What is the purpose of 1-1 meetings?

One-on-one or 1:1 meetings involve regular check-ins between two members of an organization. Typically, these interactions are between a manager and an employee. The free-form nature of 1:1s focusing on employee development is what makes these meetings impactful. 

Importance of one-on-one meetings 

With burnout and job dissatisfaction being significant roadblocks to workforce optimization, 1:1 meetings with employees are essential. 

Here are some benefits of conducting 1:1s: 

• Provide feedback. Leaders can provide employees with direct, constructive feedback on performance, and give the necessary direction to boost productivity. 

• Resolve issues. Leaders can connect with frontline employees on pressing issues and provide personalized support to enhance operations. 

• Build relationships. One-on-ones improve employee engagement and allow leaders to build trust and meaningful connections with employees, contributing to greater job satisfaction.

• Enhance employee growth. In addition to connecting on a personal level, leaders can help employees chart a path to personal and career development. 

• Maintain agility. With 1-on-1 meetings, employees can identify blockers, challenges, and issues as they arise and develop a process of resolving them with regular guidance.  

  
  

Tips for impactful 1:1s with employees

Asides from project status updates and performance reviews, interacting with employees personally can be very effective if organizations know how to leverage them. 

Consider these tips to help you optimize employee engagement with 1:1 meetings: 

Ensure there’s a regular cadence to meetings

To fully leverage 1:1s, managers need to conduct meetings periodically. By scheduling recurring meetings, employees can connect with leaders and feel comfortable asking for help. This structure ensures that employees and their leaders can go over progress, new goals, and developments weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. 

Adopt performance intelligence tools

Performance intelligence tools such as Echo AI provide managers and agents with visibility, which drives overall team alignment. Since everyone comes to the meeting with a clear understanding of performance, progress, and areas of improvement, team members can have more productive interactions. 

Use a templatized agenda 

Meeting with each employee without a pre-defined meeting agenda can be time-consuming, especially when there are inconsistencies with individual expectations. Echo AI provides team leaders with agenda templates to make scheduling 1:1s convenient. An effective agenda should include action items and talking points. 

Coach with data 

Using a performance intelligence platform such as Echo AI can help leaders easily create reports, track achievements, and measure key metrics. Managers should ask open-ended questions and can coach with data during 1:1s to learn about challenges and share frontline employees’ performance improvements.

Boost performance with 1-on-1 meetings

One-on-one meetings are a great way to boost performance and build a culture of accountability, teamwork, and collaboration. Echo AI empowers leaders to have more meaningful interactions by providing performance visibility across units and departments.