Questions to Ask Employees at Year-End Meetings

Questions for employees can vary depending on the field, goals, and specific situations. We've explored different scenarios and shared templates for any occasion. 

How to Turn Formal Meetings into Productive Reflection 

Year-end meetings are a mandatory step at the end of the year, conducted in various formats: as a whole team, by departments, or individually with each employee. In all cases, openness and readiness to provide feedback play a key role. 

To ensure employees feel comfortable, it's essential to follow three principles: 

• be an active listener — rather than just passively listening, actively engage in the process: ask questions, clarify, and make conclusions alongside the team.
• shift focus from ‘reporting’ to ‘reflection’ — both leaders and team members should realize that the meetings are not just formalities but are meant for analyzing work done and solving issues. Allow employees to evaluate, criticize, and suggest ideas—this signals effective communication.
• conclude with actionable summaries — a logical and effective finale to year-end meetings is concrete conclusions and decisions involving the entire team. You can write them down or ask colleagues to note key points in a shared chat.

Universal Questions That Suit Everyone

The scenario for year-end meetings is similar: it’s crucial to evaluate past events, assess the current state, and plan for the future. We suggest preparing questions along these three lines—they form the base for any niche and scale.

Questions About the Year’s End Results

Create a list of questions that help evaluate the work accomplished over the year. Analyze the overall experience—compare outcomes with expectations and draw conclusions, while discussing priority projects and tasks in detail. A comprehensive approach allows you to see the full picture.

for individual interviews with employees

• What do you consider your most significant achievement of the past year? Why?
• Which projects or tasks were the most challenging? Why?
• What tools/resources were the most helpful in your work? 
• How do you evaluate your workload over the past year? 
• Did you receive enough feedback during your work? How useful was it?

for team meetings

• What successes would you highlight from the past year? What benefits did they bring us?
• Which external and internal factors had the most impact on our work?
• What areas of our collaboration struggled the most last year? Why?
• How flexible and adaptive were we as a team this year?
• Which skills or knowledge were most valuable? When did they prove useful?

Questions for Assessing the Current Situation

Pay attention to the current state of the company. Develop questions to assess the internal and external company environment.

for individual interviews with employees

• Which of the current tasks do you like? Which ones irritate you?
• Are you receiving enough information and resources to complete tasks on time? What's missing?
• In your opinion, how effective is communication within the team?
• Do you receive regular and useful feedback about your work?
• What could help improve our team interactions?

for team meetings

• What currently makes it difficult for us to achieve our goals? Let’s identify five key factors.
• Where are we wasting time and resources inefficiently in our current work?
• How comfortable is the current atmosphere within the team? What works well, and what could be improved?
• Which methods of employee motivation do you think are the most valuable?
• Which tools and processes are currently working seamlessly? Which need replacement?

Questions About Plans for the Next Year

Another important stage is to understand where to go next. Ask employees which areas to develop, what skills and tools are needed for improvement. 

for individual interviews with employees

• What ideas would you like to propose and implement in the new year to improve company operations?
• What skills do you want to develop in the new year? How will they benefit your work?
• Which projects do you think we should prioritize, and which can be postponed?
• How can we improve our interaction to get better results and organize a comfortable work environment?
• What support from colleagues, other departments, or management would be helpful to you?

for team meetings

• Which key projects should we start or complete next year?
• What new opportunities on the market or within the company should we leverage next year?
• What should we do in January to start the year confidently and smoothly?
• What in our corporate culture should we improve?
• What major risks do we face in the new year? How can we prepare for them?

Questions to Ask in Specific Situations

Over the year, companies experience various events: restructuring, business scaling, crises, achieving high metrics, and so on. Depending on which had the greatest impact, focus on specific points during year-end meetings.

