10 One on One Meeting Templates to Streamline Your Meetings

Although there is no easy way of connecting with your employees, one on one meetings can assist you in building a stronger work relationship with your them by engaging in a productive dialogue.

Given the importance of one on one meetings, we designed 10 great one on one meeting templates for you to improve your meeting efficiency.

Integrate Templates Into Your Virtual Meetings

Before we move forward, we’d like to tell you that you can transform your virtual meetings with ease by integrating templates directly into them!

You will not only streamline agendas, and collaboration but also elevate your virtual presence by using our templates!

You can click the button to use Teamflect completely free with full functionality for up to 10 users!

One on One – 101

What is a One on One Meeting?

“Understanding your employee’s perspective can go a long way towards increasing productivity and happiness.”

– Kathryn Minshew, CEO and co-founder of The Muse

One on one meetings are spaces that are allocated for understanding your employees’ perspectives and productively engaging with them.

You can coach, mentor, provide context and connect with your employees during these meetings.

One on one meetings will help you provide valuable insight into your working experience. You can also use them to provide career development opportunities.

Why Should I Conduct One on One Meetings?

By conducting one on one meetings you can focus on numerous topics. You can achieve the following with one on one meetings:

• Allocate time to discuss agenda items and priorities.
• Exchange feedback.
• Address professional development.
• Increase employee motivation and engagement.
• Mentor your employees to improve their performance.
• Establish rapport and know your employees more personally.
• Align employees’ work with broader goals and mission of your company.
• Address challenges.
• Create action items.
• Receive status updates on your projects.
• Go over team meetings and discuss key talking points.

What are the Types of One On One Meetings?

1. Goal Check-ins

Goal check-ins are meetings that every team should include in their calendars because it provides employees and managers with an opportunity to gauge goal progress.

The aim of conducting goal check-in one on one meetings is to guide and provide feedback to your employees by discussing where they can improve when it comes to company goals.

Employees can talk about the challenges and seek support from their managers as well as share ideas that can have an impact on the goals.

2. Career Development One on One Meetings

Having career development discussions with your employees not only increases engagement but also improves retention.

Managers can help their employees with career pathing and guide them on skills development while offering support for potential career development opportunities.

Keep in mind that career development is a continuous process so one on one meetings that are focused on career advancement should be conducted regularly. For example, you can conduct these meetings quarterly or twice a year.

3. Weekly Check-ins

Weekly one on one check-ins are held to keep communication channels open between managers and their employees. The main objective of conducting weekly check-ins is to keep everyone in the loop by addressing weekly challenges and progress.

By conducting weekly one on one check-in meetings, you can share feedback and updates as well.

Furthermore, weekly check-ins are held to set priorities for the upcoming week to make sure direct reports are clear about what to focus on.

Since these meetings are held often, the ideal length varies between 15-30 minutes.

And one thing to remember is to set a consistent schedule when it comes to weekly check-ins because this will allow the managers and employees to plan their week accordingly.

4. Mentoring One on One Meetings

Mentor-mentee relationships is a two way street which means that both parties should take an active role in the discussion during mentoring one on one meetings.

It’s not just the mentor’s responsibility to set the agenda of these one on ones and mentees need to provide updates on their progress and talk about challenges with their mentors.

This is a better practice than just relying on the mentor since without a clear understanding of the mentee’s progress, mentors won’t be able to provide strategic guidance.

To find the ideal meeting cadence of your mentoring one on one meetings you should consider mentee’s goals and availability of both parties.

5. Project Closure One on Ones

Project closure one on one meetings is where you wrap up a project and celebrate your team’s accomplishments as well as discuss the lessons learned throughout the project.

Useful tips to keep in mind when it comes to project closure one on ones:

• Asking for feedback and suggestions.
• Focusing on key data and evidence rather than opinions.
• Encouraging an open and respectful dialogue and avoiding judgment.
• Listing the action items as well as the lessons learned.

6. Daily Stand Up One on Ones

These short meetings (5-15 minutes long) are held daily to strengten team communication and address urgent concerns. They are also called stand-up, morning roll-call or daily scrum.

One on one daily stand-ups allow managers and their direct reports to build transparency on daily tasks, identify challenges and enhance collaboration.

With this agile meeting method, you can encourage accountability since your direct reports will frequently report on their progress.

While daily stand-ups are often held in domains such as project management and software development, its scope of application is expanding across fields since it helps employees with time management.

7. Work-life Balance One on One Metinse

Work-life balance doesn’t magically appear. To build a healthy work-life balance you should have meetings allocated for these discussions.

The main goal of these meetings is improving well-being, job satisfaction and productivity of your direct reports.

