A town hall meeting is one of the best ways of communicating with your company employees.
It’s one such meet where there is the presence of employees from CEO and board members to rock bottom team players.
The core motive of hosting the event is to build engagement and align the goal of employees and the company at large.
Agendas are put forth and discussions are held on the subject. Trying to get unbiased insights as much as possible from employees. So that company can benefit and modify/rectify its working accordingly.
Although when we look at the history of town hall meetings, they were a platform for the management to reach out to their company.
But with time it got modified and adjusted itself to make it more interactive between management and the company.
A town hall meeting is also known as the “All-hands Meeting”. It’s been organized and hosted by the “Upper Management”.
When there are companies that have an overseas presence and employees working remotely. The management again benefits from advanced technologies and conducting “Hybrid Events”.
A hybrid event is a facility where there is the presence of attendees physically as well as virtually (on-screen). And resulting in a hybrid town hall meeting.
Why virtual or hybrid?
I don’t think I’ve to brief you about the presence of global pandemic COVID-19.
There would have been hardly any nations who didn’t get adversely affected due to covid.
People lost the lives of their loved ones and faced financial distress extensively.
And then there was the need of maintaining physical distance and other precautionary elements for health safety.
This was the time where the “Virtual” took birth.
The official and not-so-official gatherings start happening on online audio/video platforms as google meet, Zoom, MS-Teams, etc.
And the same thing happened with the town hall meets.
It turned online (virtual) or hybrid.
As per the need and convenience, the management made adjustments to the nature of the town hall meets.
Reasons for hosting a Virtual Meeting
1- Convenience for Attendees –
Employees and management can join in from anywhere all across the globe. They don’t have to get out of their city or for that say home to attend the meet.
All you need is guidance from service providers who have expertise in the domain. And they’ll make it convenient and hassle-free to a different level.
Keeping the registration process decent so that the attendees can get on board easily.
And they can plug in from any device be it desktop, iPad, mobile phone, etc.
And believe me, nothing is complicated with prior planning.
2- Audience Scale –
The beauty of the internet is that there is a global appeal.
In online town hall meetings, companies can have employees join from different geographic regions.
Although just be aware in selecting the platforms as there is a limit on the number of employees who can join. For instance, certain platforms can cater to only 600–800 people (employees).
Be wise and choose the right services which can complement the desired scale.
3- Moderator and Interactions –
A moderator is a flag bearer of your event and takes the charge up in the front.
With this, there is no barrier as such in keeping up with the members who’re joining on the screen.
Just plan your moderates and flow of the meet so that there is the least possibility of any glitch.
An online town hall meet is not just live streaming your event rather it’s a whole new experience.
Because the employees can interact in real-time through polls, QnA, screen shares, etc.
These advancements eradicated the need for any physical meets. And satisfying all the requirements and motive of a town hall meets.
4- Communications and feedback made easy –
No, when the employees are on their devices connected in the meeting. They’re going to contribute and have conversations more likely than what would’ve happened in a live hall.
The communications can be done via recorded video, live video/audio, GIFs, screen sharing, feedback forms, polls, etc.
There are 100 ways to grab the attention of your employees.
You can even take the feedbacks at the later part of the event. This will give you a lot of insights and other modifications that you can make in your coming town hall meetings.
5- Analytical Data –
From a personal perspective, one of the prime advantages of a virtual town hall is analytics.
The employees, their interactions, and every small gesture can be made into a data graph format. Which will give you great insight in terms of your next move.
Your decisions can be data-driven and not just mere predictions based on instincts.
There are a bunch of solutions and platforms which give you the access to analyze the overall impact and effectiveness of your meeting.
Checklist of hosting your town hall meeting -
1- Planning –
Plan you’re organizing committee and start with allotting the responsibilities based on personal skills and caliber.
Keep the track of workings.
2- Consider different Time Zones –
If your organization has a presence in more than one nation. Then you need to be considerate about the selection of meet timing due to the variety in time zones.
Just make sure that you as an organizer compromise on your end so that it’ll give out a good message of valuing the time of your employees.
