Tired of endless email chains and missed deadlines? It might be time to introduce touch-base meetings to your team. Touch-base meetings (also known as one-on-one meetings or catch-up meetings) are dedicated time for managers to connect with team members on a personal level. They build trust, enhance understanding, and address the individual concerns of each employee. Done well, these check-ins also strengthen employee engagement by giving people a consistent space to be heard and supported.

Yet nearly 50% of employees rarely or never meet with their manager, even though 63% of employees want to catch up at least once a month (if not more).

When a project's moving at a breakneck pace, it's the little missteps that often turn into major delays. Some teams keep these meetings extremely brief, lasting around 10-15 minutes, just long enough to get everyone on the same page. Others take the opportunity to do a more in-depth manager check-in to discuss workload, support, and development. This post is all about giving you the tools you need to make your touch-base meetings work in a way that suits your team's needs.

Key takeaways

• A touch-base meeting is really just a catch-up meeting for quick alignment
• A productive touch-base meeting keeps the conversation centered on priorities, blockers, and clear next steps.
• You'll see two common styles: a super quick alignment session or a more in-depth manager check-in where you can also cover support and growth issues.
• One of the most important things you can do is share a simple, clea agenda in advance so everyone knows what to expect.
• Always leave the meeting with clear action items – who's doing what, and by when.
• It's not the length of your touch-base meetings that matters (unless it’s ridiculously over-long). It's the fact that you're staying aligned on important check-ins, so don’t let yourself fall out of touch on these high-priority meetings.

What is a touch-base meeting?

A touch-base meeting is a short, regular check-in that keeps two people stay aligned on priorities, figure out potential roadblocks early on, and maintain effective communication. A touch-base meeting gives you a steady rhythm for sharing context, confirming what's most important, and making sure progress keeps moving.

In practice, teams use the term "touch-base meeting" in a two different ways:

1. Quick alignment protect touch-base
This is like a super-speedy sync. Your goal is simple: confirm what your priorities are, flag any potential risks, and unblock anything that needs a decision or some extra context. It's a good fit for cross-functional partners, project collaborators, and any situation where timelines are moving fast.

2. Manager touch-base
This is a bit more fleshed out. It’s also a reliable way to stay connected to each direct report without turning the meeting into a formal evaluation. Along with priorities and progress, you also cover topics like workload, clarity, and growth. It helps managers stay connected to what's happening on a day-to-day basis while also giving employees a place to raise concerns early on.

What should a touch-base meeting accomplish?

A really good touch-base meeting leaves both people clear on a few key things:

• What needs to happen next (your priorities and focus area)
• What might slow progress down (blockers, risks, missing context)
• What happens after the meeting (decisions and action items)

When these pieces are all clear, touch-bases become a reliable way to head off surprises and keep momentum going, all without creating more overhead characteristic of a more traditional meeting. This is especially helpful for ongoing projects, where small gaps in context can quietly turn into delays.

When touch-base meetings are most useful

Touch-base meetings tend to deliver the most value when it's hard to coordinate things, which includes cases like:

• Work that needs to happen across roles or teams and involves a lot of dependencies
• Projects where priorities change a lot
• Situations where blockers can hide until things get pretty late in the game
• New working relationships where context and trust are still building

The common thread here is consistency: a touch-base creates a predictable moment to re-align before the small issues turn into bigger delays.

Touch-base meeting vs. 1:1 vs. status vs. standup meeting

A few words get thrown around in different ways, which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. Someone turns up to a meeting ready to get a quick check-in on what's going on, while another person shows up expecting a deeper, more in-depth conversation. A pretty simple way to avoid all that confusion is to choose the right format for what you're trying to achieve.

Touch-base meeting

A touch-base meeting is best when you just need to check in to make sure everyone's on the same page and all's well. It's a bit of a recurring touchpoint (no pun intended) where you confirm priorities, get an idea of what's blocking things, and maybe make a few small tweaks before things get out of hand. Touch-base meetings tend to keep things focused on right now and what needs to happen next.

Use a touch-base meeting when:

• Priorities change from week to week, and you need to make sure everyone knows what's happening
• You need a regular check-in to unblock your team
• Two people are pretty much reliant on each other to get their work done

One-on-one meeting (1:1)

A one-on-one is best when you want to have a bit of a deeper conversation alongside the day-to-day stuff. What I mean is, a lot of teams treat the touch-base as a sort of low-key 1:1, but a proper 1:1 usually goes a bit further than that - you'll cover things like career development, give and take feedback, motivation, and long-term context, along with what needs to happen right now.

