10 great questions to ask in a quarterly review

Quarterly reviews should focus on the important topics, not the day-to-day updates you can get any time. They’re an opportunity for you to connect with your team members individually, and discuss achievements, growth, and ways of working. So, your questions should be broader in quarterly reviews, if you want to get the best results.

You’ll find below ten great questions to ask your employees which focus on their future and how you can support them. You’ll also find tips on things to avoid, like dwelling on past performance or raising concerns “out of the blue”. Your quarterly reviews are a platform to build great relationships from, so let’s see the questions which will help you do just that:

• Questions to build rapport and trust (1-2)
• Questions about career growth (3-5)
• Questions which focus on your own management style (6-7)
• Questions around goals and achievements (8-10)
• 3 top tips to make quarterly reviews run more smoothly

Starter questions for quarterly reviews that build rapport and trust

Most managers know that trust is the key to getting great results. But if building rapport isn’t a skill that comes naturally to you, what questions can you ask to create stronger relationships?

You want to create a connection that drives individual motivation and builds engagement with the work people do. So, start simple: how are things going, and are you keeping in balance?

1. How are things going generally?

Personal circumstances can impact on performance. And quarterly reviews don’t just have to focus on whether projects and tasks are being completed. Ask questions which take an interest in your team members and ask them how life’s going overall. Don’t pry if they don’t want to share secrets. Instead, provide a safe space where they can be open about how they feel and what’s going on.

2. Is your work-life balance where you’d like it?

Now, more than ever, you need to focus on the work-life balance of your people. The rapid rise of hybrid and remote working practices means boundaries between work and home have blurred. And with many businesses now calling for some return to the office, things are about to change again. So, find out how your team members are managing, and explore their concerns if changes are needed.

Questions for quarterly reviews about career growth

Want to know what the top employee perk is? According to research from the best and brightest at Google, Deloitte, and Gallup, it isn’t free lunches, private healthcare, birthdays off, or ping pong tables. It’s career growth.

Let’s be honest, adding another ad hoc meeting to “talk about your career” falls into the “best intentions, but never happens” bucket. So be intentional about it and ask specific questions about growth in your quarterly reviews.

3. What skills would you like to develop over the next quarter?

This is a great question both for employees and you. Employees value managers taking a genuine interest in their development. Asking questions and following up with plans to help them get there drives engagement, and performance. And by understanding the skills your people are looking to improve, you can start to map their development and how it might benefit the team and business moving forward.

4. What additional training, responsibility, or visibility would you like?

Giving your employees the power to ask for the support they need is vital for running a great team. You can’t just assume your people will speak up if they hit a blocker. They may not be used to a manager who’s open to offering that support. So ask the question at every quarterly review, at a minimum, and encourage them to flag where they could use your help.

5. Do you feel challenged at work in your current role?  

The key to employee motivation is balancing a sense of challenge in your work without stretching so far you hit overwhelm. It drives engagement and excitement about where they fit in overall. If an employee doesn’t feel challenged, look for ways to make a change. Consider adding new responsibilities or setting more ambitious goals. And, ideally, align these with future aspirations to aid development.

Ask questions about your own management style within quarterly reviews

Managers have a huge responsibility to their teams. They are there to lead, to coach, to support and to champion their people. It’s a lot to take on. And very few managers are perfect from the start. But what the very best managers recognise it’s a learning process that’s filled with ups and downs.

So use your team’s feedback to inform your own development. Devote a section of any structured performance conversation to how you can better help your team. Not only will it build trust with them and get better results sooner, it also enables you to become a better manager (providing you take the feedback on board).

6. How can I better help you over the next quarter?

A big part of your role as manager is to support and coach your team so they can perform to the best of their abilities. That’s why it’s essential you ask how you can best help them. You might not be able to action everything they ask for, and shouldn’t if it will mean you being overworked. But simply asking this question, discussing any points raised, and taking action on those areas you can change, will build stronger, and more open, connections with your team.

7. How do you like to receive feedback? Do you feel you are getting enough?

How you communicate with your people is just as important as what you communicate because employees have different preferences. Yet many managers don’t take the time to ask what individuals need. It’s why 97% of employees believe communication (or lack of it) impacts their daily efficiency at work. And why you should ask the question and adapt your style to the feedback methods and frequencies that work best for each team member.

Questions for quarterly reviews about goals and achievements

You might think this section should go at the start of the article. After all, performance is important in any review you hold. But try not to make all your questions too performance-focussed in your quarterly, or annual, reviews. This should be a two-way, open and honest conversation, not a grilling of all the tiny details that went a bit wrong.

Instead, approach performance as a learning opportunity. Look at general themes and ways to move things forward. And use your questions about performance in a quarterly review to focus on achievements, goals and ways of working. This is about setting the expectations and agreements for what needs to happen next.

8. What recent achievements are you proud of?

It’s easy to focus on the negatives in a performance review. Our brains naturally go there so it takes work to change this around. Ask your employees directly about the great work they’ve done recently. It gives them a mental boost and helps you understand the work that motivates and engages them. It also gives you insights into what they’d rather avoid.

9. Reviewing the last quarter, how do you feel your work has impacted the team?

Most people are motivated by having a sense of purpose. And a feeling of belonging can drive performance up or down. By exploring the perceived impact someone’s efforts have on those around them, you highlight the big part they’re playing in the success of their company and team. It’s also a good way to help those whose performance may has dropped recently, to get a reality check on the impact they’re having on their friends. So ask them how they feel about their own contribution and reflect on what that tells you about any support they might need.

10. Are your goals and the team’s goals clear for the next quarter?

Setting, aligning, and amending goals should be a part of every performance conversation you have with your employees. And they need to understand the broader goals to know where they fit into the plan. So ask this question in your quarterly reviews to check understanding and offer clarity where it’s needed. If employees aren’t bought in to, or don’t really see, how they can contribute, your results are destined to failure long before your next quarterly review.  

Three quick tips to make quarterly reviews run more smoothly

If you’re new to management, or haven’t run a review like this before, here are a few short tips which can make everything feel a lot easier:

• Make it a two-way conversation: Using the questions above, your quarterly reviews will encourage conversation. Develop open communication which carries on outside the meeting room, and encourage feedback from both sides, so everyone continues learning and developing in ways that work for them.
• No surprises: employees should walk in knowing if it’s been a good quarter or a bad one. There shouldn’t be anything which is suddenly red flagged. Regular check-ins in between formal reviews are the way to share there’s an issue. This is all about moving forward and putting new plans in place.
• Don’t dwell on “that project”: This isn’t the place to talk about what they did wrong for the tenth time. They have moved on and so should you. Instead, reflect on the learnings from any recent projects and focus quarterly reviews on how to move things forward.