Managing employee performance is a never-ending challenge for business leaders and managers, especially as they navigate commercial, financial, and labor market volatility and the resulting changes that require adapting business goals, operating models, staffing models, and work processes. The issues associated with traditional performance management processes are well established and widely discussed, yet many organizations still struggle to find effective solutions. Among the many possibilities that have emerged recently, one holds the key to more impactful people and success management: performance check-ins. 

Performance check-ins are brief, regularly scheduled discussions between managers and employees designed to keep work priorities aligned, identify issues or barriers to continued momentum, offer solutions that reduce friction, and communicate support and appreciation to workers. They give managers a shorter, easier, less intimidating process while providing more consistent performance guidance and sending strong signals to employees that they matter to managers and the organization. They offer a significant resolution to the fundamental issues, flaws, and complaints about traditional performance appraisal as part of the overall evaluation processes.

Issues that performance check-ins address

The traditional performance management model is based on an annual summary of employee task performance, contributions, and professional growth. It relies on individual managers’ memory of employee behaviors, successes, shortcomings, adaptations, development activities, and growth. The problem is that the outcomes are dismal, as Gallup’s research has shown. For example, it has found that only 20% of workers report that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work, and only 14% strongly agree that their performance evaluations inspire them to improve. Consider these findings in context: 74% of employees receive a performance review once a year or less frequently. 

Equally concerning, most managers hesitate to meet with employees to discuss performance and related topics. 69% of managers feel uncomfortable communicating with their employees, with an alarming 51% saying they avoid those interactions altogether. When one considers that 45% of employees who resigned stated that in the three months before they left, no one asked them about their level of satisfaction, job performance, or future plans and opportunities, and the 55% who did have conversations said those were unrelated to coaching for greater role impact, their careers, or their job satisfaction, it is no surprise that manager-employee relationships drive turnover.

While the presenting issue may appear to lie exclusively on the doorsteps of leaders and managers, poor outcomes result from a combination of performance management process design, the time and effort required of managers, and managers' skills and motivations. Enter performance check-ins.

Understanding performance check-ins

Pioneered at Adobe Systems and adopted by many leading organizations, performance check-ins provide real-time, consistent feedback and coaching. The objective is to help every employee understand how they are performing and how they can increase their contributions.

These are designed to complement and improve the process, not replace annual reviews. They give managers and their direct reports the opportunity (as the University of Denver states): to pause, reflect, and realign—ensuring everyone feels supported and set up for success.

It is the design and execution plan that makes these so effective, as they most often include:

• Frequency and cadence: Held weekly, biweekly, or monthly with every employee
• Format: Brief, semi-structured 15- to 30-minute one-on-one exchanges, with shared responsibility for raising issues and making commitments
• Topics: Task status, assignments, and barriers faced; alignment on goals and direction; coaching, advice, and skill/career development.

These offer a simple yet elegant way for managers and their assigned employees to execute their most basic roles: align on task direction and requirements, and give or receive guidance and coaching that aligns the individual with the larger team, function, or operational goals. The key is to ease bureaucratic demands on managers and reduce pressure to prepare (via more frequent, abbreviated interactions), give both parties direction on what to cover, and establish a cadence that brings them together one-on-one more often, so familiarity becomes the basis for greater trust and transparency. 

This represents a significant shift in perspective, as Gallup puts it—a move from performance management to performance development. Its research shows its differentiating effectiveness: more frequent feedback (e.g., weekly) alone can boost employee engagement three-fold (3X). This stems from managers' ability to provide more meaningful, tailored feedback grounded in a better understanding of an individual's skill levels and strengths, the circumstances (better or worse) under which they perform their jobs, and the types of coaching and guidance that lead to improvement.

The benefits of adopting and scaling employee check-ins

Performance check-ins bring myriad direct and indirect benefits to the organization, managers, and employees. They clarify workers' focus, help them use their skills and effort most effectively, and provide guidance to keep them on the expected path and on schedule for success. For managers, this supports ongoing awareness of how work is (or is not) progressing, provides context on what is getting in the way of the team’s performance and output, and helps them better understand what motivates and engages team members to meet and exceed goals. These address critical performance management issues and generate value that:

Overcome managers’ reluctance 

By scheduling, simplifying, and abbreviating employee interactions, these reduce the time and effort required to prepare for and conduct each session (vs. the hundreds of hours required to prepare for annual reviews). They can help overcome resistance to transparency for fear of offending or demotivating, because a) meetings are more frequent and support closer relationships, and b) they address smaller performance issues immediately rather than aggregating them over the course of a year.

Provide near real-time feedback

Weekly or bi-weekly discussions let managers address issues, barriers employees face, and priority changes immediately instead of waiting months or a year. This means fewer surprises for managers, who can support or direct course corrections before problems grow, and for employees, who can adjust and use guidance to improve performance or outcomes before it affects their rating or standing. It gives managers more opportunities to recognize successes, which can substantially boost employee motivation, engagement, and retention. It supports a more agile and adaptable team, function, and organizational performance amid unseen or volatile operating conditions.

