How to Run Quarterly Performance Reviews That Grow and Motivate Your People

Quarterly performance reviews are critical checkpoints for ensuring your team stays aligned with company objectives. When conducted effectively, they can reinvigorate team morale, update outdated strategies, and drive efficiency toward achieving key goals. However, if poorly executed, they risk leaving your team behind and impeding progress.

So, how can you transform these reviews into opportunities for success rather than obstacles? This article will explore the key elements of effective quarterly reviews, from preparation to detailed execution.

By the end, you’ll have the insights needed to make these reviews a source of motivation and a driver of continuous growth.

Key elements for a successful quarterly performance review process

1. Performance metrics

A quarterly performance review should include an assessment of how well the employee met targets for employee performance metrics. It’s also the occasion to evaluate whether the performance metrics are still relevant to the role responsibilities.

We also recommend a self-assessment, where employees are asked to reflect on their performance during the last three months. If you don’t collect written self-evaluations, be sure to inform your employee in the meeting invitation, so they have time to collect their thoughts before your quarterly review meeting.

2. Future goal alignment

More frequent reviews make checking that employees are on track with goals easier. If something unexpected happens, such as a loss or adding a resource to the team or new clients, the quarterly review is an excellent opportunity to adjust goals accordingly.

3. Review of past goals

The quarterly review will also zoom in on past goal performance:

1. How well did the employee meet past goals?
2. Are these goals still plausible and relevant, considering unexpected changes during the last quarter?

4. Feedback and feedforward

Besides checking in with KPIs and goals, quarterly performance reviews should include broader feedback. This can be done in a 360-degree review, where the employee receives feedback from each team member or others they’ve worked closely with.

Feedback can also be more qualitative and directed at things that cannot be measured by KPIs, such as how timely the employee replies to messages and other forms of communication, teamwork, motivation, and alignment with corporate values.

Most importantly, the quarterly review should be an opportunity for two-way feedback.

Encourage your employees to share feedback regarding their team lead, direct report, colleagues, clients, workload, and professional development.

A similar, more enabling concept that is gaining popularity is feedforward. Feedforward focuses on future potential over past performance. It is given at the moment when the opportunity arises.

5. Identifying opportunities for professional development

Another key factor in employee motivation is growth. During the quarterly review, you can discuss the employee’s ambitions, dreams, and satisfaction with their professional development. Also, check what resources or training they need to reach their next level. Development goals can give purpose and direction for career growth.

6. Asking strategic questions and promoting open dialogue

The quality of the answers you get from your employees is directly proportional to the quality of the questions you ask.

Bonus tips: Practice active listening by asking probing follow-up questions. When you ask deeper questions, often, the first answer is automatic, and what we’re used to reply. Asking, “Can you elaborate?” or “Is there something else?” allows us to reach those aha moments.

Finally, leave room for open dialogue if there's something more the employee has on their mind. Even if you asked for feedback earlier,some people take time to warm up or may be more comfortable sharing openly than giving feedback about a specific person or situation.

7. Setting concrete action items

By now, you have checked performance, exchanged feedback, talked about professional development, asked strategic questions, and had an open dialogue. Last but not least, it’s time to go from words to action!

We've all had those conversations. Avoid them by being clear and specific about what you expect from your employees and by when. Make sure to document what you agree upon. If you need to follow up with particular resources or help, write a reminder so you don't forget about it.

Quarterly review questions managers should answer to review performance before the quarterly meeting

These questions will help managers evaluate an employee’s performance before the review meeting:

1. Has the employee met or exceeded their goals for the quarter?
2. What key achievements has the employee made in the past three months?
3. Has the employee demonstrated improvement in the areas identified in the previous review?
4. How does the employee perform against the key competencies required for their role? (e.g., communication, leadership, technical skills)
5. Has the employee consistently met deadlines and maintained quality in their work?
6. How effectively has the employee collaborated with team members and other departments?
7. What specific areas of performance need improvement or attention?
8. Has the employee taken initiative or demonstrated problem-solving abilities?
9. Does the employee align with the company culture and values in their daily work?
10. What development opportunities (e.g., training, stretch assignments) should the employee focus on during the next quarter to enhance their skills?
11. Are any barriers or challenges impacting the employee’s performance? How can management help address them?

How to conduct a quarterly performance review: Key steps

Prepare in advance

Managers and employees should both come ready for the review. Email the agenda well beforehand to set expectations. Inform your employees what they need to do and share any questions they should have reflected on before.

Beware and avoid recency bias

It can be easy to fall into the recency bias trap and only talk about what happened during the last two weeks, ignoring the remaining ten weeks of the evaluation period. When preparing for the review, look back at critical events, important deadlines, or client acquisitions, and ensure you know how the employee contributed.

Keep a flexible agenda with employee input

While having key points ready is important, be flexible about the discussion’s flow. Let the employee set some agenda items or lead parts of the conversation. Co-ownership of the agenda will encourage a discussion rather than a reporting session.

