Employee one-on-one meetings for increased engagement

3. Regular one-on-ones improve employee engagement, says research

Prepare for quarterly one-on-one meetings that are engaging, valuable, and help you get a deeper understanding of each team member’s unique strengths, what motivates them and what demotivates them.

1. Employees who got little to no one-on-one time with their manager are more likely to be disengaged. Employees who get twice the number of one-on-ones with their manager relative to their peers are 67% less likely to be disengaged.
   (Source: Harvard Business Review.)
2. When a manager doesn’t meet with employees one-on-one at all or neglects to provide on-the-job training employees are four times as likely to be disengaged as individual contributors as a whole, and are two times as likely to view leadership more unfavourably compared to those who meet with their managers regularly.(Source: Harvard Business Review.)
3. On average, only 15% of employees who work for a manager who does not meet with them regularly are engaged; managers who regularly meet with their employees almost tripled that level of engagement.
   (Source:  Gallup.)‍
4. Millennials became the largest generation in the US workforce in 2016. They are also the least engaged generation with only 29% of millennials engaged at the workplace as compared to baby boomers (33%) and Gen X (32%). But their engagement levels rise if their manager holds regular meetings with them.
   (Source:  Gallup.)

4. Definition of a one-on-one

‍Fellow.app has a pretty good definition of a one-on-one meeting:

“A one-on-one (a.k.a. 1-on-1) is a dedicated space in your calendar for you to connect with each person reporting to you and stay in the loop about priorities, team issues, and potential roadblocks. Most importantly, it’s an anticipated moment where employees can ask in-depth questions, receive coaching on their strengths and weaknesses, and provide feedback – three things they wouldn’t be able to do in a public space or at a team meeting.”

To this, we’d like to add that it is recommended that one-on-one meetings are held every week or every two weeks for efficient performance management. But every quarter, one of these meetings should be more in-depth and focus on supporting an employee’s personal and professional growth. This will go a long way to increase employee engagement and productivity.

5. How are one-on-one meetings different from check-ins?

This is a common question. Let’s talk about the similarities first. Both one-on-one meetings and check-ins are forms of continuous performance management, which several global companies are adopting while phasing out annual performance appraisals that have been accused of focusing on the past rather than the future.One-on-one meetings can be confused with check-ins because they seem similar. After all, both are scheduled meetings between manager and direct report for the purpose of feedback. There is, however, a crucial difference.

6. One week before the quarterly one-on-one

To ensure that the quarterly one-on-one meeting is valuable for both manager and employee, at least a week before the meeting is scheduled, managers must:

• Send the employee a questionnaire that encourages them to self-reflect on their personal and professional growth.
• Ask the employee to update their MuchSkills profile - which works as a skills matrix software that gives you a complete overview of their skill sets.

We have created a questionnaire that managers can send team members to help them with the self-reflection exercise. Make sure you review it and adjust it to your specific situation.

Do remember that:

• The main purpose of this questionnaire is to encourage self-reflection. It is therefore not necessary for the employee to send the answers back to you.
• The template should not be in the form of a web document either because the employee is meant to work on it privately.
• Employees should be given at least a week to reflect on the questionnaire because it is important that they have the time to work on it when they feel up to it.

Here is a suggestion about what you can say in your email to the employee before the one-one-one session with them: 

7. During the employee one-on-one

Remember, this meeting is all about the employee and how that person can develop professionally. Avoid doing most of the talking and ensure that you direct any digressions back to the main subject: the employee. Your aim is to understand the employee’s strengths and the direction they hope to grow in so that you can enable them to experience personal and professional growth in the coming period. 
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As Ben Horowitz, former CEO of Opsware and co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, argues:

“The key to a good one-on-one meeting is the understanding that it is the employee’s meeting rather than the manager’s meeting. This is the free-form meeting for all the pressing issues, brilliant ideas and chronic frustrations that do not fit neatly into status reports, email and other less personal and intimate mechanisms.”

To be able to understand and identify the growth opportunities, you need to be an active listener where the employee does most of the talking and where you ask open questions. The meeting is about the employee to self-discover and self-reflect as well as a way for you to get to know your direct report better.

8. Agenda suggestion

Ask your direct report:

• If there are points in the self-reflection they would like to discuss with you.
• To reflect on their journey or growth within the organization so far.
• About their current job focus and interests. 
• About challenges they have faced so far or any concerns they may have.
• About team dynamics.
• How they would like to grow.
• To set a personal growth plan after discussing it with you.

9. After the quarterly one-on-one

During your one-to-ones, you will learn valuable information about your team members that will help you to build a stronger and better team. Make sure you create a plan for each employee and that you follow up by activating the plan, enabling the employee to grow. 

Once you have met all your team members this way, you can send them a follow-up email. Here is a suggestion about what it could say: 

10. What managers shouldn't do

Here are things you should not do before, after and during the quarterly one-on-one meeting:

1. Have more than two people present: The entire idea of one-on-one is that it’s a private discussion. There should not be more people present at the meeting. 
2. Be in a location where you can be disturbed: This is an important meeting for the employee and it should be done in a safe, respectful, relaxing environment where you will not be disturbed. 
3. Cancel a one-on-one: Cancelling this interaction – be it a weekly or quarterly one –sends a wrong message that you do not take employee engagement and growth seriously. You must rebook the meeting if you find that you cannot attend the one scheduled earlier.
4. Talk a lot: This interaction is being held for the employee’s benefit. For that, they need to talk to you about work, the challenges they face and any other professional issues. Make sure you are actively listening and ask questions to better understand what they are trying to say. 
5. ‍Make employee defensive or feel cornered: Always make sure that the one-on-one is a positive experience where the employee feels comfortable.

11. A quick primer on employee engagement for managers

To get a deeper understanding of what employee engagement is really about, managers may also find it worthwhile to reflect on Gallup’s Q12. These are the 12 core questions Gallup developed to measure the most important elements of employee engagement in organizations. Gallup picked these specific questions after decades of writing, testing and refining hundreds of questions because they helped measure employee engagement most effectively.

One way managers can use these questions is to ask themselves: ‘If members of my team took this survey today how would they fare?’

• Do you know what is expected of you at work?
• Do you have the materials and equipment to do your work right?
• At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
• In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
• Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
• Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
• At work, do your opinions seem to count?
• Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
• Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
• Do you have a best friend at work?
• In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
• In the last year, have you had opportunities to learn and grow?

The questions have been divided into four types — or levels — of employees’ performance development needs:

• Basic needs
• Individual needs
• Teamwork needs
• Personal growth needs

When managers hold regular weekly or biweekly one-on-one meetings along with in-depth quarterly meetings, they will gain insights about the whole gamut of needs in the engagement hierarchy illustrated above – from individual needs to teamwork needs – which will help them build stronger and more engaged teams.