Are you providing the training that your employees need to grow?

There are a lot of employers out there that only offer their employees the bare minimum when it comes to training. A lot of organizations think that all employees need are inductions and basic training when they’re new so they can be introduced to their new role.

But, this is the wrong thing to do. Providing training for your employees shouldn’t stop after the hiring process or initial training period. It’s important to provide your employees with continuous training throughout their career to make sure they can grow alongside your company.

It doesn’t matter what age you are, learning never stops. Learning is a lifelong journey and this means that people want to pursue knowledge throughout their careers.

In particular, the younger generations are looking for more than just a good salary when they’re searching for a job – they are looking for a career that will help them develop their skills and help them in their pursuit for knowledge and experience.

In addition, they want their employer to offer resources and training that makes them feel valued.

Employers have a lot of responsibilities and one of the most important ones is offering the training that employees need to evolve their skills and further their abilities in the field.

This means that as the boss, you should be supporting your employees in every way you can and being with them every step of the way.

So, what are the benefits of providing training throughout the employee’s career? Well, training is going to provide your employees with the support they need to build new skills and the knowledge they need to do a good job.

By having introductory training, employees can get used to what they’ll be doing in their role so they can perform their duties correctly. In addition, providing training throughout their career is going to make sure they have the skills to keep performing their job to the best of their ability.

In turn, this makes employees more engaged with their job and increases productivity in the office. In addition, when you provide employees with training, they can feel confident in their role and make them feel valued.

This all leads to success for your company and a happy employee is a productive employee! What’s more, when you have happy and skilled employees, you can retain them for longer.

With all the support and progression that they need, employees will want to stay with your organization for years to come. This means you won’t have to fork out the money for finding new employees and you can enjoy having more skilled and experienced employees in your workplace.

Of course, this raises the next question – what are the stages of your employee’s career that require training? To answer this question, you’ve got to start from the very beginning.

This means that the first stage of your employee’s career where you should provide training is during the on-boarding process. This is going to help new employees learn about your organization and what’s expected of them in the workplace.

Training will help them acquire the skills and knowledge they’ll need to succeed in their new job and contribute to the organization.

Of course, it’s important to remember that the on-boarding process is the first real experience that an employee will have with your company, so make it count. If you provide great training, employees are more likely to stay with your organization for longer.

This is the stage that most employers stop providing training. But, there’s still a continuing need to provide training throughout their career.

You should develop a learning and development program that will make sure that employees keep learning new skills and keep up-to-date with all the information they need in their role.

In addition, you can create a lifecycle of learning by making sure there is performance management and ongoing courses. You can provide assessments and continuous training opportunities, as well as support employees.

Using E-Learning Courses for Employee Training


Through every stage of your employee’s career, you can make sure they receive the resources and support they need through online e-learning courses.

E-learning courses are the best way to provide training to your employee. There’s hundreds you can choose from and ones that are great for on-boarding, as well as continuous training.

From how to listen to your customers to anti money laundering compliance courses, there’s something everyone can learn from.

Of course, e-learning courses aren’t just great for learning, but they’re also accessible anywhere and at any time. You can leave your employees to their own devices – literally!

You can use courses on your tablet or mobile device and when you’re on the go, as well as in the office. Through allowing employees the freedom to learn and work on their skills when they want to, you can boost engagement and make learning fun.

What’s more, you can set up assessments and tests for your employees to complete. Whether this is for the on-boarding process or continuous training, you can see how well employees are performing and provide them with the support they need.

There’s special monitoring settings you can use to view the completion of e-learning courses too so you can monitor everyone’s progress and set new tasks.

So, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to get your training program in gear and let your employees grow and progress with your organization. It’s never been easier than with online e-learning courses!


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The importance of training in each stage of your employee’s career

Want to get better results from your team? Noticing your employees are a bit flat, lacking in energy or motivation? Help them to improve their productivity by investing in staff training.

