Prepare and complete an employee conversation

Employee conversations give the conversation host and attendee a shared agenda, while letting both people prepare in confidence before they meet. In an employee conversation, the attendee is the employee the conversation concerns.

This feature appears only when Employee conversations is enabled for your organisation.

Who does what

• The conversation host creates the agenda, invites the attendee to prepare, starts the conversation and records the shared outcome.
• The attendee is the employee the conversation concerns. They prepare their own answers and can read the shared outcome after the conversation is completed.

The host can only choose employees included in their area of responsibility. Both people must be active Markular users. Each conversation has one host and one attendee.

Start a conversation

1. Open People, then Employee conversations.
2. Select New conversation.
3. Confirm your employing country, then search for the employee by name. Enter at least two characters.
4. Choose a published conversation template or Blank agenda.
5. Add a title, optional date and purpose. If you chose a blank agenda, add the talking points.
6. Select Create draft.

A template gives the new conversation a consistent starting point. The talking points are copied into the conversation when you create it. Later changes to the template do not change this conversation.

If your organisation uses more than one language, Markular previews the template in the attendee's saved language before you create the draft. The conversation then keeps that content language for its title, purpose, questions and guidance. You can see the chosen Conversation language in the conversation.

Each participant can still use Markular's menus and controls in their own preferred language. Changing that preference does not translate or rewrite the conversation. Preparation, private notes and the shared outcome remain exactly as the participants wrote them.

Only the host can see the draft. When the agenda is ready, select Invite to prepare. The employee can then find it under People, then Employee conversations.

When preparation opens, the attendee receives a Markular notification. Email follows the attendee's platform notification preference. The notification contains no agenda answers, private notes or other conversation content; the attendee must sign in to read the conversation. The notification and email use the attendee's saved language and open this specific conversation directly. Regional time text follows the attendee's saved regional format and time zone.

Prepare for the conversation

Both participants add their own answer under each talking point and select Save preparation. A saved answer remains private to its author while the conversation is in Preparation.

Private notes are optional. Select Save private note to keep a note that is visible only to you.

What is private and what is shared

• During Preparation, each participant sees only their own preparation.
• Select Start conversation to reveal both participants' preparation in the conversation.
• A Private note is visible only to its author. It is never included in the shared outcome.
• People administrators do not gain access to the conversation content merely because they administer People.

Use bold text, italic text and short bullet lists to make preparation and notes easier to read.

Complete the conversation

The host records one Shared outcome and selects Complete conversation. Both participants can read the outcome afterwards.

Review the shared outcome before completing the conversation. Completion is final: preparation, private notes and the shared outcome can no longer be changed, and the conversation cannot be reopened.

Download the shared record

After the conversation is completed, either participant can select Download shared record.

1. Review the preview of exactly what the PDF will contain.
2. Confirm that you understand private notes are excluded.
3. Select Download PDF.

The shared record contains the participants, shared preparation, agreed outcome and follow-up tasks. It never contains either participant's private notes. The download is recorded in the Activity log without copying conversation content into the activity log.

Create follow-up tasks

The conversation host can turn an agreed action into a Task after the conversation has started, or after it has been completed.

1. Find Follow-up tasks in the conversation.
2. Select Add follow-up.
3. Enter a clear Task title and choose the conversation host or attendee as assignee.
4. Add an optional due date and only the practical description needed to complete the work.
5. Select Create follow-up.

Both conversation participants can see the Task's progress in the conversation. The assignee also finds it under Workspace, then My Tasks, where it can be completed like other Markular work.

Private notes, individual preparation and the shared outcome are never copied into the Task. A person who can see a Task does not gain access to the conversation through the Task. Open conversation is shown in My Tasks only when the current user is a conversation participant.

Change the conversation host

The current host can transfer responsibility when another active colleague should continue the conversation. An authorised People administrator can also do this when the current host is unavailable, without gaining access to the conversation content.

1. Open the conversation, or find the conversation in its conversation round.
2. Select Change host.
3. Choose an active colleague from the permitted area. Country starts with your current working country, and you can narrow the list by department.
4. Review who gains and loses access, confirm the consequence, and select Transfer responsibility.

The new host receives access to the conversation and shared content. The previous host loses access immediately. The employee, conversation status, round progress and follow-up Tasks do not change. Private notes remain private to their authors and are not transferred.

Changing a person's line manager does not silently move an existing conversation. Responsibility must always be transferred explicitly.

The attendee and new host receive a content-free Markular notification when responsibility is transferred. Access and notifications are saved together, so a failed transfer does not leave a misleading notification behind.

Use the right place for sensitive follow-up

Employee conversations are intended for preparation, dialogue and agreed follow-up. Use your organisation's designated HR process for formal warnings, sickness absence cases or other casework that requires restricted handling.

If you need help

If you cannot find an employee, the person may be outside your area of responsibility or may not have an active Markular account.

If a change cannot be saved, refresh the page, review the latest version and try again.