Enhance accountability

More frequent conversations between managers and their direct reports create more opportunities to discuss assigned goals, task performance standards, and action plans for growth and improvement. This strengthens managers' roles as accountability partners and coaches, keeping them in continuous conversation with their subordinates about performance expectations.

Identify process breakdowns and inefficiencies

When managers talk regularly with multiple team members, they can better identify common workflow, process design, handoff, and task-assignment challenges that impede team production, timeliness, and output quality. They are also better positioned to understand breakdowns in team dynamics, coordination, and collaboration that stifle output, innovation, customer focus, and solution generation.

Improve employee engagement

More frequent meetings can increase interpersonal understanding and comfort, build trust and stronger bonds, and have been found to increase employee performance. This is based on authentic two-way conversations in which employees raise issues and clarify their needs, and managers respond with curiosity and without judgment. This helps managers understand what happens when they are not present, what their employees need to develop, and how best to target guidance and support for each individual. This enables them to provide more targeted, fact-based guidance while building closer, more authentic relationships.

Support coaching versus judging

These conversations are forward-looking, reinforcing and encouraging what is going well while providing feedback and guidance on how to improve what is not. As a result, the manager-employee relationship leans more towards a coaching partnership rather than one focused on retrospective judgments. The end game is to address challenges proactively and raise the performance of more team members to generate superior value production in the aggregate.

Elements of an effective performance check-in ecosystem

While performance check-ins are activities or tasks managers and their assigned employees conduct jointly, they become major contributors to improved goal achievement, staff motivation, employee development, engagement, and retention when incorporated into an advanced, streamlined performance management process. Given managers’ time commitments and reluctance to have employee discussions, formalize the ecosystem to encourage and drive their use of these as a driver of those outcomes. Three primary elements to establishing the sustainable practice of performance check-ins include:

1. Establish a formal process

Identify and clarify what is being assessed and fed back

Document, train, and develop supportive tools and prompts to help managers conduct these sessions regularly. Focus their conversations with online or printed job aid guides that help them get meaningful insights about (for example): 

• Task and assignment progress (e.g., quantity, quality, timeliness)
• Demonstration of essential values and behaviors (e.g., interpersonal, customer, collaboration, taking initiative) 
• Exhibition of core or desirable capabilities, skills, proficiency levels, traits (e.g., communication, collaboration, leadership, ideation and creativity, responsiveness)

Engage top leaders 

Senior leaders are watched, and their perspectives and behaviors signal what matters. Engage them in program governance, oversight, role modeling, championing, and vocal support. Hold them accountable for doing this with their direct reports, and provide reporting on how far it applies throughout the ranks of managers below them. 

Train and support leaders and managers

Establish basic training that drives significantly better performance check-ins, including active listening skills, how to use probing follow-up questions to deepen understanding, and how to “listen with eyes” to assess employee transparency and comfort when answering questions. Aim for a 50/50 talk-listen ratio to emphasize the employee's role in the conversation. 

Schedule brief but regular one-on-ones 

Set standards for conducting these, considering spans of control and the time leaders and managers need to hold them weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Set expectations that every employee meets with their manager for at least 15 minutes and no more than 30 minutes per session. Guide managers on scheduling requirements that minimize missed or canceled sessions, and establish measurement and tracking that provide transparency and consequences for repeated noncompliance. 

Guide manager and employee preparation

Provide guidance and direction to managers and employees on how to prepare for meaningful, optimized performance check-ins. 

For managers, the guidance can include prompts on the actions, behaviors, and how to:

• Set and schedule time for a session with an employee
• Key questions to ask 
• Topics to get employee feedback and input on
• Periodic shifts in questions to keep sessions fresh (e.g., ask about their well-being monthly, career and skill development aspirations quarterly) 
• Special, targeted questions for new hires, HiPos, managers 

For employees, be prepared to provide information related to:

• Status of efforts
• Achievements or progress made
• Challenges that are frustrating or impeding progress 
• Elements of assigned work that are frustrating or less meaningful
• Help or support needed from the manager

Blend feedback and coaching with development

Set expectations that managers understand each employee’s career and skill development aspirations, and provide L&D resources that managers and employees can easily access and that map to those aspirations. Have them identify (and document) opportunities to guide employees toward work assignments, rotational or mobility opportunities, and learning resources.

Measure effectiveness

While avoiding an overt focus on meeting compliance over conversation quality, establish automated calendar reporting to assess whether meetings are being held. Use employee upward feedback surveys to evaluate session frequency and quality, and the manager's ability to ask questions, listen, and address concerns raised in the sessions. Use automated systems (e.g., AI-enabled summaries of session recording notes) to assess how consistently managers record performance notes for future use and how they address follow-up commitments.

