How to run an All Hands

There are already a ton of articles out there about the importance of internal communications. But I wanted to focus on a quick article around one piece in particular: All Hands.

What is an All Hands?

It’s a weekly company-wide meeting that brings everyone together, keeps everyone on the same page, an avenue for updates, and ensures consistency in information distribution.

How often should All Hands be?

Weekly.

Whether it's 30- or 60-minutes, there is always something to update the company on. It creates a cadence of consistency, and if someone misses one they can easily catch up the following week. Set a day and time that works for the majority of your company; if you have a worldwide team, aim for earlier in the day to accommodate the most working timezones.

Who should run All Hands?

Marketing.

We have the flare and showmanship to keep the company engaged, the organization and design skills to keep it on track, and the event management experience required to be successful.

What can a typical agenda be?

Here are some suggested agenda topics, some of which can be interval updates:

• Have new employees introduce themselves
• Go over open roles - highlight any new postings
• New product features, and upcoming roadmap items
• New clients and success stories
• Recap events and sponsorships
• Update on company finances, revenue targets
• Project updates across the company
• Other company updates
• Games and trivia!

For new employee intros, set up a simple template that they complete during onboarding. Have them fill it with pictures, gifs, and stories that will tell the company more about them –?less about where they worked, more about what makes them unique. Here’s a sample I used at my last 2 companies:

(Download it here)

How do you encourage participation?

To get the ball rolling, it may be necessary to schedule each function for weekly updates, until a cadence is built there participation is more organic. Then typically I post at the beginning of the week in Slack/Teams for topics and additions.

How do we keep it scheduled?

I had a simple Google Sheet with the following columns that I used to keep track of regularly scheduled updates, and general updates:

Should I brand it?

Of course! We’re marketers, make the deck as polished as you can. The importance behind the look and feel of the presentation will distill to the team just how important it is. It’ll also add an element of fun.

How do I measure success and engagement?

From time to time, you’ll want to make sure the All Hands is as effective as possible. I suggest sending a survey, maybe once a year or every other quarter. Here’s a sample of the questions I asked:

Do you attend All Hands live?

If yes:

• On average, how would you rate the usefulness of All Hands?
• What do you like about All Hands?
• What would you like to see MORE of?
• What would you like to see LESS of?
• If it meant more people could attend, would you be okay having All Hands earlier in the day?
• What is your preference on frequency?

If no:

• Do you watch the recording afterwards?
• Why don’t you participate in All Hands?
• If All Hands was every other week, would you participate?

Any other feedback you’d like to share?

Again, be transparent, share the findings at a future All Hands!

Anything else?

Above all, stay the course. Habits and company rhythms take a while to form, so it’s important to stay consistent. You’ll get naysayers that say it’s a waste of time, or they’re busy. But you’re only asking for someone to invest 30-60 minutes of their weekly time to something company-wide. I guarantee the majority of your company will value this.

Remember: if your CEO can make time, everyone else can, too.

→ Learn more about Tony at tonyvlismas.com.