Being a good manager or team leader is about knowing how to get the best out of each individual team member and helping them to work to their full potential. Everyone’s different – with unique challenges and approaches to being productive.

By taking the time to work with your employees on professional development, you can help them to take control and take charge of their productivity levels.

Talking About Productivity with Your Staff

As a team, you need each person to hit their individual targets, to allow the broader organisation to reach its business goals. Strong, consistent productivity is essential.

But keeping staff motivated and productive is often easier said than done. The subject needs to be approached carefully, without making employees feel like they’re being ‘performance managed’ or continually chastised.

It’s best to have discussions about productivity regularly, as part of each employee’s professional development program. This way, it’s an ongoing and positive conversation – not a nasty surprise that makes people feel that they’ve dropped the ball. After all, you want to improve productivity and morale, not lower it.

Investing in Professional Development and Training

Professional development and training programs are key to improving productivity within your team and allow you to have these conversations in an open and encouraging environment.

This is why it's so important to have regular one-on-one professional development sessions with staff. In these sessions, you can work with each team member to establish clear goals that you want them to achieve within a certain time frame. This could be hitting a sales target or deadline, landing a particular client or gig, securing a set number of new customers… anything that will help to motivate and boost their performance.

Identify training solutions and learning pathways that will assist them in hitting these goals. Show staff that you are ready to invest in their professional development, through training courses, workshops and seminars – whether online or face-to-face, or a combination of both.

In doing this, you’ll be providing individuals with plenty of opportunities to constantly refresh their skills and acquire new ones, while creating a positive culture of learning in your organisation.

According to Steadfast, training can increase workplace productivity by more than 8%. Investing in training your existing staff, rather than spending money on new hires, is a smart move. But more importantly, in doing so you’ll be investing in the culture of your company. When people feel valued for their skills and abilities, they’re far more likely to work in a productive and effective way.

“Training has benefits for your employees as well as your business. It builds staff confidence and motivation. It also provides employees with opportunities for advancement and a reason to stay with your company.”

Helping Individuals to Improve their Productivity

You might also like to take a look at our top tips to improve productivity. You’ll find plenty of helpful advice on managing emails, working with your To Do list, handling distractions, and using productivity apps and tools.

We believe one of the best tips you can share with your team is the practice of only touching things once. This one can be a real life changer – at home, as well as at work. By committing to handling things once, and once only, you’ll be able to focus on dealing with things as they arise, particularly little things that only take a moment but can easily be forgotten. Or start adding up when you put them all together!

Taking the time to do things in the moment will actually save you time in the long run, as well as a lot of potential stress. You can start practicing this way of thinking by paying bills as they arrive, replying to emails when you read them or simply putting something back in its place straight away. Doing this means it’ll be done, dusted and out of your head – allowing you to focus on new tasks at hand. 

By showing staff that you’re committed to their professional development and training, you can expect to see much more positive results. And in time, greater productivity levels, making it a win-win solution for your employees, as well as your business.

Looking for online training courses for your team?


Are you an inspirational leader to your team?

We can all benefit from having a leader in our lives, whether it’s in our career or personal life. But, it’s particularly important in a working environment to be more than just a leader – you’ve got to be an inspirational leader.

This way you can push your colleague to reach their full potential, motivate them to follow your plan and make sure everyone is as productive as they can be.

Some people are naturally charismatic, brave and inspiring and these traits make them great leaders. People like Martin Luther King and Richard Branson are famous for being inspirational leaders and despite what you think, you’ve got the potential to do this too!

To start with, you’ve got to have the belief that you can be an inspirational leader. Otherwise, why would anyone else?

Don’t worry, you don’t need years and years of experience either. You can save a lot of time with the help of an inspirational leadership training course.

By listening to advice and information from some of the best research studies and leaders in the world, you can take your career to the next level.

When we talk about style what we refer to is the behaviors you use when you’re directing and motivating people. This topic explains Kurt Lewin’s research in finding out different styles of leadership.

