The benefits of having company all-hands meetings
How to determine the right cadence and length for your organization
How to create engaging agendas that keep employees aligned
How to leverage all hands meetings to reinforce company culture and boost morale
An all hands meeting should bring together all levels of staff, including the CEO and executive team. All hands meetings should align the leadership team and staff on the company’s direction. Unfortunately, many attendees leave these meetings feeling overwhelmed with information or resentful from a flood of bad news.
Employees can leave these meetings feeling empowered and appreciated, while leaders accomplish their objectives too.
Leaders typically want to use this meeting to deliver high volumes of information and discuss company values. It is essential to cover relevant information while addressing core values and goals. However, these meetings present other opportunities for leadership teams, such as clarifying goals and unifying the company.
Executives, department leaders, and managers should strive to host purposeful and consistent all hands meetings. Throughout this guide, we address how to promote participation, address critical objectives, and structure a successful and efficient all hands meeting. At the end, we leave you with an all hands meeting template that you can use within Charma for your next meeting.
The all hands meeting calls “all hands on deck” or assembles everyone within the organization together. This particular type of meeting should always address the current state and future of the company. The leadership team should address the company values, challenges and answer employee questions.
In addition to all hands meetings, which are information-driven, companies may also host town halls. A town hall functions primarily as a Q&A session. Town halls and all hands meetings give employees access to owners and high-level leadership members.
These meetings are critical for employee engagement and keeping the company moving toward its goals. The format of the all hands gathering provides the perfect opportunity to recenter the staff on company values and showcase collaborative efforts. All hands meetings deliver mission-critical components of communication, including:
When meetings run too long, even the company’s President can have trouble keeping people’s attention. You also don’t want to run through data points and excuse everyone. Your company’s size and how frequently you conduct all hands meeting wild determine how long your meetings last.
To start, determine the best cadence for the event, then focus on the length. Consider these factors:
Regularly schedule your all hands events, but ensure that you space them so the leadership team has valuable discussion points, the right platform for staff, and can accommodate the company’s size.
All hands meetings should only include information that is relevant to everyone. It is easy to derail these meetings by focusing on department-specific topics or overloading staff with information that doesn’t relate to them. Stick to the following format to ensure that the all hands meeting is informative, relevant, and engaging.
Open the meeting with a quick company overview to set the context. During the company overview, you should provide updates on:
This portion should not take long, but it should come from the CEO, President, or the business owner. This is an opportunity to inspire continued alignment against the company’s vision and mission.
It’s also an opportunity to tie the individual work of employees to organizational goals. Remember, many employees in the organization don’t interact with you on a daily basis so it’s an opportunity to connect directly with them.
It’s not mandatory at every All-Hands but featuring a specific business unit, team or initiative is commonplace at many staff meetings. This typically rotates at each meeting and it’s your opportunity to pass the mic to another member of leadership, another manager or even a high potential employee.
Special projects and cross-functional initiatives are perfect for this. Special projects often pull on resources from a variety of teams. So it’s a chance to showcase the teams involved in these initiatives and acknowledge their efforts.
Delivering the bulk of the meeting, you can cover essential topics, celebrate staff members, and check-in with various departments. Cover topics that staff want to know about, such as:
Promotions, work anniversaries, and welcoming new hires. Take a moment to acknowledge those moving forward, celebrating their time with the company, and those new to the team.
Milestone accomplishments. Leaders can share the company’s milestone accomplishments. These milestones help employees assess their ability to contribute to company goals and impact significant milestones.
Changes to organizational structure. Teams can come together or evolve into two separate teams. Use this as a chance to notify everyone of structural changes. Then no one is missing out on these updates.
Layoffs and furloughs. Tough information such as the notice of layoffs shouldn’t come from a team manager. This information should always come from top-level leadership. No one wants to hear that they might be losing their job through the grapevine.
Department updates. Although this might seem specific to individual departments, these updates can keep everyone engaged. As department leaders deliver their updates, they can connect those updates to larger company goals and other departments’ accomplishments.
Acquisitions. Acquisitions can seriously disrupt normal operations; it’s best to prepare all staff members for upcoming changes. Even if some teams won’t feel the impact, it is a significant step for the company.
Fundraising events. Spread the news of upcoming events and explain what the event would benefit. Give some details on how staff members can get involved.
Milestone accomplishments. Leaders can share the company’s milestone accomplishments. These milestones help employees assess their ability to contribute to company goals and impact significant milestones.
Special projects and cross-functional initiatives. Special projects often pull on resources from a variety of teams. Identify the teams involved in these initiatives and acknowledge their efforts.
The Q&A section requires a bit of planning, and there are multiple ways to collect questions and feedback. To create a two-way dialogue:
There are many ways to run a successful all hands meeting that won’t leave your staff feeling drained, overwhelmed, or downhearted. Everyone should have the opportunity to receive meaningful information and participate.
Take these steps to prepare for a smooth meeting:
Be authentic. Honesty and transparency will go a long way in building trust within the company. Authenticity is more than a buzzword. It’s something that employees want but don’t always expect from leadership team members.
Express your authenticity by taking these steps:
Encourage audience participation. Your all hands meeting might be virtual or have some members attending virtually with in-person attendees as well.
Managers have struggled for years to increase meeting participation. Use these methods to promote involvement in a positive way:
Allow various speakers to share the stage. It’s vital that every team and department feel represented. Encourage department heads and key team leaders to present information that involves their team. Connect with as many people as possible by highlighting the leaders that they see and interact with daily.
Make it fun. Virtual meetings and in-person meetings have the same opportunity for an engaging and enjoyable experience. Implement games such as trivia, or promote company pride during the meeting.
These pitfalls are common, and it can be challenging to overcome them. However, identifying these issues alongside some careful planning can ensure your all hands meeting runs smoothly.
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