3- Sending Invites and other communications –
Now it’s time to address your employees and let them know about the town hall meeting.
And you need is to decide the medium of communication. As in you’ll let you know through emails, mobile numbers, professional messaging channels, etc.
Or even if you possess a company group where there is the presence of all your employees. You can send invitations and communicate other updates about the town hall meeting there itself.
4- Agendas and Scheduling –
People make a lot of mistakes at this point by not having conversations and building communication gaps.
Have clear and precise meeting agendas as to what points are to be discussed.
What would be the flow of the meeting in the context of scheduling?
These are some of the questions that you need to address in the early stages. So that no confusion is caused to the members.
5- Collect questions –
Run a question collection campaign within your organization. You can perform this activity in a variety of ways be it through a simple google form or with any familiar tools.
The core objective behind this is to get to know the employee’s expectations and views. So that we can accordingly pave our way ahead.
It would be of great help for the presenters and speakers to prepare accordingly. And address them wisely.
6- Choosing the right service provider –
This is can be a game-changer for you. The decision of partnering with the right service provider is all that will define the meeting’s success.
So choose them wisely. Consider all sorts of possibilities and factors in the decision-making process.
Look at their portfolio, domain expertise, technology, equipment, etc. before locking. Consider checking on several service providers and do the needful comparison.
A decent provider will give you all functionalities and features backed up by solid customer support.
Start the search early so that you don’t decide in rush.
7- Mock test –
After that, you’ve finalized your event service partner.
Host a run-through and see that if any technical glitch appears. If anything of this sort happens you’ll able to address it in advance.
Get your companies IT department in the loop and carry the mock in their presence.
In the end, you’ll be able to run your town hall meeting without any hindrances.
8- Engagement –
This is a point where you can’t make a mistake. When you engage with your potential audience somewhere they feel worth it.
And you just can’t miss this opportunity.
Keep your moderates already established and timestamps where you need to take the charge and converse with them.
And this will give confidence to them resulting in more participation and contribution from their end.
9- Vibe and Meeting Flow –
It’s your responsibility to build such a cozy and vibrant environment where no one feels left out and shy to present their point of view.
Make the whole experience more of a conversation than just a formal boring meeting where people are afraid and hesitant in presenting their thoughts.
Keep your whole meeting materials handy and preferably in a video format so that it’s catchy to hold onto people’s attention.
10- Feedback –
Now that you’re done with the town hall meeting. It’s time to take feedbacks and insight from your attendees.
Run a quick feedback interface onto the devices of your employees at the end of the session.
Don’t have it after the session is ended. As people are least likely to fill anything later.
The Core Objectives of a Town Hall Meeting
1- A broader perspective –
When we ask the question, as to why even a town hall meeting is required? Or why is it any way different from other meetings?
An answer to this would be the above point.
A town hall meeting gives employees a broader perspective in the context of a company.
Where the upper management tries to align the company goals concerning the goals of their employees.
So that there is no disparity in between thoughts of an employee and company at large.
2- Management & Employee Relationship –
When we boil down things to very fundamentals it’s all about warmth and bond between the two.
Some organizations pay well but then are not able to leverage the best of the potential of their employees.
The reason behind this is that they never invested emotional wealth in them.
And if you’re planning to play a long-term game then this is the doorway.
Build a warm relationship with your employees.
And this is where the town hall meeting takes the charge and does the work.
Format of a Town Hall Meeting
There are 3 elements in the meet.
1- Introductory –
The meeting is inaugurated by the moderator followed by a speech by a CEO or a Managing Director of the company.
2- In-between –
After the meeting is commenced the presentations and other speeches are catered.
3- Wrap up –
When all the objectives are fulfilled. A close-up speech is delivered again by an upper management executive. And then you collect the feedbacks.
Again, the success will be defined by the choice you make in selecting the event service provider.
Do it wisely.
This is how a town hall meeting looks like from a bird’s view.
And I hope the article would’ve complemented your time in some way.
Although if you’ve got any suggestions or views on the subject,
You’re always welcome in the comments down below.
