A one-on-one meeting is an essential way for senior managers to connect with their team members, build employee engagement, exchange feedback, and celebrate wins.
While every meeting should be tailored to the individual, starting with a meeting agenda template is a fantastic way to ensure managers stick to their agenda items and conduct productive meetings that encourage employee development and enhance team performance.
By combining the latest in one-on-one meeting protocols with research on how agenda templates can improve KPIs and build team culture, Airgram has developed 14 one-on-one templates that help to build trust.
These are:
- OKR Goal Setting One-on-One Meeting Template
- Compensation Review Meeting Agenda
- Weekly One-on-One Meeting
- First One-on-One Meeting with New Employee Template
- Career Development Meeting Agenda Template
- Peer One-on-One Meeting Template
- Monthly one-on-one Meeting Template
- Offboarding One-on-One Meeting
- End of Year One-on-One Meeting
- Bi-Weekly One-on-One Meeting
- Quarterly Performance Review
- Remote One-on-One Meeting
- One-on-One Coaching
- Skip Level Meeting Agenda
In this article, we look at the different one-on-one meeting templates and how senior managers and employees can leverage them for maximum results.
1. OKR Goal Setting One-on-One Meeting Template
Initially pioneered by John Doerr, objectives and key results (OKRs) is a goal-setting framework that assists in defining measurable goals and then tracking the results.
In an OKR goal-setting meeting, managers help their team members to set objectives that are aligned with the company goals and then define how they will meet those objectives.
A great example of OKRs is provided to us via Google:
Objective: Design products and services for circularity and reuse materials at their highest environmental and social value.
Key Results: 100% of Made by Google products launching in 2022 and every year after will include recycled materials, with a drive to maximize recycled content wherever possible.
For teams operating under this framework, OKR meetings should be held with each team member every quarter, usually for around 60 minutes.
The following questions can be used as prompts in OKR meetings:
- How did we go meeting last quarter’s goals?
- Where did we succeed and why?
- Where did we fall short and why?
- How can we learn from this moving forward?
- What are the goals for the upcoming quarter?
- What resources are needed to meet these goals?
- What are the potential barriers we may encounter?
Get started with OKR meetings by downloading our template.
2. Compensation Review Meeting Agenda
The purpose of a compensation review meeting is to discuss an employee’s current compensation and the possibility of a salary raise.
A fantastic way to start the conversation in these meetings is to recap the company’s compensation policy, including leveling, tiers, and overall company approach.
A compensation review meeting agenda may include the following:
- A review of the company compensation policies and philosophy
- The proposed update to the team member’s compensation and role title
- A review of the details of the salary increase and relevant benefits, so there is no misunderstanding
- Time for the team member to discuss how they feel/feedback
- Any other questions?
Try Airgram’s compensation review meeting agenda template for free.
3. Weekly One-on-One Meeting
With an increasing move to remote and hybrid working, weekly one-on-one meetings are essential in supporting team performance and ensuring employees feel valued. In fact, recent studies show that direct millennial reports that meet one-on-one with manager feedback regularly are likely to be twice as engaged.
Airgram’s weekly one-on-one agenda includes the following:
- Check in-Some open-ended icebreakers to start the conversation
- Follow up from the previous week– What were the successes? What could have been done better?
- Roadblocks- This is a time for the direct report to give constructive feedback on any roadblocks they encountered over the past week in their day-to-day work.
- Moving Forward- What are the goals and OKRs for the next week?
See how our weekly one-on-one meeting agenda templates can help you meet your top priorities.
4. First One-on-One Meeting with New Employee Template
The first meeting between a new team member and their manager is a fantastic opportunity to get to know one another and set expectations.
For employees, it is a chance to get to know their manager on a more personal level and ask any questions about the role.
For managers, it is a chance to build rapport and identify how they can best support their new hires in the onboarding process.
Ideally, it should occur within the first week of a direct report’s tenure, at a dedicated time when there will be no distractions. Both parties should come prepared with questions for discussion.
Some topics that may be discussed include:
- A brief welcome and some icebreakers, such as ‘what do you like to do on the weekends?’
- Briefly introduce the role, responsibilities, and expectations
- What gives you job satisfaction?
- How would you like to receive feedback?
- Discuss the employee’s career goals, both short and long term
- Set a time for future weekly meetings
- Any other questions?
- Action planning for the next week
5. Career Development Meeting Agenda Template
Career development conversations are an essential way to keep employees engaged and increase retention rates. A recent study found 70% of employees would leave their current company for one that invests in employee development and learning.
Career development meetings provide the opportunity for a senior manager to learn about a direct report’s career goals and help facilitate opportunities to meet these professional goals.
