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A report surveying 15,000 business professionals showed that the average person has at least five one-on-one meetings weekly, with an average duration of about 40 minutes. That's a 5x frequency increase since before the pandemic.
This rise shouldn't come as a surprise. Another study found that regular meetings with meaningful information from managers are a significant factor in boosting employee engagement, company agility, retaining talent, and inspiring excellence. Yet, some leaders still find this activity intimidating or overwhelming.
Whether you're leading a fully remote or onsite team, one-on-one meeting software will help you make this process easy and effective.
What is one-on-one meeting software?
These tools are designed to facilitate and streamline one-on-one meetings for businesses. They enhance communication, collaboration, and productivity by giving you access to features such as:
- Scheduling
- Video conferencing
- Calendar integration
- Agenda setting
- Note-taking and documentation
- Giving and receiving feedback
How to choose the best one-on-one meeting software
When looking for the best one-on-one meeting tool, consider your needs, like company size or other software you use. Here are some factors to take into account:
- Friendly UI: Look at the dashboard screenshots we provided and pick the one that looks the easiest to use to avoid the frustration of a steep learning curve.
- Integrations with other software in your toolset: When everything runs smoothly between the applications you’re using, it makes work a pleasure.
- Agenda management: Never miss key talking points during meetings with smart, automated, customizable agendas and action items.
- Recognition and feedback: Some of the tools from this article have built-in options for improving engagement and work satisfaction.
- Automatic reminders: This ensures high levels of participation.
- Goal setting and tracking: Keep an eye on your progress and ensure your team always stays on track.
5 best one-on-one meeting software: A detailed overview
In the words of Yolanda Lau, Co-Founder and Advisor at FlexTeam and Chief Experience Officer at Liquid, “Consistently great one-to-one meetings are the secret to improving team performance, morale and company culture. ... Regular check-ins to prevent larger issues from festering, allow for immediate and regular feedback, and promote open communication.”
With that in mind, let's explore the best tools for scheduling recurring meetings.
Fellow
Fellow lets teams work together to create meeting agendas, assign and track action items, and keep a record of interactions and feedback. All action items are centralized into one convenient to-do list.
As the meeting progresses, you can easily cross out the covered agenda items and use the private notes section to jot down any thoughts or questions for later follow-up. Additionally, Fellow has customizable templates for one-on-ones and suggests topics to ask during your next meeting.
Image source: G2
Features
- Automated reminders sent out before and after one-on-one meetings
- Options to organize, prioritize, and assign action items
- Streamlined meeting workflows
- Options to share, collaborate, and sync meeting notes
- Templates for running effective meetings
- Digital notepads – to-do's, team OKRs, etc.
- Built-in peer recognition and feedback option – weekly positive, meaningful insights from managers make employees four times as engaged as those who don't receive it
- Over 30 integrations – Slack, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Zapier
Pricing
- Free: For teams of up to 10 people
- Pro: $6/month/user for up to 50 people
- Business: $8/month/user
- Enterprise: Individually tailored pricing
15Five
15Five is performance management software with an integrated 1-on-1 feature. It's great for exchanging ideas, evaluating progress, and tracking individual goals. However, it doesn't allow for too much adaptability and space that one-on-one meetings typically require.
Depending on the circumstances, 15Five's structured framework may benefit some. The 1-on-1 feature of 15Five is intended to assist managers in addressing problems and obstacles at the right time. It also works as a tool to keep each team member up to date on objectives and priorities, fostering effective workplace productivity.
Image source: GetApp
Features
- Evidence-based engagement surveys
- Options to track goals and objectives
- Peer recognition features for boosting motivation levels
- Performance and engagement reports
- Talking points that are automatically updated in each shared agenda
- Action items assignment that you can check off or automatically add to the next 1-on-1 agenda
- Private and shared notes
- Summary email creation of past meetings
- Talking point bank for inspiration
Pricing
15Five only allows annual billing. There's a 14-day free trial available.
- Engage: $4/month/user
- Perform: $10/month/user
- Total Platform: $16/month/user
Lattice
Lattice combines various functions such as performance reviews, performance management, employee engagement, feedback collection, and career development. It's a video conferencing tool focused on improving performance by streamlining one-on-ones, simplifying the feedback process, and facilitating goal setting.
