Everything You Need to Know About the Annual Result Meetings

• #HR

The end of the year is when companies are overwhelmed by an avalanche of annual result meetings. If you asked your employees about their opinion on the annual result meetings, we bet that many of them would say the same – it causes a lot of unnecessary stress. However, how can an employee prepare for this meeting to match the manager's expectations? And what can the manager do to make it as smooth as possible so the employees could stop associating the process with bad emotions? 

Have annual meetings become a relict of the past? 

Annual interviews usually involve discussing the previous year's results. As we mentioned, these conversations create negative emotions for employees, because they receive more criticism than compliments during them. Indeed, compliments should not be forgotten during the annual interviews, which increases the employee's motivation and self-confidence. A pile of criticism is the opposite – the employee may start to rethink his choices and doubt his abilities.
It is also important to understand the employee's attitude towards the future and whether the future perspectives of the employee and yours and the company coincide. This conversation generally strengthens the bond between the employee and the manager and can be a great opportunity to receive feedback and discuss salary and future career opportunities. 

How do you prepare for the annual result meeting, so the process goes as smoothly as possible?

• Constant communication. No matter how unfortunate it is, no one can read minds, so it is important for the employee and manager to constantly communicate and mutually share both good and bad aspects of work. By constantly communicating, both the employee and the manager will always know all the news, and what emotions are caused by everyday and unusual, new tasks. If you maintain a constant mutual relationship, the conversation will go more smoothly and all that is left to do is summarize the mood of the past year and discuss future goals and plans. 
• The annual result meeting is the same as all meetings. Most often, employees are frightened by the stereotypical importance of annual interviews. If you are an employee, don't add stress to your employees by emphasizing the importance of this meeting, after all, the annual interview is exactly the same as any team or individual meeting, but the results discussed during the annual interview cover a larger period of time.
• Preliminary preparation of questions and comments. If you prepare in advance the comments and questions you want to discuss during the annual interview, the meeting itself will go more smoothly and quickly. Also, this way you won't forget all the important things you want to discuss with the manager or employee during this meeting.
• The future is as important as the past. As we already mentioned at the beginning of the article, during the annual result meetings it is important not only to discuss the projects and the achieved results of the previous year but also to discuss the possibilities for the future. If you are a manager, find out your employee’s future plans from a career perspective. If you are an employee, it is important to find out what future opportunities your workplace can offer you. Perhaps you feel ripe for a promotion or career change, so it is important to find out if your current workplace will give you what you are looking for in the coming year.