Career development meetings should take place monthly and will usually last around 45 minutes. The following discussion points will assist in facilitating these meetings:
Reflection:
- What parts of the job do you currently find interesting?
- What values are important to you in the workplace (and beyond?)
Goal Setting:
- What are the direct report’s career goals for the next year?
- What about long-term career goals (the next 3-5 years)?
Competency Gap:
- What skills and competencies are needed to reach these professional goals?
- What can be implemented to help achieve these skills?
Career Plan:
- Outline the objectives and the actions needed to reach the above-mentioned goals
6. Peer One-on-One Meeting Template
Peer one-on-one meetings are an integral way to encourage internal communication, build team dynamics and ultimately improve team culture.
While most one-on-one meetings are between managers and direct reports, peer one-on-one meetings are between two co-workers on the same level, whether cross-functionally of within the same department.
As these meetings are about team building, they can tend to be less formal than other, more structured one-on-ones.
They may occur monthly, or less frequently depending on the working relationship between the peers.
Some talking points for these meeting agenda templates include:
- A general check-in: How has life been personally and professionally since the last meeting?
- What are the projects your team is currently working on?
- Have there been any changes to the team?
- Is there anything my team can do to help you meet your future goals?
- How can we improve cross-departmental communication?
7. Monthly One-on-one Meeting Template
While weekly one-on-one meetings are perfect for small teams who have the time to meet regularly and plan the week ahead, monthly one-on-ones are better suited to larger teams and will focus on discussions around how to improve team culture.
At Airgram we use the following discussion points in our monthly one-on-one meeting template. However, you can feel free to cut and paste these into your own templates and add more or less directly in certain areas to suit your team.
Openers:
- How was the last month?
- Discuss one work and one non-work highlight
Goals and Progress:
- How do you feel about your progress?
- What can we learn from your achievements?
Roadblocks:
- What is preventing you from achieving your goals?
Open Evaluation and Feedback:
- What can I do better?
- Is the team collaborating well?
8. Offboarding One-on-One Meeting
Even in the most successful businesses with high levels of employee satisfaction, offboarding is a part of business life. Whether an employee retires, moves on to another role, or is made redundant, the onboarding process is essential to maintaining organizational morale. In fact, organizations with a formal off-boarding process are 14% more likely to improve retention and 11% more likely to increase employee engagement in other team members.
While these difficult conversations may prove challenging, offboarding one-on-one meetings provide an opportunity to ensure the outgoing employee feels valued for their contribution.
It is also a valuable time to exchange feedback and learn what could have been handled differently. Discussion points for these one-on-ones include:
- Was your role with the company what you expected it to be?
- What lived up to your expectations and where did we fall short?
- Has knowledge transfer occurred?
- Is there anything we need to know about taking over your responsibilities?
- What could we have done better?
- Any other positive or negative feedback?
9. End of Year One-on-One Meeting
The end-of-year one-on-one meeting is a vital opportunity to reflect upon the year just gone, discuss what you’ve learned, celebrate wins, and set top priorities for the year to come.
These meetings generally cover employee-centric topics in order to determine what can be done better in the coming year.
Meeting notes may include:
- General catch-up and discussion about the holiday break
- How do you feel the last year went?
- What was your greatest achievement?
- In what areas do you think you can improve?
- Career goals for the coming year?
- How can we help you to achieve these goals?
- Are you happy with the current workload and responsibilities?
- Opportunity for employee feedback
10. Bi-Weekly One-on-One Meeting
As the name suggests, bi-weekly one-on-one meetings occur once every two weeks. They work well for managers with a large number of team members who may not have the capacity to meet every week. Bi-weekly one-on-ones are relatively casual meetings that involve the following talking points:
Icebreakers:
Icebreakers are a great way to build rapport and break the ice.
- How are you doing? How did the past two weeks go?
- How is your football team going?
- What was your happiest moment from the last two weeks?
Retro on the last two weeks:
This helps team members to reflect on the last two weeks, what they have achieved, and the practical steps they took to achieve it.
- What has been accomplished since the last meeting? Note achievements on key projects and tasks.
- Have any of your goals changed since the last time we spoke?
- What’s one thing your team can do to improve performance?
Obstacles:
This section of the meeting covers the obstacles that are standing in the way of achieving goals.
Key questions include:
- Where are we over-complicating our systems and processes?
- What can management do to streamline our workflow?
Looking Ahead:
Focus on what can be improved in the fortnight ahead.
- What key skills would you like to improve?
11. Quarterly Performance Review
Quarterly performance reviews are an essential part of organizational development within any team. As the name suggests they occur every three months and are designed for the manager and employee to reflect on the past quarter in terms of productivity and performance.
