If your team dreads appraisal season and your managers rate everyone between 3 and 4, the problem is not the form. It is what the form is being asked to do.
Ask a business owner how appraisals went and you will usually hear some version of: fine, but nobody was very happy. Ratings cluster in a narrow band. Managers avoid the difficult conversations. Employees leave the room unclear about what would earn them more next year.
The form is not the problem
Most businesses respond by redesigning the appraisal form. New competencies, new weightages, a new rating scale. The following year produces the same result, because the form was never the constraint.
Three things that actually break it
The criteria were never published. If nobody knew in April what would be measured in March, the review is a surprise. Surprises feel unfair even when the rating is generous.
The rating decides the increment directly. When a manager knows that a 3 instead of a 4 costs someone a real amount of money, they will give the 4 and avoid the conversation. Separate the feedback conversation from the compensation decision, even by a few weeks, and honesty improves immediately.
Nobody was trained to give feedback. Delivering a difficult rating well is a skill. Most managers were promoted for being good at their function, not for this.
What to change first
Publish the criteria at the start of the year. Ask managers for one written example behind every rating. Train the five people who conduct the most reviews. Do those three things before touching the form — and see whether you still need a new one.