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Weekly check-in reports: Bridge the gap between Employees and Employers

Published
on
April 29, 2022

Are you looking for a solution to establish a clear channel of communication between management and employees? Well, communication isn't always in the form of letters, emails, or messages. Sometimes it can be done in the form of a weekly check-in report. 

Weekly check-in reports can help to bridge the gap between different departments of the company and keep the communication clear and concise. It helps to identify the goals and objectives of the employees and have a detailed discussion about it with the managers for better guidance. 

It may seem simple, but it's significant as well. Weekly check-in reports are vital enough to be conducted regularly; many companies follow the practice of conducting weekly meetings at regular intervals. 

Are you wondering what a weekly check-in report is? Don't worry; here's what we are going to explain in this blog:

  1. What are the weekly check-in reports?
  2. Importance of weekly check-in reports
  3. What should be included in weekly check-in reports? 
  4. How do we take follow-up after weekly check-in reports? 

What are the weekly check-in reports?

In layman's terms, weekly check-in reports are one-to-one communication between the employees and supervisors wherein they can discuss the goals and objectives. It is one of the many ways to do performance evaluation. 

The reason behind the high dependency of companies on weekly check-in reports is that it is a smart and ideal way of tracking the performance of the employees without making them aware or conscious of it. 

The basic process for conducting an employee performance check-in is that managers and employees typically meet for a few minutes and have a quick chat about the work that has been performed over a certain period.

Importance of Weekly check-in reports

Weekly check-in reports have great potential as they provide a clear picture to management about the growth and performance of the employees individually. Irrespective of the size of the organization, weekly check-in reports are useful for every company. It can be carried out for remote employees as well. The best way to conduct this is to have a face-to-face meeting or through check-in apps. However, it can be done via form submission as well. Here’s how it helps:

1. Employee's Performance Track Record

In a company, an employee performs numerous tasks daily. Such reports help to understand the progress and work spirit of the employee and their future goals. It also helps promote clear communication between employees and employers. 

It can give you answers to the following questions:

  • Which employee is accountable for which task?
  • What's the status of various tasks?
  • What are the plans for the next or upcoming task?
  • How much time does an employee spend after various tasks?

2. A Quick Feedback

Employers can provide quick and instant feedback to employees. During the weekly check-in meetings, employers can ask certain questions to the employee and, based on their answers, can provide feedback. 

Feedback can be in the form of work progress, tips, guidance, better work prospects, discussing hurdles, and helping employees to perform better. Overall, weekly reports are a good way to provide an overview of all activities that will be worked on during a week.

3. Save Time 

It helps to save time. By discussing future work prospects, things can be well planned ahead of time. Allotment of time and work can be done, and which employee will have how much workload can also be made clear. 

Even if employees have any hurdles, they can solve that in the meeting. It saves time as the manager does not have to connect with each employee individually for hours and hours; only a few minutes of discussion can save time! 

What should be included in Weekly check-in reports?

There are various factors based on which an employee's performance can be evaluated. But when we are explicitly taking into account weekly check-in reports, the type of questions should be selected precisely. 

Below we have listed the three best types of questions to be included in weekly check-in reports: 

1. Asked Ratings and Reviews based Questions: 

You can ask employees questions related to ratings. For instance, rate the work experience or scale your stress level. When you ask such questions, they will self-evaluate and be in a better position to comment honestly on the questions asked. 

2. Open-Ended Questions:

Open-ended questions are those wherein there are no fixed answers. It will vary from person to person. Asking open-ended questions can help to lighten the communication and help to make the discussion more fruitful. You can ask questions like what are the plans for the next week? 

3. Ask concern-oriented questions: 

This weekly report is not only about how employees will work in upcoming days but also about how management will help employees perform better. How can they help tackle the problems the employees face? 

Asking concern-oriented questions will make employees feel they are vital to the organization. Now, let's focus on what kind of questions can be a part of Weekly check-in reports! 

Here are some of the best questions that you can add to weekly check-in reports: 

  • What have been the best and worst parts of your past week?
  • How well were you able to track the past week? Any blockers that I can help you with?
  • What is the one thing that will help you to be more productive?
  • Are you satisfied with your work-life balance? Rate it on a scale of 1-10. How can we get closer to 10?
  • Rate your stress level from 0-10
  • Explain your experience of working with the company 
  • Do you think you are utilizing your time productively? 
  • Were you overburdened with tasks this week? 
  • How to take follow-ups after weekly check-in reports?

A lot of organizations miss out on this point. Companies conduct weekly check-in reports regularly, but they don't take follow-ups after such meetings. Due to this, the benefits of such reports will remain half utilized. In the reports, when the employees are asked questions, every answer they give adds some value. Especially questions that target the prevailing problems in the organization. It is necessary to take regular follow-ups for such questions. Let's understand how to take follow-ups after weekly check-ins:

Follow these five steps to take the follow-up:

  1. Go through the form or answers of every employee in detail. 
  2. List down the questions with negative answers or highlight the problems. 
  3. After meeting, check the solutions that you can do to eradicate those problems. 
  4. Implement those solutions regularly and check whether employees are happy with those solutions.
  5. Have a conversation with employees that are now facing the same problems. 

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