1:1 Meetings. What I wish I knew about them earlier...

My conclusions about such meetings

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Today, I will share my insights from two years of conducting 1:1 meetings. Primarily, this post will be helpful for HR professionals, but it can also be interesting/useful for others to understand the transparency of the 1:1 meeting process.

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Regularity is the key to success.

The more frequent and regular the 1:1 meetings are, the more trusting relationships will develop between HR and the team.

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Having 1:1 meetings just for the sake of it is pointless.

Personal interest from HR is crucial here. People can sense scripted questions and lack of empathy. Therefore, the dialogue should be genuine, as if you were meeting with a friend over a cup of coffee, genuinely concerned about them.

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1:1 meetings should have outcomes.

If someone shares a problem with you, it's essential that you contribute to solving it. It could be a project retrospective, connecting with a team member, seeking feedback from a team lead, adjusting an employee's schedule or days off – anything that contributes to resolving the issue. Firstly, this is the overall goal of such meetings, and secondly, this is how employees understand the value of sharing their experiences.

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If a person talks about problems and shares a lot – it doesn't mean "everything is terrible, and they are going to quit.

It means they trust you. No matter how perfect the project/team/company is, employees will always have something to share during 1:1 meetings (if they trust you, of course) Honesty is a good sign (not the absence of negative feedback).

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Be sincere with your colleagues.

Explain internal processes, share goals, news, and events. Also, talk about yourself. 1:1 meetings are a two-way process. It's a dialogue, communication.

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Take notes, record all important moments.

Even if you think you remember everything, trust me, after some time, you'll need that information, but it won't come back to you. Of course, you don't need to sit with a notebook and pen during the conversation, but right after the dialogue, I advise you to jot down all the important details.

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My personal insight that helped me a lot.

Clarify everything through examples. Avoid general formulations without any specifics. Ask for more details, ensure you understood the person correctly. Don't be afraid to seem less knowledgeable; developers already understand that, as an HR, you cannot know all the technical aspects. However, try to delve into processes and study the company's field of activity to speak the same language with your colleagues.

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Try to digitize what can be digitized.

Of course, when we talk about human emotions, we cannot achieve 100% accuracy in this regard. Still, for better statistics, I recommend not neglecting this rule. For example, you can ask employees to rate their past month's work on various categories on a 10-point scale, and later you can correlate this data to provide objectivity.