How to improve the quality of a town hall meeting

A meeting for all employees - a town hall meeting - plays a central role in internal communications in most large organizations. Senior management uses the meeting to update employees on the company strategy, organizational changes, and other events that affect most employees. But when is a town hall meeting a good meeting?

Organizations invest a lot of time and money in town hall meetings. But in our experience, few resources are spent on systematic preparation and follow-up. In other words: Few organizations systematically work with a before, during, and after.

And it costs a lot. If you imagine an organization with 500 employees, where each employee costs DKK 500 per hour, the total costs of a town hall meeting amounts to DKK 250,000. This may seem like a silly calculation, but it should give you the impression that it’s worth considering the quality of a town hall meeting.

Preparation pays off – even at town halls

It’s five minutes into the town hall meeting and your CEO is standing behind the curtain, ready to take the stage in front of the employees sitting in front of you or attending the meeting on Teams. The agenda is in hand, but as soon as the CEO looks at it, she may start to wonder: Is it realistic to cover all the items on the agenda? Small beads of sweat start to form on the CEO’s forehead. Maybe the CEO doesn’t have time to talk about everything the management team has to say, and maybe she must jump from one topic to another too quickly.

This scenario is an exaggeration, of course, but the point is that a lack of systematization is often reflected in the planning of a town hall meeting. In our experience, management rarely rehearse prior to a town hall meeting, which means there can be uncertainty about whether presentations, agendas, time allocation, etc. will work in practice. In addition, the lack of preparation can often lead to one or more awkward conversations between the middle manager and employees because the middle manager received the messages and agenda at the same time as the employees and is therefore not prepared for any questions.

From top-down to dialogue

A town hall meeting often revolves around the above-mentioned agenda. In our experience, the organizers of the meeting focus primarily on the issues that top management is concerned about. The agenda – based on what top management needs to tell employees – sets the framework for the meeting, and the result is often a one-way, top-down event that may not consider employees’ current and real communication needs. On the other hand, management wants employees to ask questions, but if the same organization doesn’t actively try to engage employees in asking questions, the potential outcome is that employees leave the meeting with a sense of a lack of perceived dialogue. This is a criticism that both managers and employees highlight when we ask about their experience of a town hall meeting.

The lack of systematization in the preparation phase is also reflected in the post-meeting process: Sometimes the materials, articles, and video recordings are shared on the intranet, and sometimes the materials are shared only with managers in each department. This varies from organization to organization but can be qualified by systematically working with an after.

The latter creates both simultaneity and consistency, thus supporting cross-organizational collaboration, which is especially important in times of strategic change.

In addition, it’s a good idea to proactively ask employees to submit any pressing concerns or recommendations for discussion prior to the meeting. This proactive approach ensures that important issues are included in the meeting planning and discussed, depending on the time allotted. Encouraging employees to share their input in advance also promotes a more organized, efficient, and inclusive environment where everyone can actively contribute to the conversation. This moves away from a top-down approach and supports employees’ need to communicate.

The town hall meeting plays a key role in internal communication – and is time-consuming. Invest resources to improve the quality of the meeting by:

1. Consciously working with a before, during and
2. Proactively preparing managers before the meeting
3. Be clear about expectations for middle managers’ responsibilities after the meeting