Use a 1:1 meeting when:

• You need a regular space to have real conversations about work and how people are progressing
• Feedback needs to be discussed in a bit more detail than just a quick chat
• You're having trouble getting clear on a role or performance, or you've got some longer-term goals that need sorting out

Status meeting

A status meeting is best when you just need to get everyone on the same page about how things are progressing across a whole group. It's a way to update people on what's happening, who is doing what, and keep lots of stakeholders in the loop. Status meetings can be a bit more focused on reporting rather than, say, actually solving problems or building trust - but sometimes that's just what you need.

Use a status meeting when:

• You've got a whole team or project where people need to know what's going on and what's expected of them
• You've got lots of different people who need to know what's happening and when
• You need a regular update across lots of stakeholders

Standup meeting

A standup is best when you just need a super quick meeting to get everyone aligned and on the same page. They're usually short, happen at the same time every day, and are really just meant to cover what you're working on and what's blocking you. Standups aren't really a place for detailed discussion - just to surface what needs a bit more discussion.

Use a standup when:

• You've got a team that needs to be in the same room (or virtually) on a regular basis to make sure everything is moving forward
• Blockers need to be surfaced and dealt with quickly
• The work needs to be coordinated really closely between lots of different people

How to choose the right format

If you're not really sure what to use, just ask yourself this:

• If you just need a quick reality check to make sure everything is on track, have a touch-base meeting.
• If you need to get some alignment and do some growth and development at the same time, have a 1:1 meeting.
• If you just need to get a group of people updated on what's happening, have a status meeting.
• If you need a super quick way to get a team coordinated, have a standup meeting.

When in doubt, just write what you're aiming for in the invite - "Quick touch-base to sort priorities and get moving again" or "Catch up with [name] to cover priorities, workload and career stuff". That one sentence sets expectations and makes the meeting a lot easier to run.

How often to schedule touch-base meetings

The most effective periodic check-ins, or touch-base meetings, happen on some sort of rhythm that's regular enough to let issues come up before they get out of hand. When things are running on a reliable cadence, little problems get ironed out early, priorities stay clear, and people don't put off asking questions until they turn into an emergency.

Find your default rhythm

A good starting point for most teams is to have meetings every week or every other week. From there, you can adjust the schedule based on how fast things are changing on your team and how much coordination any one person needs.

Weekly meetings are good for:

• Teams that have to shift priorities all the time
• Work that's got dependencies that can stall things
• People who are new to a role and need to learn the ropes fast
• High-visibility projects with tight deadlines

Biweekly meetings make sense for:

• Steady, predictable work
• Teams that don't have to change their priorities too often
• Both people have enough information to work independently most days

Monthly meetings can work if:

• Someone is working pretty much on their own
• There aren't too many cross-functional dependencies
• The goal is to keep in touch and get rid of any occasional blockers, not to manage day-to-day stuff

Match your rhythm to role stage & context

You don’t need to pick one cadence and stick to it forever. Treat it like a tool you can adjust on the fly:

• New to the team or just hired: start weekly for a few weeks, then take a look again.
• Seasoned team member: biweekly usually keeps everyone on the same page without feeling like too much of a chore.
• Busy period or launch: temporarily increase the frequency until things calm down a bit.
• Things are running smoothly: consider monthly, with a safety net of quick ad-hoc touch-bases as needed.

Keep the rhythm going

For a touch-base to be effective, it's got to be something people can depend on. If meetings start getting bumped all the time, people stop seeing them as a safe place to raise their concerns - and issues start showing up when they're harder to deal with.

If things get tight and you really can't meet as often, here are a few tips to keep the rhythm going without adding to the meeting load:

• Keep 'em short and sweet instead of skipping them altogether. 15 minutes is a good length for a quick touch-base.
• Reschedule within the same week if you miss a meeting, rather than pushing it to the next week.
• Use a shared doc to keep track of what you want to cover, so topics don't get lost when timing shifts.

When touch-bases start to feel awkward

If your touch-base meetings start to feel like you're just there to give an update and get pressured, that's usually a sign you're focusing too much on reporting status. Shift the meeting towards priorities, blockers and how you can help out - then let the work speak for itself between check-ins.

Touch-base meeting template agendas

A touch-base meeting should be easy to fall into a rhythm with - not scripted, but rather a way to avoid that awkward "what to talk about" moment and keep the meeting focused on what really matters: priorities, blockers, and next steps.

Below are three touch-base meeting agendas - just copy them into whatever note-taking tool you use, or even right into your calendar description. Pick the one that makes the most sense for your needs, and stick with it for a few weeks before tweaking it.

