One-on-One Meetings: Everything You Should Know

As we all know, 1 on 1 meetings with employees are powerful and one of the most effective tools to strengthen employee engagement, build communication, and foster engagement. 

The concept is pretty straightforward: meet regularly to discuss progress on goals, engagement, professional development, and more. 

Thus, one-on-one meetings are usually open-ended and straightforward. Providing the right questions and right tools, FOCUS can help you strike the right note every time.

How often should one-on-one meetings be conducted?

It is suggested that “one on ones” with employees can be done either monthly or quarterly to get the gold of some of the most important stats in business, such as:

• Increasing trust by building regular conversations (especially in a remote or hybrid scenario)
• Check on the employee’s progress
• Get real-time insights
• Clarify doubts
• Measure the engagement level

One-on-One Meetings make employees feel valued

From an employee perspective, the manager who listens and works on gaining their employees’ trust also gains great insight into how his people feel. 

They feel heard, they feel like their opinions matter and this increases loyalty and respect they have for the company.

One-on-One Meetings Foster Engagement

The 1 on 1’s are great for building relationships and working on improving employee engagement. HR gets qualitative, in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of their engagement programs, training, and seminars.

Furthermore, one on one meetings provide a platform for employees to let their HR know about suggestions and challenges they face while using certain tools, talking to some people, or working in some surroundings. 

How to conduct one-on-one meetings with employees?

How to conduct one on one meeting is one of the most common questions. The answer lies in the right structure and positioning of the meeting with a proper focus.  Don’t steal the limelight away from employees. 

A calendar invite should be sent at least 2 days before, and the context/general outline/topic of the meeting should be pointed out too.

Questions for 1 on 1’s

The questions should be divided into types or levels based on employees’ performance and development needs. First of all, it might be helpful to start with:

• Establishing short and long-term goals
• Uncovering initial perceptions of the organization, the team, and their role in it
• Making a detailed document about meeting notes, feedback, etc so that nothing is lost in translation

Follow it by:

1. Building a report to understand how things are going beyond work, family, etc. (Insight into how things are at home can help drive conclusions in case of diminished productivity)
2. Take care of individual needs such as certifications, courses, any required training, tools or platforms, changes in daily tasks, individual goals and how the manager can help to accomplish the work-life balance
3. Teamwork needs can be concluded through relationships with peers, communication on the team, challenges faced during that communication (body language, attitude, deadlines, or technical issues), suggestions to increase the productivity of the team, etc
4. Acting with personal growth needs in mind means thinking about how employee growth helps the company, speeding up the feedback process, and taking initiatives and suggestions, etc.

Continuous feedback can pave the way toward more productivity. You can engage your employees with features such as new, interactive workspaces, and shared spaces where they can work with like-minded, but new people.

FOCUS can share easy scheduling of recurring meetings, agendas, documents, and questions beforehand to boost productivity and improve focus.

The best part is that one on one meetings can be hosted by both parties, and the host can store private notes made during the discussion – this means easy storage and more accountability.

There are many more features coming up! Contact us today.