Mid-year reviews can strike fear into the hearts of employees and drum up dread in otherwise confident managers. For many managers, mid-year reviews are just another task on a long to-do list. But anecdotal evidence of poor performance reviews suggests that a lack of organization, forethought, and effort on the manager’s behalf can leave employees frustrated and disenchanted with the entire review process.
“Sadly many overstretched managers treat the process as a tick-box exercise, with the conscious or subconscious intention of just getting it done,” said Juliet Adams, UK-based performance management specialist and author of Mindful Leadership for Dummies.
But mid-year reviews offer a crucial additional checkpoint for feedback. They provide managers and employees a formalized moment to examine progress on goals and recalibrate if needed. By asking the right questions and following a few best practices, managers can facilitate thoughtful mid-year reviews that motivate and engage employees, and inspire them to succeed for themselves and the team. Here’s how to get started.
Mid-Year Review Best Practices for Managers
Managers who conduct successful performance evaluations leverage best practices to expand the conversation and encourage employees to reflect on their progress, analyze their performance, and set goals for the coming six months.
“The key is to focus on the wins, the misses (or areas to improve), and how one wants to grow,” said Jes Osrow, cofounder and COO of The Rise Journey, a consulting firm focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility.
Questions to Ask
Questions will vary based on the industry, company policies, and the culture of your organization. But in general, managers should frame the questions around a few key pillars: what went well, what could go better, and how you as a manager can provide more support.
Ask open-ended questions and encourage employees to rate their experiences on a scale of 1 to 10, explained Lori Scherwin, founder of Strategize That, an executive coaching and talent development company. “Scaling mid-year helps make qualitative comments more quantitative and actionable. It also helps prompt dialogue on what actionable steps would be needed to get to the next level of performance,” said Scherwin.
{{rich-highlight-1}}
Why These Questions Matter
With six months down and six to go until the end of the year, mid-year reviews give managers the opportunity to review progress, re-energize employees, and course correct if necessary.
Kieran King, chief customer officer of information security firm Pindrop, noted that mid-year performance review questions should illuminate company objectives. “The key questions are those that relate to the near-term and longer-range strategic goals of the organization,” she said.
However, she cautions against having too many areas of focus. “The number of objectives should be reasonable to manage so that some impact is recognizable at the next review period,” said King. “That helps ensure engagement toward the goal and an opportunity for the manager to provide feedback that further amplifies the employee’s momentum, or steers them away from spending time on areas not likely to produce the desired results.”
Mid-Year Review Best Practices
When done well, mid-year employee reviews produce actionable feedback and strengthen the relationship between manager and employee. Use these best practices to make sure your performance review meetings are focused, specific, and productive.
1. Prepare in advance to review performance trends.
Ensure you come prepared to conduct a thoughtful review and share actionable feedback. Review your performance management platform’s dashboards to refresh your memory on the employee’s performance and ensure your comments and suggestions are based on data and previously recorded comments.
Take time to gather your thoughts and think critically about your employees’ performance and their opportunities for growth. “See the potential in your people that they might not see in themselves, and share that with them,” said Morgan Williams, founder of MW HR Consulting and cofounder and CEO of PeakHR, a cohort-based training program for HR professionals.
2. Avoid surprises by keeping track of developments.
Your relationship with your direct reports should be an ongoing conversation so employees always know where they stand. “Springing a surprise on an employee during a review changes the respect level and the dynamic between manager and employee,” said Williams.
Surprises indicate a lack of communication throughout the year, and when that’s the case, the mid-year review becomes little more than a box to tick. “We get so process-heavy, and it’s not just a process, it’s somebody’s growth and development,” Williams added.
3. Focus on collaborative problem-solving and planning.
Aim to have your employee do most of the talking. Ask open-ended questions first and follow-up questions to dig deeper, and don’t jump in to fill any silences or lulls in the conversation.
Be supportive by looking for solutions together rather than asking an employee to defend their work. These conversations should be a collaboration, not an attack.
4. Provide specific feedback using data and examples.
Share specific examples of the employee’s work or behavior that illustrate your points so your employees understand the context.
For instance, saying, “We see you as a high-potential employee in the organization,” may not resonate as deeply as “Your work coordinating the various internal and external stakeholders on X project was very impressive, especially the way you held everyone accountable to the expedited timeline. This is a great example of why I see you as a high-potential employee on our team.”
As Scherwin noted, “Feedback in a bubble is not useful for anyone and can lead to resentment and disconnect.”
Integrate data-driven insights into questions.