Quick touch-base agenda (10-15 minutes)

Use this one when: you've got cross-functional partners, or you're in one of those crazy busy weeks, and you just need a super quick check-in every week
What you should get out of it: clear priorities, a list of blockers to work on, and a short list of next steps

1. Top priority check (1-2 minutes)

• What's your number 1 thing you're really focusing on right now?
• Anything that's changed since our last meeting?

2. Progress + blockers (6-8 minutes)

• What's actually getting done?
• What's stuck, unclear, or in danger?
• What do you need from me to keep things on track?

3. Making decisions & aligning (3-4 minutes)

• Are we in agreement about what comes next?
• Do we need to make a decision today?

4. Action items & wrap up (1 minute)

• Summarize the action items & who's doing what by when
• Confirm when we'll meet next

The manager-employee touch-base (25-30 minutes)

Use this agenda when: you've got a recurring check-in with your team members, and you want to build relationships and show you care about their workload
What you should get out of it: aligned priorities and a sense of what support you can offer

1. Catching up (3-5 minutes)

• How's your week going?
• How's your workload feeling?

2. What's moving (10-12 minutes)

• What are the most important things you need to get done between now and our next meeting?
• What's going well?
• What's harder than you thought it'd be?

3. Blockers & support (8-10 minutes)

• What's getting in the way of progress?
• What would help most - a decision, context, or resources?
• What can I remove or clarify to help you move faster?

4. Growth (3-5 minutes)

• What do you want to get better at?
• Any feedback you want from me this week?
• Leave a little room for self development, like one skill to strengthen or one challenge to work through together.

5. Wrap up & commitments (2 minutes)

• What was decided
• Summarize the action items & who's doing what by when
• What we'll be back to next time

Project check-in (20 minutes)

Use this one when: you've got a small team of 3-5 people and need to keep their dependencies straight
What you should get out of it: a clear view of the risks and who owns what

1. Goal reminder (2 minutes)

• What does success look like by the end of the week?

2. Dependency round (10-12 minutes)

• Each person shares:
• One thing that's moving forward
• One thing that's stuck or a risk
• One ask (decision, review, handoff, resource)

3. Decisions & sequencing (4-5 minutes)

• Confirm what decisions were made and who owns them
• Lock in the next handoffs so things don't stall

4. Close (1 minute)

• Quick recap of action items
• Confirm when you'll meet next

Touch-base meeting questions

Good touch-base meeting questions do two jobs at once. They keep the conversation moving, and they pull the real issues to the surface before they turn into missed deadlines or quiet frustration. The best questions are open-ended, specific enough to be actionable, and framed in a way that makes it safe to answer honestly.

Use the sets below as a menu. You don’t need to ask all of them. Pick a few that match the agenda you’re using, then rotate them over time so the meeting stays useful.

Quick touch-base questions 

These are designed to produce fast clarity.

Priorities

• What’s the most important outcome you’re driving before we meet again?
• What changed since our last touch-base that affects priorities?

Progress

• What moved forward since we last talked?
• What’s the next milestone, and what’s the quickest path to it?

Blockers

• What’s slowing you down right now?
• What information, decision, or approval would unblock you fastest?

Alignment

• What do you need me to agree on today so you can move forward?
• Is anything we’re doing right now lower value than it used to be?

Commitments

• What are the next two actions, and who owns them?
• What’s the first sign we’re at risk, and when would we see it?

Manager ↔ employee touch-base questions 

These keep the meeting grounded in work while making space for support.

Workload & wellbeing

• How are you feeling about your workload this week?
• What’s taking more energy than it should?
• Where do you feel stretched thin right now?

Clarity & context

• Do you feel clear on what “good” looks like for your work right now?
• What context would help you make decisions faster?

Progress & wins

• What’s one win you’re proud of since our last touch-base?
• What’s working well that we should keep doing?

Blockers & risks

• What’s the biggest obstacle in your way right now?
• What risk feels most likely to derail the plan?

Support

• What can I do this week that would make the biggest difference?
• Where would it help if I stepped in to remove friction?

Feedback

• What feedback would be most useful right now?
• Is there anything you want more of from me: direction, context, reviews, or autonomy?

Growth

• What skill are you focused on improving right now?
• What type of project would you like more exposure to over the next month?

Questions that surface hidden issues (use sparingly, but regularly)

These are powerful because they invite honesty without putting someone on the spot.

