How to Build a Year-Long Town Hall Strategy 

In the modern workplace, town hall meetings open the lines of communication between company leadership and the general employee population. Town halls — also known as “All Hands Meetings” — are an opportunity for executives to share business results, company initiatives, future plans, personnel changes, and recognize team or individual achievements on an annual, quarterly, or sometimes even more frequent basis. 

Town halls allow for dialogue between groups that might not normally engage in two-sided communication, which makes it imperative that they're done right. When a town hall is done well, it can be exciting, informative, motivating, and a great way to build company culture. 

As an internal communications leader, HR professional, or executive assistant responsible for planning your company’s town halls, we’ve mapped out key considerations for a year-long town hall strategy. 

Start Building Your Town Hall Strategy 

A town hall will have value at any point in time, but it’s important to ensure you’re covering the right content throughout the year. At the bare minimum, it is recommended to host at least three all-company town halls throughout a full calendar year, covering the following topics:  

January - Annual Kick-off

This town hall should be high-energy and highly educational, aiming to align all employees with the company goals and direction for the year to come.  Recommended topics to cover in this town hall include:

• Recap of previous year 
• Strategy and goals for the new year 
• Personnel announcements (i.e., promotions, leadership changes) 
• Employee and/or Team recognition 
• HR Announcements (e.g., Annual Review reminder)

July - Mid-year Check-in

This town hall should be more of a two-way conversation between company executives and employees. The goal is to give the company an update on performance towards goals set at the beginning of the year, and give employees the chance to ask questions. You may consider hosting at least two of these “check-ins” over the summer to get in front of employees more than once. Recommended agenda includes the following topics:

• Progress toward company goals 
• Employee Q&A

November - End-of-year Check-in

An end-of-year town hall — before the holiday season kicks into full gear — is best held in person, with virtual streaming capabilities for anyone not in-market. This should have a celebratory tone, focused on milestones achieved and ending the year on a positive note. Topics to cover at this town hall include:

• Projected end-of-year results 
• Items and priorities needed to finish out the year strong 
• Celebratory content (e.g., charitable giving updates, goals met, etc.) 
• Employee recognition (e.g., End-of-Year Awards) 
• Preview of strategy for the coming year 

There are several other topics that are not tied to a specific time of year but will warrant inclusion in a company town hall. Some of these examples are listed below: 

• New company vision/mission/values announcement: A town hall will help educate employees about the new company direction.
• Leadership transition: Gathering employees for a town hall will give everyone the opportunity to hear the same message about a leadership departure and any succession plans, as well as get ahead of any questions employees may have.
• Company reorganizations: You will need a town hall to announce the changes and realign the employees on the company strategy.
• M&A and/or new growth announcements: This type of major milestone will likely warrant a series of town halls, especially if new employees are integrating into an existing company.

Template Agenda for a Town Hall

It is recommended to keep a town hall between 30 to 60 minutes in length. If it is any longer, you risk losing employee attention. The sample agenda below covers approximately 60 minutes of content, including Q&A.

^{*Note about Town Hall Q&A: It is recommended to collect employee questions in advance via an anonymous Google Form or other method rather than a live audience Q&A. This allows the ability to filter out irrelevant questions and focus on questions that impact the entire audience.}

Town Hall Do's and Don'ts

• Do: Plan ahead. Since you’re working with the schedules of employees and the executives/leaders who will be speaking at the event, it is extremely important to align schedules, especially for organizations with a distributed team across multiple time zones. It’s imperative to plan a time that suits as many employees as possible. 
• Don’t: Forget about those who can’t attend in person. If your company has a global footprint and/or a population of remote or hybrid employees, you have to make sure your event is accessible to these groups via a virtual webcast. Additional tools that can be used to better engage virtual guests include digital icebreakers, live polls, and Q&A. 
• Don’t: Forget to provide food for those attending in person. It’s no secret that employees appreciate a free meal, and providing food and/or drinks before and after a town hall can be a big draw for employees to attend. Allow ample time before and after the event for audience members to eat and connect with each other. It will help improve audience engagement and cut down on distraction and rumbling stomachs, while also serving as a positive boost for company culture. 
• Do: Send an event recap afterward. Partnering with key internal stakeholders such as HR or Communications to send an internal email with the recording of the event is a core follow-up activity to ensure that everyone, including those who didn't attend the live event, can access the key information covered in the town hall.

To read our full post about Town Hall Do's and Don'ts, click here.

Choosing a Town Hall Venue

When it comes time to choose your town hall venue, you have two options - host it in your own office, or go offsite. Here are a few key considerations for an offsite town hall:

• An offsite location can provide a central meeting point for geographically dispersed employees. 
• A new environment can spark new ideas and encourage people to think outside the box. 
• Being away from the office and day-to-day tasks, even for a short time, can facilitate stronger relationships among colleagues.

You will need a venue large enough to accommodate all employees in the local and surrounding area, while also remaining a convenient distance away from your main office location. Your ideal town hall event venue should also include catering, production, and technology under one roof. Providing an array of food and beverage options will entice your employees to attend in person, and also allow your employees to mingle, fostering a more collaborative environment. Additionally, choosing a venue with in-house technology and production resources makes it simple to accommodate any virtual participants and also prepare the necessary digital assets for the live event and event recap.

Convene has venues in several cities in the U.S. and UK that can support companies of all sizes looking for an off-site venue to host their upcoming town halls, with delicious food and beverage options and technology and production all handled in-house. To inquire about hosting your next town hall with us, click here.