Mid-year checks are a great time to reevaluate the goals your company made at the beginning of the year and ensure employees and metrics are on the right track. When conducting these check-ins, it’s crucial to look at a few pertinent areas that could hinder your company’s success. To that end, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) weigh in on the following question:

“When conducting a mid-year check on company goals, what’s one area you’ll want to take a look at, and why? How will this help you gauge your progress?”

Here are their top recommendations.

1. Processes Hindering Employees

“The goal is to understand if any parts of the process are hindering employees from reaching their targets and setting goals. Regular check-ins should be in place, not just mid-year, to consistently evaluate strategies and how the entire team works together. It’s critical to understand if there are bottlenecks in any areas and to optimize how employees meet targets.” ~ Thomas Smale, FE International

2. Mid-Year Successes

“We all know that we need to analyze our goals, evaluate our communication channels and so on, but one area that is often overlooked is reasons to celebrate. Take time to celebrate any mid-year goals you’ve already reached, and recognize yourself and your company for the hard work. Plus, celebrating helps create a winning mindset that will help carry your company forward.” ~ Shu Saito, Fact Retriever

3. Company Culture

“I often think company culture gets overlooked in the midst of mid-year budget and production checks. How is the energy on your team? How are your employees? Mid-year is a great time to take stock of the promises you made at the beginning of the year internally and ensure that your actions match your commitments. Your team is the core of your success, so spend time to make sure they are engaged.” ~ Ashley Sharp, Dwell with Dignity

4. Customer-Facing Communication

“One important area that I like to check is our customer-facing communication. I do a thorough check of our social media content, email newsletters and customer support tickets. This is critical because it helps me find any holes in our communication and make sure our marketing is moving in the right direction. It also gives me the chance to see how customers respond to our marketing.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

5. Your Team’s Performance

“One area to look at is employee productivity. Ultimately, your team’s performance determines how far you go. You can track employee productivity by monitoring their progress on specific projects or goals. Also, check engagement. How connected and motivated are employees to do their work? Consider using surveys, focus groups and interviews to measure engagement.” ~ Tonika Bruce, Lead Nicely, Inc.

6. Customer Retention and Satisfaction

“I always look at retention and customer satisfaction as the most important metrics. Retention shows us how well we are serving our customers. This results in higher business value and increased loyalty overall. Satisfaction scores like NPS divulge what they’re really feeling and where we can improve. With looming stiff competition, it’s a good challenge for us to retain and satisfy customers.” ~ Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day

7. Your Current Goals’ Progression

“Check on the goals themselves. It’s likely they’ll need to be updated in one of two ways: either scaled back or made more aggressive. This will depend upon current progress. This is the best way to gauge your progress by reviewing what you set out to accomplish in the first place and then acting accordingly.” ~ Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

8. Your Team’s Happiness

“The first item I look at before the results is how my team is doing. Are they happy (or at least content), and do they still want to be working with me? None of the other goals mean anything if the team is not happy and working toward the same goal together.” ~ Zane Stevens, Protea Financial

9. Cash Flow

“In addition to looking at the profit and loss statement to make sure the company is staying on budget and on target to hit its financial projections for the year, I recommend looking at cash flow, which is the best indicator of your company’s solvency and whether or not you’ll be able to keep your doors open at the end of the year. You always need to have enough cash on hand to pay your bills.” ~ Jonathan Prichard, MattressInsider.com

10. Individual Employee Goals

“Individual employee goals is one thing we check mid-year. We ask employees to log measurable goals with their manager on our HR website and develop plans on how to accomplish them. Then, every quarter during a review, the manager asks the employee how well they performed. If an employee shows they can plan for the long term, that forward thinking can only boost your business.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7

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