• What’s one thing you’ve been hesitant to bring up?
• What’s a problem you’re solving repeatedly that we could fix at the source?
• If we keep doing work the same way, what’s likely to break first?
• What’s something you need from me that you’re not getting today?

How to choose the right questions

A helpful approach is to match questions to the stage of the meeting:

• Start: “What’s most important right now?”
• Middle: “What’s blocking progress?”
• End: “What are we committing to next?”

If the meeting ever starts to feel like a performance update, shift back to questions about priorities, blockers, and support. That’s where touch-base meetings deliver the most value.

How to have awesome touch-base meetings

So, where do you start? Here are a few simple things you can do to prepare for your touch-base meeting:

1. Decide how often to meet

First and foremost, you'll need to determine how often you'll want to connect with each team member for your touch-base meetings – though we highly recommend scheduling these on a recurring basis. This is about striking the right balance between regular check-ins and respecting everyone's time. 

Consider the preferences and availability of your team members. Some may appreciate weekly check-ins, while others may operate more autonomously and prefer using those minutes for heads-down focus time  – so they may only need to connect once or twice a month.

As a starting point, consider conducting touch-base meetings on a weekly or biweekly basis. You could block off a full hour, but unless the entire time is needed, feel free to cut it short so you don’t eat up unnecessary time they could be using elsewhere. And as any great meeting organizer knows, fine-tune the frequency and duration of your meetings once you find the sweet spot.

2. In-person vs. virtual meetings

If you’re one of the many companies that’s embraced remote and hybrid work, some employees of course won’t be able to meet in person. Instead, you can use a virtual meeting to touch-base. That could be a quick video chat in Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or another tool your team already uses. However, virtual meetings do have their limitations, so you'll need to be extra mindful of nonverbal cues so you can pick up on potential issues employees may not be expressing through words. Some of these subtle cues may be their tone of voice, body language, facial expressions, or word choice expressed through video calls, or even their tone via chat messages and emails.

For example, say you're having a touch-base meeting over Zoom, but unfortunately the video quality is low so you don’t have the best view of their facial expressions or body language. If your team member seemed disengaged and uninterested (outside of comical annoyance of the video quality), pay close attention to their tone of voice and word choice – could they be feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or disinterested about their work? While it may be easier to pick up these cues in-person, this could easily be missed over a video conference. Small misunderstandings and miscommunications can snowball into larger issues around performance and morale.

Even if you’re a fully remote team, you can always consider a quarterly or annual gathering across your group to get everyone together and build stronger connections with your employees. The excitement of the trip alone can do wonders for employee morale, and get you the costs back in improved productivity – or even an awesome idea that’s sparked from an in-person brainstorming session.

3. Use a meeting agenda 

There's nothing worse than starting a meeting without a purpose, as you end up wasting the first part deciding what to talk about. Clearly defining objectives for each touch-base meeting will prevent you from killing time (that could have otherwise been spent on something productive) and will keep the discussion focused on goals. These objectives could include reviewing project progress, addressing specific challenges, providing feedback, or aligning on upcoming tasks. Keep it tight by limiting project updates to what changed, what’s at risk, and what needs a decision.

As you may have guessed by now, we're talking about setting a meeting agenda. And where managers may be responsible for creating these before team meetings, employees should take the lead on generating topics for touch-base meetings. After all, they know what's going on in their work much better than you – and if you dominate the agenda, they may be tentative about adding their own priorities for the discussion. One simple way to do that is to encourage employees to add 1–3 discussion items to the agenda before the invite goes out.

4. Schedule the meeting (without scaring your employee)

An unexpected email from a manager asking to "touch base" can potentially spook your employee. So, your first step is to send a meeting invitation – without making them worry they may be in trouble. Pro-tip, use the free Smart Meetings tool to automatically find the best time for your touch-base meetings across both of your calendars.

Here’s a simple email template you can use for setting up your first touch-base meeting:

5. Let your employee drive the meeting

Touch-base meetings should be employee-driven – you should think of these as their meeting. So instead of coming into it with a laundry list of things you want to address, make sure they know they get to lead the discussion. Of course, these meetings will also give you the opportunity to ask some questions, but these should be secondary to your employee’s agenda items. 

Ask plenty of open-ended questions to keep the free-flowing conversation going (especially if an employee starts to feel stuck), such as:

• “How have things been going this week?”
• "How has your progress been on your current project?"
• “Do you think there’s a better way we can approach this project?”
• “Do you have any ideas you’d like to share on our upcoming project?”
• "What goals do you hope to achieve this week?"
• "What obstacles are you facing, and how can I help clear them up?”?" 
• "How can I better support you in your work?”
• “How are you feeling about work – do you have enough time for everything on your plate?”
• “How is your work-life balance – have you had any issues with work bleeding into your personal time?”

