The Best Tools to Have Effective One-on-one Meetings

Lani Le

Productivity Consultant & Writer

3 min read

Published: Dec 28, 2022

Revised on: Mar 1, 2024

As a manager looking to motivate your team and drive productivity, you know that one-on-one meetings can be the secret weapon you need to excel.

Leveraging technology to simplify and optimize your one-on-one meeting process is the smart choice. 

Of course, wading through the array of tools available to find one that suits your needs can be overwhelming. Find the right one, and your one-on-ones will be a breeze. 

This article outlines the best one-on-one meeting tools for managers and direct reports.

First, let’s examine why these tools are so important. 

Why Are One-on-One Meetings Important?

One-on-one meetings build trust, improve communication, and enhance productivity by ensuring everyone is on the same page and feels supported in their roles. Several other reasons why one-on-one meetings are important: 

• They provide a dedicated space for individuals to discuss matters that might not be suitable for a larger group setting. This allows for more personal and focused conversations about performance, goals, challenges, and career development.
• These meetings also foster stronger relationships between managers and their team members. They create an environment where employees feel heard, valued, and supported. By having regular one-on-one sessions, managers can understand their team members' strengths, weaknesses, concerns, and aspirations better, which helps in offering personalized guidance and support.
• They serve as a platform for feedback exchange. Constructive feedback, both given and received, is essential for personal and professional growth. These meetings offer an opportunity to address issues, provide guidance, recognize achievements, and align goals.

What Are the Benefits of One-on-One Meetings?

The structure and purpose of one-on-one meetings may differ for each company and manager. Still, the goal is the same, to foster open communication between a manager and team members. 

The key benefits of one-on-one meetings are: 

1. To Build Trust: Because 1-on-1 meetings allow employees to get personal with managers, they can build lasting relationships. These meetings help managers and team members get to know one another better. When employees feel trusted, they tend to be more open about their challenges, and when addressed, they become more confident and perform better. 
2. Foster Employee Development and Retention: Recent studies show that 29% of Millenials and Gen Z employees chose to stay at their place of employment amidst the Great Resignation because of the learning and development opportunities offered. Isn’t it remarkable that one-on-one meetings are the perfect time to explore team members’ career aspirations, passion projects, and professional development opportunities?
3. Improve Team Agility: With direct communication with the team lead, employees can quickly identify and address challenges, blockers, and issues. They’re also able to pivot whenever team goals become outdated. This helps them remain agile and adaptable to the company's needs. 

Are One-on-One Meeting Tools Effective?

Using a tool for one-on-one meetings is a great way to ensure that you stay organized and keep track of the meeting objectives and action items. It serves as a central location for documenting essential meeting points. 

Specifically, 1-on-1 meeting tools help you to:

• Stay Organized: Successful one-on-one meetings only happen when it is properly structured. The right meeting tools can help you stick to the agenda, review past notes, and keep track of action plans. 
• Prepare Better: Showing up for a one-on-one unprepared is a recipe for disaster. With the right 1-on-1 meeting tools, you’re sure to prepare ahead and show up well-informed and ready to slay talking points while coming up with innovative suggestions and solutions. The best one-on-one meeting tools will also allow you and your employees to prepare and collaborate on the agenda, making the meeting two-sided and even more productive.
• Save Time: Optimizing your 1-on-1 meeting process with the right tools allows you to improve efficiency and host better meetings. With the right one-on-one meeting software, the meeting is less likely to drag on. You’re able to plan better and save time.  Also, you’re able to follow the Do’s and avoid the Don’ts of one-on-one meetings. 
• Offer Feedback: Every successful manager knows the importance of giving and receiving feedback. One-on-one tools make the feedback process seamless. You also get to leverage one-on-one meeting templates and proposed questions to initiate conversations about performance and professional development.

Top One-on-One Meeting Tools for 2024

1

Assembly

Pricing

$2.80 per user/month

• Free version
• Free trial available
• Seat Minimum: 1 User

Rating 4.7 (291)

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Assembly’s customizable 1-on-1 meeting template ensures that both managers and direct reports have productive and effective 1:1s. It is easy to use and allows you to document goals, KPIs and outcomes during your one-on-one meetings. You can also draft and tweak talking points, gather feedback during the meeting and keep all your notes in one place. 

Assembly also has a tweakable 360-degree feedback template. With this and other performance and communication management workflows, you can seamlessly manage your team and motivate them for success.

Pros

1. Easy to use and intuitive interface. Many reviews mentioned Assembly is simple, easy to navigate, and user-friendly.
2. Good customer support. Reviews mentioned Assembly's support team is responsive in resolving issues.
3. Rewards redemption process is smooth. Users liked the gift card and other reward options that can be redeemed with points.
4. Integrates well with Slack and Microsoft Teams. The integration makes giving recognition quick and seamless.
5. Good for employee recognition and engagement. Reviews highlighted Assembly's peer-to-peer recognition features that help boost employee morale.

