Your 2023 End-Of-Year Review
Publié le 21 December 2023
Be prepared to succeed in the new year by asking yourself these 11 important questions as part of your 2023 End-Of-Year Review.
With the year coming to an end, it’s time to look back at the previous 12 months and take stock. For professionals in all stages of their careers, reviewing the successes and challenges from 2023 is a great way to prepare for the new year. Here are 11 important questions to ask yourself as part of your 2023 End-Of-Year Review.
Your 2023 End-Of-Year Review
- Did You Reach Your Goals?
- If Not, Why?
- Did You Set Your Aim High Enough?
- Have The Needs Of Your Customers Changed?
- What Surprised You?
- Should It Have Surprised You?
- Are Your Employees Happy?
- Does Their Work Reflect This?
- What Can You Do To Improve The Workplace?
- What Can You Do To Make Employees Stay?
- What Will You Learn From This Year?
Did You Reach Your Goals?
This is the time to go back and look at the professional goals you set for yourself at the start of 2023. Go through them one by one and determine if you achieved them. Reviewing large and small goals is essential, as they can equally contribute to your continued success. If your goal was to get promoted or receive a salary increase and you achieved this, acknowledge what an accomplishment this is as part of your 2023 end-of-year review.
If Not, Why?
Running a business and maintaining your professional life is challenging. In all likelihood, you will only achieve some of the goals you set for yourself at the start of the year. For any goal you did not achieve, this is the time to make a brutally honest appraisal of the reasons why. If there were challenges beyond your control, break them down into smaller elements and learn whatever you can. If you did not achieve a goal because you needed to prepare more effectively, this is a change you can implement in the new year. If you made a big prediction that turned out to be inaccurate, review what led you to these conclusions and compare them to the results. This will help you refine your predictions in the new year.
Did You Set Your Aim High Enough?
When performing your 2023 end-of-year review, you might realize that you’ve achieved all the goals you set for yourself this year. First of all, congratulations! If you want to be honest with yourself, this could be a sign that you need to set your professional goals slightly higher. If you set goals about sales numbers or audience growth that you achieved earlier in the fall, you are doing something right. You should set even bigger goals for yourself and refine your process further for the new year.
Have The Needs Of Your Customers Changed?
The most important way to achieve your business goals is to make sure that you are meeting the needs of your customers and clients. Whether you are a B2C or B2B business, you need to review your clients and determine if their needs will change in the new year. If you notice that you have experienced a dip in sales, audience growth, or other metrics, it may mean that your customers’ needs have already changed. In this case, now is the time to pivot and create new strategies to appeal to the client base.
What Surprised You?
Forecasting the coming year is essential in setting your business goals for the next 12 months. However, predicting everything that will happen in your job sector and industry is impossible. Taking the time to go over what surprised you during 2023 as part of your end-of-year review provides the chance to analyze the challenging scenarios you faced. You can review the actions you took to adapt and see if they were successful or not. If you conclude that you should have taken a different business approach, you will be more prepared if a comparable situation occurs again.
Should It Have Surprised You?
Part of analyzing the business challenges you faced this year is determining whether these challenges should have surprised you. Were there signs or indications that you overlooked? Did you stick to an ineffectual strategy even after it became apparent that it was not working? These are not fun questions to ask, but the only way to truly fail from a challenge is to fail to learn from it. This will help you learn valuable information and adjust your plans and strategies for the future.
Are Your Employees Satisfied?
Businesses succeed or fail based on their employees. Businesses can only grow and reach their goals with the hard work and effort of the workplace team. The best employees are those engaged with their roles and satisfied with the workplace. This means they know they have the support, resources, and work environment to reach their highest potential. Steps to ensure your employees are satisfied include asking them about their needs and expectations, and working to meet them to the best of your ability. This can include everything from maintaining a good relationship with management and ensuring they have a voice in decision-making to providing tangible benefits like paid time off and health care coverage to maintain their physical and mental well-being and work-life balance.
Does Their Work Reflect This?
If your employees have the resources and support they need, but this satisfaction is not appearing in their work, it means they are not feeling engaged in their jobs. Of course, only some moments of every job will be the most exciting, but this differs from what authentic employee engagement means. Engaged employees understand that they play a vital role in the organization and feel they have a voice and impact in moving the business forward. When employees understand that their input will lead to actionable workplace changes, they will be more likely to feel engaged in their role daily.
What Can You Do To Improve The Workflow?
If there is one thing that the past few years have taught us, it’s that adaptability is the key to success. If your business is not growing the way it should, you need to consider revamping the way you go about daily operations. For many companies, this has meant pivoting from in-person workplaces to remote and hybrid working arrangements, fully embracing the digital side of their business, and creating a virtual work environment that facilitates collaboration and support. If you have been stuck in traditional thinking, now is the time to change.
What Can You Do To Make Employees Stay?
Employee turnover and retention rates have fluctuated wildly over the past few years. Many people are embracing the new opportunities provided by remote work jobs. The success of your business rests on your ability to hire and retain the most qualified employees. Retaining the best employees often involves giving them room to grow and evolve within the company, even over more tangible rewards such as increased salary. While it is impossible to retain every single employee forever, ensuring that they see a clear career path that rewards their achievements and supports their own growth will make them far more likely to stay long-term.
This is the perfect time to complete your 2023 end-of-year review. Knowing what you achieved this year will put you on track for continued growth and success in 2024.
