FPB Staff Rounding Program

FPB Staff Rounding

FPB HR Recommends Regular 1-on-1 Meetings between leaders and their direct reports. These meetings should be regularly scheduled and focused on gaining feedback from staff.

  • Staff rounding is simply a practice in which supervisors have a brief and regularly scheduled 1-on-1 conversation with their direct reports.
  • These meetings should be scheduled on a rolling basis at a fixed frequency (FPB HR recommends monthly meetings)
  • These meetings should be structured with a fixed agenda.
  • The focus of these meetings is for a supervisor to gather information and feedback from their staff members and to provide an opportunity for the supervisor to directly address any emerging issues or considerations.
  • Conducting these meetings is a critical element of effective leadership.

Support and Resources:

  • FPB Rounding Template: This is the recommended template that should be complete at each regular staff rounding session
  • FPB Rounding Stoplight Report: This form can be used to track progress on projects and initiatives when appropriate.
  • FPB Staff Rounding Program Guidance Presentation: This video includes a presentation describing the elements of a Staff Rounding program and how to implement a program for your department. Also available as annotated slides.
  • Please contact FPB HR at finsshr@uw.edu with any questions about implementing your rounding program or with assistance in addressing any concerns that emerge through the course of your meetings with staff.

What are the benefits of Employee Rounding?

Staff Rounding provides employees with a voice

  • Employee rounding offers a platform for employees to voice their concerns and share their challenges in a setting that feels less formal and more conducive to transparent dialogue. Employees who are given a regular opportunity to meet with their leaders on a regular basis feel more engaged in the workplace and are more willing to buy-in to department priorities.
  • Regularly scheduled meetings de-stigmatizes one-on-one meetings with leadership and creates a more open environment as opposed to meetings that are only scheduled when things go wrong.

Gains Feedback Around the Work Environment

  • Through employee rounding, leadership can take the pulse of the workplace directly. 
  • Frontline workers are the eyes and ears of our organization. By personally discussing the day-to-day issues faced by these employees, leadership gains a deeper understanding of existing concerns, paving the way for effective solutions to be implemented.
  • Armed with this firsthand knowledge, leaders are able to quickly implement targeted changes and take action to intervene before issues impact their department operations.

Builds Trust between Staff and Leadership

  • When leaders of an organization actively demonstrate their willingness to listen and seek feedback from employees – and follow up on actions taken to address their concerns – it creates an environment where employees feel empowered and comfortable expressing their thoughts and feedback.
  • By engaging in rounding, leaders create opportunities for employees to provide feedback and contribute to workplace improvements, fostering stronger working relationships between both parties. Through this collaborative approach, trust is nurtured, and employees feel valued and heard.

Promotes a Culture of Collaboration 

  • Through regular rounding, managers can identify patterns of potential issues and take appropriate action to mitigate risks and operational challenges before they escalate into significant issues.
  • These regular meetings provide an opportunity for a leader to touch-base and reinforce employee and departmental goals and objectives proactively instead of waiting for issues to emerge.

Examples of employee rounding questions

  • FPB HR provides a form with two forms including recommended rounding question (see "resources" above). The provided forms include a rounding template with recommended questions to focus the conversation and a stop light report that can be used for to touch base for staff members who have assigned projects.
  • Leaders are encouraged to review the questions on this form and tailor them to their operations but it is recommended that a few key elements are kept in mind:
    • Questions should be employee focused, the purpose of these meetings is to gain information from your staff. That is best achieved through open-ended questions that invite your staff to provide information in their own words.
    • Questions should focus towards positive outcomes and team-building. Avoid questions that lead to blame shifting or complaints about peers. 
  • Some Examples of employee rounding questions:
    • What is working well?
    • Which resources are most effective in supporting your job performance? Are there any additional resources that you believe would be more beneficial?
    • Who are the people that we should be highlighting for excellent work?
    • What processes are not working well for you? What are your ideas to fix them?
    • Do you have any suggestions for enhancing teamwork and collaboration within the department?

    • Is there anything you would like to share about your work-life balance and well-being in the organization?

      How would you describe your overall job satisfaction and engagement?

How to implement a successful employee rounding program

  • Develop a set of questions that should be asked at each rounding meeting. FPB HR recommends using the provided FPB Rounding Template and FPB Rounding Stoplight Report. You may customize these forms specific to the needs of your department, but remember that using a consistent set of questions for each session provides a baseline and allows managers to easily identify changes and emerging issues.
  • Regularly schedule 1-on-1 meetings with employees on a regular basis. This should be a routine meeting, not a meeting that is responsive to "things going wrong."
  • Avoid asking too many questions. These meetings should be short and to-the-point. This minimizes the burden of the meetings and helps to keep them focused and to-the-point.
  • Report back to the employees on any issues or concerns that are brought to your attention. Ensure that these meetings actually achieve results. Feedback is a two-way street and making it clear that you are hearing and acting on the information that you receive from your staff will ensure that these remain a useful resources for your team.
  • Document your meetings and keep organized. Each meeting should result in a completed form where the employees feedback has been recorded. Refer back to previous meetings prior to each meeting to ensure continuity. This ensures that the employee feels heard and that their feedback matters and provides a valuable resource to the leader for managing their operations and for staff performance management. FPB HR recommends keeping meeting notes in the manager desk file (OneNote notebook or SharePoint folder) for each staff member