\u201cAll hands on deck!\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019ve never been part of a ship crew, you know what that call to action means: Everybody get on deck and pitch in.<\/p>\n
Inspired by this concept of getting the full team on board and making sure the ship continues sailing in the right direction, an all-hands meeting brings everyone together to rally around goals and values \u2013\u2013 and right the ship if needed. Also called town hall meetings, all-hands meetings are designed to gather your entire team to:<\/p>\n
Many companies have embraced the all-hands meeting and added it to a regular rotation. Often held on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly cadence, all-hands meetings help employees feel connected, up-to-date, and motivated, all while serving as an opportunity to reinforce company culture.<\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re the CEO or part of the internal events team, you need attendees to walk (or click) into the experience excited and emerge informed, energized, and motivated.<\/p>\n
So, how do you build and lead that type of engaging all-hands meeting<\/a>? With careful planning. Read on to gather best practices \u2013\u2013 straight from a team who crafts an all-hands experience their colleagues actually look forward to every week.<\/p>\n 5 convincing reasons to host a recurring all-hands meeting<\/a><\/p>\n Setting yourself up for success<\/a><\/p>\n Creating an all-hands your employees actually look forward to<\/a><\/p>\n Partner with a team who knows how to host an effective all-hands<\/a><\/p>\n While your finance team\u2019s monthly budget review and the sales team\u2019s weekly market review might be crucial for success, it\u2019s your company all-hands meeting that can\u2019t drop off the calendar.<\/p>\n After all, the content applies to everyone.<\/p>\n Your team is working to achieve big business goals and fulfill the company mission, so being consistently up to date makes a difference.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just the opportunity to stay in the know that makes an all-hands valuable. Here are five reasons to keep those all-hands meetings going \u2013\u2013 or to start hosting them if you haven\u2019t already.<\/p>\n This is where trust is fostered<\/a>. No one wants to feel like they\u2019re being left in the dark. An all-hands meeting is the perfect opportunity to be open and honest with your team.<\/p>\n The bigger a company gets, the harder it can be to feel like you\u2019re all rowing in the same direction. Teams that are disjointed or siloed may end up doubling up on work, creating inefficiencies, or inadvertently letting important tasks fall through the cracks.<\/p>\n An all-hands meeting is a great way to update everyone on initiatives and project statuses so there\u2019s wide-reaching alignment on who\u2019s doing what (and why).<\/p>\n McKinsey identifies company culture<\/a> as a competitive advantage that can help a business sustain its growth. Having a visible and open leadership team that invests in regular town halls shows a commitment to communication, accountability, and strengthening company culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can even structure all-hands meetings around company values. For instance, engagement app Polly hosts all-hands meetings<\/a> twice a month. They have a recurring \u201cvalues in action\u201d agenda item where they shout out teammates who embody their values<\/a>.<\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t it feel good when people notice your hard work? Celebrating wins and shouting out the individuals who made them possible is incredibly motivating and keeps team members excited to continue working toward their goals.<\/p>\n On a related note, being open and honest about projects that weren\u2019t successful can help support a growth mindset-oriented<\/a> environment, rally people around learnings, and inspire potential improvements.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, all-hands are all about keeping your team engaged and inspired.<\/p>\n What better way to do that than gathering the team on a regular basis to unite around common goals, culture, and wins?<\/p>\n When done well, all-hands meetings can help inspire your employees to do the best work of their careers.<\/p>\n No matter what your reasoning is for hosting an all-hands, you have some prep work to do if you\u2019re going to nail the basics of a successful experience.<\/p>\n Set your all-hands\u00a0 in stone as early as you can. As new folks join the company, make sure they have this meeting on their calendars, understand its purpose, and know it\u2019s mandatory.<\/p>\n Making it clear this meeting is a priority helps it become ingrained in your company culture.<\/p>\n In terms of cadence, consider your company\u2019s size and pace.<\/p>\n Depending on the size and location of your team, the format of your all-hands may vary:<\/p>\n In person: <\/strong>Best for teams in one central, physical location. These are usually structured with the leadership team up front, presenting off a screen with visual aids.<\/p>\n Most all-hands meetings run for 60 minutes. Having a full hour typically leaves enough time for a team to go through updates and follow up on any questions.