2. Conduct performance check-ins

Create guides and tools to help managers conduct performance check-ins effectively, with questions they can access and use consistently. For example, this guide offers a five-step process with sample questions managers can choose from, plus additional probes as needed, and key insights to listen for (as time allows). 

a) Relate and connect (briefly)

• How has your week been? How are you feeling? 
• What’s the latest with your (hobby, weekend plans, travel, family)

Respond and acknowledge – make a statement that validates you heard and understood, such as “That sounds rewarding, fun, exciting”, or “Sounds like you’re frustrated, disappointed”, etc., and offer encouragement: “Fingers crossed that your team wins again”, or “I hope it works out next time”

Listen for: General mood, willingness to share, strength of interpersonal connection and trust, stress or dissatisfaction 

b) Review status of work priorities

• How are you progressing on [task A, project B]?
• Are you on schedule? On target to meet the goal(s)? Satisfied with the quality of output?
• I have observed (or heard/received feedback) that you did [a, b, c] particularly well, or less effectively. 

Respond and provide feedback: “Your progress is (excellent, solid, not where we had hoped)”, “That’s great - it sounds like you ‘re ahead of schedule”, or “Sounds like a concern – tell me more about the situation” 

Listen for: Barriers to success, skill shortcomings, process challenges, motivational difficulties 

c) Uncover challenges and opportunities

• How do you feel about your progress this week?
• What do you attribute your success to? 
• In what ways are you falling short? What is getting in the way?

Respond and offer insights: “How can I better support you?” or “Have you tried…”, “Why don’t you talk to [a more experienced or skilled peer]”, or “Take a look at this [article/video/online resource] for more ideas”.

Listen for: Heightened levels of stress, difficult coworker issues or relationships, poor work/life balance (any of which impede individual productivity, engagement, and team performance and progress).

d) Discuss skills, growth, and aspirations

• To what extent is this helping strengthen or expand the skills you want to develop?
• Which parts of the work are most satisfying to you? Least? Most motivating? Least?

Respond and provide guidance and reactions: “I understand that task is not enjoyable, but it is necessary because [business purpose, legal or safety requirement, customer outcome]”, “Glad to hear that; we’ll continue to look for more opportunities for you to do it more often”, or “Let me see if I can offload some of those to someone else to balance it out”

Listen for: Aspirations, satisfaction with growth, assignments, and job design. Readiness for new challenges, tasks, career mobility.

e) Agree and commit to next steps

• So what actions and next steps make the most sense for you in the next week(s)?
• Can we agree to follow up in our next and see how these helped or fixed the problems?

Respond and summarize your actions: “Sounds great, and I’ll look forward to hearing how it went”, “My commitment(s) are to do [a, b, c] in the coming days, and I will get back to you to confirm it is complete or ready for you”, or “You sound hesitant to take those steps – can you tell me what feels less comfortable for you?”

Listen for: The level of employee acknowledgment, agreement, and commitment to act.

3. Implement documentation mechanisms and follow-on standards

The final step is crucial, as undocumented weekly or bi-weekly performance discussions lose value over time. Documentation is critical to preserve the value these conversations generate: employee contributions and strengths; examples of superior (or sub-standard) performance; proof of their ability to take and respond effectively to feedback, coaching, and guidance; and evidence of their acquisition and expansion of skills and proficiency levels.

Because performance check-ins are part of a larger annual, semi-annual, or quarterly performance management cycle, the need for objective data, insights, and proof to support downstream compensation and talent decisions cannot be overstated. Consider the well-established impact of the “recency effect’ on performance appraisals that deny or blunt consideration of earlier accomplishments, growth, and issue corrections or resolutions. Extemporaneous (“as it occurs”) documentation supports objective performance data aggregation for more accurate trend analysis, increased fairness to employees, and greater ease for managers with increasing spans of control. AI summaries of successes, challenges overcome, commitments met, and feedback from others (peers, project managers, customers, executives) can augment the collection of notes and voice recordings (with the employee's permission).

Leading practices that boost the impact of performance check-ins

As performance check-ins become widely adopted and accepted, add more advanced practices to expand their impact. 

First, fully integrate performance check-ins into the formal performance management process so they become culturally ingrained and expected by employees, managers, and leaders. Consider that full integration makes sense because performance evaluations are deeply ingrained drivers, influencers, and inputs to:

• Contributes to compensation decisions as criteria for value delivered, pay for performance, and the comparison and contrast of employees in comparable roles or levels
• Supports comprehensive assessment by providing more data that overcomes recency bias, supports performance assessment over time, across situations and potential observers
• Feeds development and career planning by continuously identifying and assessing employee skills, capabilities, and proficiency levels.
• Supports the identification of future leaders and subject matter experts with heightened objectivity and greater accuracy

This requires organizations to use systems and repositories that aggregate feedback and coaching semi-annually or annually to simplify and automate periodic performance evaluations.

Next, consider adopting and broadly implementing regular, automated 360-degree reviews to generate more comprehensive performance data, inform managerial feedback, and assess and understand team effectiveness. The added perspectives from co-workers, project managers, cross-functional partners, and even customers strengthen managers’ assessments, coaching, and skill/career development guidance, and reduce the pressure on managers to generate meaningful content for performance check-in sessions.

Finally, as managers become more adept at conducting these, train and coach them to tailor performance check-ins to employees at different levels. While keeping the schedule and cadence, vary the questions and content based on employees' skill proficiencies and experience levels. These should be meaningful, not burdensome, for every level: novice, intermediate, and advanced workers. Consider the novelty vs. routineness of the work and circumstances in which it is being performed when choosing questions.

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