Ask open-ended questions and let your people express their thoughts on progress, challenges, and aspirations.

Foster an open communication environment

If you need to discuss sensitive topics you don’t feel comfortable with, practice before the meeting and think about the different reactions you can get and how to handle them with empathy and professionalism.

Set actionable goals for the next quarter

Setting employee performance goals is a science in itself. Still, a quick note is that they need to follow the SMART rule—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This approach prevents things from getting lost in translation and inspires the employee to leave the meeting with enthusiasm.

Emphasize growth and development

Frame the conversation around the employee’s development and career path rather than just their past performance. Talk about learning opportunities, not just task completion or project successes. Reflect on both wins and losses as valuable lessons.

Discuss their passions, where they see themselves in the future, and how you and the organization can help. Maybe even start drafting up a rough career development plan.

Set up informal regular check-ins throughout the year

Make the quarterly review part of an ongoing dialogue. Have regular, less structured check-ins or ‘catch-ups’ to keep track of progress without the pressure of a formal review.

These frequent, informal sessions will make the actual quarterly review feel like a natural, cumulative discussion, reducing anxiety and formality.

Cisco, which repeatedly is voted the best place to work for, has replaced backward-looking annual reviews in favor of informal weekly check-ins. In addition, they have mid-year career discussions that are focused on professional development.

Questions managers should ask employees during the quarterly meeting

These questions will help managers gather more context from the employee and encourage a two-way conversation during the review:

1. How do you feel about your performance over the past quarter?
2. What accomplishments are you most proud of from the past three months?
3. Were there any challenges or roadblocks that affected your ability to meet your goals?
4. What additional support or resources do you think would help you succeed in your role?
5. How have you developed your skills this quarter, and where do you see room for further growth?
6. Are there any areas where you feel you could improve, and how can I assist you in addressing those?
7. What goals would you like to focus on for the next quarter, and how do these align with your career objectives?
8. How would you rate your collaboration and communication with the team?
9. Are there any projects or responsibilities you would like to take on to further develop your skills?
10. Do you have any feedback on how I can better support you in your role?
11. How do you feel about your workload and the balance between work and development opportunities?
12. Is there anything else you’d like to discuss that this review hasn’t covered?

The benefits of quarterly performance reviews (as compared to annual reviews)

There are several reasons organizations are switching from annual to quarterly performance reviews. The major drawback of sticking to annual reviews is delayed feedback.

Naturally, annual performance reviews come with a time lag between the event and the feedback delivery. For example, suppose you see a drop in a KPI seven months before an annual performance review. In that case, it can be hard to remember what caused the lower performance.

With quarterly reviews, on the other hand, you’ll be able to pinpoint what happened and how you can prevent it from reoccurring.

The benefits of a more frequent review cycle are:

Timely feedback and course correction

Quarterly reviews allow managers to provide timely feedback and address performance issues before they become significant problems. This enables employees to make course corrections throughout the year rather than waiting for an annual review when it may be too late to make meaningful changes.

Agile goal-setting and adjusting

Quarterly reviews allow for shorter, more agile goal-setting cycles. This is particularly useful in fast-paced industries where priorities shift frequently. Managers can adjust goals in real-time, ensuring that employee efforts stay aligned with the evolving needs of the business.

Increased employee engagement

More frequent performance reviews keep employees engaged and motivated. Regular check-ins foster a culture of open communication, where employees feel supported and can voice concerns or seek guidance on their development in a more timely manner than with annual reviews.

Reduced review pressure and improved accuracy

Quarterly reviews spread the workload of performance evaluations throughout the year, making the process less stressful for both managers and employees. It also improves the accuracy of assessments, as performance is evaluated based on recent and specific examples rather than recalling an entire year’s worth of work, which can lead to more objective and fair evaluations.

Improved employee development

With more frequent evaluations, employees receive ongoing feedback and development guidance, which leads to continuous improvement. This allows managers to track progress and provide relevant development opportunities or training much sooner than with annual reviews.

Set up and run quarterly performance reviews in just a few clicks with Deel Engage

Deel Engage offers an integrated solution for performance reviews. With all your talent management operations in one place, you’ll save a lot of time and back-and-forth between Excel sheets and employees sitting on the information you need.

Here are some of the features that will facilitate your quarterly reviews:

• Automated review cycles: With reminders and automatic task assignments, do the setup once then forget about it
• Analytics for a holistic view: With 9-box grids, skills matrices, and competency profiles, get critical insights into your people’s performance and potential at an individual, team, department, and organizational level
• Automated feedback summaries: AI-powered feedback summaries help reviewees understand the key insights from multiple types of feedback from more reviewers.
• Suggestions for development: To make things even better, the AI assistant will consider all the feedback received by an individual to propose action areas for development
• Link feedback to learning and development: Help your people address development areas with courses from the extensive learning library, with courses curated from top providers
• You can also use our functionalities for one-on-one meetings and 360 feedback in your quarterly reviews.