How many times each year does your company tackle the formal employee evaluation process? If you’re like most successful businesses, your manager-to-employee ratio makes this process cost effective about once every twelve months, usually close to the end of the fiscal year or the weeks leading up to the holiday season. But while a single annual evaluation keeps time investments and costs under control, an entire year can sometimes be too long for employees to wait for formal feedback and coaching.

Consider the benefits of adding an additional mid-year evaluation to your talent management strategy.

1. Coaching and follow up.

Employee evaluations that point out strengths and areas of weakness may have some value, but without consequent action, an evaluation meeting doesn’t amount to much. A formal follow up six months after the launch of an action plan can keep progress and growth on track.

2. Solving problems before they start.

Give employees a chance to obtain feedback and provide self-evaluations every six months, and they won’t have to wait in order to make sure they’re moving the right direction. Every relationship can use a tune up sometimes, even when nothing appears to be wrong.

3. Strong evaluations + accurate records = faster employee progress.

If you kept a chart that measures time against employee progress, most employees would show a sharp spike in improvement and effort for about a month or two after employee evaluation season. After that, most workers tend to attain a new normal and level off. But if you rely on sophisticated talent management platforms like emPerform to keep employee performance on the move, motivated, and carefully monitored, you can shift the status quo every six months instead. Faster employee growth means a stronger bottom line for your company. And with shorter periods between evaluations, employees will be less likely to slide backward into old patterns.

Some organizations are also opting to incorporate year-round feedback and coaching mechanisms into their performance management strategies in order to facilitate annual and mid-year reviews and to keep employees on track throughout the entire appraisal cycle.

Learn more about the tools available in emPerform to facilitate mid-year reviews and year-round coaching. www.employee-performance.com