Cons

1. Limitations in analytics and reporting features. Some reviews wanted more detailed analytics and user statistics.
2. Creating flows and automations can be tricky. Reviews noted workflows and automations are sometimes hard to setup.
3. Limited customization options for recognitions. Users wanted more ways to customize recognitions with images/GIFs.
4. Lack of mobile apps earlier on. Reviews mentioned lack of mobile apps made it hard to use when not by a computer.
5. Confusion due to branding changes. Reviews noted frequent name changes of the reward units was confusing initially.

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2

Fellow

Pricing

$6.00 per user/month

• Free version
• Free trial available
• Seat Minimum: 5 Users

Rating 4.6 (1,931)

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With Fellow, managers and team members can collaborate on meeting agendas, share feedback and centralize other actions on one platform. It also has a private notes feature where you can write personal thoughts and questions. This customizable one-on-one meeting tool offers question suggestions to help guide conversation during the meeting.

Try a full demo here

Pros

1. Easy to take notes and assign action items during meetings. Many reviews mentioned how Fellow makes meetings more productive by streamlining note-taking and tracking follow-ups.
2. Integrates well with other tools like Google Calendar, Slack, Asana, etc. Reviews highlighted the convenience of Fellow's integrations with commonly used work apps.
3. Provides meeting templates and agendas. Reviews liked having templates to structure meetings and prepare in advance.
4. Keeps all meeting notes organized in one place. Reviews noted how Fellow consolidates meeting notes for easy reference.
5. Allows collaboration on notes and agendas. Reviews appreciated the ability to co-edit meeting notes and agendas.

Cons

1. Can take some time to learn all the features. Some reviews found the app overwhelming at first with many options to learn.
2. Formatting limitations when exporting notes. Reviews noted issues with retaining formatting when exporting notes to share externally.
3. No easy way to search historical notes. Reviews wanted better search and tagging for finding old notes.
4. Assigning tasks only to Fellow users. Reviews wanted the ability to assign tasks to anyone, not just Fellow users.
5. Recurring meetings can get disorganized. Reviews noted issues with recurring meetings getting duplicated or disorganized over time.

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3

Friday

Pricing

Contact sales for pricing

• Free version
• No Seat Minimum

Rating 4.70 (6,040,819)

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Big on asynchronous communication, Friday is great for drafting one-on-one meetings agendas and checklists. It lets you follow up on tasks after the meeting. It integrates with Teams, Slack, and GitHub.

Pros

1. Simple and easy to use interface
2. Good features for delivery and inventory management for restaurants
3. Loyalty program and gift card features are useful
4. Provides overview of tasks and meetings for the day
5. Good for time tracking employees

Cons

1. Lack of webinars/training for users
2. Does not support Linux deployment
3. High pricing according to some users
4. App and hardware products seem to have stopped working for some users
5. Poor customer service and lack of response from the company based on some reviews

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4

Lattice

Pricing

$11.00 per user/month

• No Seat Minimum

Rating 4.6 (4,010)

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Lattice lets you optimize your team’s performance reviews, engagement process, career development, and feedback management on one platform. The software offers several solutions and customizable templates that help managers hold effective one-on-ones and foster a people-first culture.

Pros

1. Easy to use interface and intuitive navigation. Many reviews mentioned that Lattice has a user-friendly interface that makes it simple to find features and navigate the platform.
2. Effective performance management system. Reviews highlighted that Lattice streamlines the performance review process through customizable templates, continuous feedback features, and automated workflows.
3. Robust goal setting and tracking features. Reviews noted the ability to easily set, track, and update goals at the individual, team, and company level as a major benefit.
4. Integration with other tools like Slack. Reviews praised the integrations Lattice offers to platforms like Slack to enable easier sharing and communication.
5. Useful reporting and analytics. Reviews mentioned the ability to pull reports and gain insights into performance metrics as a valuable capability.

Cons

1. Steep learning curve for some features. Some reviews noted that certain advanced functionality like setting up OKRs can have a difficult learning curve.
2. Mobile experience needs improvement. The mobile app experience was called out in reviews as an area for improvement.
3. Dashboard/homepage not intuitive. The homepage and dashboard views were mentioned as sometimes being confusing to navigate and cluttered.
4. Not enough customization in review templates. Some reviews wanted more ability to customize performance review templates.
5. Data formatting issues in reporting. Reviews pointed out occasional formatting errors when pulling reports from the platform.

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5

15Five

Pricing

$4.00 per user/month

• Free version
• Free trial available
• Seat Minimum: 1 User

Rating 4.6 (4,336)

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15Five has 1-on-1 meeting features that make it easy for managers to raise challenges and address blockers right on time. This one-on-one tool helps you align team members on goals, prioritize tasks and encourage productivity.