This study involved children being put into three groups – authoritarian, democratic and laissez-fair. Their behavior was observed to see how they reacted to different styles of leadership.

With an authoritarian leader, there was less creativity and they were viewed as bossy and dictatorial. Democratic leadership was found to be most effective, where guidance is offered, but they also participate in the group and allow input from everyone.

The laissez-fair group was the least productive and there was little cooperation, lack of progress.

There’s also charismatic leadership, which you can use to inspire and motivate others. Research shows that some of the greatest leaders did this through vision, positivity and personality.

Our mood and energy have the capability to affect others around us. The video explains social contagion theory, which is when human behavior involves mimicking others facial expressions and moods.

If you want to be an inspirational leader, you’ve got to make sure you have positive feelings. The video explains four things you can do if you’re feeling down.

First, label it and name what you’re experiencing to allow it to disappear quicker. Second, take a deep breath to calm down. three, get active and go out for a walk to reduce stress. Fourth, use embodiment to try and trick yourself into feeling better.

Of course, to be a good leader, you’ve also got know how to improve others around you with positive interactions. Show you value and respect employees. In addition, organize team building activities to create a positive working environment.

People respond to stories and understand concepts better in this format. Stories are proven to be more memorable. This section examines Neil Flemming’s VARK model and the three types of learning – visual, auditory and kinetic learners.

You’ll see some of the top companies use storytelling to influence the public and you can use them to inspire people. The content explains Stephen Denning’s theory of a storytelling catalog to make sure it’s the perfect story for the right situation.


Why is an Inspirational Leadership Course Important?

When you’ve got an inspirational leader in charge of other employees, everyone works better and achieves more success.

An inspirational leader will have the support and trust of other employees around them and this allows your company to achieve common goals together.

Our inspirational leadership course can benefit anyone who has influence over other colleagues in their role. It’s not just necessary for managers and supervisors.

If you’re an experienced employee who others look up to, this course will allow you to guide them and push them to reach their full potential. In addition, it’ll make sure everyone works together harmoniously in the office.

With the help of a training course, everyone has the potential to become an inspirational leader. So, why not give your employees the opportunity to become an inspirational leader today?

Inspirational leadership: an online course

Does your organization have equal opportunity training?

Everyone deserves to work in a place where they’re valued and where they’ve got freedom from prejudice, discrimination and also have the opportunity to do their job without interference.

Unfortunately, while we often take this equal opportunity for granted in our daily lives, this isn’t always the case in some businesses.

The worst part is that a lot of people don’t realize or aren’t aware that their actions are discriminative and that they’re denying someone the same opportunities as their fellow colleagues.

In this way, discrimination and harassment aren’t always overt and obvious – sometimes it can be underlying and unknown.

Of course, in today’s business world, all employers have the duty to make sure there is no discrimination and harassment in the workplace for their employees. After all, it’s the law.

While you can comply with your duties through creating equal opportunity practices and policies in the workplace, you’re also responsible for other people’s actions. This includes the behavior of managers and supervisors towards their team, as well as colleague to colleague interactions.

You must be thinking, how can you do this? How can you possibly control the actions of others in the workplace? Well, the best way to do this is by providing everyone with education and online e-learning courses where you can get your message across.

This way everyone knows what is expected of them and how they can make sure that equal opportunity is granted to everyone in the office.

So, let’s have a look at how you can get started today:

With equal opportunity training from Go1 Premium, you can make sure that you meet all of your compliance needs and kick out discrimination and harassment from your workplace for good.

Our training is relevant to all workplaces and for all organizations. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in or what your company does, this content will make sure employees know their rights and responsibilities in the office.

This online training will bring discrimination and harassment issues to the forefront and let everyone understand what is expected of them in the workplace. Nothing’s left uncovered.

The aim of our equality opportunity training is just what it sounds like – it promotes the fairness and equal treatment of employees and lets everyone know how they can enjoy a healthy working environment that’s free from prejudice, bias and discrimination.

