12 Reasons to Have All-hands Meetings

A good company culture binds everyone together towards common goals and objectives. And all-hands meetings are just the practice you need in your working environment to attach everyone and move towards successful journeys. It is a great way to connect with everyone and promote goodwill and trust.

At Truemark, we hold all-hands meetings once a month to strengthen company culture and relationships. It fosters a good and lively working environment, normally not seen in some companies.

Every month, we host a podcast and all-hands meeting to expand our knowledge about different topics, introduce new members, connect with everyone, and build a family-like relationship. Thanks to these practices, our working culture has improved a lot. Collaboration and communication have become seamless, boosting performance, faster development, and delivery.

We are in an era where people rarely have time for their colleagues. People are becoming more workaholics and don’t even have time to spare for others. However, such practices are hampering them and the company. Working longer hours builds pressure and stress. Plus, communication and collaboration are crucial in a company, which is only possible when you spend time with your colleagues.

So from our experience, we can assure you that all-hands meetings are not just typical meetings. They are a way to make everyone feel connected to everyone and the company, bring them on the same page, and work collaboratively to achieve not only the company’s but your dreams and passions as well.

So today, we have prepared a list to show you the importance of all-hand meetings.

What is an all-hands meeting?

All-hands meetings are casual meetings to connect with everyone in the company, share any news, updates, feedback, ask questions, plus introduce members to promote a good working culture. These help you build a connection with everyone.

It is a way to promote team building, create a sense of belonging, boost everyone’s morale, and most importantly, bring everyone on the same page.

And it depends on the company when to hold all-hands meetings and how often.

How we organize all-hands meetings at Truemark Technology

As stated earlier, we hold a podcast session together with an all-hands meeting once a month, especially on Friday. The main purpose is to explore different topics, share personal experiences, expand knowledge, and learn different new things that will help in our careers. Another aim is to make new employees comfortable and blend with the company as quickly as possible.

Before the podcast, in a meeting, we chose a host and a speaker for the podcast. Once it finishes, the new host and speaker are selected again, giving a chance to everyone to take part. Plus, anyone can question the speaker. In the podcast, everyone has to speak English so that communication with the clients becomes much easier and seamless. Otherwise, we speak Nepali in the all-hands meetings.

In the all-hands meetings, we kick it off by conveying the purpose and introducing new members (if there are any). Otherwise, we just have fun talking to each other and sharing valuable news and updates. It becomes lively when everyone is connected.

We do all the all-hands meetings and podcast sessions on Zoom, connecting everyone involving remote workers as well.

And we proudly say we have a good working culture here at Truemark Technology. We provide opportunities for new employees to boost their careers and give every support an employee needs.

Reasons to have all-hands meetings

Align everyone on the same page

The all-hands meetings’ main purpose is to bring everyone to the same page. Sometimes only the management knows what’s going on with the company and its performance. Employees are unaware of it.

So, all-hands meetings are a way to convey information, about the company’s goals and objectives, its new aim for the month or a year, etc.

Moreover, it is a great way to review a company’s and employees’ Objectives and Key Results (OKR) and Key Performance Indicator (KPI), sales, profits, revenues, and so on. And this plays a significant role in aligning employees to company goals and objectives.

Foster seamless collaboration and communication

Not everyone gets the chance to have proper communication with every member of the company. Everyone will be busy with their work. But, the all-hands meetings provide this opportunity. Everyone can relax and have a conversation. When employees understand each other, it strengthens the feeling of working together to achieve common goals and objectives.

The all-hands meetings are great ways to bring everyone together and promote the “we” feeling. By creating a sense of belongingness, everyone will be accountable for their roles and responsibilities.

When a connection builds, they will know each other’s working behavior.

The all-hands meetings in our company have provided us ample opportunities to communicate with other employees with no hesitation. This has helped us gain confidence in communicating with others freely and working on projects collaboratively.

Promote healthy relationships and trust

When we are in a new working environment, we feel uncomfortable and take time to settle down in the company. Moreover, when we are in a company, we only think about finishing our tasks. We don’t have enough time to spare for colleagues. However, the all-hands meetings help us have a time off from our work and build a connection with others.

In this meeting, you will see everyone smiling, having a conversation with each other freely like there is no tension and pressure on their face. And this is what we are aiming for in Truemark. We want to establish an environment where employees are working, feeling no workload pressure.

Plus, the more we converse with others, we get to know more about them, allowing us to build relationships and trust.

