One-on-one meetings might be your most crucial tool, as a manager.
However, it can be tough to ensure these meetings are effective and consistent, especially in a remote team. (In fact, 40% of employees think their manager is not prepared for 1-on-1 meetings. Ouch.)
Our One-on-Ones Tool solves this perfectly: We give you an easy way to schedule, write a shared agenda + notes, and prepare for your one-on-ones with 100+ questions and templates, backed by research.
Let's take a closer look...
Here's what the One-on-Ones Tool looks like in action
Scheduling a One-on-One Meeting
In the "One-on-Ones" tool in the lefthand navigation bar, you'll select "Schedule a new meeting" to create a new meeting with a team member:
Then, you can pick the team member you'd like to hold the one-on-one meeting, the desired frequency, and timing:
👉 My personal tip: I recommend hold one-on-one meetings for 1 hour long, every week, or every 2 weeks with each direct report. For one-on-ones with other team members (e.g., for skip level meetings), I recommend 1 hour every month or every quarter. You can read more in our Guide about how frequent + long your one-on-ones should be.
We also have a Google Calendar, iCal, and Outlook integration that you can set up:
Preparing for a one-on-one meeting
When you're ready to prepare for your one-on-one meeting, you'll click on the meeting you'd like to prepare for, and you'll be taken to a page that looks like this:
Here, we help you write the agenda 😄 You can pick an agenda template from our Templates Library, use an agenda template you wrote – or you can write an agenda from scratch.
In our Templates Library, we give you a range of one-on-one agenda templates that you can choose from + edit. You can also write your own templates:
Take a look at a sample agenda after I've selected my template:
You'll notice that your team member (Marcus, in this example) can add their own agenda items, to create a shared agenda. Additionally, we give suggested ideas for questions in the right sidebar.
Everything in the agenda is 100% editable and completely private between you and the team member who you're holding the one-on-one meeting with.
Notifications for a one-on-one meeting
After you schedule the meeting, you and your team member will receive a heads-up email (or Slack) notification that looks something like this:
You'll both also receive a reminder to prepare for the meeting a few days before the meeting, and notice 1 hour before the meeting begins. You can adjust your personal notification settings for One-on-Ones here.
Keeping track of next steps
During the one-on-one meeting, you can write notes and takeaways below the agenda for you and your team member:
You can also write private notes that are only visible to you:
You can share your one-on-one meeting agenda with others in the organization, as it makes sense and fits your team's needs:
Lastly, you and your team member have the option to rate how well the one-on-one meeting went, so you both can improve the meeting for next time:
That's it!
Using One-on-Ones in KYT drastically cuts down the amount of time you need to prepare for one-on-one meetings – especially if you have multiple in a day or in a week – while also increasing the quality and efficacy of the meetings. It's astounding to witness the "before" and "after" with using the One-on-Ones Tool.
My favorite part? At any point, you can look at all the one-on-one notes and agendas you've had with each team member: It's an organized library of conversations, instead of scattered (or non-existent) notes thrown around everywhere:
Ready to use the One-one-Ones with your own team?
Go straight to your One-on-Ones in KYT.
Learn more about how to hold effective one-on-one meetings in our guide.