Pros

1. Improves communication between employees and managers through weekly check-ins. Allows for timely feedback and discussions.
2. Easy to use interface and setup. Intuitive for both employees and managers.
3. Provides visibility into team and individual goals and objectives. Allows tracking progress over time.
4. Facilitates employee recognition through features like High Fives. Boosts morale.
5. Centralizes performance management and reviews. Provides useful records and insights.

Cons

1. Can feel repetitive answering the same questions every week. Questions get stale over time.
2. Not all employees like documenting work and giving constant feedback. Can feel like micromanaging.
3. Pricing can be high for large teams. Expensive for big organizations.
4. Lack of advanced custom reporting and analytics features. More metrics would be useful.
5. Mobile app capabilities are limited compared to desktop. Missing some features.

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6

Zoom

Pricing

$14.99 per user/month

• Free version
• No Seat Minimum

Rating 4.4 (4,167,995)

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With its online chat services, this cloud-based platform works great for remote teams. It lets you bring the face-to-face element to the conversation and can be used for one-on-ones, presentations, and even daily check-ins. This software allows both parties to take notes, share screens, and even record the call.

Pros

1. Easy to use and intuitive interface - Many reviewers mentioned Zoom is very easy to use, even for those less tech-savvy. The interface is clean, simple, and intuitive.
2. High quality audio/video - Reviewers consistently praised the high-quality video and audio provided by Zoom, resulting in smooth, clear communication.
3. Useful features like screen sharing, chat, recording - Features like screen sharing, chat, breakout rooms, and the ability to record meetings make Zoom useful for collaboration and engagement.
4. Reliable performance - Reviewers said Zoom provides a reliable conferencing experience, even on slower networks. It rarely crashes or lags.
5. Widely used/cross-platform - Zoom works across devices and platforms, and its widespread use makes it easy when inviting others to meetings.

Cons

1. Privacy/security concerns - There were complaints about previous security issues like Zoombombing and privacy concerns around data handling.
2. Meeting limits in free version - The 40-minute limit on group meetings in the free version was frequently cited as a downside.
3. Video meeting fatigue - Staring at screens for hours during back-to-back Zoom meetings can be tiring and draining.
4. Technical glitches - Occasional issues with audio, connectivity problems, or other technical glitches were mentioned as frustrations.
5. Pricing concerns - Some felt the pricing for paid plans is too high, especially for smaller teams/businesses.

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7

Peoplebox

Pricing

$7.00 per user/month

• Free trial available
• No Seat Minimum

Rating 4.6 (556)

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Peoplebox features an all-in-one 1:1 meeting software that lets managers and direct reports prepare for, conduct, and manage effective meetings. It lets you automate meeting schedules. You also get access to personalized prompts that are based on your notes to help guide the conversation.

Pros

1. Helps track OKRs and goals in one place. Makes goal alignment and tracking easy across teams and organization.
2. Useful for remote teams. Features like coffee connect help improve engagement.
3. Simple and easy to use interface. Self-explanatory and intuitive.
4. Good for tracking action items from 1-on-1 meetings. Helps drive accountability.
5. Provides analytics and insights into team and organization performance. Helps identify areas to focus on.

Cons

1. Lack of flexibility and customization options for different roles and needs.
2. Integration with other tools like calendar, slack etc. could be improved.
3. Mobile app or mobile experience needs improvement.
4. Some features like goal management and progress tracking seem repetitive.
5. Data visualization and charts need more options.

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8

Hypercontext

Pricing

$5.60 per user/month

• Free version
• Free trial available
• No Seat Minimum

Rating 4.7 (118)

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This Chrome extension is a great interface for one-on-one meetings. With Soapbox, team members can collaborate on meeting agendas, track tasks, share feedback, and follow up with accountability. This software also has over 500 conversation prompts and smart suggestions that recommend topics to cover during the meeting.

Pros

1. Makes meetings more efficient, focused, and productive by allowing collaborative agendas and tracking action items.
2. Integrations with tools like Google Calendar, Slack, and Chrome make it easy to use.
3. Provides helpful prompts and templates for better 1:1s and team meetings.
4. Keeps a record of meeting notes, decisions, and next steps for reference later.
5. Simple and intuitive interface encourages team adoption and engagement.

Cons

1. Syncing issues where agenda items added don't show up right away in real time.
2. Limitations around being able to export and share meeting notes externally.
3. Not as feature rich compared to some other project management apps like Asana.
4. Questions and prompts can get repetitive after using it for awhile.
5. Some unintuitive parts of the UI make it hard to find certain functions.

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Conclusion

Whether you’re preparing for your first one-on-one meeting as a new manager or an experienced team leader, your goal is to hold structured, flexible, and engaging conversations during one-on-one meetings. When you choose the right tool that suits your team’s needs and goals, you’ll be able to host efficient and productive 1-on-1 meetings.