Share updates and news

The all-hands meetings are a great way to share updates. If there is any good news or even a piece of bad news, you can share it with everyone in all-hands meetings. If there are any problems, you can collaboratively solve them.

If the company’s goals and objectives aren’t met, then you can relay this information and plan ways to achieve them.

If there is a change in clients’ requirements or projects’ goals, then you can discuss this with your team members and come up with new estimations right away.

Opportunity to share problems

Sometimes, you are not the only one who faces the problems in the company. Everyone might have one but isn’t saying anything. So, all-hands meetings give you an opportunity to share your problems, except personal ones. When you share problems, you realize others are facing different or the same issues. This also gives time for the company to address your pain points and do something about them as soon as possible.

So, if you have any problem, try to share it with others so they can help you come up with ways to solve them.

Establish a good working environment

The practice of the all-hands meeting is itself a good working culture because it keeps everyone aligned with the company’s goals and objectives. You get to know your colleagues, including new members, as well as remote workers. You get to converse with them, know them, which promotes healthy relationships. Plus, coordination becomes seamless when everyone is in sync.

Everything about the company’s goals, visions, missions becomes more clear.

Plus, you can share your problems. You will have plenty of hands to help you.

More engaging

The all-hands meetings are more engaging and interactive. Everyone gets their chance to speak, raise questions, clear confusion, explore new knowledge, and so on.

Everyone gets to converse, which isn’t possible as much when everyone is working.

When there aren’t any updates left to discuss about the company, you can have questions and answers sessions or talk about your goals and dreams or share your experience. This helps build relationships among the employees.

Plus, it encourages other employees to engage in the ongoing discussions by seeing others.

Help improve the company’s culture

All-hands meetings are great for talking about your company’s goals, objectives, working culture, etc., everything at once to your old and new employees. It shows how strong your culture is and what it means for employees working with you.

And it is perfect for gathering everyone, asking their views about the working culture, and their problems, and receiving feedback to improve the company’s overall environment.

We are living in an environment where trends, technologies, and needs change overnight. And it becomes challenging for a company to keep up with it alone. In such a situation, employees can talk about issues (if there are any) and give some suggestions on strengthening the company culture.

Plus, the all-hands meetings foster better collaboration and communication, which helps improve the company’s all-around performance and working environment.

Offer feedback

All-hands meetings offer everyone an opportunity to receive and give feedback to/about the company, projects, and other team members. This helps not only the employees but the company as well in finding flaws and ways to improve the working environment, guidelines, working process, projects, and so on.

Everyone will be able to give their opinions, making them feel they are valuable assets in the company. Moreover, it will help them know where their strengths and weaknesses lie and

improve accordingly.

Help new employees settle down

The all-hands meetings help new employees to feel comfortable and settle down in the company fast. When they are in a new environment, the only thing that makes them a part of the family is frequent communication. And this is more effective, especially for remote workers.

The all-hands meetings bring a positive vibe to the working environment where everyone is gathered, having fun and valuable conversation and discussion, sharing experience, and building connections. This refreshing environment makes new employees happy and satisfied.

Motivate employees

As stated earlier, since everyone has equal opportunities to share their opinions and receive feedback from the management and colleagues, they will discover their weaknesses. This will motivate them to work on them and improve more. Plus, the appreciation for their hard work and achievements in front of everyone will boost their morale and ignite a fire to keep moving forward.

A way to enjoy and have fun

The all-hands meetings create an environment to have some fun, like playing games, sharing funny moments, and so on. We all know that everyday employees give their best and engage in their tasks. They rarely have time to enjoy themselves. And it is also the responsibility of the company to take care of its employees to maintain the work-life balance.

If an outing is not possible, then add some fun during the all-hands meetings. Have a joke session or music or dance, anything that makes the surroundings lively. Not the whole time, but sparing some time for it occasionally will energize the employees.

In Conclusion

Most companies hold regular all-hands meetings, including us at Truemark Technology. Overall, they provide a unique platform for improving the company’s working culture and keeping everyone on the same page. So, plan how you organize all-hands meetings, involve everyone, and ensure the meetings are valuable to everyone.

Do you host such all-hands meetings? We would love to hear your experience and opinions on this. Your ways might become our new ways. So, please comment down below.

And if you are looking for a reliable development partner, then Truemark is here to assist you. With 5+ years of experience in software development, our development teams are proficient in app development, website design, UI/UX design, and so on. So if you need any help, contact us right away.

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