Regular one-on-one meetings are among the most powerful tools that leaders and managers have at their disposal, and today, we’re making them even easier to run by sharing our ultimate list of meeting agenda templates. 

Based on the latest research in organisational psychology, our one-on-one meeting agenda templates cover most of the conversations you’ll need to have with your people, from goal progress check-ins to career-focused conversations to quarterly 1:1s on job satisfaction. 

All you’ve got to do is download our templates or bookmark this page for future reference, and you’ll have the perfect 1 on 1 meeting template at your fingertips, always. 

But before we get into the templates, let’s answer some frequently asked questions about one-on-one meetings.

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What’s the Purpose of a One-on-One Meeting?

The purpose of a 1:1 meeting is to check in with your people. By this, we mean holding a transparent, employee-led conversation about their performance, in which you catch up on their goal progress, celebrate wins, exchange constructive feedback, identify blockers, address challenges and offer coaching.

What are the Benefits of Holding Regular One-on-One Meetings?

When managers hold regular one-on-one meetings with their people, the whole company benefits - people are more likely to achieve their goals (1) and employee engagement is higher (2). When run effectively, regular one-on-one meetings help employees feel valued and happier at work, and contribute to a culture of feedback. 

How Often Should Managers Hold One-on-One Meetings?

We recommend weekly, fortnightly or monthly 1:1 meetings for all employees and their managers - the frequency really depends on the participant’s own preferences. If in doubt, try a weekly 1:1 first. These allow your teams to identify issues and make changes in real time. ‍

What Kind of One-on-One Meetings Should Managers be Running?

For most teams, a performance-focused 1:1 meeting is the most important kind, as they ensure employees and managers are keeping track of goal progress. But it’s a good idea to include a number of themed 1:1s throughout the year too. Our favourites include career development conversations, work-life balance check-ins, job satisfaction conversations, stay interviews and manager-led 1:1s (in which the manager requests feedback from the employee on their performance). 

Do One-on-One Meetings Require an Agenda? 

Simply put, yes. One-on-one meeting agendas keep the conversation on track and ensure that the right questions are being asked every time. 

What are the Best Practices for One-on-One Meeting Agendas?

We recommend setting the agenda at the time of scheduling the meeting, and sharing the agenda with the employee right away. This allows them to review the talking points in their own time - surprises can make employees feel uncomfortable and don’t always prompt the most useful responses. Some teams use 1:1 meeting software like Frankli to enhance 1:1s, allowing participants to respond to the talking points in advance, record private and public notes and attach documents for reference in the meeting. 

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‍How do I Use a One-on-One Meeting Agenda Template?

We recommend keeping our templates somewhere safe so you can reference them regularly - you can do this by downloading the template or bookmarking this page. The first template in the list, Employee-Led Conversation should be your go-to template for 1:1s. The others should be used infrequently throughout the year or as required. Copy and paste our talking point template into a shareable document, add the meeting date, and your agenda is ready to go. Don’t forget to share it with your team member in advance so they know what to expect!

How can I Encourage my Managers to Have Better Conversations with their People?

Holding effective 1:1 meetings is a skill that takes quite a while to master, but we’ve got some really useful resources that can help.

• A 60-second read on the biggest 1:1 meeting Dos and Don’ts. 
• A one-on-one meeting checklist guiding you through everything you need to do before, during and after your 1:1.

10 Free One-on-One Meeting Agenda Templates

Employee-led conversation: 

What's the most important thing we need to discuss today?

What obstacles are you encountering right now?

What are the most important things you will focus on before we meet next?

Manager-led conversation: 

Do you feel you’re getting enough feedback? Why/why not?

How could I do a better job communicating with you?

Which areas would you like more or less direction from me on your work?

What would you like to see change about these discussions? How could we make them more useful for you?

Performance review outcome:

From your perspective, how do you feel you have progressed during this review period?

Looking forward, what are some priorities we are going to work on?

What's the most important thing I can do differently for you as your manager?

Job satisfaction:

Do you feel like you're growing in your role? What makes you say that?

What feedback/praises have you been getting about your current priorities?

What's a recent situation you wish you handled differently? What would you change?

What's an area of your work you want to improve? How can we work together on that?

Can you give me some specific examples of when you enjoyed working here the most?

Mentoring session:

What are your short, medium and long-term goals?

What’s working in your career and what areas are you looking to improve?

What ideas have you developed to help you overcome challenges and meet your goals?

What areas do you feel comfortable addressing on your own and what areas require more support?

How can I help you achieve your goals?

Coaching session:

Why is this an area of interest to you?

What have you done so far to increase your knowledge/awareness of this area?

What areas would you like to focus on?

What would you like to have achieved by the end of these sessions?

What additional support do you need from me?

Work-life balance:

What is an ideal, productive day at work for you? Walk me through the day…

What makes you excited and motivated to work on a particular project?

What part of your work routine do you find is working best? What area do you want to improve?

What's one thing we could change about work for you that would improve your personal life?

‍Team and company:

How would you describe how work is shared among team members?

How would you rate our communication as a team?

How would you say we're doing at working together as a team? What makes you say that?

Who inspires you in the team? Whose opinions do you respect? What have they done?

What's the biggest opportunity you see that we are not thinking about?

‍Focused on career:

What are the new things you learned at work recently? What are the areas you want to learn about?

Do you feel like we’re helping you advance your career? What can I be doing to help you grow your career?

What is one aspect of your job that you would like more help or coaching with?

A year from now, what do you want to have accomplished?

Return from extended leave:

How are you feeling about returning to work/being back at work?

What challenges are you facing right now?

What needs to change? What support do you need that you're not currently getting?

How are things going outside of work?

Get started with a free trial of Frankli’s 1:1 meeting and OKR tools.

Sources: 

1. The ASTD Handbook of Measuring and Evaluating Training. 2. Gallup, Managers: Millennials Want Feedback, but Won't Ask for It.