Weekly Check-in Agendas - Are They Necessary?

Weekly check-ins are necessary to establish open communication channels between team members, assess the team's pulse and connect more with employees. 

While they are essential for a team's productivity, they can be time-consuming when there’s no clear plan. Sometimes, they are unproductive and fail to provide any actionable plan moving forward. 

The solution? A weekly check-in agenda. 

An agenda clearly defines the goal of the meeting, outlining the discussion during the check-in. This allows the check-in session to follow a sequence that consumes less time.

In this article, we'll explore how to write a weekly check-in agenda, the essential items to include and its benefits. 

Let’s begin! 

What Is A Check-In Agenda?

Weekly check-in agendas are an organized list that helps you stay on track while working toward your long-term goals.

It's designed to help employees and managers stay on track with their weekly check-ins. You can keep track of their projects, communicate accomplishments and challenges and coordinate future work efforts.

A check-in agenda typically lists all the topics to address during the meeting. It also includes time allocation.

Examples of weekly check-in agenda topics include:

• Top-level priorities for the week
• Current task challenges
• Notable experiences from the prior week
• Goals for the coming week
• Deadline assistance requests

A check-in agenda is usually sent out before the meeting, letting employees know what will be discussed and plan sufficiently.

Whether it's a one-on-one meeting, a team meeting, or a check-in, an agenda is the best way to ensure the success of a session. 

Read: The ultimate guide to having a productive weekly check-in.

What Are The Benefits Of A Weekly Check-In Agenda?

The benefits of a weekly check-in meeting agenda include the following:

1. Clearly defined check-in goals

Having a meeting agenda enlightens attendees about the meeting's purpose. 

The topics bring participants up to speed on meeting expectations and what the meeting intends to achieve.

2. Well structured meetings

When participants are aware of the meeting's objective, discussions won’t go off-track. 

There's a laid-down guide to follow. A check-in agenda provides a guide avoids this that maps out the meeting direction and ensures everyone focuses on what’s most important.

3. Actionable insights

Since team members can come to check-ins prepared, they ask valuable questions and provide actionable and insightful inputs. And actionable insights allow for accountability and improvement. 

4. Efficient time management

A check-in meeting agenda not only contains a list of action items, but it also indicates the time allocation for each item. 

This ensures that all topics are discussed within a specified timeframe, allowing time for implementation and other tasks.

5. Team collaboration

In addition to all the above, agendas create room for employees to share topics or questions that they would like to address at the meeting. Through this, all team members are carried along in the planning process, the execution and everything in between.

How To Create A Weekly Check-In Agenda

 Weekly check-in agendas are a great way to stay accountable and ensure that you're getting the most out of your time from the check-ins.

But, it doesn't need to be complicated or difficult to create. Before you begin, it’s important to review the past week and Identify key areas of improvement. That way you can draw the necessary insights to define the objective of the check-in.

 Here are some tips on how to guide you in the creation process:  

• Define the meeting's purpose

A meeting's goal serves as the backbone of its agenda. Before crafting a plan, you need to agree on what the check-in session aims to achieve. The meeting’s objective determines the topics, the time allocation and the action plans.

For instance, if it is aimed at obtaining feedback on tasks for a specific project, it may not need to last as long as a brainstorming session. 

• Outline questions

You obtain valuable insights when you ask the right questions that are in line with the meeting's objective.

Check-in questions for meetings should be clear and precise. They should be structured to encourage discussions and generate as much helpful information as possible.

 If you need help curating your check-in questions, Assembly's weekly check-in template makes the process seamless. Try it today!

• Allocate time slots

Allotting time slots to topics is an important part of creating an agenda. That prevents spending too much time on a particular topics.

However, it’s not enough to have a timeframe, it's more expedient if you keep it. One helpful hack is to allocate more time to items that you estimate need more attention and are of high priority. This way, essential topics are extensively covered and sufficiently addressed and the meeting still stays on schedule.

5 Things To Include In A Weekly Check-In Agenda

To make the best of your weekly check-in agenda, certain features are essential. They include:

1. The purpose of the check-in

Meetings that have a specific objective have more successful outcomes. They are more productive and worthwhile. Make sure you include a goal when you create a check-in agenda.

2. The list of topics

Your check-in agenda should contain the meeting talking points. Think deeply and come up with a list of issues that need to be addressed at the meeting. You can formulate questions around these concerns. 

You should arrange these topics in order of priority to guide your assigning time slots.

3. Timespan

Nobody loves to attend meetings with no end in sight. If check-ins don't have a specified time duration, employees may lose interest faster. 

Always include a timeframe for each topic or talking point. When employees know there is a limited time for a particular discussion, they will participate more, allowing the team to reach resolutions quicker.

4. Substantiating documents

Weekly check-in agendas should go along with support documents. They include charts, pictures and links to particular web pages. These documents equip employees with adequate insights. 

For instance, if the purpose of the check-in is to discuss how the company performed at a recent trade fair, coming with a chart showing how each company's product fared at the fair is best.

5. Reviews and next steps

Never conclude a check-in without a review or next steps. 

A check-in agenda should contain a review section. It is important to recap all that has been discussed, suggestions made, and the resolutions reached. You should also reiterate the action plans to ensure that the next check-in is effective.

The Need for Weekly Check-In Agendas

For any action to be successful, it has to be backed up by a good plan. The absence of a plan frustrates the whole process. A plan introduces the structure and serves as a guide that dictates the entire course of action.

Weekly check-ins can't be effective if a good agenda does not guide them. Without an agenda, weekly check-ins could become an endless cycle of unproductive meetings that employees don’t look forward to.

A weekly check-in agenda is the most effective way of conducting a productive check-in. The benefits of a clearly defined meeting objective, properly outlined check-in questions, and time schedule make it an ideal antidote for unproductive check-ins.

Ensuring that your weekly check-ins are productive is Assembly's primary focus. Book a Free Demo Today.