Using Radar Charts to Create Performance Reviews in Excel 2007:-


Radar charts are designed for showing a person’s or a company’s rating along several performance areas. Here are some typical usages:

1. Employee performance review—a manager might rate an employee using a one- to five-point rating scale in areas such as efficiency, accuracy, timeliness, and so on. While this data can be presented in a table, a radar chart provides an interesting presentation alternative.

2. Customer satisfaction results—a marketing manager could use a radar chart to summarize the results of a customer satisfaction survey. In this case, one line could be used to show customer satisfaction along rating areas such as speed, accuracy, and value.

If you wanted to summarize customer satisfaction results for two companies, you could present the results as two charts, as shown in the first Figure (given below), or as two series on a single chart, as shown in the second Figure (given below).



(With only one series, you can choose to fill in the series.)



(When you have two series, you should not fill in the lines so the reader can see the overlap.)

You can choose to fill in the chart area or to show the series as a line. You should leave the chart unfilled when you put two series on one chart.

You can use a radar chart to compare some kind of results from this year versus the same kind of results from last year. In the third Figure (given below), for example, the line for last year is dark black, and the line for this year is a dashed line in a lighter color.



(Radar charts can compare several values from last year to this year.)

To create the performance review chart shown in the above Figure, you follow these steps:

1. Using the information in the above Figure, enter the categories in column A, starting in A2. The category in A2 will appear at 12:00 on the chart. The remaining categories will be arranged in clockwise order.

2. In cells B1 and C1, enter the headings for last year and this year.

3. Enter the 1–5 ratings in B2;C6.

4. Select cell A1:C6. From the Insert ribbon, choose Other Charts, Radar, Radar with Markers.

5. Click the line from this year. From the Format ribbon, choose Shape Outline, Dashes, and then select the fourth choice, called Dash.

All the examples so far show measures that are of similar scale. If you needed to show a series that is of a different order of magnitude, you could plot the series on a secondary axis. To do this, you select the axis and choose Format Axis and then choose Secondary Axis.