The Big Guide of 200+ One-on-One Meeting Questions [2024 Updated]

55% of highly engaged organizations said employees are expected to have one-on-ones monthly or quarterly.

One-on-one meetings are critical when it comes to performance management. It’s a great tool to give and receive constructive feedback. 

Wondering what to discuss in one-on-one meetings?

The good news?

That’s why we’ve written this guide with a bank of 200+ one-on-one questions to help you have more effective and meaningful conversations.

No matter if you’re new to one-on-one meetings or an old pro, this guide will give you the information you need to keep one-on-one meetings productive and successful.

And we’ve categorized this guide into the common topics:

• Career Growth & Development
• Feeling Valued
• Goals & Alignment
• Job Performance
• Company Culture and Feedback
• Relationships with Teams
• Work-Life Balance
• Remote
• Employee Motivation
• Employee Behaviour

Who’s this guide for: HRs, Managers, and Employees.

Let’s access the guide:

200 One-on-One Meeting Questions

Career Growth & Development

1. What are your most favorite and least favorite parts of this job?

2. What are the necessary skills needed in your job role? How are you performing on and growing these skills?

3. Which of your strengths/skills are under-utilized in your current role? 

4. . What excites you the most about your day-to-day responsibilities? 

5. What makes you proud of the work you do? 

6. How does this job align with your future career goals?

7. What do you wish you could do less/more often?

8. What other areas of the team or the company could benefit from my strengths? How?

9. Which of your skills would you like to develop further with coaching or training? 

10. Are you interested in any professional development that would go beyond your current role or take you on a different path?

11. What are you doing to improve your skills and expertise?

12. What training do we offer internally that could help you in your development? 

13. . Is there anyone in our company you’d like as a mentor? 

14. What can you start/stop/keep doing to help you reach your development goals? 

15. How was your last professional development experience? What did you learn? 

16. Where do you see yourself in two years? Five years? Ten years?

17. In the past six months, what have you done to move toward your ideal role/career?

18. What do you want your next position in this company to be?

19. What obstacles are preventing you from achieving your Career advancement goals?

20. How can we help develop your career further?

21. Are you interested in leading others? 

22. What makes you happy with your job and company?

23. What would make you stay in this job and company over the next five years?

24. When you see people leave our organization, why do you think they leave?

25. Do you feel the information is shared openly and communication is encouraged?

Feeling Valued

26. What makes you feel valued/undervalued at work? 

27. Do you feel recognized for your efforts and contributions? 

28. How are you being praised in the workplace? What praise have you received recently?

29. How do you like to be recognized?

30. Which is more important to you as a form of recognition: additional responsibilities, more time off, gifts, cash, or job title? 

31. What type of work or accomplishments do you most want to be recognized?

32. Which rewards are most exciting to you? (i.e. Hand-written thank you note, Starbucks drink, snacks, a nice gift, time-off, gift cards, a free massage, paid vacations, cash, etc.)

33. What projects or contributions have you not received recognition for that you thought you should have? 

34. How do you make your coworkers feel appreciated?

35. What are your suggestions to improve recognition in our company? 

36. How do you feel about your current compensation? (salaries/benefits/bonuses/)

37. What questions do you have about the bonuses available? 

38. Do you understand the benefits we have available? 

39. How could the organization help you better utilize our benefits? 

40. What other benefits would you be interested in us adding to our benefits package?

Recommended Resource: Employee Recognition Program: The Complete Guide

Goals and Alignment

41. What were the highlights of your past month/quarter?

42. What accomplishment are you most proud of so far this year/quarter?

43. What are your goals for the upcoming month/quarter?

44. How are you tracking your progress on your goals? 

45. What kind of support do you need to achieve your goals and objectives?

46. What obstacles are in the way of you achieving your goals this month/quarter? 

47. What work/tasks distract you from your short-term goals? 

48.  What can you start/stop/keep doing to reach your goals? 

49. What goals will be challenging for you to accomplish?

50. Do you understand how your personal goals align with team goals? 

51. How do you see your goals and team goals aligning with the company’s mission? 

52. What our organization’s mission and values are?  

53. Do you have any questions about the company’s mission or values?

54. How does your job benefit or connect to our overall company mission?  

55. Are there company values that resonate better or worse with you?

56. What ways could we improve our organization’s mission and value statements? 

Job Performance

57. How are your projects or tasks going?

58. Do you have clarity regarding your responsibilities?

59. How will you, the team, and the company benefit from this project or task? 

60. What do you want to learn from this project? What have you learned so far?

61. What is keeping you from accomplishing your work? What are the roadblocks or bottlenecks?

62. How will you ensure your projects and tasks are completed on time? 

63. How will you ensure your projects and tasks are completed on time? 

64. What other projects or tasks would you like to work on?

65. How can you contribute to other projects or tasks for which our team is responsible?

66. . How do you think you’ve done on the three key areas we discussed in your last progress check?

