Communicating regularly with your staff is an essential part of ongoing performance management. But your check-in is only as good as the questions you ask. They either help you gain honest insight, or they alienate employees. So you need to ask questions which are informative, relevant, and which help you build rapport with your team.
Poorly chosen or badly phrased questions can really undermine things. For example, leading questions can bias people towards certain kinds of responses. And that will stop you being able to accurately understand employee sentiment. Equally, asking the wrong questions stops people answering at all, so let’s look instead at ten employee check-in questions you should be asking:
5 check-in questions for managers to help employees reflect on progress:
- What successes have you had this week?
- What challenges have you faced this week?
- What support do you need from me?
- Who would you like to recognize for their great work and effort?
- What else would you like to talk about?
5 check-in questions to help employees think strategically
- Do you have everything you need to do a great job?
- Do you feel you’re on track with all your objectives?
- What’s been your biggest challenge this quarter?
- What do you want to achieve by our next 1:1?
- What can I help you with between now and the next time we catch up?
Bonus questions you might want to include
Why it’s important to ask the right questions
10 employee check-in questions you could ask
There are various questions you could ask during an employee check-in. How you determine which are the most important depends on the individual. So here are some weekly check-in questions to start you building better communication with your team.
5 check-in questions for managers that encourage employees to reflect on progress
1. What successes have you had this week?
Many employees complain their manager doesn’t recognize their accomplishments. So much so, 52% of employees believe their boss could be doing more to acknowledge their achievements (Reward Gateway).
By asking your employees about their successes, you encourage them to highlight the things they’re most proud of. You can also use it as an opportunity to share your own observations of things they’ve done well recently.
2. What challenges have you faced this week?
Phrasing is important when it comes to weekly check-in questions. If you were to ask, for example, where someone’s failed this week, they’ll likely go on the defensive. You’ll get justifications, rather than possible resolutions, and often a temptation to skip over how bad something really was.
Instead, frame those same issues as challenges to be overcome. You aren’t focusing on an employee’s shortcomings, but rather how they dealt with the situation. It’s a chance to reflect, learn, and prevent the same thing happening again.
3. What support do you need from me?
People’s roles often change, in small and bigger ways. To create top performers, you need an environment and culture of support. As a result, managers need to ask check-in questions that identify what that support needs to look like. For example:
- Investing in new tech so they can streamline time-consuming tasks and focus on the key aspects of their role.
- Flexible working options to allow them to provide care for children or elderly relatives
- Different workspaces which accommodate neurodivergence or give someone a quiet area where they can focus
The important thing is it needs to be relevant to your employees. And a flexible check-in question makes sure you can put the right support in place.
4. Who would you like to recognize for their great work and effort?
Recognition from a manager is good, recognition from a colleague is better. We all know managers are supposed to praise hard work, so feedback from a peer feels more genuine. And getting team members to acknowledge each other’s achievements is essential.
Teams who identify each others’ successes and strengths build stronger bonds and work together much more effectively. Asking them who they want to recognize this week gets them thinking about the positives. Over time, it changes the culture. And then one day acknowledging other people’s successes is a core part of how you all work.
5. What else would you like to talk about?
You could ask, “is there anything else you’d like to talk about?” But that’s a closed question, seeking a yes or no answer. By asking what else someone wants to discuss opens the door for anything they want to share, no matter how big or small. And it’s a vital check-in question for managers to support employee well-being.
They might be:
- Struggling with a headache due to a flickering light
- Having an off day and needing another coffee or a walk outside
- Suffering from a health issue
- Supporting an ailing parent, child or pet
- Had an argument with a colleague
Whatever the situation, simply asking your employee the question builds a stronger relationship. And once you understand the issue, you can offer the right support.
5 check-in questions managers can use to get employees thinking more strategically
6. Do you have everything you need to do a great job?
When did you last ask this of your team? It’s easy to assume great performers have everything they need and poor performers just aren’t putting enough effort in, but that’s rarely true. Often there’s something missing for both which would help, like
- Addressing a training requirement
- Giving a response on a decision to be made
- Changing a process to make it more efficient
Use a simple rating scale to understand if your people have all the resources they need and explore the details of their answer. As the manager, you need to remove blockers that get in your employees’ way. So respond to their requests and then track their answers over time to see if the rating improves.
