Meetings about employee performance can be among the most stressful and challenging types of meetings for any professional. Nobody wants their co-workers to fail, but, at times, expectations are not being met and corrective action needs to be taken. There is one way to make these types of challenging meetings less stressful — having a clear and thoughtful agenda.

You can use your agenda to drive the meeting forward in a professional and clear manner. It is also a reminder to anyone in the HR meeting of what needs to be discussed. Even if you are trying to take notes during the meeting, having a clear agenda to refer back to can help keep you on track and focused.

It isn’t necessary that your meeting follow the meeting agenda templates on this page word for word, but they can serve as a solid first outline to get everyone thinking about what needs to be addressed a the meeting. Copy or download the templates as free Word docs, and then customize them to fit what you need from your own human resources department.

Regardless, with all of these topics covered, you should feel more confident when leading your next employee performance or disciplinary review.

What are types of HR meetings?

Common types of HR meetings include:

• Performance Reviews
• Disciplinary Meetings
• Employee Discipline Review
• Coaching Sessions
• Promotion Interviews
• Interview Preparation
• Interview Feedback

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Tip: Use an agenda to help guide the tone and flow of the meeting. Your agenda can also help others understand what topics you want to cover. In addition, your meeting attendees will see this printed out agenda before they come into the meeting room and it can serve as a reminder of what is going on when they sit down.

What if your HR Meeting Template Isn't Here?

You will also likely lead many other HR meetings during your tenure as a professional. Even though these may not be the main type of meeting you attend, you should still be prepared and use agendas for many of them so that they run as smoothly as possible. Remember that the agenda should help set any difficult meeting is going to run. It will also help keep everyone focused on the topics being discussed, which is another reason to use an agenda template rather than simply trying to wing it.

Tips for Performance Reviews & Disciplinary Meetings

Whether you are leading a performance review for your employees or serving as an employee who is getting a performance review, there are some key components that need to be covered. These tips can help you get the meeting done quickly and effectively in a professional manner.

-Have an agenda for the meeting so that everyone knows what topics need to be covered in the review. This should include a time frame to make sure your HR meeting is completed before it runs too long (if it even needs to run that long).

-Come prepared with your notes in hand so that you can refer to them during the meeting. Even if you have an interactive style of leading meetings, you should have some ideas of what you want to get out of the meeting printed out before it begins.

-Be professional and respectful at all times so that everyone shares their thoughts openly and honestly about employee performance without inhibitions. Keep in mind that no matter how volatile the situation is, this is about the employee’s job performance, not personal issues between two people.

-Cover all topics that are required in your company’s performance review policy.

Get Your HR Meeting Agenda Templates

Below are templates for getting the most from these difficult conversations, such as a performance review, a performance improvement plan (PIP), and, if things don’t go well after that, an exit interview. Also, for more meeting agendas of all kinds, visit our whole library which includes 80+ agenda template examples 👇