6. Keep things friendly & informal

Employees aren’t going to want to open up honestly if they’re sitting in a tense, formal meeting – that’s why it's super important your touch-base meetings are more informal and conversational to ensure it’s an enjoyable and productive use of their time. After all, they're not performance reviews. Creating a relaxed and friendly atmosphere sets the stage for open communication. For example, you can always set the meeting location in an informal setting, such as the nearby coffee shop if you're working in person. And if you're working remotely, you can always start the meeting with some light, (virtual) water-cooler chat. A warm opening and a low-pressure tone can also encourage participation, especially from quieter team members.

So to make sure you’re approachable as a manager in the meeting, encourage your team members to speak candidly by asking some more simple, open-ended questions: 

• “How are you?”
• "Is there anything that's been on your mind lately?" 
• "Is there anything you need from me, or that you'd like to talk about?" 

7. Build trust with employees

How well do you know your employees? Can you name their children, remember the last place they vacationed, or recall any of their favorite hobbies? In order to build real relationships with your employees, you have to know who they are. 

If any employee is struggling with a major issue in their personal life, it’s bound to have an effect on their work. But unless they feel comfortable sharing with you, you’re never going to know and may lose a valuable team player by not giving them the support they need (and probably won’t do any better at retaining the next team member who takes their place). Fostering psychological safety will help your employees freely express their thoughts, concerns, and ideas. 

With that said, trust is a must for touch-base meetings. If team members don't really trust you, they won't feel psychologically safe. This will make it impossible for them to have an honest conversation around potential issues – as they'll feel that any they express will get them in trouble. If you respond with annoyance or anger to an employee who shares, "I'm actually struggling with this project and I might not make the deadline" – you better believe they won't be as forthcoming the next time around. Considering 57% of projects fail from breakdowns in communication, this lack of trust can have severe consequences on your team's output. 

8. Use active listening 

Ever sat through a one-on-one meeting with someone who’s obviously checking their phone, answering an email, or messaging on Slack? It’s beyond frustrating! You’re trying to talk through an issue with someone who’s barely giving you the time of day. Hard to make productive use of this collaboration time without actually active listening. Give your employee your full attention and engage them in the conversation. Paraphrasing, asking clarifying questions, and summarizing key points are all easy ways you can demonstrate you’re listening and ensure your mutual understanding.

And this is probably obvious, but use that listening to come up with helpful solutions. Say an employee raises a concern about something, you nod your head and say, "I hear you," – that doesn’t actually help them at all. If there’s not an obvious fix that you could quickly tackle to make that issue easier for them, try saying “that’s a tough problem, what can I do to help you, or do you have any ideas on how we can get through it?” The last thing you want is for your employees to feel like you don't care about their concerns, so you have to do your part to help them work through it. 

Don’t blow off your touch-base meetings

Of course, most of us are already overloaded with pointless meetings  – the average pro has to attend 25.6 meetings/week! Trying to fit in touch-base meetings in a busy schedule can be difficult – but if there's any meeting to cut, touch-base meetings are not one of them. Yet, unfortunately, 42.4% of one-on-one meetings are rescheduled, and 29.6% are canceled every week.

The best way to avoid meeting conflicts is to set up these recurring meetings as Smart Meetings, so they automatically find the best time across both of your schedules. That way, if an urgent event comes in over your touch-base meeting, it will automatically move to the next best time. This is also great for working around PTO or sick leave, as you can avoid losing a check-in or having to manually reschedule to another time.

Alternatively, if you're meeting on an as-needed basis, create a free Scheduling Link to allow your employees to find the best time with you. This free tool allows you to set high-priority links to get your meetings booked sooner, and flexible durations so employees can choose a shorter meeting time to get in earlier on your calendar. 

Happy teams touch base 🤝

Touch-base meetings work because they create a simple rhythm: align on priorities, surface blockers early, and leave with clear next steps. Keep the format lightweight, use an agenda you can repeat each week, and capture action items with owners and timing so follow-through stays consistent. That rhythm supports momentum while also improving job satisfaction, since people spend less time stuck and more time moving.

If you’re starting from scratch, choose one of the agenda templates above, schedule the meeting on a steady cadence, and keep a running notes doc that makes it easy to pick up where you left off. After a few weeks, you’ll have a touch-base system that feels supportive, reduces surprises, and helps work move forward with less friction.