<\/p>\n Of course, the frequency and size of the team will impact the ideal length. A team that meets each week might want to go with a 30-minute time slot. Assess the volume and type of content you\u2019ll offer and determine ideal length based on what needs to be on the agenda.<\/p>\n You want your employees to know what to expect. Ask yourself a few questions to figure out what lineup works best for your all-hands:<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve established the foundation for your all-hands meeting (and maybe done some testing and iterating), you can start to think about how you\u2019ll shape these meetings<\/a> so they become a true bright spot for your team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes me feel motivated to react, gets me (re)energized, and provides much-needed cohesion and solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe level of honesty and openness is unprecedented. I\u2019ve never felt more valued and respected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy that as a [U.S.] West Coaster, I actually look forward to 7 a.m. every. single. Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n Those aren\u2019t people talking about a TED talk, spin class, or religious experience.<\/p>\n They\u2019re talking about Hopin\u2019s weekly all-hands meeting.<\/p>\n Hopin\u2019s Internal Communication and Events Team \u2013 has been producing a company-wide all-hands every week practically since the company began. Along the way, they\u2019ve developed a series of best practices that have turned these meetings into can\u2019t-miss experiences for employees.<\/p>\n Take the fact that a recent internal survey among people at Hopin showed:<\/p>\n Now, the Internal Communication and Events Team is dishing out their hard-earned all-hands lessons. Learn how to take your town halls to the next level.<\/p>\n Preparing for a large-scale all-hands meeting can feel a lot like managing an external event<\/a> as it often requires multiple people and a long lead time for proper preparation and coordination.<\/p>\n Ideally you have a dedicated manager \u2013\u2013 or team, if possible \u2013\u2013 who takes ownership of building the experience.<\/p>\n \u201cHave someone own content curation and someone else own event logistics,\u201d says Brian Wilson, senior internal event manager at Hopin. \u201cIt’s much easier to share the load.\u201d<\/p>\n Those owning the event should typically be people who know the business and understand experiential marketing<\/a> as any internal event can contribute to or diminish employee engagement. And you want the experience to be valuable and engaging so it does the former rather than the latter.<\/p>\n If this is your inaugural all-hands meeting, you\u2019ll need to prepare a central slide deck.<\/p>\n \u201cWork with leaders in your organization to curate content that will have the biggest impact on your audience,\u201d Brian says.<\/p>\n Consider including:<\/p>\n When it comes to content creation, lean on your event platform to make your life easier.<\/p>\n Presenting at an all-hands can be nerve wracking. Help speakers stay calm by making sure they\u2019re as prepared as possible.<\/p>\n Start by sending all participants the deck with clear instructions on how to join the meeting, how long they\u2019ll speak for, who will be managing their slides, and how they\u2019ll get queued up to join (whether that\u2019s on stage in real life or on a virtual stage).<\/p>\n \u201cPrep your presenters synchronously and async,\u201d Brian says. \u201cCreate an async communication channel to share the show order and relevant documents, meet with presenters to ensure they\u2019re comfortable with your event tech, and run through their content so you don’t have any surprises during the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether your all-hands is virtual, hybrid or in person, your technology is one of the most important elements.<\/p>\n For a physical event, check:<\/p>\n For a virtual experience, check:<\/p>\n Remember: Practice makes perfect.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve never put on an all-hands, it\u2019s worth running through the entire event, start to finish, in a rehearsal. This will get your executives and speakers comfortable with their roles.<\/p>\n The last thing you want your first all-hands to do is run over time or feel disjointed and messy, so invest in stress-testing your run of show.<\/p>\n Be sure to set up a time early enough so that everyone\u2019s schedules can align. Once there, run through each segment to have everyone familiar with the agenda, all while testing the presentations.<\/p>\n Beyond having a mandatory meeting hold, send attendees a reminder email an hour before the event with the location of the meeting or a link to join, if applicable.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget to remind them the content they\u2019ll be viewing is confidential.<\/p>\n \u201cOur all-hands are mandatory, but we also encourage people to prioritize coming by putting an emphasis on making them interactive and including fun elements,\u201d Brian says. \u201cWe try to infuse humor and make each show as visually appealing as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Your all-hands is a time for your entire organization to get together and it\u2019s your opportunity to reinforce your company culture, so treat it like you\u2019re producing a TV show.