Are you familiar with town hall meetings? Town hall meetings are a way for a company’s management to meet and connect with their employees. Take a closer look at town hall meetings to learn more about what they are, why they are important, and other details.
Town hall meetings should be a key event in every organization’s monthly calendar.
They provide an opportunity for management and staff to interact openly, share information about recent developments, celebrate successes, and discuss any questions that have come up.
Everything you need to know about town hall meetings is in the following paragraphs.
Table of Contents
What is a Town Hall Meeting?
A town hall meeting is the perfect way to bring people together, talk about what’s important, and get feedback on what’s working and what could be better. Town halls are a regularly scheduled, super accessible way for employees and senior leadership to meet and engage.
Town hall meetings, also known as “all-hands” meetings, are gatherings where the team can hear news, discuss challenges, stay informed, and offer ideas. It’s an opportunity to interact with people you might not work closely with and talk about important subjects.
They might be public meetings, but they aren’t typically. If you can, host them in your headquarters office. If not, organize an online town hall meeting for your remote or hybrid team.
Read More: Staff Meeting
What is the Purpose of a Town Hall Meeting?
The purpose of a town hall meeting is to bring an organization’s employees and leadership team together. As we previously stated, this could be to discuss the most recent news, provide brief updates on your company’s recent successes, or just to ease tensions and foster camaraderie.
In spite of this, you should let the goals and structure of your meeting be determined by what your employees want or need because a town hall meeting is primarily run for the benefit of your employees.
Town hall meetings are crucial for putting everyone in context and, ultimately, creating a sense of community and camaraderie within the organization.
Read More: Standing Meeting
5 Benefits of Hosting a Town Hall Meeting
You can connect with everyone in your company by holding town hall meetings. Here are some of the main benefits of hosting town hall meetings:
1. Share Information Easily
For topics that are straightforward and won’t raise many concerns, a company-wide email, Slack announcement, or virtual chat update in Microsoft Teams are great options. However, it may be beneficial to do so during an all-hands meeting when sharing complicated information. With everyone present at the meeting, it’s a great way to announce anything from company strategy to a new Diversity and Inclusion initiative.
2. Bring Teams Together
Town hall meetings are just as much a social gathering as a work meeting. They’re an opportunity to get to know not just teams but individuals too. While you’re letting the company know what they’ve been up to, take the time to acknowledge both teams and specific individuals. Whether you’re having a face-to-face meeting or a video call, try to get teams to support projects, company initiatives, and performance goals.
3. Create Opportunities for Discussion and Feedback
Town hall meetings provide a forum for discussion and feedback, which is important for thoughtful business leaders whose top priority is employee engagement. To increase engagement, give people a chance to participate and express their opinions.
4. Strengthen Your Company Culture
Since you control the atmosphere, agenda, and overall tone of your town hall meeting, it will inevitably reflect your company culture. Use the opportunity presented by your meetings to foster trust, reaffirm your company’s culture, and demonstrate what it means to be a part of your neighborhood. Town hall meetings are also a great venue for you to express your passion for the business and what you do. Each meeting, feel free to devote a few minutes to speaking openly and honestly. In a way that is more difficult to do by email, you can really propel the energy forward and lead with passion.
5. Give Direct Access to Your Leadership Team
Even with their contact details in the digital directory, senior managers can be difficult to reach. After all, this person is often busy, and you might be intimidated by their position
What Do You Discuss in a Town Hall Meeting
Town hall meetings usually follow a strict plan that looks something like this:
- Opening address.
- State of the Company presentation.
- Refer to poll results that were sent out prior to the meeting.
- Features/initiatives in focus.
- Q&A.
- Ending points.
- Survey.
- Minutes shared and post-mortem.
Steps to Hosting An Online Town Hall Meeting
- Decide on the day and time. You’ll need to try and set a time that works for key members of your leadership, and that is appropriate across time zones if you have an international team.
- Send out a calendar alert and memo with the agenda, the virtual Town Hall invite link, and other pertinent information. Send invitations to everyone in your company as soon as you’ve decided on a date and time.
- It’s important to include some straightforward directions on how to participate if this is your first time hosting a virtual town hall.
- If you’re a particularly large organization, you may want to appoint a moderator. Simply maintaining the meeting’s schedule and timing will be the moderator’s responsibility.
- On the day in question, be sure to follow your schedule. It’s always advisable to allow time for audience questions if you can.
- Send a summary and thank-you email following your town hall meeting. A recording of the meeting is a nice addition for those who might not have been able to attend in person. The key points from the meeting can also be reinforced and kept fresh in your employees’ minds by sending a follow-up email.
Read More: How to Host a Community Meeting?
4 Ways to Make Town Hall Meetings Better
Now that we all understand why town hall meetings are an amazing addition to the schedule, here’s how to make them even better. You can use polls and questions to help plan, run, improve, and add value to your all-hands meetings thanks to Polly’s Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations.
1. Plan Your Town Hall Meeting Agenda Collaboratively
Even though a manager usually sets the agenda for your town hall event, you might want to ask your team to add updates about projects, personal news, or “any other business” sections. Use our all-hands meeting preparation template to compile ideas and recommendations if that is the case. This feedback can be used to improve your meeting agenda.
2. Kick Things Off With An Icebreaker
There is no need to take your all-hands meeting very seriously. With the help of our icebreakers, liven up your online town hall meeting over Zoom. Ask a serious or humorous question, then watch as your team members respond. Divide everyone into manageable groups so that everyone can participate during the allotted time.
3. Capture Instant Feedback With In-meeting Polls
The benefit of incorporating technology into your town hall meeting is that you can get immediate feedback. Use our instant engagement tools to quickly gather feedback if you’re hosting a virtual all-hands meeting or an in-person event where attendees are seated at their desks. Ask for opinions on topics, votes for or against ideas, or for a virtual show of hands for volunteers on a new initiative.
4. Improve Future Meetings With After-meeting Feedback
If you don’t ask, it can be challenging to determine what attendees thought of your meeting and announcements. To get a sense of how the meeting went and what could be done to improve it going forward, use our all-hands feedback template. This entire process can be automated, and you can plan for a poll to be sent out following each town hall.
Final Words on Town Hall Meeting
In conclusion, town hall meetings are a useful addition to the agenda of any company. They’re an excellent way to communicate with everyone, disseminate information, and raise employee engagement.
With thoughtful planning and careful execution, town halls are an incredible internal communications platform to engage your workforce and make a real, lasting impact on your company’s business goals.
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FAQs About Town Hall Meeting
Why is It Called a Town Hall Meeting?
Town Hall meetings derive their name from the meetings held by politicians in the local town hall (or sports center or library, …) to discuss new legislation and other topics.
How Do You Make a Town Hall Fun?
First of all, ensure to follow our advice to create a more laid back atmosphere in your town hall. You could also choose to reserve a portion of the meeting at the beginning dedicated to icebreaker activities or more personal updates with a humorous edge.