How to structure an effective company all-hands (or town hall)

Achani Samon and I spoke to dozens of operators across Africa over the past few months, as we scouted for talent problems to help them solve. We decided to write about some of the themes we heard during these calls. We hope these articles would serve as refreshers or mini-guides that any manager or leader can share with a team member to help them get a high level understanding relatively quickly.

A company or department all-hands (sometimes called town hall) meeting is a type of internal company gathering where leaders and employees of an organization, function or team get together to discuss matters relevant to the organization. Some examples are customer feedback, company performance, recent or upcoming news, updates on previously discussed topics, personnel or policy changes, team updates, new or market conditions.

All hands are also a great opportunity for employees to ask questions they have, and for leaders to answer those questions and get a better sense for what is top of mind for employees.

Structure and agenda for an all-hands

The exact flow of the all hands as well as the mix of content to include varies based on factors like the company’s maturity, team size and whether the team is in person or remote. Some potential sections to consider including in your next all hands are:

Reiterate purpose

As a company grows and particularly as headcount grows, people naturally become less familiar with, and connected to, the purpose or mission. All-hands meetings are an opportunity to remind everyone of why they’re here and strengthen their connection to the why.

Reiterate strategy

During the course of execution, employees frequently run into challenges and new opportunities that might present a conflict in how to prioritize competing tasks, initiatives, objectives or key results. The all-hands meeting is a great opportunity to realign everyone around the company’s strategy and improve their ability to self manage.

Share business performance

Business performance updates typically include key metrics and results for the current period, as well as the qualitative narrative around how employees should interpret those results. This is a great way to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding how things are going overall.

Examples of metrics and results include revenue growth, customer growth, costs or margins, quality scores, headcount growth, among others.

Provide updates on key initiatives

Initiative updates are equivalent to a progress report on the ongoing initiatives or activities, either across the company or within specific teams or departments. The goal of initiative updates is to provide everyone with a high-level understanding of what is happening, what is to come, and provide information that may impact how they continue to execute their own work or collaborate with other teams.

Celebrate achievements and people

Celebrating people and their achievements improves employee morale. Tying this to work done in service of the customer, in connection to delivering on objectives, key results and initiatives, or based on behaviors that strengthen the company’s values is an important way to reinforce the company culture. Celebrating achievements and milestones are also a way to energize employees by showing them that the company is moving forward and making meaningful progress.

Share other company updates

Given that you have the attention of the entire company, all-hands are also a great time to provide updates or reminders that you need everyone to know, in addition to sending an email or other communication. Some examples include updates to HR policies, decisions made in response to feedback regarding the office, IT policy updates, changes to travel policies, among others.

Answer employee questions and hear what they’re thinking

All-hands are a great opportunity for employees to ask questions that are top of mind and get responses from several leaders within the organization in the same forum. When planned well, Q&A sessions drive conversations, improve transparency across the organization, and positively foster company culture. As such, in the trade-off between sharing more content, and leaving sufficient time for Q&A, it is generally prudent to always budget enough time for people to ask questions.

Depending on the specific company context, this section could be the first. All hands should really be an opportunity for management to hear what employees are thinking, feeling and experiencing, and if flipping the order of events achieves that, then that works too!

Planning an all-hands

Here are some practical steps to take when planning an all-hands meeting:

Before the all-hands

• Set the cadence (frequency and timing) of all-hands meetings based on when most employees and senior leaders can attend
• Agree on the length of the all hands (recommendation: 1–2hrs)
• Create the structure and agenda
• Allocate an appropriate amount of time for each section
• Create a template document that will be used for sharing content during the all hands
• Align with key leaders on the sections they will be responsible for completing and/or presenting
• Create deadlines for producing a draft, making edits and then producing a final version
• Once content has been created, ensure that the volume of content will fit within the time allotted for each section. Make adjustments if necessary
• Share the presentation in advance of town hall so that employees can pre-read if interested
• Decide whether to take questions during each section, or have employees document questions and ask them at the end
• Decide whether to have employees submit questions in advance of the all-hands, which leaders can come prepared to respond, or take them during the all-hands

During the all-hands

• Communicate whether there will be a Q&A during each section, or whether employees should document questions and ask them at the end
• Take notes and highlight action items, as well as people who are responsible for delivering on the action items

After the all-hands

• Share notes and action items from the all-hands
• Incorporate action items into day-to-day work such that they have the attention of the individuals or teams who are responsible
• Communicate progress updates on action items during subsequent all hands (or via other channels) to demonstrate that feedback is taken seriously

Useful resources

• What Is an All-Hands Meeting and How to Host a Great One
• How We Hold an Engaging All Hands Meeting as a Remote Team
• Want to create better all-hands meetings? Here’s how

Other articles in this series: coming soon!