10 Important Factors to Consider When Conducting a Mid-Year Check on Company Goals

When a business leader sets company goals at the beginning of a year, they should also plan to check in on those goals periodically. One major common check-in time is the mid-year check. This reflection period can be a good reminder of what the organization should be focused on, as well as an opportunity to share progress and alternate plans.

To get the most out of this goal discussion, leaders should have a specific and focused agenda. Below, members of Young Entrepreneur Council suggested a few factors leaders should check in on in order to stay on track all year long.

Q. When conducting a mid-year check on company goals, what’s one factor or element you need to look at to ensure your team stays on track for the rest of the year?

1. Your Team’s Individual Goals

Holding regular check-ins with your team on a one-to-one basis is crucial for remaining on track throughout the year. At the six-month mark, we review how on-target we are as a whole, but to make sure we’re hitting goals, smaller assessments with the team are needed more frequently. That way, the mid-year check is never a surprise and we already know what we need to push to exceed our annual goals. – Emily Stallings, Casely, Inc.

2. Quantitative Statistics

A mid-year check on company goals should always include quantitative statistics. If you set measurable criteria at the beginning of the year for your company’s goal, such as a ranking system, you’ll now have a clear assessment of where you are in your journey. Does your current mid-year check show you’re on track? If not, you have the tools to identify the obstacles and to create solutions. – Shu Saito, All Filters

3. Accomplishments From the Past Six Months

Use what you were able to accomplish in the past six months as your guide for the next six. It’s likely that your plans at the beginning of the year were a little optimistic. After spending six months doing the work, your team has a better handle on what’s possible in their context. Use this knowledge to refine your plan for the second half of the year so that it’s truly realistic. – Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com

4. Your Cash Flow

To stay on track, you need to watch your cash flow. You can have all the goals and plans in the world, but without sufficient cash flow, you won’t achieve them. Review your gross income, expenses, gross profits, cash flow, and profit margins. How does your budget look? Are you on track to have the resources needed to meet your annual goals or do you need to make some changes before it’s too late? – Jonathan Prichard, MattressInsider.com

5. Your Project Size

One thing to consider during your mid-year check is the size of your projects. Sometimes, we can overlook issues with things, like the scale of our projects. If you don’t keep these factors in mind, you could fall behind at the end of the year because you didn’t hire enough people to handle the workload. – John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC

6. The Relevancy of Your Original Goals

It’s important to review if the original goals are still relevant for the progress you are aiming for. It’s OK to adjust goals if the original goals are made redundant by unforeseen circumstances. So the question to ask yourself and your team is, are these goals still the best goals to strive for? – John Murphy, eBike Generation

7. Your Team’s Clarity on Their Roles

Take mid-year check-ins a step further. Does the team have clarity on their roles and expectations? Sometimes we set numbers and milestones for our company but we haven’t made clear how to get there. Your employees need support in the journey toward the goals and not just to be given a number to hit. Have conversations with your team around the “how.” – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors

8. Areas for Improvement

With any performance check-in, it is important to celebrate the good and identify the areas for improvement. When the improvement areas are identified, it is important to document what they are and what needs to be improved and then put together a plan to make the improvement. Without a plan, an improvement area becomes a problem. – Zane Stevens, Protea Financial

9. Your Customers’ Responses

An important factor that you need to consider is your customers’ response to your work in the current year. If you’ve made any serious changes or introduced new products and features, then you need to track how people are feeling. You’ll know whether you need to make changes, improve customer support, or otherwise work on your new offering. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

10. New Actionable Goals

To make sure that your employees stay on top of their to-do lists and move the company forward, it’s crucial to set actionable goals. Without attainable goal-setting, your team has nothing to work off and won’t be able to tell if they’re improving or not. Monitoring certain KPIs and metrics guarantees that you know what direction the company is headed in and if it’s growing. – Jared Atchison, WPForms

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year, and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at yec.co.