20 Questions for Yearly Employee Reviews

After scouring the internet and tapping into whatever it is I've learned about building teams and leveling up the purpose of work, I came up with 20 questions for the Hacker Noon team to reflect on the year behind and improve for the year ahead. Maybe they can help your startup or team too? So, I'm publishing them here.

Here are the directions I gave each team member:

Full time people, please spend 2-4 hours on this, then share answers and set up early January meetings with whoever you report to and CEO. Part-time people, please spend 1-2 hours on this, then share answers and set up an early January meetings with whoever you report to or CEO. Feel free to write short answers for some and long answers for others, i.e. focus on what resonates - this is not a be all end all thing, it's a reflection exercise and a starting point for better productivity together. 

My 20 questions for employee reviews are:

1. Are you happy? 

2. What work project/s are you most proud of it 2018?

3. What metric/s and milestone/s demonstrate your value to the company?

4. What do you wish you did a better job of in 2019?

5. Which job responsibilities/tasks do you enjoy most? Which do you least enjoy?

6. How do you want your role to evolve in 2020, 2021 and 2022? 

7. What metrics or milestones do you want the company prioritize as a whole? 

8. Which metrics or milestones should the company prioritize as measuring the value you add?

9. What type of projects would you like to spend more time on? 

10. How can the company better support and drive your long term career goals? 

11. What additional work benefits would help you do a better job?

12. What additional company wide work benefits should the company prioritize?

13. How do you want your compensation to change in 2019 and 2020?

14. What can you to be more helpful to your teammates? 

15. What can your teammates do to be more helpful to you?

16. What (if any) concerns do you have when it comes to giving the company feedback? How can we alleviate those concerns?

17. What skills/talents/perspectives/abilities of yours is the company underutilizing? 

18. What’s the one change you’d advocate for to improve the entire team’s productivity? 

19. What should we prioritize to increase the likelihood we reach our potential a company?

20. What should you prioritize to increase the likelihood you reach your potential as a professional?