Most senior leaders hear about their organization through one channel: the managers who report to them. That channel is filtered by design. Managers summarize, prioritize and, sometimes without meaning to, leave out the parts that reflect badly on them or their team. A skip level meeting opens a second channel. Done well, it gives a senior leader an unfiltered view of the work, gives employees a direct line to the people setting strategy, and strengthens the manager in the middle. Done badly, it feels like surveillance and quietly erodes the authority of the manager who was skipped.
This guide covers what a skip level meeting is, why it matters, how often to hold one, a practical agenda, questions to ask, and the rules that stop it from undermining your managers.
A note on method: we checked every source in November 2026 and link each figure to the page it comes from. The most detailed public description of a skip-level programme we found is in GitLab's openly published company handbook, so we quote it where it is useful. The statistics come from Gallup's published research. The practical advice is our own.
What is a skip level meeting?
A skip level meeting is a conversation between an employee and their manager's manager, held without the direct manager present. The "skip" is the layer of management in between. A team lead's reports meet with the department head; a department head's reports' reports meet with the VP.
GitLab's handbook defines it in almost exactly those terms: "a meeting during which a manager's manager meets directly with team members without the direct manager present." It draws a useful distinction between skip levels and regular one-to-ones: "While 1-1s facilitate communication between a team member and their manager, skip levels should facilitate communication between the leader's whole team, not just their direct reports" (GitLab Handbook, Skip Level Meetings).
Skip levels are not a replacement for the weekly or fortnightly one-to-one between an employee and their own manager. If those conversations aren't happening, fix that first; our one-on-one meeting guide for managers covers how to run them. A skip level sits on top of a healthy one-to-one rhythm. It does not stand in for one.
Why skip level meetings matter
Managers shape most of the employee experience
Gallup estimates that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement. That is a reason to invest in managers, but it is also a reason for senior leaders to see what is happening inside each manager's team. If one team is thriving and the one next to it is struggling, the difference is very likely the manager, and the senior leader is usually the last to find out.
Skip levels are one of the few ways a leader can see team health directly, rather than through the manager's own account of it. GitLab's engineering guidance puts it this way: senior managers "typically learn about how things are going with the team from the Manager's perspective, so this is additional data for the Senior Manager to learn more about the health of the team" (GitLab Handbook, Managing Effective Skip Level Meetings).
Meaningful conversations are rare
In a Gallup study of nearly 15,000 employees, only 16% said their last conversation with their manager was extremely meaningful. Separately, Gallup's manager development research found that 47% of employees received feedback from their manager "a few times or less" in the past year.
Departures are often preventable, and often silent
Gallup's turnover research found that 42% of employees who voluntarily left their organization said their manager or organization could have done something to prevent it, and that 45% of leavers said no manager or leader had discussed their job satisfaction, performance or future with them in their final three months. The same research estimates that replacing a manager or leader costs around 200% of their salary.
Skip levels give a second, more senior person a chance to notice that someone is disengaged before they resign. They work alongside stay interviews, which ask directly what keeps people in the job and what might cause them to leave.
What skip level meetings are not
The fastest way to wreck a skip-level programme is to use it for the wrong purpose. GitLab's handbook is explicit that skip levels are not:
- "To check in on the performance of a manager by 'going around them.'"
- "To manage priorities, career management, or perform any duties typically handled by a team member's direct manager."
That second point deserves emphasis. If an employee raises a request for a pay rise, a change of project or a new development goal, the senior leader's job is to route it back through the direct manager, not to decide it on the spot. The moment a skip level becomes the place where real decisions get made, employees learn to go over their manager's head, and the manager loses authority they need to do the job.
A skip level is also not a disciplinary investigation. If you have a specific, serious concern about a manager, such as a complaint of harassment or discrimination, follow your formal HR process. Don't try to gather evidence through a series of "casual" skip-level chats.
How often should you hold skip level meetings?
There is no single standard, but the most common published guidance is quarterly. GitLab requires skip levels for any leader whose reports have their own reports, and says they "should be held at least quarterly", with more frequent meetings at the leader's discretion depending on how many skips they have.