You’ll find that your business thrives and has great successes when there are people from all walks of life in your workplace – this training with Go1 Premium will steer everyone on the right path.

All of our training courses are kept up-to-date and are developed by compliance training experts so you are delivering the best content to your employees. It can be used for starter training or as part of ongoing learning throughout the year.

The course can be added to your current LMS or you even have the opportunity to create your own Go1 portal for your staff. Either way, everything is made easy and accessible for the best training. Plus, the content is engaging and fun for everyone!

What’s more, our equal opportunity training can be accessed from anywhere – whether you are on the bus, in the office or traveling, you can learn on the go from any mobile or tablet device. It’s never been easier to learn and grow than with Go1 Premium.

As an employer, you can enjoy sophisticated reporting tools that lets you keep track of your employees and learning. To make sure everyone is completing their equal opportunity training, there is tracking tools so you can see exactly who has done what.

This means you can make sure you are fulling your employer duties and ensure that your employees are aware of their rights and responsibilities in the workplace.

The Benefits of Equal Opportunity Training

Of course, with equal opportunity training, you can help to prevent unnecessary discrimination and harassment in the workplace. By explaining employee rights and responsibilities, everyone can be aware of what is expected of them in the workplace.

Not only can this protect your employees from discrimination and harassment, but it can also reduce the risk of your organization coming up against legal action that can cost you a lot of money and open you up to bad publicity.

Equal opportunity training will also create a positive and inclusive office where everyone can feel like they’re valued. What’s more, this creates a workplace where people want to work. This means you can attract the best talent to your organization and keep the best employees for the job.

The culture of an organization is growing increasingly important, especially for millennials. If you can promote an open, inclusive and welcoming culture in your office, you can appeal to professionals that will make your company better.

In addition, when everyone treats others with respect and is inclusive towards everyone, more positive working relationships can form. As they say, teamwork makes the dream work and when there is equal opportunity there is more creativity and productivity.

Everyone can work in a good environment and focus on their duties and perform better at their job.

So, if you don’t have equal opportunity training in place in your organization, now is the time to make your move. Do you really want to pass up on all these amazing benefits?

With equal opportunity training, everyone wins!

When you were younger, did you have a favorite teacher?

In almost everyone’s case, the answer to this question is yes. There’s always at least one teacher you look up to in your childhood and that you would listen to and most importantly, learn from.

The reason for this is because teachers make the best leaders. They know what it takes to inspire and motivate others to do well and they’ve got the resources to put their plan into action.

Of course, teachers don’t just work in schools and colleges. They don’t always stand in front of a class and talk about subjects. As we get older, we realize that teachers at everywhere in life and primarily, you’ll find that your manager or supervisor can be one too.

When you’re a manager or supervisor, you have a lot of responsibilities in the workplace. From writing reports and attending important meetings, to looking after your employees. You’ve got to lead your team to success. But, how can you do this?

It’s worth repeating that teaching doesn’t have to be in a formal classroom setting. In fact, there’s plenty of new ways you can teach and lead your employees in the workplace without holding a meeting or group training session.

Studies have shown that one-on-one tutoring with employees is a great way to teach them new skills and lead them in the right direction.

To do this, you can enlist the help of technology to lead your employees and inspire them to learn and improve their skills in the workplace.

So, what’s this technology we are talking about? Well, one of the best ways to teach your employees is through online e-learning courses. This is a new approach to training that can revolutionize how your employees learn and how you can lead your team as a manager or supervisor.

Now, when we talk about online e-learning courses there are the obvious advantages. First, these courses are cost-effective – it takes fewer resources to teach everyone and you’re cutting out the cost of travel, materials and general expenses.

In addition, you also save valuable time when you use e-learning online courses. After all, it’s not always feasible to meet with every employee every week in the office. Sometimes, there just isn’t enough time in business.

But, there’s also lots of other benefits in using online e-learning courses that help to teach and lead your employees. So, let’s have a look in more detail.