Having work-life balance discussions in your one on one meetings will boost employee engagement rates by increasing job satisfaction and the outcome will be a healtier and more productive workforce.

8. Feedback One on Ones

Feedback one on ones should be a continous practice since providing feedback needs to be an ongoing business strategy. If you hold feedback one on ones once in a while, you can’t reap its benefits.

Your employees will appreciate consistent feedback because they will be able to achieve success in your organization by acting upon your valuable input.

Moreover, by exchanging feedback during one on ones you can build trust between you and your direct reports as well as promote a culture of continuous improvement.  

9. Peer One on One Meetings

One on one meetings usually take place between direct reports and their managers but this doesn’t apply to peer one on one meetings. The two may be working in the same team or in different teams within the same company.

Peer meetings allow you to establish rapport and understand your team members’ way of working. They also improve communication and boost employee engagement.

The optimal peer one on one frequency is once a month since when conducted too often you can block people’s calenders. However, you can increase the number of peer one on one meetings based on how often you work together with your peer.

10. Skip-level One on Ones

In these meetings the senior managers or CEOs meet their direct reports who work under the managers in their team. These meetings are opportunities to appreciate the contributions of your employees.

Benefits of skip-level meetings:

• These meetings allow you to collect valuable input that can help you build a more positive work environment.
• Skip-level meetings are helpful in forming work relationships that are build on trust.
• They help leaders show that they appreciate their employees and for this reason, boosts employee engagement.
• Allow leaders to understand the challenges their employees face and the problems that need to be addressed.

What is The Optimal One on One Meeting Frequency?

The optimal one on one meeting frequency depends on your team’s schedules and their roles but there are some rules of thumb you can take into account.

You should start with forming a habit of holding one on one meetings in the first place.

The sweet spot of one on one meeting frequency is meeting once a week but if you need to collaborate with your direct reports more closely, you can think about having one on ones twice weekly.

Meeting once a month is not recommended since you may lose touch with your employees if you don’t communicate with them regularly.

Sample One on One Meeting Templates

Below you will find our one on one meeting templates that are designed to offer a structured framework for you and your employees. By using our one on one agendas you can streamline your planning efforts.

Using our one on one templates instead of creating your templates from scratch will save a lot of time.

On top of that, you’ll have a standard and consistent meeting format which will make it so much easier to monitor progress over time.

Furthermore, these 1 on 1 meeting agendas will help your employees openly discuss their concerns. This will lead to stronger work relationships, higher levels of job satisfaction,and improved performance.

1. One on One Meeting Template for Goal Check-ins

This one on one meeting template assesses goal progress while setting new goals. By reviewing previous goals and future goals together you’ll have a more holistic approach.

Furthermore, this one on one meeting template includes a section where you can list the action items and future goals that are agreed upon by both parties.

This will not only help both of you have clarity but also make it easier to remember the important points discussed during the meeting.

2. Career Development One on One Meeting Template

This one on one meeting template focuses on creating a roadmap for professional development by addressing an employee’s aspirations and career opportunities within a company. 

This template starts with setting a clear vision and moves forward to identifying the skills that need to be developed.

Then it provides structure to determine areas such as potential career paths and how to achieve career progression by defining the necessary steps.

3. Weekly One on one Check-in Template

This weekly one on one check-in template provides you with a framework to discuss progress as well as weekly projects.

It also allows you to give feedback which will help you build a culture of continuous improvement. 

Lastly, it includes a section where you can list the key takeaways and action items that will streamline your meetings so that you can end the meeting with clear objectives in mind.

4. One on One Meeting Template for Mentoring

You can use this one on one meeting template to streamline your mentoring efforts. It starts with accomplishments and moves forward to how to set professional goals with the SMART goal-setting framework. 

This template covers the most needed talking points when it comes to helping mentees reach their goals and potential.

Furthermore, its clear and concise structure will help mentors guide their mentees effectively.

5. Project Closure One on One Meeting Template

This template will help you wrap up your projects easily with its talking points such as lessons learned, the outcomes, and project documentation.

Moreover, by using this template, you will make sure that you’ve completed the necessary tasks in your projects.

6. Daily Stand-up One on One Meeting Template

With our daily stand-up one on one meeting template, you will be able to tackle daily tasks easily. It will help you address potential obstacles and discuss solutions.

On top of that, this template helps you set priorities for the day and this will improve your efficiency.

7. Work-life Balance One on One Meeting Template

This one on one meeting template provides a structure for discussions about work-life balance.

It includes the most important items to discuss such as stressors that affect well-being, resources that will help create a healthy work-life balance, and specific steps to improve work-life balance.

8. Feedback One on One Meeting Template

Ongoing feedback will not only facilitate communication but also help create the ideal work environment by improving your workplace culture.

