‘Town Halls’ or ‘All-Hands’ meetings are certainly not a new concept and they’re growing in popularity, with most Town Halls taking place online these days (thanks pandemic).
It’s never been easier to pull one together or to reach so many people. According to Gallagher’s State of the Sector 2022/2023 survey report, virtual conferences or employee town halls are the second most popular broadcast internal communication channels after email (76% vs 94%)*. But keeping them fresh, engaging and your remote audience watching is an ongoing challenge.
Priceless
Done correctly, they’re a great opportunity to get key messages and regular business updates from the senior team to a large, dispersed audience. And the opportunity for senior execs to access the most motivated people in their workforce and keep them on the same page as the year progresses, whilst reinforcing a company culture is priceless. A survey conducted by Gallup found companies with effective employee engagement strategies, like regular town halls, can improve productivity by 21%**.
But getting them right can be tricky, and sometimes Town Halls can fall short in their effectiveness and watchability. Doing them right requires a significant investment in time. For a busy internal comms team, pulling together a Town Hall can represent a huge amount of work Sourcing positive business stories, and chasing senior management & contributors can sometimes feel like a thankless task and consequently, it’s all too easy for Town Halls to become formulaic and uninspiring.
So what can you do to reinvigorate your Town Hall or All Hands events…?
Make them memorable
Try to think how a TV show might approach a similar challenge because the way you deliver the information makes a big difference to how it’s received and retained.
You may need to include segments where some of the senior team present to camera. But for time poor execs, it’s easy to slip into presenting at their audience, instead of involving them, and when was the last time you watched a TV show where the presenter simply ‘presented at the camera’ for even 5 minutes..?
For example, if there’s dense financial information that needs to be covered every time, why not come up with different ways to do it every quarter? An audience will engage better with the data you’re giving them, if you use some creative thinking to bring it to life. Try using analogies instead of Excel to make your points And don’t bombard them with detail. Use well designed slides and imagery to illustrate where possible. They’ll remember the big points more easily if they’re presented in a more creative way.
Add a little fun
Of course, you’ll have to judge what’s appropriate for the size, structure, and agenda of your meeting, but we are firm believers in adding a little (appropriate) entertainment to build a work hard / play hard culture – especially important with a predominantly remote workforce. And launching something a little unexpected could really make people take notice and tune in.
You could drive attendance in advance by hinting at a new feature or segment with your communications in the lead up to the event, whether that’s in the invite, or by sharing an exciting video teaser.
Announce a ‘meet the boss’ segment in which someone is selected at random each Town Hall to spend a day with the Chief Exec. You could even call the lucky winner live during the event to tell them they’d won and ask them to record a video diary of their day for playout at the next event.
Or how about running your own version of BGT – each week you could feature three self-shot clips of staff members who have a hidden talent. Get the audience to vote, and bingo! You’ve got a rolling feature that could build momentum and appeal to those who aren’t usually as motivated to tune in.
There are so many possibilities for making Town Halls more engaging and exciting and by mixing a little entertainment with the strategic stuff you could really widen the appeal and maximise attendance.
Ask the Audience
The beauty of a Town Hall meeting is that it’s a way to bring the business together as a whole and actively engage employees, but this can be particularly challenging with remote based workers.
Town Halls work well when creatively approached as a collective event, rather than a series of one-way presentations. You could try adding a more collaborative segment. For example, a ‘coffee break’ style chat with a different guest and topic for each quarter to encourage people from every level of the organisation to get involved by telling their story or a success they want to share. This can boost engagement, because if they’re part of the town hall they’re more likely to watch it and encourage their colleagues to do the same.
Celebrate the Unseen
And of course, don’t forget recognition. Who doesn’t love a little recognition for their hard work, and with so many employees now hybrid working, or working entirely remotely, the ‘pat on the back’ is more needed than ever before. A whole-team meeting is the perfect place to celebrate your silent heroes, recognise hard work and celebrate milestones without needing a full-on awards ceremony or awards process to mark them.
Expect the Unexpected
Town Halls can be the perfect way to align your teams and really connect the wider business to what is going on right now in the minds of senior management. But because the top team tend to be so busy, gaining their commitment to making something memorable and engaging can be tough.
So consider choosing a charismatic host or hosts to front your Town Hall and take the pressure off the execs. That way the grown-ups can answer questions rather than having to front the event. And by making the execs guests, you will elevate them whilst allowing your hosts to ask questions on behalf of the viewers. An important aspect if you want to make the audience feel represented.
If you do fancy going this route, avoid the trap of selecting your hosts ‘by right’. It’s really important to choose people with confidence and personality and enough time to devote to the task of being hosts. You could even consider running a contest to find the face of your Town Halls to build intrigue. The great thing about having hosts (possibly from lower down the organisation) is that it allows them to ask questions of the senior team that everybody wants to ask – adding authenticity. And by carefully selecting your hosts, it could provide the perfect opportunity to profile future leaders.
If appropriate and budgets allow, you could turn your Town Hall into a magazine-style TV show format featuring multiple segments. You could set up a simple studio in head office, use animated stings, and a mixture of live discussions and pre-recorded video content from around the world to give the event pace and keep the audience feeling represented.
Wrapping it up...
Town Halls can be one of the most effective tools you have to communicate effectively and build a company culture. A way to foster alignment and align everybody with the latest strategy and goals.
All it takes is a little creative thinking to make Town Halls one of those business experiences that everyone looks forward to.