After a Crisis Year

If the year was challenging, don't avoid acknowledging it. Instead, summarize, learn lessons, and support the team. Here are questions to help achieve this:

• Which measures taken do you believe were most effective in resolving the crisis?
• What opportunities arose because of the crisis? How can we use them going forward?
• Was communication sufficiently open and regular during the crisis? How could it be improved?
• What important losses did we suffer during this period? Could they have been avoided?
• How can we organize team interaction to better handle such situations?

After a Successful Year

It's a pleasure to hold year-end meetings following a successful year: there's no tension among colleagues, and everyone knows the discussion will focus on achievements and high results. Structure the conversation to analyze success factors, set new ambitious goals, and reinforce positive attitudes.

Options for questions:

• Which factors do you believe led us to this success?
• What should we do at the start of next year to maintain this high standard?
• What goals can we set for next year considering our current success?
• What from last year can we repeat or improve to replicate positive experiences?
• What risks do we see despite our success?

When Changes Are Planned in the Company

If the company plans to change strategy, scale, or change structure next year, anxiety and tension may rise among employees. Year-end meetings can help address concerns and improve communication with employees.

These questions can help: 

• What information about upcoming changes is most important for you to receive first?
• How can we create a comfortable environment for your adaptation to new conditions?
• What aspects of our current corporate culture are most important for you to preserve under the new conditions?
• Which processes require extra attention during changes? What can be addressed now, and what later?
• How do you see the team’s future work considering the changes? 

Questions for Different Fields and Departments

The specific nature of a department or the entire company determines the type of questions to ask. We've explored five popular sectors and shared what to ask employees.

Sales and Commerce

Analyze the market, recall past trends, and focus on finding growth opportunities.

• Which three external factors positively influenced closing major deals?
• What were the most frequent client objections? What have we done or should do to address them?
• How can we improve post-sale service to enhance LTV?
• Which tools were most effective this year? Which have become outdated?
• Which new markets/segments/niches should we explore next year? Why?

IT Sector

Prepare questions to focus on both product health and client communication, as well as the team’s potential.

• How can we improve the process of gathering requirements and feedback from our clients?
• Which resources/tools would you like to master next year? Can you suggest specific training you're interested in?
• How can we better onboard developers to integrate them into processes more quickly?
• How would you rate the technical state of our key products? What doesn’t work well enough?
• Which trends in IT affected our work last year? Can we predict what's coming next?

Marketing

In marketing, key aspects include channel effectiveness, trend impacts, and sales funnel operation.

• Which channels were most effective in attracting new audiences? Which channels should we not use?
• At which stage of the funnel do client doubts most frequently arise? Are we adequately addressing objections?
• How can we improve the content strategy to boost existing customer loyalty?
• Which department processes need optimization?
• Which competitor activities affected our results? What should we do next year to avoid negative outcomes? 

HR

In HR, it’s important to cover all aspects relating to employees: from recruitment and motivation to training and turnover.

• Which internal communication channels were most effective? Which should we implement next year?
• What were the most common requests for training/development among employees? Were they satisfied?
• Which departments experienced the highest turnover? What can we do to change this?
• Which of our benefits were most sought after by candidates? What else can we offer next year to attract talented workers?
• How effective are our onboarding programs? What resources are lacking to improve employee integration?

Services and Support

Evaluate problem-solving speed, analyze customer experience, and don't overlook employee motivation—key factors for effective work in support and services.

• How effective is the interaction with other departments in solving client issues? What needs improvement?
• Which processes did we successfully automate last year? What can we automate next year?
• Which client issues were most frequent this year? What can we do to speed up resolving such requests?
• How can we improve the process of collecting client feedback? 
• How effective is the employee motivation system during peak loads? How can we enhance it?

What Questions Should Be Avoided

You'll waste your time if your list contains questions that are unproductive. We've shared clear examples in a table to simplify year-end meeting preparation.

Conclusion

Use these questions as ready templates or prompts to structure your discussion and prepare for year-end meetings. Aim to create a pleasant environment and be open to dialogue—employees will feel their opinions matter, and you can get valuable feedback.