First published on Thursday, March 6, 2025
Last updated on Thursday, March 6, 2025
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In this guide, we’ve kept things simple, offering you several examples of questions you can use in one-to-one meetings with your employees. Giving you the opportunity to enhance your one-to-one experience, improving this for both you and your employees.
General wellbeing questions
It’s always a good idea to start your conversation with some informal catch-up questions. I.e. check in on your employee, making sure they are doing well and coping with their work-life balance. One-to-ones offer some of the most private conversations for you to understand how your employees may be feeling, and checking in on them during this time reassures that you care beyond just the work they produce.
How are things?
Have you got any plans you’re looking forward to this week?
Is anything bothering you that you would like to make me aware of?
This may also be a good time to remind them of any health and wellbeing services you offer them via work. Such as an EAP, extra-curricular activities such as yoga or meditation classes, or even access to private therapists.
Discuss their current workload
It’s likely, during your one-to-one meeting, your employee will feel most comfortable to discuss current and ongoing workload with you. Away from other colleagues, this provides an opportunity for them to speak up on any thoughts, feelings, or concerns they may have regarding progress, challenges, successes.
These questions will help you open a discussion about their work:
How do you feel about the progress of your current project?
Do you feel this work is manageable?
Do you have any concerns about this work?
What could the team do to support you with this project?
Goals and plans
1:1s also offer a brilliant opportunity to set some goals with your employee. Considering their plans and aspirations for the future.
Questions should be focused on what they would like to achieve in the future and how they can achieve this. For example:
How do you feel about your current goals?
Are there any changes you would like to make to the goals we have currently set?
What direction would you like to see your role take in the next year?
Do you have any professional achievements you would like to aim for this year?
How would you like your manager and the team to support your professional development?
Gather and provide feedback
One of the main reasons employers will use the one-to-one meeting format is to provide open and honest feedback to employees. But to also give individuals the chance to provide their own feedback regarding work and the team. To ensure the feedback you give and receive is constructive and helpful, the following questions are some good ways to initiate a conversation:
What positive contributions do you feel you have made to the team recently?
Do you feel you understand your role’s responsibilities?
Where do you think there is room for improvement within your work?
What feedback do you have to give regarding your current workload, the team and how you are being managed day-to-day?
When giving feedback, ensure that is constructive, fair and delivered in a productive way. You want this feedback to include both positive comments but also provide feedback on areas where you feel the employee may be able to improve.
Concluding your one-to-one meeting effectively
Sticking to an agenda for your one 1:1s means you can cover all the important topics but not go off-piste and lose time.
If you only have 30 minutes or an hour for an employee one-to-one, it’s a good idea to reach a conclusion after you’ve had a structured conversation with your employee.
This conclusion should give both you, the employer, and your employee some areas to work on for next time but also some positive points to boost employee morale and workplace culture. The structure below will help you bring your one-to-one meeting to an end effectively:
Recap the key points you have covered
Provide your employee with some tasks to address between now and the next meeting
Inform your employee of what you will do to support them (particularly if they have raised concerns)
Reinforce your positive feedback and praise the employee for their hard work
Set an action plan for the next one-to-one meeting, making sure this is pre-booked into the calendar.
Keep a record of 1:1s with performance management software
To enhance your employee one-to-ones and keep a record of your meeting notes and agendas, consider a performance management software. With BrightHR you can utilize our innovative performance management tools in addition to our unlimited HR document storage to store records of your one-to-one meetings and set, track and monitor your employee performance goals.
Book a free demo with our team today to discover how HR software can elevate your performance management processes.
