By George A. Reeves, III, Partner, Fisher Phillips
One-on-one (or 1:1) meetings are essential to ensure your organization is operating smoothly and are a crucial part of an effective human resources strategy to ensure good workplace relations in the healthcare setting. They are regularly scheduled meetings – perhaps weekly, perhaps monthly, or at some other regular cadence – between supervisors and team members. The sky’s the limit when setting an appropriate agenda for them, and each relationship warrants its individual meeting style.
These meetings can be a win-win for your healthcare organization. Your supervisors get to test out their managerial skills and help build trust with their team members. The employees meeting with their supervisors will feel more valued and heard through these regular channels. These recurring check-ins can address problems before they fester, and solutions can be achieved to keep your team’s work flowing effectively. As a result, productivity and effectiveness should increase and HR problems should decrease.
Here’s a checklist of items to consider when overseeing one-on-one meetings with team members – an especially timely topic given how many organizations are preparing for annual evaluations this time of year.
- Decide on the proper interval between meetings with each team member. Some relationships might warrant frequent meetings (weekly is most common), while others can withstand several weeks between regular check-ins. In setting the interval, consider how much tenure the team member has in the organization, how new (or experienced) they are in their role, how much training they need to get their work done, the personalities at play (whether they need more regular care and feeding than other team members, for example), and other similar factors.
- Keep the appointments on your calendar sacred. If a true emergency develops, reschedule the meeting later (or earlier) in the day or a day or two in the future, but don’t get in the habit of canceling or missing the meetings. This can lead to resentment and reduced commitment to the organization.
- Remain consistent in meeting with team members. Although the time interval for meetings may vary from team member to team member based on their tenure and individual needs, be aware of the perception that some team members may be receiving more favorable – or less favorable – treatment in how often supervisors meet with them.
- Develop a rough agenda of a few items you must discuss – but be flexible. Always provide extra time in the meeting for an open forum to allow your employees to bring questions, concerns, or new topics to the table.
- Keep your planned agenda limited so you don’t let things get bogged down. This isn’t the time to overwhelm your team members with new assignments or a long dissertation about big-picture company issues. Most 1:1s are best if they are 30 minutes or less. You will lose your team member’s attention if you go much longer.
- Switch things up to keep it fresh. Your meetings don’t always have to occur in your office behind your desk, an office chair, or over a Zoom call. Perhaps you can meet out for lunch or at a coffee shop or schedule a walking meeting.
- Make sure you provide your team members with your undivided attention. Don’t respond to calls, texts, or messages during the meeting. Please take steps to protect the space and let them know you are committed to their issues.
- Don’t do all of the talking. No exact percentage is correct for a 1:1, but you must ask yourself serious questions if you do 75% of the talking. Are you asking enough questions? Have you prepared enough beforehand so that you feel comfortable engaging your employees about important topics?
- Approach performance management issues in a direct but open manner. Your one-on-ones shouldn’t turn into disciplinary meetings where you mete out verbal or written warnings. For various reasons, such discipline should be held with HR and perhaps with another manager present – not during a one-on-one. Your employees will not look forward to your 1:1s if they fear getting disciplined at the meetings.
- But that doesn’t mean you can’t bring up challenges to overcome or projects that have missed the mark during your meetings. If you go this route, make sure you approach such subjects with a constructive mindset and try to identify the barriers that led to the problem so they can be fixed instead of assigning blame. Quickly pivot the meeting to how you can support them in overcoming these challenges.
- All of these rules might be different if you operate in a unionized environment – or in a workplace where unions are a discussion topic. Work with HR to make sure you understand what you can and can’t bring up during one-on-ones, especially given the shifting rules on “captive” meetings and the Weingarten doctrine (if you don’t know what these things mean, make sure you become well-versed by HR or Legal before you launch into a 1:1 meeting).
- Start by connecting with them on a human level. Ask how they are doing and take a sincere interest in their response.
- Ask how things have been going since your last meeting. Specifically, ask whether you provide sufficient guidance and direction to enable them to do their daily job.
- Check-in with your team member on their job satisfaction. Are there new skills or tasks they want to take on? Are there new responsibilities they wish to add (or existing ones they want to shed)? Are they feeling empowered?
- Determine whether any roadblocks to success exist that you could assist with.
- Ask if they have any suggestions for improving workflow or their work process.
- Follow up your 1:1 with a quick email summarizing items you have covered and laying out specific and concrete action items you and your team member will take.
- If you discuss problems to be solved or challenges to be overcome, note them in your email – these could be helpful later on if the problems aren’t resolved, and you need to take the issue to the next level with HR.
- Conversely, if you promise your team member you will address a problem they are having but don’t follow up on it, you will lose their trust and could lose them altogether.
- And closing the cycle, prepare for your 1:1 meeting before it begins – if even for just a few minutes. Review the last few recap emails to remind you of what you and your team members talked about at the very least. You may even ask your direct report to provide you with a quick email in advance with any topics they want to follow up on to aid you in your preparation.
Conclusion
As we continue to see an unsettled environment in the healthcare industry, maintaining open lines of communication between supervisors and employees will help ensure good workplace relations in your organization. With proper planning, communication, and follow-up, 1:1 meetings can be integral to your employment law compliance playbook.