A practical way to set frequency is to work backwards from your span:
| Number of skip-level reports | Suggested approach |
|---|---|
| Under 15 | One-to-one, each person once a quarter |
| 15–50 | Mix: one-to-one with some, small groups with others, rotating each quarter |
| 50–150 | Small groups of 5–10 each quarter, plus a few one-to-ones |
| 150+ | Rotate: meet a new group each quarter so everyone is seen at least once a year |
GitLab's guidance supports the rotation idea for large organizations: "If meeting with everyone is not scalable, instead meet with a new group of skip-level team members each quarter." It also caps group sessions at "no more than 10-15 (to encourage participation)". In our experience, groups above eight or so tend to become a Q&A with the leader rather than a conversation, so smaller is usually better if the aim is honest feedback.
One-to-one or group skip levels?
Both formats work. They do different jobs.
One-to-one skip levels are better for:
- Building a personal relationship with someone you rarely work with.
- Hearing candid feedback about the team, processes or the manager.
- Career conversations where the employee wants a senior perspective.
Group skip levels are better for:
- Reinforcing strategy and priorities to many people at once.
- Spotting patterns: if five people in a room all mention the same blocker, it is real.
- Leaders with large spans who can't meet everyone individually.
The trade-off is candour. People will say things one-to-one that they will never say in front of peers. If the purpose of a particular round is to understand team health, choose one-to-ones, or at least very small groups.
How to run a skip level meeting, step by step
1. Tell the direct managers first
Before you send a single invitation, explain the programme to the managers whose teams you'll be meeting. Tell them why you are doing it, how often, what you will and won't discuss, and how you will share feedback with them. A manager who finds out from their own report that their boss is "meeting the team" will assume the worst.
2. Explain the purpose to employees in the invitation
A calendar invite titled "Skip level" from a senior leader can cause anxiety. Add two or three lines: this is a regular conversation you're holding with everyone in the organization, nobody is in trouble, there's no preparation needed (or a short optional template), and here's roughly what you'll talk about.
3. Prepare by reviewing their recent work
This is the step most leaders skip, and it makes the biggest difference. GitLab recommends "reviewing accomplishments of the attendees ahead of time and documenting those at the beginning of the agenda", and its engineering teams suggest asking the employee's manager for a short list of recent accomplishments.
Opening with specific recognition ("I saw you rebuilt the onboarding flow last month; the drop-off numbers improved a lot") tells the employee you know who they are, and it involves the manager in a positive way.
4. Make the first meeting informal
For a first one-to-one skip level, GitLab recommends treating it "similar to a coffee chat - a free-form discussion with the intent to get to know each other." Ask about their role, how they came to it and what they enjoy. You'll get better feedback in later meetings once there is some rapport.
5. Use a light agenda for later meetings
After the first meeting, a simple structure works well:
- Recognition (5 minutes). Specific thanks for recent work.
- Context from you (5–10 minutes). Strategy, priorities, anything you want to reinforce. GitLab notes that one of the most common reactions after skip levels is "I thought everybody knew that!", so don't worry about repeating yourself.
- Their questions and feedback (the bulk of the time). Let them steer.
- Close (5 minutes). Summarize what you heard and what, if anything, you will do with it.
Thirty minutes is enough for a one-to-one. Allow 45–60 minutes for a group.
6. Listen far more than you talk
The value of a skip level is information flowing upwards. If you spend most of the meeting presenting, you've held a town hall with fewer people. Ask open questions, tolerate silence, and resist defending decisions when someone criticizes them. "Tell me more about that" will get you further than an explanation of why the decision was right.
7. Agree on confidentiality up front
Be clear about what happens to what people tell you. There are two workable models:
- Shared themes. You tell employees that feedback will be shared with their manager, usually as themes. GitLab's engineering template says this explicitly and offers a separate meeting for anything sensitive that the employee wants kept confidential.
- Anonymized and aggregated. You share only patterns across several conversations, never attributed to a person.
Either works. The model that fails is promising confidentiality and then letting something slip in a way that can be traced back. Also be honest that some things can't stay confidential: if someone reports harassment, a safety issue or a legal breach, you have a duty to act, and you should say so before they go into detail.
GitLab also notes that its skip level meetings are "never recorded as it is a way to build trust with the team members." That's a sensible default.
8. Close the loop with the manager
Within a few days, meet the direct manager and share what you heard. Lead with the positives and the recognition. Present concerns as themes and questions to explore together, not as verdicts. Then let the manager own the response. If an employee raised an issue that needs action, the manager should usually be the one who follows up with them.
