End-of-Year Employee Check-In: How to Evaluate, Compensate, and Retain Your Team Before Artwork

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End-of-Year Employee Check-In: How to Evaluate, Compensate, and Retain Your Team Before

December 03, 2025 • Melissa Franks

It’s the end of the year, do you know how your employees are really performing? In this episode, host Melissa Franks walks you through exactly what business owners should be doing in the final stretch of the year to evaluate their team, strengthen retention, and prepare for a smooth start to the new year.

Drawing from her experience as a Fractional COO, Melissa breaks down a simple, actionable framework that replaces corporate-style performance reviews with a more human, results-driven approach designed for small business owners.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

✅ How to calculate total employee compensation (and why it’s more than just salary).
📋 Why you need updated job descriptions—and how to use them as a management tool.
💰 How to perform a salary and compensation analysis that’s fair, competitive, and sustainable.
📈 When (and how) to offer cost-of-living adjustments, bonuses, and pay-for-performance increases.
💡 How to identify and fix gaps in your benefits, commission structures, and pay equity.
🧾 The importance of documenting policies to protect your business and maintain transparency.

To learn more about On Call COO go to https://www.melissafranks.com/fractionalcooservices

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