

• Quality of output. How polished is their work before review?
• Speed / throughput. Are they meeting expected volume and deadlines?
• Communication. Clarity, proactiveness, tone-matching.
• Independence. Can they make correct judgment calls without you?
• Growth. Are they taking on more scope, learning new tools, suggesting process improvements?

Total score out of 25. Interpretation:

• 22–25: Exceptional. Significant raise (10–20%), expanded scope, path to senior role.
• 17–21: Strong performer. Standard 5–10% raise, continued growth expectations.
• 13–16: Meeting expectations. Flat rate, specific improvement plan, tighter feedback cadence.
• 8–12: Underperforming. 30-day improvement plan with clear benchmarks; exit path if no movement.
• <8: Separation. See our separation guide for structure.

Scripted Conversation Opener

"Thanks for making time. This is our regular quarterly review — structured, honest, and focused on your growth. I've scored you on our rubric and want to walk through the details together. First, what stood out from the past quarter for you?"

Starting with their view before sharing yours lowers defensiveness and surfaces their actual self-perception. You'll often find they're more critical of themselves than you are.

Giving Hard Feedback

When you need to deliver critical feedback, use SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact):

• Situation: "On the product launch last month..."
• Behavior: "I noticed that three deadlines slipped by 24+ hours without you flagging them in advance."
• Impact: "That pushed our go-to-market slot by a week, which cost roughly $8K in ad spend efficiency."
• Expectation: "Going forward, any slipping deadline needs a heads-up 24 hours before it would miss."

Stay specific. Generalities ("your communication is poor") create confusion; specifics ("you missed three deadlines without warning") create change.

Compensation Conversation

Raises for Filipino VAs in 2026 follow this pattern:

• Annual raise for meeting expectations: 5–8%
• Annual raise for strong performers: 10–15%
• Scope-expansion raise (new title, new responsibilities): 15–25%
• Retention counter (if they've received an outside offer): match or beat

Announce raises during the review, not over chat afterward. The in-person moment matters.

Cultural Considerations

Filipino professional culture tends to be respectful of authority and deferential in feedback contexts. Three adjustments that improve review quality:

Ask specific, not general questions. "Is there anything I could do better?" gets a reflexive "no, everything's great." "When I gave unclear direction on the Q3 project, what would have helped you?" gets a real answer.

Over-index on specific praise. Filipinos are under-praised by US employers who assume "no feedback means everything's fine." Specific, named praise lands hard and compounds loyalty.

Acknowledge cultural norms. 13th-month pay in December. Holy Week and Christmas season as family time. Ask about family milestones (birthdays, weddings, children's school events) and include them in weekly context. For more on this, see our Philippine holidays guide.

Documentation Template

Every review produces a one-page PDF or Notion document with:

• Date and review period
• Scores on the five rubric dimensions
• Key wins (3 bullet points)
• Key growth areas (1–2 bullet points)
• Scope changes for next quarter
• Compensation changes
• Next review date

Share it with the VA within 24 hours. They sign (digitally or just acknowledge). Keep the document in a shared folder they can reference.

The Retention Impact

Employers who run structured quarterly reviews see Filipino VA tenure of 3–5+ years on average. Employers who skip them see average tenure drop to 12–18 months. The review process is the single highest-leverage retention practice you can adopt.

For the broader management framework, see our remote team management guide. To build your team, post on WorkFil — free, no subscription.