Top tips for managers to nail the yearly employee review

2024 has flown by, and as we approach the year’s final month, there’s plenty to get in order at work. But beyond the welcome chaos of the holiday season, an important part of every employee and manager’s yearly tasks can’t get lost in the shuffle — the year-end review.

Whether employees are evaluated at the end of the year or on a rolling annual basis, these reviews are crucial to illuminate a growth path for your direct reports. Having these conversations effectively provides managers with a valuable touchpoint to positively impact employee experience. By opening lines of communication and encouraging honest and transparent dialogue, a yearly review can become much more than just an opportunity to discuss room for improvement and salary numbers.

How to ensure reviews are an ongoing process

Feedback in a yearly review is critical, and whether positive or negative, nothing should come to your reports as a major surprise.  Fostering a regular feedback loop will help your reports adopt healthy communication structures.

Shannon Iwaniuk, a senior communications leader at a global life sciences company, told Ragan that frequent feedback makes the yearly review a more productive occasion.

“Having developmental conversations as a part of your normal one-on-ones is key to fostering growth,” she said. “It’s always really important for us to encourage our associates to think about the big picture.”

Iwaniuk’s other tips for managers to ensure their feedback processes are holistic leading up to a year-end review included:

• Chart the growth path forward. Yearly reviews shouldn’t just center on what an employee has done well or could have done better over the past 12 months, but be a two-way conversation.. “Development creates a mutual outcome,” Iwaniuk said. “Associates feel valued, and the organization benefits from their enhanced skills and engagement.”
• The journey isn’t always linear, and that’s alright. Reviews provide an opportunity for managers to help employees figure out their optimal path forward. In that process, managers should feel compelled to share their honest opinions on the best path for their reports, even if it’s unconventional. “We need to liberate people from the notion that career growth has to be linear,” Iwaniuk said. “Sometimes moving sideways or even downwards opens doors to faster progression later.”
• Document goals using Individual Development Plans (IDPs). Managers wield a lot of roles — advocate, supervisor, and teammate are among them. As part of the yearly review, managers should set aside time to talk about an employee’s well-defined goals and how to document actionable steps to get there with an IDP. “The IDP is a helpful guidepost,” Iwaniuk said. “It allows us to understand where an associate wants to be in two, four, or even more years and helps us align their growth journey with those aspirations.”

Reviews are full of valuable knowledge — knowing how to talk about them is key

Beyond the support managers provide their report in a yearly review, they also demonstrate how an organization values, relates to and communicates with its employees overall.

Rachel Marin, global corporate communications lead, people at Mars Inc. said that effective reviews can set positive precedents that ripple outward.

“What you elevate from these conversations needs to inform leadership decisions that affect the whole team,” Marin added. “As a manager, it’s about being the bridge. You need to be the one translating employee insights into meaningful actions for leadership.”

Reviews also serve as points of reflection for not just the person receiving the review, but the manager conducting it and the organization at large.

“When managers reflect on employee contributions, it fosters not just motivation but alignment with broader business objectives,” Marin explained. “Employees need to see how their work connects to the company’s mission and values to understand their true impact.”

Remember that the employee reviews you’re conducting over the next few weeks don’t exist in a vacuum.

They’re critical touchpoints — not just along the employee journey, but also in determining what the organizational story and culture is and can become.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.