Employee one-on-one meetings are invaluable. They foster clearer communication, elevate performance levels, and facilitate the effective exchange of ideas.
There’s a catch, though—your approach to employee one-on-one meetings is significant. The level of your preparedness, or lack thereof, communicates a powerful message to your employees. Moments of awkward silence, reliance on filler words, and off-topic questions can unintentionally convey whether you genuinely value their time or if the meeting is merely a routine task you’re eager to check off your list.
If you’re looking to make these check-ins worthwhile for your employees, then you need employee one-on-one meeting templates.
Employee one-on-one meeting templates help you get past the awkward silence, give your meetings a clear direction, and ensure you both leave with actionable steps to take.
Steven R. Rogelberg shared in his book, The Surprising Science of Meetings, “What we need to rid ourselves of are bad meetings, wasted time in meetings, and unnecessary meetings.” Click To Tweet
We’ve curated a collection of the best employee one-on-one meeting templates. Whether you’re conducting your first-ever session or you’re an expert in the realm of employee meetings, these templates are designed to help you maximize the effectiveness of your 1:1 interactions with employees.
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What is an Employee One-on-One Meeting Template?
Also known as a 1:1 meeting template, this tool serves as a structured framework designed to steer conversations between a manager and their direct report. Typically utilized on a weekly or biweekly basis, it ensures that these discussions are focused, productive, and cover all necessary topics. It includes pre-defined prompts, questions, and sections you can customize to suit your regular check-in.
The best thing about one-on-one meeting agenda templates is that they’re not a one-off resource; they are a roadmap. They give your meetings a clear path from the moment you both decide to meet until the meeting is over, and action points are noted.
Benefits of Employee One-on-One Meeting Templates 
Employee one-on-one meetings are tricky. As a manager, you’re not supposed to do all the talking because the meeting is about your report. On one hand, you’re to listen and ask questions that prompt feedback. But on the other hand, you’re not supposed to be excessively into the details. So you’re left wondering how exactly to approach 1-on-1 meetings for the best results.
These templates are beneficial; they help bring balance and order into your 1:1 meetings. That means you are asking important questions, providing constructive feedback, and making sure your direct report leaves the meeting satisfied.
Other benefits of employee meeting agenda templates include:
✅ Increased efficiency
Meeting agenda templates help clearly outline the focus for each meeting, allowing team members to pre-list important topics like challenges and questions, ensuring a more productive and focused discussion.
✅ Increase in Employee Engagement and Productivity
By establishing a structured framework for discussions, employees feel empowered to voice their thoughts, share concerns, and contribute ideas. This interaction isn’t just a routine; it’s a platform where employees can actively engage with their managers and feel heard and valued. This sense of ownership over their contributions fosters a deeper commitment to their work and, thus, an increase in productivity.
✅ Enhanced Focus on Individual Growth
Using business one-on-one templates helps you understand the individual needs of your direct reports. For example, some direct reports might prefer 30-minute meetings weekly, while 60-minute discussions bi-weekly would work for others. This guarantees that each check-in explores aspects crucial to the employee’s professional journey, nurturing a sense of significance and dedication to personal development.
✅ Data-Driven Decision Making
The structured format of these meetings allows for meticulous documentation of discussed topics, action items, progress updates, and feedback. This serves as a valuable resource for managers and employees as it provides a historical record of achievements, roadblocks faced, and the evolution of goals, which can be referenced in future meetings
✅ Heightened Trust and Communication
As a manager, effectively communicating company goals to new employees and encouraging them to discuss their career development can be challenging. However, utilizing meeting agenda templates can greatly simplify this process. These templates provide prompts and questions that facilitate mutual feedback, helping to build trust and strengthen relationships between managers and their new team members.
Best Employee One-on-One Meeting Templates
1 Meeting Notes Template
👉 Available on: monday.com
The Meeting Notes Template by monday.com takes away the struggle of flipping through pages of Google Docs to find your notes and updates from previous meetings. At a glance, you can see the meeting’s action items, agenda, time, notes, and ideas. That way, you and your direct report can quickly recap the last meeting’s agenda, track progress, and begin with the day’s discussion.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: This template makes for effective one-on-one meetings with its intuitiveness and customizability. You can modify fields, columns, and sections to match the meeting’s agenda. It also enables multiple team members to contribute to meeting notes in real-time, thus aiding collaboration.
