Take Action to Increase Employee Engagement

How to Make the Most of Your One on Ones

Let's cut to the chase: one of the most important things you can do to build engagement within your workgroup is to regularly meet one on one with your employees.

A recent study found that employees who meet one on one with their supervisor are four times less likely to be disengaged. Because employee engagement is about giving employees the opportunity to have a voice, regular one-on-one conversations allow your employees time to provide input and set challenging goals. It also gives you the opportunity to provide thoughtful feedback and support their performance through coaching.

Make the most of your time

A supervisor’s support for their team members is positively correlated with employee engagement, so a transactional meeting covering a list of to-dos is not enough to build engagement. Meaningful interactions help to build healthy relationships based on mutual respect and appreciation. Use regular meeting time to:

1. Clarify roles. Clear expectations and feedback are a key employee engagement driver. Talk with your employees about their responsibilities and priorities and how their work contributes to the team’s success, your college or unit’s success, and the University’s success overall.
2. Review goals. Work with your employee to set meaningful goals that not only align with your college or unit’s priorities but also offer stretch goals or enough challenge to support development. Because we work in a state of constant change, use your one-on-one time to review these goals and adjust them if necessary to align with the current priorities.
3. Discuss progress and offer support. Talk with your employee not only about what they’re achieving, but how they’re achieving it. Giving feedback can be intimidating and for some, unnatural. To help, checkout the Feedback and Coaching module in the Supervisory Development Course.
4. Decide next steps. Agree on next steps for your employee’s development, their work, and your next one on one. Next steps should include action items for both you and your employee.

You can also use this template (MS Word) during your meeting to structure your conversation.

How often should we meet?

The ideal frequency of your one on one is between once a week and once a month, but may vary depending upon the person, their work, and the practices or expectations for supervisors in your unit. Nevertheless, make it a practice to check-in with your team members every day, even if it’s just to say hello.