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What is a Touch Base Meeting and Why Have Them

Touch base meetings: What they are and why have them (With tips on having a great touch base)

A touch base meeting allows you to have a productive, honest, and free-flowing conversation with your team member. It also helps your team collaborate on meeting agendas, track action items, and keep each other accountable. Find out what exactly is a touch base meeting and why have them.

What is a Touch Base Meeting (Touch Base Meaning)?

Ever felt the need to openly ask your workers questions or raise concerns but not in a formal way? A touch-base meeting might be of help. A touch-base meeting is a time you have spared from your schedule to catch up with a staff member.

Usually, a touch-base meeting should be informal and as brief as possible. It should allow your workplace team members to openly raise concerns, share their recent feelings, and ask questions.

Most touch-base meetings are manager-employee-based and are also called catch-up meetings or 1-on-1 meetings. Why? Because these meeting types often feature the same purpose.

The best way to handle a touch-base meeting is to invite only one employee at a time. That’s why they are sometimes called 1-on-1’s This helps build rapport individually with each team member while fostering transparent discussions. But small touch-base meetings with a maximum of two or three employees can also be effective.

Touch Base Meeting Template

Suppose your upcoming touch-base meeting is your first catch-up meeting with the newest team member. Or maybe it is an in-depth check-in with the company’s high-level supervisor. In that case, having a meeting agenda and basing it on a template can ensure you don’t miss out on any important action items.

There are many meeting agenda templates for every one-on-one meeting type to help you generate a great meeting agenda. Remember that the best meeting agenda must feature appropriate and meaningful topics, questions, and action items. Here is another great meeting agenda for a weekly sync-up.

We have included a list of suggested questions in our templates to help you spark a productive conversation during your touch-base meeting. You can also use these questions when creating catch-up meeting agendas with headers.

Touch Base Meeting Template Example

Update on previous week (What was accomplished and what was not)?
What difficulties are you having?
What can I do to help?
Any other issues or topics you would like to discuss?
What are your deliverables this week?

PRO TIP: Use a meeting management software like Meeting for Goals to speed up the creation of the meeting agendas for your touch base meeting and send them to everyone automatically. Here are meeting agenda templates for Free!

Asking For a Touch Base Meeting?

How would you take the “I will touch base with you” statement in an email from your manager? A recent Glassdoor survey revealed that approximately one in every four workers thinks the direct “touch base” statement is the most irritating buzzword. “Touching base” refers to getting in touch or catching up with someone.

Fortunately, you can use the following “touch base” alternatives to avoid irritating your coworkers while asking for touch base meetings;

“I will need you at (specify date and time) to (review your work…see if you have any questions, etc.)
“Can we meet for (Y minutes) sometime this week (or next month) and discuss (subject)?
“Let us meet another time in a (week or month) for (state the meeting’s purpose).
“Are you free on (state date and time) we meet?
Please let’s meet on (state date and time) you update me on your progress.
Let’s share our thoughts on (state topic subject).

How Often Should I Hold Touch Base Meetings?

The frequency of a 1-on-1 meeting with your employees or coworkers may vary depending on several factors. But ideally, for a manager, the recommendation is to have a weekly one-on-one meeting schedule with each direct report.

It is okay to reschedule your one-on-one meetings for a specific week. It is also okay if the catch-up meetings don’t happen from time to time. But professionally, managers should aim at having touch base meetings not less than three times out of every four weeks.

Usually, frequent touch-base meetings are essential regular check-ins that prevent larger problems from worsening. So, you should give room for regular and immediate feedback while promoting open communication.

How Does a Touch Base Meeting Work?

Generally, a touch base meeting is not a traditional meeting to discuss your team’s backlog or go over project updates. To better fathom how a one-on-one meeting works, consider it similar to listening to an amazing podcast in standstill traffic.

You might be in traffic but still using that time to enjoyably and productively listen to a podcast. Although your department might be facing challenges, a touch base meeting can be an enjoyable and productive use of time. How? You get to informally engage your workers briefly, allowing them to raise concerns and openly ask questions.

When your coworker sees more of your “human” side, they feel more comfortable having an honest and free-flowing conversation. And that’s how you find solutions to issues you wouldn’t have found with traditional formal meetings.

And with the recent rise in remote companies, you can still find time to have virtual meetings with your employees. You can schedule your virtual meetings on a weekly or biweekly basis.

How to Have a Great Touch Base Meeting

To have a productive touch base meeting, you should collaborate on your company’s future goals while maintaining an open conversation. These tips will help you and the people you are touching base with get the best out of touch bases;

Keep the touch base informal.

To maintain a natural/lively conversation with your employee, you must ensure that the one-on-one meeting is brief and casual. This way, your team members will see more of your “human” side than your “manager” side. So they will be comfortable enough to have a free-flowing and honest conversation.

Remember to also switch up your meeting location to somewhere informal. For example, you can try a nearby shop or your building’s outdoor patio.

Ask if you could be of assistance in any way.

The “how can I help you” question may seem simple. But it has a deep impact on showing that you are ready to support your workplace team members. Your team members view you as a resource rather than a manager who merely issues deadlines while handing out assignments.

But don’t worry if you cannot offer assistance based on your team members’ requests. Just connect them with a mentor or other resources that can further help.

Allow your coworkers to set their priorities.

Always ensure your workers are fully responsible for setting their priorities and goals. Why? It is because each team member has their way of organizing their assignments and executing their tasks.

This step helps you understand better how your team members like to work. And you will also be able to offer suggestions on how they can best set and accomplish their priorities, thus giving them extra encouragement.

Listen while taking notes.

Ensure you make your team members the focus during your scheduled touch base meetings. Please give them your undivided attention by putting away your PC, silencing your cell phone, and making eye contact. As your team members open up, take mental or pen-and-paper notes to use as your minutes of meeting.

Always encourage employees.

Did you know that more than 80% of workers don’t feel recognized in their workplaces? Employees, too, need to enjoy the feeling of appreciation. So, while holding scheduled one-on-one meetings, avoid addressing a late assignment or critiquing a team member’s action item.

Instead, encourage, motivate, and support them and remember to inquire about any challenges they face.

Tools to Help With Touch Base Meetings

A Calendar Scheduling Application is an ideal tool to tell you when you are free for a one-on-one meeting. And for a virtual meeting, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and many more can be of great help.

Meetingforgoals.com is also an excellent tool to help your team collaborate on meeting agendas and track action items. In a productive touch base meeting, every team member should be accountable. Meetingforgoals.com can help keep each other accountable. So sign up with meetingforgoals.com today.

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More Touch Base Meeting Template Examples

Touch Base Meeting Template Example - WEEKLY SYNC-UP

Check-in - Share your Wins of the week
Team Status Check - What have you accomplished, what roadblocks are there
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Objectives - Review the status of your KPIs and objectives. Are you on course or off course?
How can I help? Where can I help? Can I support your better?