Our feedback one on one meeting template will help you exchange specific and actionable feedback that will set the stage for performance improvement.

9. Peer One on One Meeting Template

With this employee 1 on one template, you can improve collaboration between peers.

Furthermore, this one on one meeting template allows peers to talk about updates on current projects which will promote a more productive work relationship.

10. Skip-level One on One Meeting Template

This one-on-one meeting template will help leaders understand employees who aren’t in their direct reporting line. The aspirations, challenges, and perspectives of employees will become more clear.

This will provide valuable insights into creating a more harmonious and productive organization.

One on One Meeting Best Practices

1. Use One-on-one Software 

Using one-on-one meeting software is a great way to ensure your meetings are well-organized, productive, and easily tracked over time, helping improve communication and collaboration within the team and support ongoing growth and development for individual team members. 

You can create the best one-on-one meeting template without a hassle using this kind of software.

If you’re using Microsoft Teams for your one-on-one meetings, we have an amazing one-on-one software suggestion for you: Teamflect!

Teamflect is a comprehensive performance management system that will save hours of work, making your entire organization more efficient.

Its seamless integration with Microsoft Teams means that you can access all the performance-management features you need without ever having to leave your meeting.  

From its start as a recognition software, eventually growing into a robust employee performance management tool, Teamflect still offers a highly customizable Recognition module that can be used to improve engagement.

Here are some other amazing features of Teamflect: 

• Highly efficient one-on-one meetings with built-in task assignments and note-taking tools 
• User-friendly design 
• Automated and customized performance review templates
• Extremely streamlined 
• Feedback template gallery
• Efficient feedback cycles with 360-degree feedback 

2. Provide Updates on Project and Goal Progression 

When it comes to one-on-one meetings, discussing performance and progress is often a key part of the conversation.

This is a chance to check in on ongoing projects and goals and ensure everyone is on track to meet their goals. 

While providing updates, it’s important to encourage open and honest communication. Here are a few tips for making the most of your performance and progress discussion: 

• Review progress to date: Start by reviewing progress on ongoing projects and goals. Celebrate successes and find any areas where more work is needed. 
• Discuss any roadblocks: If someone is struggling to make progress, discuss any roadblocks that may be standing in their way. Brainstorm potential solutions together and offer support or resources as needed. 
• Set new goals and priorities: Based on progress to date, set new goals and priorities for the coming weeks or months.  

3. Give Feedback on Performance and Areas for Improvement 

When providing feedback, it’s important to be specific and actionable. Here are a few tips for making the most of your feedback discussion: 

• Focus on behaviors, not personality: When giving feedback, focus on specific behaviors or actions that the person can change, rather than on their personality or character. This can help ensure that the feedback is received in a constructive and non-threatening way. 
• Balance positive and negative feedback: Be sure to provide both positive feedback (highlighting areas of strength) and negative feedback (finding areas for improvement). This can help ensure that the feedback is balanced, and that the person feels both valued and challenged. 
• Offer suggestions for improvement: Offer specific suggestions for how the person can make changes. Feedback should be actionable, and the person should feel supported in making changes. 
• Use feedback software: You can give feedback with your feedback software before the one-on-one meeting, and then talk about it during the meeting.  

4. Address Challenges

No matter how well things are going, challenges and obstacles will arise sometimes. During your one-on-one meetings, it’s important to set aside time to address these challenges.

When addressing challenges and obstacles, it’s important to approach the conversation with a problem-solving mindset. To address challenges and obstacles effectively: 

• Find the challenge: Start by addressing the specific challenge or obstacle that needs to be talked about. Be as specific as possible and try to identify any root causes that may be contributing to the problem. 
• Brainstorm potential solutions: Once the challenge has been named, work together to brainstorm potential solutions. Encourage open and honest communication and be sure to consider a range of options before settling on a course of action. 
• Set a plan of action: After you’ve decided on a solution, set a plan of action to address the challenge or obstacle. Be clear about who will handle what and set a timeline for when things need to be completed. 

Closing Remarks

Regular one-on-one meetings are an essential part of keeping strong working relationships and effective communication within a team.

When done properly, these meetings create an opportunity to address concerns, give feedback, and discuss progress and goals.

Using these one on one meeting templates as a guide during one-on-one meetings can bring a multitude of benefits. First and foremost, it ensures that all necessary topics are addressed, from performance updates to career development goals.

It also provides a structured framework for the conversation, making it easier for both parties to prepare and stay on track. 

Regular one-on-one meetings are essential for the overall success of your company, so don’t forget to implement a one-on-one software. Schedule a demo with Teamflect now!

Frequently Asked Questions