Mid-Year Performance Reviews: A Complete Guide
Learn when and how to run mid-year performance reviews. Discover what to cover at the midpoint checkpoint vs. save for annual reviews.
Why mid-year reviews matter
Mid-year performance reviews provide a strategic checkpoint that prevents small issues from becoming year-end surprises. Only 13% of employees and managers find annual reviews useful, largely because feedback arrives too late to act on.
The mid-year checkpoint solves this. It catches misaligned goals before they waste another six months, surfaces obstacles while there’s still time to remove them, and gives employees concrete direction for the second half. Organizations that add mid-year reviews to their cycle report higher engagement and fewer surprises during annual evaluations.
When to schedule mid-year reviews
The optimal timing depends on your organization’s fiscal year and review cycle. For calendar-year companies, mid-year reviews typically fall in June or July.
Key timing considerations:
- Schedule 2-3 weeks before the midpoint to allow preparation time
- Avoid major deadline periods when employees are heads-down on deliverables
- Complete all mid-year conversations within a 2-week window to maintain consistency
- Leave buffer before Q3 planning so insights can inform second-half priorities
For organizations on fiscal years, adjust accordingly. The goal is creating a checkpoint at roughly the halfway mark of your annual cycle.
What to cover at mid-year vs. save for annual
Mid-year and annual reviews serve different purposes. Conflating them undermines both.
| Topic | Mid-Year | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Goal progress | Review and realign | Final assessment |
| Development areas | Identify focus for H2 | Evaluate year-long growth |
| Obstacles and blockers | Remove immediately | Document lessons learned |
| Formal ratings | Skip entirely | Assign and calibrate |
| Compensation | Never discuss | Connect to performance |
| Promotion readiness | Flag for tracking | Make decisions |
Mid-year reviews should be forward-looking. Spend 80% of the conversation on what’s ahead, not rehashing the past six months. The goal is course correction, not evaluation.
How mid-year reviews differ from check-ins
Mid-year reviews aren’t just another 1:1. They require distinct preparation and structure.
Regular 1:1s cover tactical updates, immediate blockers, and weekly priorities. They’re informal and responsive to current work.
Mid-year reviews step back to assess trajectory. They examine whether goals still make sense given business changes, whether the employee is developing in the right areas, and whether anything structural needs to change for the second half.
Think of 1:1s as steering the car. Mid-year reviews are checking you’re still headed to the right destination.
Running an effective mid-year review
Before the meeting
For managers:
- Review the employee’s goals from the start of the year
- Gather feedback from 2-3 collaborators
- Note specific accomplishments and areas for development
- Identify any goals that need adjustment based on business changes
For employees:
- Complete a self-assessment of progress toward each goal
- List obstacles encountered and how they were addressed
- Identify skills or experiences to develop in the second half
- Prepare questions about priorities or expectations
During the conversation
Open with progress recognition. Start by acknowledging specific wins from the first half. This sets a constructive tone and demonstrates you’ve been paying attention.
Review each goal explicitly. Don’t assume progress. Walk through each objective, discuss what’s on track, what’s behind, and whether the goal itself still makes sense.
Realign where needed. Business priorities shift. Projects get deprioritized. New opportunities emerge. Mid-year is the time to formally adjust goals rather than letting outdated objectives linger.
Identify obstacles. Ask directly: “What’s getting in your way?” Surface blockers while there’s time to address them.
Set development focus. Pick 1-2 specific areas for the employee to develop in the second half. Fewer priorities mean more progress.
Document next steps. Capture adjusted goals, development areas, and any commitments from both sides. This becomes the reference point for year-end.
What to avoid
- Don’t assign ratings. Mid-year is developmental, not evaluative.
- Don’t discuss compensation. Mixing pay with development undermines both conversations.
- Don’t rehash old issues. If something happened in February that needed addressing, it should have been addressed in February.
- Don’t skip preparation. An unprepared mid-year review wastes everyone’s time and signals the process doesn’t matter.
Common mid-year review mistakes
Treating it as a formality. If mid-year reviews become checkbox exercises, employees stop taking them seriously. Make the conversation substantive or don’t have it at all.