Framing questions around data and metrics is useful for reflecting on the past year, but that’s not the only way to leverage data. You can also craft questions around data that encourage employees to predict future performance and areas of improvement.
{{rich-highlight-2}}
Align reviews with company goals and culture.
The power of organizational goals lies in their ability to provide a focused roadmap for team and individual performance. With a reference point in hand, gauging performance becomes easier. Lattice OKRs & Goals simplifies setting and tracking transparent goals and injects insights into everyday moments to support continuous feedback.
By mapping review discussions to organizational goals, performance reviews can also support broader cultural transformation. A 2022 survey by WTW found that organizations that fit into a category of “high effectiveness” tended to view performance management as a lever to create alignment across the organization. By assessing performance in relation to individual, team, and organizational goals, managers turn performance management into a strategic asset to encourage organization-wide shifts.
Mid-Year Review Best Practices for Employees
As an employee, mid-year reviews offer a chance to receive detailed feedback that can clarify and enhance the ongoing development and praise discussions you’re already having with your manager.
Additionally, mid-year reviews allow you to share your perspective and context with your manager, helping to shape their understanding of your performance. This is a crucial opportunity to make your voice heard, so be sure to include any non-promotable work you may be doing, and most important of all: prepare in advance.
Questions Employees Should Ask
Your manager shouldn’t be the only one asking questions. Now is your time to gain clarity on expectations or solicit constructive feedback from your supervisor.
{{rich-highlight-3}}
Impress your manager and gain even more value from the mid-year review process by pulling in insights from one-on-ones and other continuous feedback conversations to discuss your performance and areas for improvement.
Preparing for a Constructive Review
Developmental feedback can sting, but it illuminates blind spots and unveils new opportunities for success. Feel more confident going into your mid-year review with the following tips.
1. Gather evidence and think critically.
Collect evidence that points to your success, and come with data from the Lattice performance dashboard. Be ready to draw on specific examples, especially if you feel your efforts haven’t been noticed. Set aside time in advance to think about your performance this year and how you’d like to improve in your current role or prepare for another one.
2. Research training opportunities ahead of time.
Reflect on your organization’s goals and consider how you can contribute to successfully reaching them. Research specific learning opportunities, and be prepared to explain how these will benefit your professional growth and help you better contribute to the company.
Don’t wait six months for feedback.
Compared to annual performance reviews, mid-year reviews bring a more balanced perspective to performance appraisals by adding an additional touchpoint for formal feedback. This helps leaders and employees focus on the feedback needed to improve future performance, rather than simply analyzing the past.
To further support overall performance, consider incorporating tenets of continuous feedback, which complement formal performance reviews by encouraging a more regular exchange of conversation between managers and employees.
Practice continuous feedback.
The best way to refine employee strengths and level up areas for professional development is to exchange regular input on their performance. Plus, when companies foster a culture of continuous development, the exchange of feedback becomes more natural and loses its fear element.
Regular touchpoints on performance — whether during a one-on-one, a debrief after a presentation, or a simple “Congrats, you crushed that!” in the Slack praise channel — provide fodder for mid-year and annual reviews, and allow managers and team members to get accustomed to giving and receiving feedback.
Lattice features like real-time feedback and performance analytics facilitate continuous feedback and are a well for managers and employees to draw from during mid-year reviews. Employee recognition tools like Lattice Praise make it easy to praise employees in Slack channels, Microsoft Teams, or directly in the Lattice platform.
Facilitate mid-year reviews with Lattice.
Despite the fear and dread that can precede them, mid-year performance reviews can be a tool for employee development and organizational growth alike. By coming armed with data-driven insights about performance, managers and employees can have productive conversations about past performance and generative ones about future performance.
Want to learn more about how Lattice Performance can support employees and managers all year round? Request a demo today.
Here are the key questions managers will want to cover:
- How have you done since our last check-in?
- What specific accomplishments from the last six months are you most proud of?
- What was a miss, and what did you learn from it?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your performance?
- How can I better support you?
- Is there another role you see yourself in at this company? What can we do to get you there?
Reflective Question Example: How have the insights from our continuous feedback tools helped you in your recent projects?
Predictive Question Example: Based on the feedback data we have gathered, what are the key areas you see for your growth over the rest of the year?
Here are the key questions employees should ask:
- How have I met or exceeded your expectations since our last check-in?
- What specific feedback can you provide on a recent project or deliverable of mine?
- What training or new skills acquisition would make me more effective in my role?
- How does my performance contribute to our team’s success?
- How could I improve?
