All Hands Meeting Template

Related Templates

• Staff Meeting Agenda
• Executive Strategy Session
• Management Team Meeting

All-Hands Meeting and Template

The all-hands meeting is an important meeting that calls all employees for updates on the company plus provides recognition for outstanding work. They often entail having the CEO or other leader speak directly to their employees, so their teams have information directly from their leadership. Although the all-hands meeting can be company-wide, they often are held regionally or even within a department. These meetings can be called both regularly and when there is important news to convey to employees.

Why All Hands Meetings are Important

All-hands meetings convey information to the employees that they might not get from just a memo. These meetings are important because it aligns the employees to the company vision and strategy and provides vital information and allows employees to ask questions. It is also a way for management to hear from employees they might not normally hear from. It provides leadership guidance and direction that employees would not normally receive at other times.

Creating an All Hands Meeting Agenda

As important as an all-hands meeting is, it requires an all-employee meeting agenda. Especially if the communication is remote, a virtual all-hands meeting agenda is crucial to keeping the meeting on topic. An agenda helps keep the meeting on track and prevents it from getting sidetracked with unnecessary tasks and problems that are better suited for smaller and more focused meetings. A good idea is to send the all-hands presentation template beforehand to the employees so they know what topics to expect. The agenda for the all-hands meeting may vary, depending on what is needed, but most follow a similar agenda to the following list:

• Introduction and why the company called all-hands meeting.
• Celebration of work accomplished, milestones achieved, and recognition on work anniversaries. Can also include any special congratulations for personal life events such as birthdays, marriages, new baby, etc.
• The CEO or leadership should have an all-hands meeting speech ready to tell the employees important information. This information should include:
  • Company vision
  • Company metrics
  • Customer, employee, and project updates
  • Any news or announcements
• The meeting then should open for all-hands meeting questions from employees. This helps empower employees to find out information about the company they wouldn’t necessarily know from their work and day to day business.
• Wrap up, including any reminders of events happening soon in the company.

Download a free all-hands meeting template here.

Virtual All-Hands Meeting Ideas

With more companies turning to virtual meetings, many organizations use meeting software for their all-hands meetings. These virtual all-hands meetings still need a remote all-hands meeting agenda, but it may help implement some creative ideas to facilitate the remote meeting. These include:

• Fun icebreaker question posted ahead of time, so people have something to do while waiting for everyone to show up.
• Interject humor into presentations and speeches (visual and auditory) to help keep people’s attention.
• Metrics should be simplified. People don’t want to read a spreadsheet — they want the bottom line.
• Record the meeting so that those who couldn’t attend can download it later.
• Be sure to have any presentations available for download.
• Give shout outs to attendees. Let them know their leadership appreciates their attendance.
• Use Docket to simplify the meetings.