2 Meeting Management
👉 Available on: Smartsheet
Smartsheet’s Meeting Management Template is an all-inclusive template for your 1-on-1 meetings. It comes with a template set folder that includes the meeting agenda portal, agenda submission form, meeting agenda sheet, and meeting follow-ups. It also has a customizable workspace that allows you to control sharing with other team members.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: This template lets you collect agenda items in advance, sequence and prioritize items, and ensure results are tracked and recorded in a single place. Its notifications ensure that you don’t miss meetings, comments, and updates. And its storage features enable you to store relevant files associated with the meetings.
3 Reflect 1:1
👉 Available on: Miro
Miro’s meeting agenda template goes beyond just performance reviews; it’s designed to foster a deeper understanding of your reports’ well-being, particularly in their first one-on-one meeting with you. This template encourages a reflective atmosphere, allowing your reports to comfortably share their experiences and perspectives.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: Miro incorporates visual aids, diagrams, or other tools to facilitate communication and brainstorming during the one-on-one meeting. It includes sections for setting goals, tracking progress, and discussing obstacles your team members face. Using its advanced features, you can create structures, add frames, and lock them, thus ensuring a centralized work environment.
4 Employee and Manager 1:1
👉 Available on: ClickUp
Clickup is an all-encompassing project management software that provides an ecosystem for the various collaboration tools that help teams organize their activities and stay updated. Clickup’s employee and manager 1-on-1 meeting template provides a simple and customizable workspace where you can easily have a rundown of the meeting’s agenda and updates.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: If you’re looking for a business meeting agenda template that’s easy to set up and understand, then this template is your best bet. You can add items and updates to the agenda offline, collaboratively take notes, and track progress over time.
5 Meeting Agenda
👉 Available on: monday.com
This template by monday.com features a table where you set up the meeting items, topic, priority, date, time, and action description. It also lets you integrate with various tools like Gmail, Slack, Asana, and Mailchimp. It has a calendar section that’s visually arranged with your meetings and engagements.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: Monday’s meeting agenda template doesn’t require you to be a techie to begin exploring the template. Its onboarding is seamless, and all you need to do is input your email details to get started.
6 Classic Meeting Minute Template
👉 Available On: Smartsheet
This template by Smartsheet is more than just a tool for taking minute meetings. It’s also best for onboarding new employees. It includes employee onboarding task boards, task reports, and sheets. Signing up to use the templates requires you to select your specialty, which helps the platform suggest a personalized template for you.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: The strength of this template lies in its features. It allows you to import files from other tools, like Excel and Trello. Its minimalistic interface makes inviting and onboarding other team members easy.
7 One-on-One Meeting Template
👉 Available On: Miro
Miro’s one-on-one meeting template is designed to facilitate productive discussions between managers and their direct reports. It has dedicated sections for goal setting, progress tracking, feedback exchange, and personal development discussions.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: The chat feature and the video call option make it easy to communicate with your reports without leaving the platform. In the case of virtual 1-on-1s, you can use the video call option to keep up with meetings. It also has visual elements like emojis, pens, highlighters, and shapes to help you communicate better.
8 1-on-1s
👉 Available on: ClickUp
If you’re into minimal designs and a simple layout, then Clickup’s employee meeting agenda template would get you over the moon. Signing up to use the template brings you into a pre-built “1:1 roles & expectations” page, which you can customize. It also lets you save customized templates for future use.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: This template stands out because it focuses on getting the job done with the fewest elements. With engaging formatting, easy-to-add GIFs, charts, and visuals, your meetings will have a fun and welcoming ambience.
9 Employee One-on-One
👉 Available On: ClickUp
This ClickUp template is ideal for weekly or bi-weekly meetings between managers and their team members, thanks to its ability to clearly outline meeting details in a concise format. This approach eliminates any confusion about the meeting’s agenda or the need to search for notes from previous sessions. This template helps keep the focus on track, ensuring that all agenda items are thoroughly addressed in each meeting.
❤️ Why this is a good employee one-on-one meeting template: You can measure the progress of each task with custom statuses. Also, the calendar view in ClickUp lets you add relevant notes or comments for your employees. Finally, it makes it easy to assign tasks so that everyone is clear on their responsibilities.
Mistakes to Avoid When Using Employee One-on-One Meeting Templates
❌ Lack of Preparation
Avoid going into one-on-one meetings without preparation. Review the template and agenda ahead of time to ensure a focused and productive conversation.
