Mid-year reviews are a pivotal point for anyone’s professional life for several reasons. It provides the opportunity for feedback, reflection, goal setting, and overall development. Especially in the year 2024 where many of us are working hybrid or fully remote, tools like Microsoft Teams are especially valuable.
Whether you are a supervisor or a team member during evaluations, using the right tools is always the number one thing to ensure a smooth process during performance reviews. So let’s talk through the best way how to set up mid-year reviews in Microsoft Teams and the best practices you should adopt!
Why Conduct Performance Reviews In Microsoft Teams?
Conducting your mid-year performance reviews inside Microsoft Teams is especially advantageous if you’re working in a remote setting, but it is not only limited to that. There are many pros to implementing Microsoft Teams and digitized performance reviews such as;
- Centralized Communication & Documentation: Having Teams will provide your team the opportunity to keep everything organized through one central channel. From meetings to invites, agendas to feedback, Teams will get your workforce on the same page.
- Real-Time Collaboration: Whether you’re a manager or an employee in a team, the value of being able to collaborate in real-time is invaluable because it allows for a more dynamic, more engaging process.
- Efficiency: Having a tool that enables schedules, meetings, documents, and other mechanisms of a company will severely affect the efficiency of operations of organizations in a positive way.
- Secure Environment: Security is a top priority for Microsoft Teams as for all other organizations. Having a trusted system to run all operations on is a huge plus when conducting performance reviews, next to other processes.
- Customization: Microsoft Teams is a very customizable platform that you can use to fit your needs and your specific circumstances as a company. Not only that but Microsoft Teams allows for other apps to integrate into your experience which makes it a highly advantageous tool.
The Right Performance Review Tool for Microsoft Teams
The best performance management tool that you can find inside Microsoft Teams with seamless integration is without a doubt, Teamflect! Teamflect is an all-in-one performance management solution that you can access inside Microsoft Teams and Outlook.
With its all-in-one approach, the tool itself is very powerful and it enhances your experience inside Teams in all the right ways! Whether you need 360-degree feedback, performance reviews, task & goal management, or one-on-one meetings, Teamflect is the app to use.
Step-by-step Guide For Conducting Mid-year Reviews In Microsoft Teams
Now that we’ve covered what the best way to go about mid-year reviews is, let’s take a step-by-step look into exactly how you can conduct your reviews.
Step 1: Download Teamflect
This step is easy. Simply go to the add app icon inside Microsoft Teams, and search for Teamflect. Once you do, click on download and get started on tracking performance during reviews! Two very simple facts that make Teamflect the obvious choice for performance reviews in Microsoft Teams are as follows:
- It is the highest-rated app of its category inside Microsoft Teams.
- No requirement to create an account you can simply log in with your Microsoft Teams credentials.
Inside your homepage, you’ll be met with a collection of all of your existing data within the app. Teamflect allows for;
- Seamless implementation of your organizational chart and related information of the company since it draws the data automatically from Entra ID.
- Free access with no time limits up to 10 users.
Step 2: Select a Review Template
When you’ve downloaded Teamflect the next course of action is to open up the reviews module from the menu inside on the left-hand side. Once you do so you will be met with all of the reviews that are pending action within your team in your reviews dashboard.
As you click on the “new review” button on the upper right side corner of your dashboard you’ll be met with a pop-up that allows you to create a review of your choice. This is where you will be able to;
- Choose a template that works for your specific occasion.
- Choose which reviewees are linked to the evaluation.
- Determine the period under review.
- Send out your mid-year review.
Automating Reviews Through The Admin Center
If you wish to customize existing templates, create new ones, or automate reviews at a certain consistency, you can do so inside the admin center. The admin center allows for;
- The creation of your own or customization of existing templates
- Digitize Excel or Word templates, even inside the app through sample employee review templates, if you would like.
- Automate Reviews at any interval so your reviews are automatically sent out at your preferred consistency.
Step 3: Employees Complete Self-Review
Once you send out your mid-year review inside Microsoft Teams with Teamflect, the employee you sent the review to will be able to view it inside their own reviews module and complete their self-review before you can go ahead and fill out your part as the reviewer.
If you’re the reviewer, once the self-review is complete, you’ll be notified that the mid-year review is pending action on your end and you can finalize the evaluation before the deadline you’ve set as you were customizing the timeline for the mid-year performance review process.
Step 4: Reviewer Completes Evaluation
Once the reviewee completes the self-review, the reviewer is now able to look into the results of the evaluation thus far and make overall comments or private comments regarding the process. This way the reviewer has a chance to properly get ready for the mid-year review to be finalized in the next step!
Step 5: Present Reviews Inside Meetings
As you finish up on your evaluations, you can set up a 1-on-1 meeting with your teammate to discuss further of your findings during the review and make strategic evaluations with your newfound insights as you define areas of improvement and decide upon development plans if necessary as you set goals for the future accordingly.
Teamflect makes it easy for you to reach the data you’ve collected inside its 1-on-1 feature that is integrated into Teams meetings. This way, you have direct access to all the information you need just a click away in your meeting while you discuss!
You’re even presented with the option to share the review on your screen directly with the employee in question so you can have a visual analysis that you can refer to as you discuss improvement plans, set performance metrics for the future, and reflect on current objectives.