67. Do you have the resources and tools you need to perform your job?

68. What resources and tools help you the most? 

69. Are there tools your colleagues use that you don’t know how to use or have access to?

70. What resources and tools could help you perform your job better?

71. Do you have all the information needed to do your job effectively? 

72. What is your preferred work environment? (i.e. open common areas, cubes, enclosed office, etc.)

73. What could be improved in your work environment to help you produce high-quality work more efficiently? 

74. What activities take up the most time of your day or week? 

75. What mental thoughts or roadblocks get in the way of your success?

76. What part of your working routine keeps you the most productive?

77. What causes you to lose focus or energy? 

78. What do you do when you feel unfocused or unmotivated? What could help you bounce back quicker?

79. What changes can you make to become more productive at work?

80. How can I help you become more efficient? 

81. How are you doing? Are you feeling stressed?

82. What work/task is too demanding or causing burn out? 

83. Do you feel over-worked, under-worked, or just right? 

84. How can I help alleviate your workload? 

85. What work could be shifted off your plate? 

86. How do you think you could improve as an employee?

87. How will you keep yourself accountable for meeting goals, deadlines, and results?

88. What actions can be taken to help improve your performance in the future? 

89. Discuss current satisfaction in your current performance and areas you would like to improve.

90. What is a recent situation you wish you had handled differently? What would you have changed? 

91. What behaviors do you bring to your work and to the team that have a positive impact? 

Company Culture and Feedback

92. How do you feel about our company culture?

93. How can we improve our company culture?

94. What is your favorite thing about our company culture?

95. What is your least favorite thing about our company culture? 

96. What makes you proud to say you work here?

97. What do you most (and least) enjoy about working here?

98. If you could change one thing about our company, what would it be?

99. If you owned the company, what would you do differently

100. What do you believe our company’s social responsibility is to the community? 

101. What questions do you have about our social programs? 

102. Can you provide one suggestion to help improve one of our products or services? 

103. Are you a happy employee of the company? Why?

104. Do you feel like you can trust management?

105. Do you get timely and useful feedback about your work?

106. On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our organization to your friends and colleagues due to the culture?

107. Does your organization have a safe working environment for all the employees?

108. What other companies do you admire for their culture?

109. On a scale of 1 to 10, how engaged do you think you are?

110. Do you feel like the management team here is transparent?

111. Do you feel like coworkers give each other respect here?

Recommended Read: Why Work Culture Is Important? 5 Ways You Can Effectively Transform It

Relationships With Teams

112. Who has helped you succeed in your responsibilities? How?

113. How is teamwork encouraged in our company?

114. How can we improve our level of teamwork?

115. What kind of team building activities would you like to see in the workplace? 

116. Which of your team members do you depend on and trust the most? Why? 

117. How can you increase trust with your coworkers?

118. What do you admire in your team members? 

119. What do you expect from your coworkers? 

120. What constructive feedback have your peers given you?

121. How can you help your coworkers succeed?  

122. Who are some leaders you admire? Why?

123. What kind of support do you expect from a manager? 

124. What can I do to help you be more effective and engaged?

125. How can I improve as your manager?

126. . If you were me, what would you do differently?