9. Follow up with employees
Nothing kills a skip-level programme faster than feedback that disappears. When something changes because of what people raised, say so, even if it's a small change. GitLab's engineering guidance lists outcomes from its own skip levels, including new handbook pages, team changes and a revised sprint planning process. Visible changes like those are what persuade people to keep talking.
Skip level meeting questions
Pick four to six questions per meeting rather than working through a list. These are grouped by what you want to learn. Several are adapted from the templates in GitLab's engineering handbook.
About their work
- What are you working on right now that you're most excited about?
- What is getting in the way of you being more successful?
- How is your workload: too little, too much or about right?
- Can you walk me through the last major project you worked on? What would you improve?
About the team
- What does your team do really well?
- What's one thing your team should stop doing?
- What is the biggest challenge facing your team at the moment?
- Who on your team makes the people around them better? How?
About their manager (asked carefully)
- Do you feel you're getting enough feedback? Why or why not?
- Is there a recent example where you felt your manager did a great job?
- What part of your career would you like more support with?
Notice that these ask about what the employee needs, not for a rating of the manager. "What would you like more of?" gets useful, actionable answers. "How is your manager doing?" puts the employee in an awkward position and tends to get either a polite non-answer or a complaint session.
If you want structured, comparable data on manager effectiveness, use a survey instead of conversations. Our manager effectiveness survey guide covers how to design one and act on the results.
About the organization
- Do you understand how your team's goals connect to the company's?
- If you could fix one thing in the company, what would it be?
- What do you need from the leadership team that you're not getting?
- If you were in my role, what would you change?
About their future
- What are your goals for the next six to twelve months?
- What would make you want to stay here for the next few years?
- Is there anything that's made you think about leaving?
For broader review and development conversations, our list of performance review questions has more prompts you can adapt.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Making decisions that belong to the manager. If an employee asks for something, say "that's a good conversation to have with [manager]; I'll make sure they know it came up." Then make sure they do.
Treating complaints as facts. One person's frustration with their manager is a data point, not a conclusion. Look for patterns across several conversations, and hear the manager's side before forming a view.
Only meeting when there's a problem. If skip levels happen only when a team is in trouble, they become a signal of trouble. A regular, predictable schedule across every team removes that stigma.
Cancelling and rescheduling. Senior leaders have crowded calendars, and skip levels are easy to move. Every cancellation tells the employee they're low priority. Protect the time.
Not telling managers what you heard. Managers who never hear the feedback from skip levels will start to resent them. Sharing themes promptly and constructively is what turns the meeting into support for the manager rather than a threat.
How skip level meetings support the manager
The framing in the title of this guide is the one that matters most. A skip-level programme is healthiest when the direct manager sees it as a benefit. It gives them:
- An extra source of recognition for their team. Praise from a senior leader lands differently, and it reflects well on the manager.
- Early warning. Hearing that someone is unhappy or overloaded while there is still time to act is better than hearing it in an exit interview.
- Coaching material. Specific, themed feedback gives the senior leader something concrete to discuss in their own one-to-one with the manager.
- Air cover. When a team says "we're stretched too thin", the senior leader who heard it first-hand is more likely to support the manager's case for more resources.
If your managers still feel threatened after a couple of rounds, ask them why. The answer usually points to a fix, such as sharing feedback sooner, giving them more context before the meetings, or being stricter about routing decisions back to them.
Frequently asked questions
Should the direct manager know about a skip level meeting?
Yes. Tell managers about the programme before it starts, and let them know when you're meeting their team. Secret skip levels look like you're going around them, which is exactly what you want to avoid.
How long should a skip level meeting be?
About 30 minutes for a one-to-one and 45–60 minutes for a group. The first one-to-one can be shorter and more informal.
What if an employee complains about their manager?
Listen, ask for specific examples, and thank them. Don't promise action on the spot. Look for patterns across other conversations, discuss themes with the manager, and use your formal HR process for anything serious, such as harassment or discrimination.
Are skip level meetings confidential?
That depends on the model you choose, and you should say which one at the start. Many organizations share feedback with the manager as themes. Whatever you choose, be clear that reports of harassment, safety problems or legal breaches can't be kept confidential.
How often should skip level meetings happen?
Quarterly is the most common guidance, including in GitLab's published handbook. Leaders with large organizations can rotate through groups so everyone is seen at least once a year.