Focusing only on underperformers. High performers need mid-year conversations too. They may be bored, eyeing other opportunities, or ready for stretch assignments. Don’t assume silence means satisfaction.
Ignoring goal changes. If business priorities shifted significantly, pretending original goals still apply creates frustration. Acknowledge reality and adjust.
Waiting for annual to give hard feedback. If someone is struggling, mid-year is the time to address it directly. Waiting until December to mention a June problem is unfair and counterproductive.
Skipping documentation. Without written notes, mid-year insights disappear. Document key points so annual reviews can reference the full year accurately.
Making mid-year reviews easier with AI
Traditional mid-year reviews require significant preparation time. Managers must manually gather feedback, review goal trackers, and piece together six months of context.
AI-powered platforms change this equation. Windmill gathers performance context year-round from tools like Slack, GitHub, Jira, and Asana. By mid-year, managers have comprehensive records of accomplishments, feedback, and collaboration patterns without manual tracking.
This continuous data collection also reduces recency bias. Instead of only remembering the last few weeks, managers can review the full six months with specific examples from each quarter.
For employees, AI assistants like Windy can prompt self-reflection through conversational check-ins in Slack, making preparation feel less burdensome than filling out forms.
Mid-year reviews for different team types
For individual contributors: Focus on skill development and goal progress. Ask what projects they want in the second half and whether current work aligns with career goals.
For managers: Include feedback on their direct reports’ development. How are their 1:1s going? Are they developing their people effectively?
For new hires (under 6 months): Adjust expectations. Their mid-year review is really an extended onboarding checkpoint. Focus on ramp-up progress and integration rather than standard goal metrics.
For high performers: Don’t coast through the conversation because things are going well. Discuss stretch opportunities, promotion timelines, and retention risks.
Transitioning from annual-only to mid-year reviews
If your organization currently runs annual reviews only, adding a mid-year checkpoint requires change management.
Start with managers. Train them on the different purpose and format before rolling out to the organization. The most common failure is managers treating mid-year like a mini-annual review.
Set clear expectations. Communicate to employees what mid-year reviews are and aren’t. Emphasize the developmental focus and the absence of ratings or compensation discussions.
Keep it lighter than annual. Mid-year reviews should take less time and feel less formal. If they become as burdensome as annual reviews, adoption will suffer.
Pilot first. Run mid-year reviews with one department before organization-wide rollout. Learn what works and refine the process.
Key takeaways
- Mid-year reviews are strategic checkpoints for course correction, not mini-annual reviews
- Schedule them at the halfway point of your review cycle with 2-3 weeks of preparation time
- Focus 80% of the conversation on what’s ahead, not what’s behind
- Skip ratings and compensation entirely at mid-year
- Realign goals when business priorities have shifted
- Document outcomes so annual reviews can reference the full year
- AI tools can reduce preparation burden by gathering context continuously
The organizations seeing the best results from performance management treat mid-year reviews as genuine inflection points, not administrative overhead. Done well, they prevent surprises, accelerate development, and make annual reviews feel like summaries rather than revelations.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should you conduct mid-year performance reviews?
Mid-year performance reviews should happen at the halfway point of your review cycle, typically June or July for calendar-year organizations. Schedule them 2-3 weeks before the midpoint to give employees time to prepare self-assessments and managers time to gather feedback from collaborators.
What's the difference between mid-year and annual reviews?
Mid-year reviews focus on course correction and goal realignment for the remaining months, while annual reviews assess full-year performance with formal ratings. Mid-year conversations should be forward-looking and developmental. Annual reviews summarize accomplishments and determine compensation decisions.
What should managers cover in a mid-year review?
Mid-year reviews should cover progress toward goals, any obstacles blocking performance, whether priorities have shifted requiring goal adjustments, and development areas to focus on for the rest of the year. Skip formal ratings and compensation discussions at mid-year.
Are mid-year reviews necessary if you do annual reviews?
Yes. Organizations that rely solely on annual reviews see 55% of employees report no performance improvement. Mid-year checkpoints catch problems early, allow goal realignment when priorities shift, and prevent surprises at year-end. They also reduce recency bias in annual evaluations.