7. Do you feel you’re on track with all your objectives?
There’s often a difference between how people feel and what their manager thinks, especially if goals aren’t as clear as they should be. You’ll see the effort your employee has put in, in spite of a tough year, unexpected challenges and some changes in the team. But they might not see it. They identify the goals and focus on what they aren’t hitting, so knowing how people feel is essential.
Happiness and confidence aren’t the same as engagement, but they are closely linked and can hugely affect someone’s mental health. Reduce the risk of turnover and provide employees with more help by using check-ins to see how they’re feeling. And discuss any disparities between how you and they see their performance.
8. What’s been your biggest challenge this quarter?
Most weekly check-in questions will deal with things occurring within the last seven days. It’s right there in the name, after all. But these check-ins also support your monthly one-to-ones and annual performance reviews, so, it’s important to reflect over the longer term every now and then.
Thinking about the biggest challenge provides valuable insight about your employee’s mindset. It shouldn’t feature every week, but is a good way to encourage self-reflection in your team and should be coupled with “what’s been your biggest success?”
9. What do you want to achieve before our next 1:1?
The main goal of a weekly check-in is to get your team to self-reflect. SMART Goals and OKRs are good progress trackers, but they’re mainly useful for dealing with the present. Finding out what people want to achieve in the next month or quarter helps you see where their focus will be.
They might be looking at immediate work goals, or have targets related to their ambitions. Perhaps they want to learn a new skill, finish a project, or join a committee which sparks their interest. In essence, this is a weekly check-in question that pays dividends over time. It encourages self-motivation, and while it might not motivate action right away, seeing it there every week will eventually get them thinking about the answer.
10. What can I help you with between now and the next time we catch up?
We’ve broached the idea of support throughout these questions, but only in general terms. As a manager, there are many ways you can support your employees that nobody else can:
- Advocate for them when they’re trying to get promoted
- Listen to their concerns and help them find solutions
- Clarify goals and expectations so they know what ‘good’ looks like
- Remove barriers which are preventing them hitting their goals
- Provide emotional support and sensitivity when things outside work are impacting them
The key is your ability to go that extra mile. That’s what separates great managers from those that are merely good. And that’s why asking your team members how you can help them is so incredibly important.
Bonus check-in questions for managers
11. How are you progressing against your quarterly goals?
Seeing the goals you’re working towards as part of an employee check-in keeps them top of mind each week. You won’t update them every week, but you should see regular movement. If they aren’t being progressed, that raises questions:
- Are they the right goals or has strategy shifted?
- Does your employee need to re-focus?
- What other factors are affecting progress?
Talking about goals as part of your check-ins allows you to take proactive action; especially to course correct if you identify any upcoming challenges.
12. What’s your proudest achievement this week?
You’ve talked about challenges and overcoming barriers, and you’ve found out what successes your employee is having. But there’s a difference between checking off what’s gone well and understanding that motivation. Encouraging your team members to talk about their proudest achievement gives you an insight into what makes them tick.
You’ll learn not just what they’re great at, but what really brings them joy. And that’s an essential piece of ensuring their engagement at work – being able to add more of what brings them joy in their role with you.
The importance of managers asking great check-in questions
Kicking off the weekly check-in process can feel daunting for managers. We get it. Talking to employees every week about what they’ve done can feel alien when you first start. But it’s amazing how quickly you get used to it, and the benefits it brings.
You not only understand your employees much more, you also build better relationships, create higher levels of trust and, ultimately, develop better and more effective ways of working.
It might feel clunky when you first make the shift. But use the questions above to guide you and, quite quickly, you’ll notice the changes in both your employees and you.
Unlock the power of continuous performance management – Download your free eBook!
Discover how to build a culture of continuous feedback and performance improvement. Learn practical strategies to track progress, foster growth, and boost employee engagement all year round! Read this guide to move away from outdated annual reviews and embrace a more dynamic approach to managing performance.
Download your free copy of “Embracing Continuous Performance Management” and take your team’s performance to the next level.
