Make Your Mid-Year Reviews Something People Look Forward To!

Mid-year reviews can be a daunting (and pretty boring) task for both manager and employee.

Honestly, the thought of someone reviewing you and your performance can be a little frightening. Everyone wants the perfect review, but we all know we have areas to improve. 

So, if you are the manager giving the reviews it’s important to be mindful of these emotions. Here are some tips to making mid-year reviews an enjoyable experience (and something people even look forward to!):

1. Give them an idea of what to expect. As a manager it’s important to make sure your team understands how reviews will work (this is especially true for anyone who is new!). Do they need to prepare anything? Or will this simply be conversational? You don’t want to put anyone on the spot and make them feel uncomfortable, so do your best to make sure they know what is expected of them.
2. Take them out for lunch. Not only will they appreciate you getting them lunch, but taking them somewhere other than a stuffy conference room will help everyone feel more relaxed. People will feel safer to share their true thoughts without the worry of coworkers overhearing.
3. Provide constructive feedback. It’s important to make sure the feedback you are providing your employee is something they can actually work on. Setting goals for them that are unreachable will only frustrate them and leave them feeling defeated. Informing them that they don’t dress cute enough probably is not something that will help them in their job.
4. Talk about their future. Give them something to be excited about by talking about their future with the company (or somewhere else if that’s where their dreams lie!). If you see great work and progress talk to them about how they want to grow and where they would like to see themselves in 5 to 10 years.
5. Have a little fun! No need to make your lunch all about business. Make sure you have time to catch up and bond. Especially if you have a larger team, it’s nice to have one-on-one time with team members to get to know more about them.