However, they will differ slightly from business to business. While some companies will focus on performance feedback and self-reflection, others will concentrate on OKRs, goal setting, and objectives.
Our template has been designed to review goals, celebrate recent wins, and identify areas for improvement.
These meeting agendas may include the following talking points:
- Self-review
- Manager feedback
- Peer feedback
- Performance against objectives set out in the last meeting; celebrate wins and provide positive feedback
- Areas for growth and improvement
- Goals for the upcoming quarter
12. Remote One-on-One Meeting
Remote one-on-one meetings are periodic online calls between supervisors and direct reports that occur via Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft teams. These frequent check-ins are an essential part of remote team management and provide an opportunity to check-in, share feedback and provide status updates.
With remote and hybrid working becoming the norm, these meetings should be held weekly to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Productive managers will look to the following talking points in these one-on-ones:
Icebreakers:
- How has the last week been?
- Any challenges in working remotely?
Progress:
- Status updates on pending tasks
- Recent wins
Priorities:
- What will you work on in the next week?
Challenges?
- What have been the barriers to your productivity?
13. One-on-One Coaching
One-on-one coaching focuses on employee development and training. Rather than focusing on employee deliverables, these one-on-one coaching sessions involve the employee taking the lead in discussing their career path. This private space helps to facilitate great conversations around personal and professional development and helps to foster a growth mindset within your team.
Managers may want to consider the following in one-on-one coaching with their direct report.
- What are your favorite extra-curricular activities?
- What is your greatest achievement since joining the company?
- What factors do you feel are holding you back in your role?
- How can I better support you?
- What skills are you looking to improve?
- Who would you like to learn from within the company?
- Constructive feedback including what could be added to future one-on-one coaching meetings
14. Skip Level Meeting Agenda
Skip level meetings occur between senior managers and employees who are not their direct reports. These meetings assist in bridging the gap between higher-level management and employees.
They allow senior management to share broader organizational goals and gather constructive feedback on team culture and operations. Skip level meetings are generally held yearly and last around 60 minutes. These one-on-ones should be conducted with a casual management style that helps to facilitate a friendly conversation.
Some topics in Airgram’s skip level meeting agenda template include the following:
- How are you feeling in your current role?
- Do you have an understanding of our organizational goals and if not, what can we clarify?
- What are your professional goals for the next 12 months?
- The opportunity to provide constructive feedback
- What could we be doing better?
Bonus: 20 One-on-one Meeting Questions for Managers and Employees
Great managers know that great conversations start with planning meetings ahead of time. While every meeting should be tailored to the individual, having a tried and true structure in the form of one-on-one meeting templates allows managers to make the most of their one-on-ones and save time in the long run. We’ve done a deep dive into the best questions for one-on-one meetings to inspire employees and managers alike. Here are 20 one-on-one questions to add to your next meeting.
For Managers to Ask Employees
- What drives you?
- Where do you see yourself in 2 years?
- Who in the company would you like to learn more from?
- If you were managing the team, what would you do differently?
- Where do you feel I could improve?
- When is the best time for me to give feedback on your role?
- Do you feel you receive enough feedback?
- How is communication within your team?
- Tell me about a team member who helped you to do your job more effectively
- How can we improve cross-functional collaboration and communication?
- What are two new skills you’d like to learn?
- Where would you like to me be more involved in your day-to-day work? Where would you like more autonomy?
- How do you feel about our one-on-one meetings? What can I improve/change for our next meeting?
- What have past managers done that has inspired you?
- If you were the CEO of our company, what would you change?
- What areas of the company culture do you feel need improvement
- Do you feel you have a good work/life balance?
- Who on the team do you have the most difficulty working with? Why?
- What’s one thing we could implement today to help you with your long-term goals?
- What’s a recent work situation you wish you handled differently?
For Employees to Ask Their Manager
- What can I do to progress my career trajectory?
- Are you considering expanding the team and what roles will that include?
- What are your long-term goals for the team?
- Is there anything I should prepare ahead of our next one-on-one?
- Where do you feel I am succeeding and where am I falling short?
- What can I do to support the team better?
- How can I become more involved in the company culture?
- What do you do to combat burnout?
- How do you recover when things don’t go to plan?
- Is there a process or project you’d like me to take ownership of? What is it?
- What can I do to improve the overall performance of my team?
- Who on the team can I assist?
- How can I improve my skills? Do you have any book or course recommendations?
- What in-house opportunities are there for my professional learning and development?
- How can we improve our team cohesion?
- What can I do to make your job easier?
- What soft skills do you think I excel at? Which could I improve?
- Do you feel I contribute enough in team meetings?
- Am I giving enough feedback to my peers?
- Do you think my communication can be improved?
