When to Give the End of Year Evaluation?

The idea of the evaluation is to provide each team member with a formal record of their performance for the previous reporting period. It typically includes a recap of the successes and opportunities demonstrated over that time frame. It is also a great time to outline expectations over the future reporting period. And finally, many organizations use this time to share calibration ratings as well as announce compensation adjustments.

Pro Tip- My recommendation is to not include the compensation adjustments during the evaluation as it can dominate the conversation.

With that, if the reporting period is for six or twelve months, the question persists if it should be given in December, the last month of the reporting period or in January, the first month of the next reporting period. There are pros and cons to both, but I advocate for doing it in December. Here are the pros to giving evals in December:

1-When the evaluation is received at the tail end of the reporting period, it truly closes the chapter on the reporting period and reduces carryover into the next period.
2-Despite being the holiday period, I have found there to be plenty of time to write and administer them.
3-Since performance evaluations should not shock anyone, there is minimal risk to upsetting the person and impacting their holidays.
4-It can allow for better start of the year company meetings that outline strategy and plans for the new year. This is because there is nothing looming about closing out the previous period.

Cons to giving evals in December:
1-It requires a bit of planning to ensure they get written efficiently, typically with the process starting immediately after Thanksgiving.
2-The last few weeks or the reporting period won’t have happened when the eval is written.

As many companies are starting to schedule out the close to 2024 and prepare the accompanying evaluations, I hope this helps.