127. What do you want to know about me?

128. What do you like/dislike about my management style? 

129. Who do you want to get to know better in the company?

130. Was there a recent team discussion or meeting where you did not get to share your thoughts? Share them here now.

Recommended Article: Top 21 Team-Building Activities for Remote Teams

Work-Life Balance

131. How do you feel about your work-life balance right now?

132. How could you maintain a balance between your work and personal life?

133. How can we make your work-life balance better?

134. Do any parts of your job negatively affect your personal life?

135. How does your time management affect your progress at work? 

136. How often are you able to satisfy both your job and personal responsibilities? 

137. How satisfied are you with your current work hours?

138. How often do you work overtime?

139. Have you missed a personal event because of work?

140. On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your current work-life balance?

141. How often do you work on the weekend?

142. Do you check emails after you leave the office?

143. How long is your daily commute?

144. Does your work schedule allow you to spend time with your family and friends?

145. Do you find time for your hobbies and interests?

146. Within the past months, have you thought about leaving your job?

147. How often do you think or worry about work (when you are not actually at work)?

148. Do you ever feel tired or depressed because of work?

149. Should our organization encourage the involvement of your family members in work- achievement reward functions?

150. What are your suggestions for the organization to manage employee’s work-life?

Remote One-on-One Questions

151. Do you feel like you’re able to maintain meaningful connections with your work friends while working from home?

152. Are you facing any new challenges while working remotely that you didn’t face in working in the office?

153. Do you feel like you’re clear on priorities and goals right now? If not, what questions do you have?

154. How are you feeling right now? What’s your energy level? How is your stress level?

155. Did you feel like you could take time for yourself during the workday this week?

156. Do you feel supported in being able to adjust your work schedule to accommodate caregiving needs?

157. Do you have the tools and software you need to work effectively during this period?

158. Are you experiencing any communication challenges? How would you like us to help you?

159. Are there specific projects or tasks that you feel are blocked or impacted by working remotely?

160. Are your professional development and goals blocked or impacted by working remotely?

161. What’s your favorite part about working remote?

162. What helps you feel connected to others and counteract the potential loneliness of working remotely?

163. What’s your setup like for working? Is there anything you feel you’re missing?

164. How well do you feel you know your coworkers?

165. Do you feel you could go to anyone asking them for help?

Employee Motivation

166. If you were the CEO, what’s the first thing you’d change?

167. What are you passionate about, personally or professionally?

168. Who on our team deserves a shoutout for their work and why?

169. What do you wish I did less of? More of?

170. What’s something past managers have done that’s inspired and motivated you?

171. What’s something past managers have done that’s really frustrated you?

172. What does an ideal, productive workday look like to you? Walk me through it.

173. How do you feel about the balance between your individual work vs. managing?

174. Which one best describes you during the past month?

175. On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you at work?

Employee Behaviour

176. How did you perform on your goals?

177. How do you think you could improve as an employee?

178. How will you keep yourself accountable for meeting goals, deadlines, and results?

179. How are you being efficient with your time?

180. What steps have you taken to improve your performance?

181. Discuss current satisfaction in your current performance and areas you would like to improve.

182. What behaviors do you bring to the team that have a positive impact?

183. What key behaviors do you need to improve or continue to grow?

184. How will you practice improving these behaviors?

185. Tell me about a recent situation you wish you had handled differently?

BONUS: 20 Questions to Ask Employees In Your Monthly Meetings

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this month?

2. What’s the biggest challenge you faced this month?

3. What resources and tools would help you succeed in your job?

4. What can I do to make next month more successful for you?

5. How comfortable do you feel sharing new ideas?

6. Is there anything stressing you out right now? What is it?

7. How can I improve as a manager?

8. What’s something a teammate did recently that made a positive impact?

9. What is motivating you right now? Is it different from what it was before

10. How is everything going today?

11. What’s on your mind this week?

12. What can I help you with between now and the next time we meet?

13. What are your fears about our current project?

14. What is your favorite part of your job right now? Why?

15. What can we do to improve our product (or process)?

16. Which projects or tasks are you most excited about right now?

17. Do you feel adequately challenged and engaged in your current assignments?

18. How are you managing your time, and do you feel your priorities align with organizational goals?

19. Are there any time management challenges you’re experiencing?

20. Do you have any feedback or suggestions for how leadership can better support you?

One-on-One Meeting Tips

Here are some tips to make your one-on-one meetings as effective as possible.

Keep it lightweight 

There are lots of great questions in this article. But don’t get crazy. I suggest you keep one-on-one to five-six questions or less.

Be specific

You must know exactly what feedback you want to share and be clear and specific about your feedback. It’s not easy to accept and activate feedback without a shared understanding.

Be prepared 

Prepare your agenda before the meeting. Provide some key talking points before the meeting and request that your employee does the same. Take notes and review the action items from past one-on-ones and carry forward any open questions, ideas, or actions.

Be present

Don’t come empty-handed. Both managers and employees are responsible for performance improvement. Take an active role in these conversations. Listen actively. Probe deeper with your questions. Turn your phone off.

Don’t forget to act

It’s easy to sit down, have a great conversation, end the meeting, and then get busy with your other work. It can frustrate your team members.

Make sure to finish each meeting by setting clear action items for both you and them. It will motivate them to engage in your regular discussions with them.

One-on-One Meeting Template

Wondering how to structure your meeting? A one-on-one meeting template can maintain a great flow of the conversation and cover everything you want to talk about!

Here’s the structure of a one-on-one meeting:

Informal and personal life check-in (5 minutes)

Create a friendly environment to start the conversation with informal check-in questions to show your care and empathy.

Past work recap (15 minutes)

Now it’s time to talk about the work progress, developments, achievements, bottlenecks, and challenges since the past meeting.

Feedback (10 minutes)

Share your honest feedback and be open to receiving the feedback, then discuss any other topic of interest to the employee.

Talk about the future tasks (10 minutes)

Take a few minutes to discuss future tasks and team priorities.

Wrap-up the meeting (5 minutes)

Discuss and agree on meeting takeaways and set action items.

One-on-One Meeting FAQs

We hope these questions and tips will take your one-on-one meetings to the next level.

Originally published on June 04, 2020 4:51 PM, updated Jan 10 2024