Check-ins
Check-ins are regular 1:1 meetings between a manager and each of their direct reports. Each check-in has a shared agenda, shared notes, actions both people agree, and a private note for each of them. HR sets the defaults and follows who is meeting and who is overdue.
Who can set check-in defaults and read any pair's shared check-ins: Owner, HR admin.
Managers and employees run their own check-ins. See Check-ins for managers and Check-ins and kudos for employees.
How check-ins work
Section titled “How check-ins work”- Check-ins follow the reporting line. A pair is a manager and one current direct report.
- Either side proposes a schedule; the manager confirms it. A schedule meets weekly, every two weeks or monthly, from a first date. A manager’s own proposal is confirmed as they make it.
- Each time a check-in is held or skipped, the next one is planned. Either person can also add a one-off check-in.
- A check-in copies its prompts from an agenda template. Both people add talking points. Unfinished points carry into the pair’s next check-in, and actions stay on every later check-in until they are done.
- Kudos and check-ins never count in a score.
When a report moves to a new manager, the old pair’s schedule ends and its upcoming check-ins are cancelled. The same schedule is proposed with the new manager, who confirms it. The previous manager can still read the check-ins they held with the report, but nothing after.
Set the defaults
Section titled “Set the defaults”-
Open Check-ins from the Work menu and choose the Settings tab.
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Choose how often A new schedule meets: Weekly, Every two weeks or Monthly.
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Choose the Default agenda template.
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Click Save.
Agenda templates
Section titled “Agenda templates”An agenda template is a list of prompts, such as Wins, Blockers, Goals, Support needed and Wellbeing.
- Click Add the starter templates to add three editable starters: a regular 1:1, a career conversation and a new-joiner check-in.
- Click New template, give it a Name, write the Prompts, one per line (at most 12), and click Save template.
A check-in copies its template’s prompts when it is made, so editing or archiving a template never changes a check-in already planned or held.
The team view
Section titled “The team view”The Team tab shows who meets whom, and who is overdue a check-in. As HR you see every pair in the organisation; a line manager sees their own reports.
The summary counts the Pairs, those Overdue a check-in, those with No schedule, and Schedules to confirm. Each row shows the employee, their manager, the schedule, when they last met, the next check-in, open and overdue actions, and a status. Overdue pairs sort first.
A pair is overdue a check-in when the last planned check-in passed without being held or skipped, or when nobody has met for longer than the schedule allows.
What HR can read
Section titled “What HR can read”As HR you can open any check-in from the Team tab and read its shared content: the agenda, the shared notes, the actions and the goals panel. You read it; you cannot change it. Only the manager and their report change a check-in.
Nobody else reads a pair’s check-ins: not a second-level manager, not payroll, and not another manager.
Private notes are read by their author alone
Section titled “Private notes are read by their author alone”Each person in a check-in has one private note. The screen tells them: Only you can read this.
- The other person in the check-in cannot read it.
- HR and owners cannot read it.
- Cadre support cannot read it.
The audit log records that a private note was written, by whom and when, but never its words. No email or notification carries anything typed into a check-in.
The goals panel
Section titled “The goals panel”A check-in shows the report’s individual goals in the current performance cycle, with the progress so far on each. It shows progress only, never a target or an actual. The pair and HR can see it. See Goals and KPIs.
Reminders
Section titled “Reminders”Cadre reminds both people to add talking points two days before a check-in, and tells them the day before that it is tomorrow. The owner of an overdue action is reminded once. These reminders never include a talking point, note or action’s text.
Why Cadre works this way
Section titled “Why Cadre works this way”A 1:1 only works if people can think out loud. A manager needs somewhere to note what to follow up without the report reading it, and a report needs somewhere to prepare without their manager reading it. If HR could read private notes, nobody would write anything honest in them, so Cadre keeps them for their author alone.