 To be a good teacher and leader to your employees, you’ve got to cover a lot of topics. That’s the great thing about online e-learning courses – there’s hundreds to choose from!

Whether you want to inspire your employees to be better at customer service or motivate them to advance their career, you can use e-learning courses to further your vision.

You can take control of employee training and choose courses for them to learn and guide them to become better employees for your company. This will allow everyone to grow together.

Of course, as we said at the beginning, employees do benefit from one-on-one interaction. You may think this element of teaching is lost through e-learning courses, but it’s not.

In fact, through your LMS, you can keep up to date with who is taking part in what course and how well they’re performing. There’s no avenue left hidden and you can still teach and lead your team effectively.

So, not only can you choose the courses you want your employees to learn from, but you can also talk to them about their performance afterwards. You’ll be able to track their scores in tests and monitor the effectiveness of your training easily.

Employees can work through the content at their own pace and lots of the e-learning courses give them certificates of completion, which will boost their confidence and let you see who is working hard.

The great thing about e-learning courses is that they go further than just training in the workplace – you can now teach your employees at home too!

E-learning courses can be accessed from anywhere on your mobile device, whether you are at home, on the bus or at the park. This means you can always provide direction and motivate your employees even when they aren’t in the workplace.

Learning is a lifelong process and everyone has the ability to become a teacher, including you. Managers and supervisors soon become the next big influence in somebody’s life after school and college and this is what makes them great leaders.

You can inspire your employees through online e-learning courses. You’ll provide them with an effective learning option that will teach them new skills that you see as valuable, as well as ways to improve their everyday life.

As a manager and supervisor, it’s important to recognize the responsibilities that you have for your employees, as well as the amount of influence that you’ve got over them. People look up to you, so it’s crucial that you motivate them in a positive way.

Online e-learning courses are the way to do that.

You can choose the courses that will help your employees improve, monitor their progress and let them learn on the go from anywhere in the world.

This option in teaching lets everyone win and you can lead your team to success through online teaching!

What is the best way to remember a person’s name? Many people suggest that when you are introduced to a new person, you should say that person’s name right away. It will help you remember the person’s name. Use it or lose it.

The Forgetting Curve explains why we lose the information if we don’t use it. Herman Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, developed the Forgetting Curve in the late 19th century. The graph shows that we lose approximately 90% of new information within a week. The biggest loss of learning happens in the first day. The Forgetting Curve looks something like this:

The Forgetting Curve applies to training too. When training is delivered and then not used right away, learners forget the training.

The good news is that the brain is built to retain information when it is used. Just like using a person’s name will help you remember the person’s name, if you use the training information right away – within hours of learning it, your brain will remember it.

However, many vendors in the L&D space will say the answer to the Forgetting Curve is Learning Reinforcement rather than Learning Application. Don’t buy into Learning Reinforcement as it is a Band Aid rather than a solution. So, what is Learning Reinforcement? Learning Reinforcement involves sending additional information to the learner at stated intervals after the learning event. Vendors will suggest the intervals start within 24 hours of the learning event and then again 1 week later and again 4 weeks later.

The primary assumption built into learning reinforcement is that learners are not leaving learning events ready to apply the training on the job/use the training on the job. There may be several reasons for this:

A leader did not set the expectation that the learners apply the training on the job

There wasn’t any clear direction on “what” the learner is expected to apply on the job

The learning event did not make it easy to apply the training

How about if we look at learning events differently? How about if we focus learning events on “on the job application and on the job development”. This is Learning Application. Learning Application focuses on applying the learning directly following the learning event. To do this, we need to set the stage and expectation with learners that after they complete the learning event that they apply the course on the job.  How about if we make it easy for learners to walk out of the conference room or close their laptop and have something that is easy to do on the job – an exercise to help them apply the course on the job? This is Learning Application and good Learning Application includes:

Early on in the learning event set the expectation that the learner will apply the learning on the job.