The tool aims to help companies prioritize people in the workplace and make one-on-one meetings more effective. Lattice offers a 360-degree feedback feature, an activity dashboard, customizable templates, integrated alerts and notifications, and more, all to assist managers and employees in achieving their goals.
Image source: G2
Features
- Streamlined performance management process
- Insights into employee satisfaction levels
- Setting, tracking, and managing goals across teams
- Personalized agendas for 1-on-1 meetings
- Option to use a direct report to collaborate on agendas, customize cadence, and track action items
- The visually appealing and intuitive interface makes one-on-ones more fun
- Setting due dates and to-do lists
Pricing
Lattice only offers annual contracts, with a minimum agreement of $4,000. You can mix and match what kind of feature packages you want:
- Performance Management + OKRs & Goals: $11/month/person (also available separately – $8 each)
- Engagement: $4/month/person
- Grow: $4/month/person
- Compensation: $6/month/person
Leapsome
Leapsome is a performance management platform CEOs and HR teams can use to improve employee development, productivity, and engagement with real-time insights.
It's a comprehensive platform with tools for managing goals and OKRs, conducting performance reviews and 360s, onboarding, learning, running employee engagement surveys, providing feedback and praise, and scheduling meetings.
Image source: GetApp
Features
- Feedback giving and requesting
- Statistics and timeline views for each team member or whole groups
- Check-in scheduling
- Team alignment with personal, team, and company goals
- Action items assignment
- Facilitation of more accurate direct reports based on historical data
- Built-in templates for meeting agendas
- Personalized learning recommendations
- Calendar and Slack integrations
Pricing
Leapsome offers a free 14-day trial. Pricing starts at $8/month/user. There are no more details on the provider's website. The cost for more advanced options depends on the number of employees, chosen modules, and contract length.
Officevibe
With the option of weekly, 2-minute surveys, Officevibe offers team members a safe space to share their thoughts and feelings. The questions are designed with an embedded algorithm to ensure they're broad and inclusive enough to reflect the employees' holistic experience. These real-time reports are a way for managers to consistently focus on improving.
While the information gathered from Officevibe surveys may feel not detailed enough, you can still use it to inform regular one-on-one meetings. These provide an opportunity for personal, flexible conversations, using the survey data as a starting point.
Image source: Officevibe website
Features
- One-on-one talking points recommendations
- Custom surveys and templates for virtual meetings
- Unlimited data history storage (for paid plans)
- Suggested actions
- Meeting participation, questions, and feedback reports
- Anonymous notes option for open communication
- Automated reminders for participation
- Quantifiable performance metrics
- Slack integration
Pricing
Officevibe also has the industry-standard 14-day free trial. The full plans include:
- Free: Basic options
- Essential: $5/month/user (billed monthly) or $3.50/month/user (billed annually)
- Pro: $8/month/user (billed monthly) or $5/month/user (billed annually)
Best software for one-on-one meetings: Comparison table
Conclusion
One-on-one meeting software is a must for every company that wants to navigate the digital workspace effectively – whether you're working with a remote team or in-office.
Each tool from this list has its strengths, so it's up to you to choose the best features for your specific needs and preferences.
One-on-one meeting software has many exciting benefits, including conducting better conversations, managing teams more effectively, writing meeting notes, setting up an agenda, or even leading performance reviews to track progress.
FAQs
What is a one-to-one meeting at work?
One-on-one meetings are private, scheduled discussions between a manager and an employee. The main talking points are usually performance, goals, and feedback, but meeting agendas can also cover other work-related matters.
How to do 1-on-1 meetings?
According to HBR's Steven G. Rogelberg, there are some fixed points to run an effective one-on-one meeting:
- Determine the cadence and location
- Create a meeting agenda
- Collaborate on the discussion points
- Set the tone
- Stay present and listen
- Communicate your perspective and be flexible
- End well with key takeaways and next steps
How important are 1-on-1 meetings?
One-on-one meetings are critical for building relationships, getting employee feedback, resolving issues, improving employee engagement, aligning goals, delegating assignments, and improving the company culture by fostering communication and trust in the workplace.
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