How to Make The Most Out of Employee Check-Ins? A Simple Guide

Given the current scenario of working from home or remote working – it is important that employers create a culture of frequent employee check-ins. Be it your remote employees or in-house staff – regular check-ins act as a powerful tool that aligns employee goals with business objectives while preventing them from stagnating in the workplace.

In this article, we will explore the below topics to make the most out of employee check-ins.

1. What is employee check-in?
2. What are the benefits of employee check-in?
3. Best practices for conducting employee check-ins

What are employee check-ins?

As the name implies, employee check-ins or employee productivity (performance) check-ins are a two way interaction between employees and their direct reports. During check-ins employees and managers meet (or connect over a call) and have a quick chat on the tasks they’ve completed for the previous week or month.

It helps managers understand the short-term, long-term goals and evaluate employee productivity and performance for a set period of time. On the other hand employees use this opportunity to raise questions, clarify doubts or solve common workplace or productivity challenges they face from time to time. Depending on the type of the project, employee check-ins are conducted once every week or month – so, managers can identify and resolve employee productivity issues as and when they arise.

What are the benefits of employee check-in?

As a whole, employee check-ins (remote employee check-ins) brings a wealth of benefits for businesses – in that it;

• Motivates employees
• Increases employee engagement
• Improves employee – manager relationship
• Gives real-time insight on individual employee productivity and performance
• Eliminates assumption and miscommunication
• Reduces pressure on employees
• Helps detect workplace challenges in the initial stages

Best practices for conducting employee check-ins:

Although employee check-in meetings appear relatively casual, there are few areas managers should focus on - in order to ensure the time spent is valuable.

Have a clear meeting agenda: There is nothing worse than going into a meeting without proper preparation. To make the efforts and time spent worthwhile, understand the scenario and prepare a checklist of conversation starters or discussion points beforehand.

You can review past meeting notes to see if they were achieved or running off course. Additionally, you can also check employee productivity reports to evaluate performance and discuss changes that have to be implemented (if any).

Focus on employee engagement: To get your employees talking, you can start with some open-ended questions or meaningful conversation starters related to your discussion checklist. This will give them the time they need to cope up with meeting anxiety, so they don’t look lost or disengaged.

Although you are a go-to player in the meeting, let your employees steer the conversation, so they’ll come up with answers or clarifications which you might not be aware of. By this way, you will create an atmosphere that keeps your employees engaged and invested throughout the entire session.

Communicate your goals and meeting objective: Communicate your points clearly and make sure that your employees understand what is expected of them (in terms of employee productivity). Be clear and specific about your short term/long term goals, key results and deliverables - so your employees don’t feel indifferent about the goals or objectives discussed during the check-in meet.

Maintain confidentiality: Give your employees the sense of security they need to freely open up to you during one-on-one sessions. Let them know that all information shared during the check-ins will be kept confidential and not viewed as criticism. Use the private setting of employee check-in meetings, give relevant feedback and address employee concerns on time to build a supportive company culture.

Schedule periodical meetings: Employee check-in meetings must take place on a set schedule (at least once in a month) because consistency is crucial to boost employee productivity and to maintain the right company culture. You can schedule periodical meetings to discover if employee productivity has improved when compared to the previous month and if their concerns are resolved on time.

Use data and reports to verify performance: It is always easier to have employee productivity reports and data handy to verify performance – without which the check-in process may seem incomplete. Instead of following the gut feeling, having accurate data and reports gives insight on your employee performance level, so you can raise questions or provide feedback based on the data shown on the productivity reports.

Build your employee check-in meetings towards performance improvement:

Employee check-in meetings are important to improve employee-manager relationships, align team around a shared goal and build high-performing teams.

If done well and on a regular basis, these meetings have the potential to resolve challenges faced by employees, especially in today’s workplace. As discussed previously, check-in meetings backed by accurate data helps managers set new goals and build contemporary strategies to improve employee productivity in the workplace.

Handdy helps you monitor your employee productivity and gives key information of your employee activity - consolidated in one place. Check different types of Handdy employee productivity reports and how you can utilize them during performance review at your organization.