Provide the learner with an exercise containing detailed step by step instructions on how to apply the course on the job.

Build in Job Aids to help the learner easily complete the exercise.

At the end of the exercise, ask the learner to reflect and think about “the next time I am going to do this the same because that turned out awesome. And the next time, I am going to do this differently so that I have a better result.”

What could be better than providing learners with more information to reinforce learning than an exercise to help the learner apply the course on the job, engraining new behavior?

If you provide your learners with an on-the-job exercise, you are asking your learners to Use It - Don’t Lose It!

Cindy Pascale is the CEO and co-founder of Vado and has 16+ years of HR, Training & Development and OD leadership experience and 12 years running training, talent management, and assessment companies.  Vado is an award winning off the shelf e-learning courseware provider ‘changing the face of learning’ by providing an on the job exercise in every course. www.vadoinc.net. Check out Vado’s courses on the Go1 platform.

According to current statistics, hundreds of thousands graduates in Malaysia are jobless, and it’s due to elements which fail them in the interview stage.

Are these fresh Malaysian graduates actually incompetent? The answer is no, but how can you ensure that you are properly prepared to head into the workforce after graduating. We take a closer look at how we can start to diminish all the negative perception towards our future colleagues and leaders.

As we are all aware, coming into the world of employment is a dramatic change of pace compared to the lives graduates completing their studies. This is a world where they need to prove themselves even before being hired.

Imagine scrolling through job-posts and finding that everyone listing states that “2 years’ experience is required”.

The average person will send in an application hoping to be called for the interview and plan to portray a so-called fast learner with an energetic and brilliant personality, and although they may possess the quality required, they still fail the interview.

This is primarily due to the applicant’s inability to express these qualities during the interview process. Employers describe them as not having the required critical thinking ability, no ability to take the initiative, lacking in communication skills, and so on.

However, these factors are not a true representation of the applicants. Fresh graduates are just not being prepped well enough to handle the interview process. They need some tips and guidance to have the ability to conveying their capabilities.

So, how do they do this? That’s where Go1 comes in!

It’s important to look at solving this predicament from both the perspective of the applicant and the employer.

APPLICANT: Stop going into interviews unprepared! Acquire the skills, knowledge and information needed to have the power in conveying your abilities. It’s time for a CHANGE!

When you don’t have any work experience it’s is hard to answer any questions that will relate to the position you are applying for. Instead, focus on your assets that will be used to within the position that will show your employer you will be a good fit for the role. Your assets must be at the same par as the other experienced applicants.

For example, although a student has multiple times used Microsoft Office in doing their assignments, it is NOTHING compared to the usage of working environments. So, explaining to the interviewer that you are at an intermediate level (and pursuing expert level) due to the online courses which you have taken would surely help a lot.

Also, fluently expressing your knowledge in Cyber Security Basics, Accounting Equation or anything related to the job being applied is always the way for winning an interview.

Trust me when I say that those examples above are something that have not been seen through my experience. Yet, is EASILY achievable..

EMPLOYER: Start digging for talent in the interview sessions. Be creative! Look outside the immediate role and consider how the applicant will fit into the wider organization.

In Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, Tom says “my problem with recruiting was not the actual function of recruiting, IT WAS THE LACK OF CREATIVITY AND ADVENTURE in my work that had been killing me softly….”.

Acquiring more knowledge is a good start to being creative and adventurous. Find ways on picking up talent that will benefit the company. A skilled interviewer must always be selective about hiring. An experienced candidate is not always good for the organization.

It is the people we choose that creates the culture in the organization. Creating the right culture through the right people will benefit organizations in the long run. Keep the organization relevant & competitive by choosing the right people for success and move towards a better future.

Both graduates and employers are holding on to a tradition that has resulted in the current statistic of jobless future leaders.

Online learning is the best acquirable mode of knowledge that is best suited to implement these changes. A valuable and inexpensive resource to consider is a platform which enable a user to find, filter and even share the content accordingly to their needs. Go1 Premium is the answer!