<\/p>\n Imagine everyone being excited to tune into the same show every week. What are you doing to keep them engaged?<\/p>\n Try:<\/p>\n Above all, keep your entire approach centered around the goals of the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our goals for internal events is culture building,\u201d says Camilla Boyer, Hopin\u2019s senior manager of internal communications and events. \u201cSo it’s a chance to really build that sense of community. It gives people a chance to just have fun together and celebrate our values. The other goal is information sharing and making sure that we are giving people the information they need to do their jobs well.\u201d<\/p>\n Your all-hands meetings are a chance to let your company values shine.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever I see our new joiners attend their first all-hands, they always say, \u2018This is how I know Hopin is the place for me,\u2019\u201d Nina says. \u201cIt\u2019s a moment where you have so much engagement and such a sense of belonging. It\u2019s a really fun part of our culture. You see people let their hair down, you see execs being a little more funny. It\u2019s a special moment for us to share.\u201d<\/p>\n Those values shouldn\u2019t just impact the tone of your event \u2014 they can also directly shape your agenda.<\/p>\n For instance, Hopin has regular segments within the all-hands agenda that showcase company values, like \u201clead with empathy.\u201d Lead with empathy segments often touch on ways that employees put themselves in their customers\u2019 shoes when thinking about features and priorities.<\/p>\n Shout outs are also included to help everyone feel closer<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll give employees a StreamYard<\/a> backstage link spontaneously \u2014 it\u2019s really easy to do\u00a0 \u2014 so they can give a shout out live to the whole company about a teammate or a group of people they\u2019ve worked with, and have that moment of celebration,\u201d Camilla says. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people moved to tears by the work they\u2019ve done and having that shared with the company.\u201d<\/p>\n Vacations, global schedules, sick days \u2013\u2013 there are many reasons why some team members may miss your all-hands meeting.<\/p>\n Make everyone feel included by providing a video recording. You can even host watch parties for employees in different time zones who can\u2019t join live so they still feel like they get that community experience. Encourage hosts to address folks who might be watching the meeting at a later time instead of sticking to single region-references.<\/p>\n The bank of recorded meetings will also be a great knowledge hub for stakeholders, including new hires who want to catch up on company history.<\/p>\n When evaluating virtual platforms, look for one that has features that make it easy to record event content<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is a meeting that\u2019s intended to serve and positively impact every member of your team. So, don\u2019t miss out on opportunities to ask them directly what they think of your all-hands.<\/p>\n Soliciting feedback gives employees the chance to:<\/p>\n Whether or not your crew is fully connected and up to speed on vital information can make or break their ability to achieve positive business outcomes. Hosting a regular all-hands meeting is one way to help everyone stay in lockstep.<\/p>\nIn this guide:<\/h2>\n
<\/a>5 convincing reasons to host a recurring all-hands meeting<\/h2>\n
1. They provide transparency.<\/h3>\n
2. They keep everyone on the same page.<\/h3>\n
3. They foster company culture.<\/h3>\n
4. They offer an opportunity to celebrate people and their successes.<\/h3>\n
5. They inspire your team and make people feel closer.<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Setting yourself up for success<\/h2>\n
Make it a priority and make it consistent<\/h3>\n
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Choose your format<\/h3>\n
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Decide how long your meeting will be<\/h3>\n
Establish a repeatable structure<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Creating an all-hands your employees actually look forward to<\/h2>\n
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Have someone own the responsibility<\/h3>\n
Get your presentation template in order<\/h3>\n
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Make sure your speakers understand the process<\/h3>\n
Check your tech<\/h3>\n
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Have a dress rehearsal<\/h3>\n
Send reminders to attendees<\/h3>\n
Keep the energy high and have fun when appropriate<\/h3>\n
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Celebrate your values<\/h3>\n
Record the meeting for those who couldn’t attend<\/h3>\n
Ask for feedback<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Partner with a team who knows how to host an effective all-hands<\/h2>\n