Using 1:1 Meetings

Having frequent one on one meetings is one of the most powerful resources a team can use to strengthen communication, align priorities, and measure the impact their efforts are having on the company.

Regular check-ins, especially between a manager and his or her team, are a crucial part of most employee workflows. What better way to encourage this engagement than providing an infrastructure for meetings which is tied to broader discussions about goals and performance?

Article Quick Links

Video Tutorial
How to set up and kick off a 1:1 meeting
1:1 meetings overview
1:1 meetings in 360 feedback or performance reviews
Company Overview for HR Admins
Notifications

Video Tutorial

Walkthrough on how to set up a 1:1 from a Manager view.

How to set up and kick off a 1:1 meeting

There are two ways to set up a 1:1 meeting in Small Improvements that are listed below. Already have recurring 1:1 meetings scheduled in your calendar? Take a look at our Calendar Integration to automatically sync those meetings over to Small Improvements.

Method 1: Using +Create anywhere in the application

Click the "+Create" button in your top navigation bar and select '1:1 Meeting'.
Choose the other participant using the search field, or navigate directly to your 1:1 Meeting home page.
Once a co-worker is selected, you'll be redirected to the 1:1 Meetings page between you and them. This is your go-to place for all the meetings between you and your co-worker.

Method 2: Browse 1:1 meeting tab and choose from your team members

Choose '1:1 Meetings' from the navigation on the left-hand side of your screen
Here you'll see a list of your existing 1:1's and also your team members too (especially handy if you're a manager of many team members). Click on one of the users.
Additionally, you could also set up a 1:1 Meeting with anyone in your company by clicking the '+ Create Meeting' button and searching for the user.

Customizing the 1:1 meeting

When setting in your 1:1 meeting, you have the option to set a title for the meeting, a date, a time, add attachments, share visibility with HR or the management chain, add templated talking points, and more. Watch the gif below for a full loop example.

1:1 Meetings Overview

From this page, you're able to manage all of the 1:1's you have with your colleague. Each meeting is made up of the following:

Meetings search
Meeting date, time, and title
Calendar link
Talking points
Meeting notes
Visibility and attachments
1:1 Templates
Meeting drafts

Each participant can add their own Talking Points and Notes, and these are shared with the other participant by default but can remain private. Please read further for more information on Talking Points and Notes.

Meetings Search

The Meetings Search menu allows you to search for previous meetings quickly. That's a great way to understand the development of certain dialogue and conversations with your manager or report:

Meeting Date, Time, and Title

There is an easy option to timestamp your meeting, which can be useful when looking back through frequent check-ins. You have the option to create multiple upcoming meetings, with the dates and times set.

Titles, likewise, allow you to set the theme or topic of the meeting and search easily for it at a later point.

Calendar link

Also included is the ability to link directly to the meeting hub. So if you have a standing invite for 1:1s in your shared calendar of choice, you can put the link there!

Setting Talking points

One of the main attractions of the feature is the ability to set some agenda items prior to the 1:1. Both meeting participants can set areas of discussion they want to address, using them as a handy reference point to keep the conversation on track.

As the topics come to mind, you might want to compile your Talking Points over time. And since these agenda items have flexible visibility- You could potentially compose the topics and make adjustments with private visibility, and then right before the meeting, make them available for both participants to review. Or keep them private, up to you!

Talking point features

Easy To Add: quickly add Talking Points with keyboard shortcuts: Cmd./Ctrl. + Enter
Organize Talking Points: give your 1:1 Meetings structure and flow by organizing Talking Points
Feel Accomplished: check off Talking Points to ensure all important topics are addressed

You have the flexibility to have both private and shared Talking Points in the same meeting, can edit at any point, or delete.

Adding Meeting Notes

During the meeting, the opportunity to take notes or set action items before the next check-in might arise. Both meeting participants can jot them down in real-time, or transfer notes into Small Improvements once the meeting is complete. The notes can become points of reference/action items for future 1:1s. Meeting Notes save automatically as you draft them. Once you're finished drafting your note, click "Add note" to share it with the other participant. If you would prefer to keep the note private, check the "visible only to me" box.

Visibility and Attachments

Inside each meeting, you can change the visibility and share it with either the HR Admins of the account or the management chain of the participants. Next to that, you'll find the option to add attachments, which may be useful to better illustrate a talking point you have logged for discussion.

1:1 Meeting Templates

One of the greatest components to Small Improvements 1:1 Meetings is the Templates function. These are pre-populated Titles and Talking points, that allows HR to guide specific discussions between managers and employees. It adds certain focus and therefore greater value to these meetings, giving managers the correct prompts for having the right kind of conversations with their reports.

When creating a new meeting, you will have the option to start with no template (but later can click 'Use a template' inside the created blank meeting), or select one predefined by HR. You may preview this before adding it:

Meeting Drafts

You have the option to create drafts you're not quite ready to share:

1:1s and Performance Reviews

When it is time to have a formalized check-in around performance between manager and team, we make it easy to rely on all of the past conversations captured in 1:1s. No stress in trying to remember a milestone, no need to dig through a series of notes – it's all available on the right-hand side of your review form.

360° feedback

Since you can use this feature to set Talking Points and take meeting notes with any colleague at your company, these conversations can also prove to be useful as part of a 360 process! If you've been asked to give feedback to a team member you've had meetings with, that threaded dialogue will be available as a resource to you as well.

Notifications

If you are initiating a meeting with a colleague, it will trigger an email notification to them. Delivered to their inbox, it looks like this:

Talking point updates email notifications

When Talking Points are adding to a meeting, you'll see the newly added talking points highlighted in the email notification that you receive, as 'NEW'.

Disabling Notifications

If you would like to disable 1:1 notifications to your inbox, you can do this by:

Hovering over your profile pic in the upper right corner of your screen
Clicking into your profile menu and selecting "Your Settings"
Uncheck both "1:1 Meeting Creation" and "1:1 Meeting"

1:1 Company Overview for HR Admins

As an HR Admin, you can discover the frequency of meetings that are performed between managers and their direct reports from the 1:1 Company Overview page.

You'll be able to filter 30, 60, and 90 days into the past to view meetings between team members and managers. We also offer a convenient search feature to look up employees and meetings by name.

Nudging Employees and Managers

It's possible to nudge employees and managers from the 1:1 meetings overview for HR Admins. Below is a screenshot showing where to locate this nudge option.

Managers and employees can be nudged once every 24 hours using this feature.