Everything you need from professional development, leadership, Human Resource, IT, sales skill and communications is available and they are all created by experts.

It is cost-effective, certificates issued, 24-hour support, and the freedom to choose in the spirit of betterment. Get started with Go1 Premium today. You are one step towards a better future reality!

Top challenges facing Malaysian graduates entering the workforce

Your one-on-one meeting with your boss is your most important work meeting. There are many reasons for this, but, crucially, your relationship with your boss has a significant influence on your happiness, engagement, and success at work. However, has your boss has been trained in how to have effective one on one meetings? For that matter, have you? 

One-on-one meetings are one of those vital life skills that they just don’t teach in school.  While it might seem like an intuitive skill, many underlying tricks and nuances can help you get the most out of your one-on-one meetings. As such, we’ll explain why one-on-one meetings are so important, before analysing the skills you need to make your one-on-one meetings count. 

Why are one-on-one meetings so important?

Hypercontext’s recent State of One-on-ones Report provides crucial insights into why one-on-one meetings are so important. After surveying more than 200 managers across 30 industries with 985 direct reports, they found that 94% of managers have regular one-on-one meetings, with 48.5% holding these meetings weekly. 

The most common purpose of one-on-one meetings is to understand and eliminate roadblocks (70.4%), followed by a pulse check on how employees are feeling (60.7%), and status updates for specific projects (53.6%).

Further, those surveyed identified the following common topics that are discussed regularly in one-on-one meetings: 

Additionally, most managers agree that devising a one-on-one meeting agenda should be a shared responsibility. 49% of managers say that both the manager and the employee should contribute to the one-on-one meeting agenda, while 15% say that they own the meeting agenda but wish their employees would. 

Finally, the top three challenges that managers face during one-on-one meetings are: ensuring they’re providing value to direct reports (34%), getting direct reports to contribute to the agenda (22%), and having meaningful, productive conversations (​​17%).

These statistics send two clear messages. Firstly, one-on-one meetings are vital for everything from growth and development to performance and motivation, underscoring why they are your most important meeting. Secondly, many managers wish that employees would take more control of driving one-on-one meetings. 

Below, we’ll explore how employees can do exactly that. 

How to make your one-on-one meetings count

You can’t always leave it up to your boss to tell you what you need to know. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with your boss. It’s simply that they may be busy, distracted or — worst case — hasn’t received the proper training to manage employees. 

Instead, take matters into your own hands by asking these essential questions in your next one-on-one meeting.

PS: This article includes content from the online course “One on One Meetings with your Boss.” Find out more here, or, access our course on How to manage your employees in 30 minutes a week.

One of the most important steps to optimising your one-on-one meeting is checking in with your expectations. To get started, you might want to ask yourself some of the following questions:

What am I doing that is working and why? Do you want more of this and how?

What am I doing that needs to change? Why and how?

What am I doing that I should stop doing?

What do I want to get out of this meeting? How? 

2.  Growth, personal development, and career progression

Some bosses are great at developing their employees, while others, unfortunately, don't have a clue. Here are a few questions to ask your boss that will help you create a better future:

What future roles do you see as suitable for my skill-set and career progression?

What skills should I develop to do my job better?

What skills should I develop to support my career progression?

What responsibilities can I take over as part of career development or building my network/experience?

Can you please give me X responsibility (because I think I can do a good job at it or it will develop my experience/network)? Some bosses prefer their employees to be proactive. If you want responsibilities, ask for them.

Can you please support me in learning about X? (via coaching or sponsoring training - see 9 Ways to Get Your Company to Pay for Your Training. If you want training, ask for it specifically and justify why it supports your boss' goals.)

What do you think my blind spots are that are holding me back?

What do you think are my strengths that I should focus on?

We’ll explain why one-on-one meetings are so important, before analysing the skills you need to make your one-on-one meetings count. 

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