Conducting Mid-Year Performance Evaluations

June is a good time to conduct a mid-year performance evaluation with employees. The following is an excerpt from Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day to Day Employee Performance (2006).  Please share these important ideas with the managers and supervisors in your organization to help them speak more confidently with employees about performance. Good performance management means that you are giving feedback to employees at all times.  If you've been remiss in this duty this year, now is the time to catch up.  June is the mid-way point of most organization's annual performance evaluation cycle. Even if your organization has a different calendar for conducting evaluations (ie. anniversary dates or fiscal year calendars) this is a good time to make sure that your employees know how they are doing.  Try a few of these ideas to ensure that your employees are getting frequent and clear performance feedback:--Schedule a fifteen minute meeting with each of your employees to get an update from them on their progress toward the performance goals you set earlier this year.  Ask them to come prepared to share with you the two or three accomplishments they've achieved so far and the two or three priorities they have for the rest of the year.--Share with the employee the one or two things you think they have done effectively so far this year.  Also, tell the employee the one or two things you'd like them to focus on for the rest of the year.  The purpose of this conversation is to recognize the employee's progress and to ensure they continue to be productive.--Ask the employee for feedback about the job.  Questions like: "What's going well?" and "What needs to be improved?" will foster a lively conversation about the work and their performance. If employee retention is a challenge for your organization ask them, "What will it take to keep you here and happy?" --Document your conversation so that you can refer to it again when the annual performance evaluation is due. The conversation doesn't have to be documented on the official performance evaluation (unless your organization requires it).  Just make sure you have good notes that you can use at the end of the year.--Thank the employee for their hard work and encourage them to come to you frequently in the coming months for support and guidance.  The mid-year review meeting is the perfect time to recommit yourself to the employee's success.