It’s that time of the year again when HR professionals, managers, supervisors, and employees focus their energies on mid-year performance reviews.
When conducted properly, mid-year performance reviews can help organizations determine whether the strategies they set in the beginning of the year are working. It also provides employees the structure, motivation, and guidance they need, so they can be better at what they do. The results of your mid-year performance review will also guide you into making executive decisions that will propel your organization to success.
A Gartner study revealed that consistent, regular feedback boosts employee morale by 12%. Indeed, mid-year performance reviews is a great opportunity for employers to evaluate how each employee is doing in the company, identify gaps in the workflow, and improve employee productivity.
Critical Points to Evaluate
1. Metrics
In the beginning of the year, you set metrics to measure the success of your goals. The goal of your mid-year review is to identify met and unmet goals so that you can explore problems surrounding why a specific metric wasn’t reached and what the employee did to successfully meet the other goals.
2. Ongoing Projects
Teams and organizations set realistic goals before launching a project. But, the reality is, there are unexpected scenarios that can arise during the course of the project that may cause delays or prevent its success.
The mid-year review serves as an opportunity to evaluate ongoing projects that have been launched early in the year. Gaps can be identified, action plans can be revised, and goals can also be adjusted.
3. Professional Goals
A performance review should always take the employee’s career goals into consideration. It will help you make sure that your employees are holding strong despite the pressure at work.
Ask them about what they want out of the job and help them achieve their professional goals, be it through trainings and seminars or even new tasks or positions.
Dissatisfaction with the work, unhappiness in the organization, and misalignment causes a decrease in employee productivity and performance. The mid-year review can help you address and prevent that.
How to Implement a Mid-Year Performance Review
1. Schedule Ahead of Time
Normally, a mid-year review is scheduled right after the year-end review or the new year kickoff meeting. But if it’s your first mid-year review, then schedule ahead of time.
Let everyone in the organization know that a mid-year performance review will be conducted at least a month in advance. This gives your employees the opportunity to catch up on their metrics and prepare for the discussion.
One-on-one performance reviews should be scheduled to not interfere with important deadlines and tasks of each employee. So, it’s crucial for you to schedule at least a month in advance. This way, employees can schedule around the appointed date and time.
2. Prepare Accordingly
Review files and reports of what have been accomplished to date. Prepare the questions you’re going to ask each employee so that you don’t waste time talking about unimportant or insignificant matters.
Ask your employees to prepare their necessary reports and submit it ahead of time, so you can study them before the meeting. You can also ask other employees to provide a review of their peers to gain a 360-degree feedback.
3. Meet and Discuss Employee’s Performance to Date
Ask your employees about what they believe they’re doing particularly well, and provide your feedback as well. Make sure to recognize improvements in their performance. Provide specific examples of the employee’s achievements so that he or she has a clear idea about what he or she is doing exceptionally well. This will encourage them to build on these strengths.
Discuss with them the difficulties they face at work and how they think the work can be done more efficiently and more effectively. Ask about their personal goals with them and how the organization can help them achieve it.
One of the goals of the mid-year performance review is for you, as an HR professional, supervisor, manager, or employer to gain insight about whether your employee’s professional goals are aligned with your company culture. So, when reviewing performance and metrics, tie it back to the mission-vision of the company.
No matter how great an employee is at their job, if their attitude and work culture is misaligned with the company’s mission-vision, then it won’t work in the long run.
4. Discuss Expectations from Both Ends
During the mid-year performance review, it’s important to let your employee know what’s expected of them. At the same time, you should take this opportunity to learn about what the employee expects from the company.
Determine what you can do from your end to help the employee, and follow through on your promises! Agree on the goals that he or she should prioritize for the remainder of the year. This will help keep your employee focused and driven.
5. Document the Interview.
Document what’s been discussed and agreed upon during the one-on-one performance appraisal meeting. Be transparent with your employee and show him or her what’s been written on that document. Both you and the employee should affix your signatures. This will serve as proof that the performance appraisal has been conducted, and that the terms stated have been agreed upon by both parties.
6. Complete the Review.
Before ending the discussion, make sure to thank your employee for their hard work and end on a positive note!
Final Tips
Listen to your employees! Hear them out and consider the significance of their input, comments, and suggestions. Come from a standpoint of curiosity and empathize with them.
The mid-year performance evaluation is an opportunity for you to understand what they’re going through at work and not give orders or reprimand them for not meeting metric goals.
Think of yourself as a coach, rather than a supervisor or judge. There’s a reason you’re the manager – it’s because you have more developed skills and knowledge that you can impart to them. Coach them into becoming better employees and motivate them to reach the metrics and achieve their personal and professional goals.
