6 Tips for Effective One-on-One Meetings With Employees

The relationship between employees and their managers makes all the difference in their performance, productivity, and satisfaction. Effective one-on-one meetings build and maintain positive relationships in the workplace, making it essential that your feedback and communication are impactful. 

Learn how to conduct one-on-one meetings that boost employee engagement, build trust, and more. 

1. Establish a Meeting Agenda

1:1 meeting agendas should cover various goals to keep your sessions organized and focused. To create your agenda, start by outlining your primary topics and objectives. Prioritize your most essential goals by setting them at the beginning or very end. Then, consider any other critical points you want to bring up with employees, such as feedback or action items. 

Even if the topics are similar, most one-on-one meetings should be customized to each staff member. So, make sure you include everything you want to discuss within each person's agenda. Once you're finished, consider sending your meeting agendas to employees at least a day beforehand. This will give them plenty of time to prepare answers, information, and questions of their own. 

Setting an agenda is especially critical amid today's busy workflows. You can keep your 1:1 meetings on-topic and avoid wasting time. You can also ensure you don't skip over anything critical. As a result, you'll go through your one-on-ones faster and maintain better communication over the long term. 

2. Encourage Employees Contribute to Their Meeting Agendas

As mentioned, sharing your 1:1 meeting agendas with employees beforehand gives them time to prepare their thoughts. However, your employees should also feel empowered to bring their own agenda items and discuss what’s most important to them, too. 

One-on-ones are the best opportunities for employees to get to know you and bring up critical topics. They may request time to discuss specific projects, training courses, vacation days, and more. However, they may not mention their concerns at all if you don't give them the opportunity.

3. Start With a Personal Conversation

Effective one-on-one meetings let you check in with employees to gauge their workflows and thoughts. The best way to do this is to start your 1:1 meeting agendas with personal questions and conversations. For example, you can ask employees about their weekend or personal hobbies. 

Breaking the ice with your employees starts your one-on-one sessions on a positive note. When done right, personal check-ins can make employees feel more comfortable throughout the rest of the meeting. 

Keeping your one-on-ones personal can also help you learn how to improve employee engagement. Employees may be more willing to share criticism and other feedback if they know you're actually listening. This will make it even easier to address concerns and keep your conversations constructive. 

4. Cover All Essential Topics

In today's hustling business world, it can be tempting for you and your staff to make one-on-one meetings as short as possible. However, to be effective, your 1:1 agenda must cover all the essential topics to ensure nothing important is skipped. 

Consider the following agenda items for one-on-one meetings:

• Current projects: Check in with employees about their workload. This can include extensive projects they've been working on long term or just what they're handling today. 
• Organization updates: Talk to employees about the most significant shifts in your organization and industry. Even if they don't directly impact their responsibilities, most employees should be interested in your company's latest changes. 
• Career growth: Many employees may aspire to gain new skills and rise in your organization, though they may not share this if you don't ask them. During each one-on-one, ask employees about their career goals and interests. In doing so, you'll better gauge each individual's motivation and skill set. You may even identify opportunities in your organization so you don't lose your best employees down the road. 
• Action items: Many one-on-one meetings end with assigned tasks or "action items" to be completed later. For example, if you discussed a project's status, you could ask employees to email the latest information after the meeting. 
   

5. Coach Your Employees

Sharing feedback and knowing how to coach an employee is often challenging. Saying the wrong words can impair employees' motivation and confidence, which can directly reflect in their work. So, you may need to practice your coaching and feedback skills before each meeting. 

Many employers adopt the "sandwich approach" when sharing constructive criticism. To do this, acknowledge positive aspects of employees' work, move on to areas of improvement, and end with another positive. This will keep the experience productive, making employees more likely to take action. 

When sharing positives, put extra focus on your employees' accomplishments, improvements, and "big wins." When sharing negatives, avoid making definitive statements that could make the employee feel reprimanded. Instead, focus on solutions and next steps. 

For example, instead of saying, "Your call productivity is bad," you could say, "You haven't met your productivity goals for the past two weeks. I'd like to understand why and work with you to find a solution together." This will make your feedback feel like an opportunity rather than direct criticism. 

6. Prepare Thought-Provoking, Employee-Specific Questions

One of the worst things you can do during 1:1 meetings is make your employees feel like just another name on your staff list. Take time to prepare specific questions when determining your agenda items before each meeting. These questions can be project-specific or entirely personal, covering shared interests, family, pets, life changes, and more, depending on the preferences and openness of your team members. 

Review your agenda and notes from your previous one-on-one meetings and consider any follow-up questions you can ask. For example, let's say your employee shared that they were developing a new skill the last time you spoke. During your next meeting, you could ask about their progress and see if you can provide any resources or shadowing opportunities. 

Planning Effective One-on-One Meetings

Both you and your employees should be able to share and receive feedback without missing any information. To do this, plan your 1:1 meetings in advance, consider each individual's unique talents, and consider your available resources. Visit iHire's Employer Resource Center to find more strategies for effective one-on-one meetings.