❌ Skipping Personalization
Don’t treat every meeting template as one-size-fits-all. Tailor the discussion points to fit the individual employee’s role, performance, and personal development goals.
❌ Ignoring Employee Input
Don’t dominate the conversation. One-on-one meetings should be a dialogue, so encourage employees to contribute their thoughts, concerns, and suggestions.
❌ Overlooking Follow-ups
Avoid leaving the meeting without actionable steps. Ensure that both parties understand the next steps, deadlines, and any commitments made during the meeting.
❌ Inconsistency
Don’t be inconsistent with meeting schedules. Regular one-on-one meetings show employees that they are valued and provide a steady forum for feedback and growth.
❌ Neglecting Confidentiality
Discussions in one-on-one meetings can be sensitive. Respect confidentiality and ensure that any shared information is handled appropriately.
❌ Focusing Solely on Negatives
Avoid focusing only on areas of improvement. Balance the discussion by recognizing achievements and strengths to motivate and encourage the employee.
❌ Undermining the Template Structure
While flexibility is important, completely disregarding the structure of the template can lead to unproductive meetings. Use it as a guide to cover all important aspects.
❌ Not Updating Templates
Ensure that the template is updated regularly to reflect any changes in company goals, performance metrics, or role-specific expectations.
❌ Rushing the Meeting
Don’t rush through one-on-one meetings. Allocate enough time to have a meaningful conversation and address all agenda items.
People Also Ask These Questions About Employee One-on-one Meeting Templates
Q: How can I create an effective employee one-on-one meeting template?
- A: There are several employee 1:1 meeting templates you can use; however, if you decide to create one, Google Docs or Microsoft Word can help. With some exceptions, it offers similar features as other templates. Include the time, date, and location, and write down the meeting agenda. Highlighting headings or meeting agendas that are high priority would also ensure clear communication.
Q: What are the key components to include in an employee one-on-one meeting template?
- A: An effective employee one-on-one meeting template should include several key components to ensure a productive and focused discussion. Firstly, it should outline the primary objectives or topics of the meeting, allowing both the manager and the employee to prepare in advance. This might include progress updates, goal setting, and feedback. The template should also provide space for the employee to list their points of discussion, such as any challenges they’re facing, accomplishments, or career development interests. Additionally, incorporating sections for action items and next steps is crucial for accountability and tracking progress. Finally, including a section for personal well-being and professional growth can encourage open communication and foster a supportive work environment.
Q: Are there any free templates available for conducting one-on-one meetings with employees?
- A: Yes, there are many free templates available online for conducting one-on-one meetings with employees. These templates can typically be found on websites specializing in business tools and resources, HR platforms, and productivity software sites. Miro and ClickUp have free forever plans that offer limited functionality. Some templates also allow a 30-day free trial period.
Q: Are there any best practices or tips for making the most of one-on-one meetings using a template?
- A: To maximize the effectiveness of one-on-one meetings using a template, there are several best practices to consider. First, customize the template to suit the specific needs and goals of both the manager and the employee, ensuring it includes sections for goal setting, feedback, and personal development. It’s important to prepare for the meeting in advance by reviewing the template and adding pertinent points for discussion. During the meeting, use the template as a guide but also allow flexibility for open-ended conversations and spontaneous topics that may arise. Active listening and encouraging the employee to share their thoughts and concerns openly can lead to more meaningful and productive discussions. After the meeting, both parties should update the template with any action items or follow-up tasks, ensuring accountability and a clear path forward. Regularly reviewing and updating the template based on feedback and changing needs can also help maintain its relevance and effectiveness over time.
Q: What are some common mistakes to avoid when using one-on-one meeting templates with employees?
- A: When using one-on-one meeting templates with employees, common mistakes to avoid include treating the template too rigidly, which can stifle open dialogue and limit the natural flow of conversation. It’s crucial to remember that the template serves as a guide rather than a strict agenda. Another mistake is insufficient preparation; failing to review the template and add relevant points before the meeting can lead to unproductive discussions. Overlooking the need for personalization is also a pitfall; each employee is unique, and the template should be adapted to fit their specific role, career aspirations, and the dynamics of the manager-employee relationship. Additionally, not following up on action items discussed in the meeting can lead to a loss of trust and a sense of futility in these sessions. Finally, neglecting to seek feedback about the effectiveness of the template and the meetings themselves can result in missed opportunities for improvement and greater engagement.
