Building a Better All-Staff Meeting

An all-staff meeting (sometimes called an all-teams meeting, an all-employee meeting, or an all-hands call) is a great chance to boost employee morale, encourage interdepartmental communication, and address companywide trends and changes.  However, when poorly structured and implemented, an all-staff meeting can be a slog to get through and can leave your employees saying: “Well, this could have been an email.”

Below we outline the elements needed to make your meetings relevant, flow naturally, and some additional segments you can incorporate, whether permanently or occasionally, to further solidify their impact on your business.

The Basics:

Creating an effective all-staff meeting may not be rocket science, but it does take some careful consideration to make it an effective part of your workplace routine. 

1. Respect everyone’s time.  Schedule your all-staff meeting at a time that best accommodates workflow, whether that’s first thing in the morning, during a lunch break, or at the end of the workday.  Remember, however, that mandatory staff meetings are considered “work” and you must pay your employees for attending.  With that in mind, prioritize starting when you’re supposed to, ending when you say you will, and don’t stretch your agenda further than it needs to go.  If you can dismiss your employees a few minutes early do not hesitate to do so.

2. Follow your agenda.  Successful all-staff meetings live and die by their agendas.  Use yours to clearly map out what items you will go over, how long each topic will be addressed, and who will be in charge of each deliverable.

3. Prioritize topics that affect the whole team.  Don’t force a faction of your workers to sit through a meeting that has nothing to do with them.  Address items that are relevant to the whole team, and save smaller addendums for pre-shifts, department specific meetings, or department specific communications.

4. Only hold meetings as often as necessary.  Some companies find it necessary to hold all-staff meetings every week, while others only host one once a year.  The regularity with which you have yours is dependent on the type of business you run, the season in which your company finds itself, and the state of your company culture.  If your business is going through growing pains or a transitional period, it might be effective to schedule more meetings in order to ensure alignment of values, goals, and to keep morale high.  However, you should not be afraid to reassess the necessity of your meetings and diminish their frequency if they prove counter productive or redundant.

5. Leverage technology, especially in remote workplaces.  Virtual all-staff meetings require a different type of preparation.  If your meeting requires breakout rooms, be sure to set those up and assign ownership of them ahead of time.  Additionally, make sure workers know the proper etiquette to employ during the call (e.g. how to request to unmute, or where to direct additional feedback in chats).
   
   Take time zones into account.  If you have a remote worker in a timezone two hours ahead of you, it is not very practical to ask them to tune into a meeting at 7:00pm, even if it’s only 5:00pm for everyone else.
   
   Technology is highly useful for in-person meetings as well.  Utilize company message boards, calendars, and email to set reminders and/or post your agenda ahead of time (this is especially effective if your meeting will be Q&A heavy as it allows your employees to prepare their thoughts in advance).  You can even record your meetings, allowing those who are unable to attend the chance to watch it back, ensuring they aren’t out of the loop. 

The Foundation:

While every company will have an individualized format that works best for them, truly effective leaders utilize the following three points at every all-staff meeting:

1. Celebrate and engage with your workers.

2. Educate and inform your employees.

3. Allow time for leadership to learn and obtain feedback from participants.

Celebrate and engage with your workers.

Take some time at every all-staff meeting to celebrate your employee’s personal and professional accomplishments.  Shoutout new workers, promotions, birthdays, and your employee of the month.  Give out rewards for these achievements, such as bonuses, small gifts, personalized cards, or heartfelt verbal recognition.

Take some time to implement ice-breakers.  Depending on the size of your business you can break out into small groups or ask the room at large a getting-to-know-you question.  These questions don’t have to be strictly work related and can range from: “What’s an accomplishment, personal or professional, that you’re proud of this month?” to “What’s your favorite pizza topping?”  Showing a vested interest in getting to know specifics about your employees, no matter how mundane, encourages engagement and productivity.  The more you are willing to invest in your workers, the more they are willing to invest back into you.

Educate and inform your employees.

Once you’ve finished your celebrations, it’s time to get into the “meat and potatoes” of your meeting.  Address trends and changes within your organization, review pertinent information, present new company initiatives or projects, and acknowledge both wins and losses and discuss how you, as a company, will learn from these experiences.  Always allot time for employees to ask questions in order to foster comprehension on specific topics.

Allow time for leadership to learn and obtain feedback from participants.

All-staff meetings aren’t just for the edification of your employees, it’s also a great time for leadership to learn as well.  

Sometimes an idea that looks flawless on paper might actually be very impractical for the individuals in charge of carrying out the task.  Present potential alterations to the status quo, allow your employees time to acquaint themselves with the proposition through a question and answer segment, and get their feedback on the subject.  Different perspectives can preemptively correct mistakes, refine ideas, and make for smoother implementation down the road.

Alternatively, you may be consistently encountering a company-wide issue that leadership can’t find a solution to.  An all-staff meeting is a great time to talk to your employees about it and get their perspective.  Sometimes, a bit of cross-department brainstorming is the best way to solve a problem.

The Fun Stuff:

Variety is the spice of life and it can do a lot to make your all-staff meetings not only palatable, but enjoyable.  Below, we’ve listed options that you can either make a permanent part of your agenda, or sprinkle in on occasion to address current challenges, quarterly missions, or the specific season of growth your company is in.

• Customer Impact Segment
  Select one or more customer reviews to showcase during your meeting.  These can help boost your employees’ pride in their work and demonstrate how each role contributes to the customer experience.

• Showcase Company Values
  Center your meeting around a specific company value, rotating out which one you will highlight at every gathering.  Talk about how this value is foundational to the work your employees engage in, discuss ways you can amplify it in company culture, and shoutout specific employees who embodied this trait the best.

• Spotlight a Department
  Give the head of a department a segment in which they explain what role their team plays in the company’s mission, the ins and outs of their various jobs, and how they affect the departments around them.  This can be beneficial if they have a recent success story they can share with the team (boosting morale), or to give your employees the chance to learn more about their coworkers (encouraging cohesion).

• Celebrate Cross-Department Collaboration
  Allow your employees the chance to take the stage and highlight how two or more departments came together to collaborate on a project.  Let them explain how they accomplished their task, the results, and what they learned from the process.  Segments like this demonstrate how teamwork is developed in your workplace as well as your company’s ability to adapt to overcome challenges.

• Highlight Community Impact
  If your company invests in community partnerships, volunteer opportunities, or social initiatives, an all-staff meeting is the perfect time to talk about the impact your business has made.  You can also promote upcoming events and encourage your staff to participate in them.

• Invite a Guest Speaker
  Sometimes, especially during a tough month or quarter, your employees just need a bit of a pick me up.  Hiring a motivational speaker to host a brief lecture is a great way to encourage, inspire, and provide new perspectives to your workers.  The topics covered do not have to be directly related to their work to be effective

• Add a Quiz
  Combine new information, company common knowledge, and the occasional fun fact to create an entertaining quiz.  Divide employees up into teams and give prizes to the ones that answer the most questions correctly.  Use online co-op platforms or pre-existing company software to create your quiz and introduce a little bit of healthy competition into your all-staff meeting.

Final Thoughts

All-staff meetings are a great way to promote community, keep your employees informed on companywide topics, and collect feedback on current or future items that affect the whole team.  Make sure your meetings are efficient and relevant to those attending, and utilize your agenda with available technologies to further that goal.  With a bit of work and some genuine enthusiasm for what you’re discussing, you can create an engaging meeting that your employees will actually look forward to.