Holding a Staff Meeting

In most companies it is important to hold staff meetings at some point. There are tons of reasons to hold meetings with your staff. It can be everything from a yearly refresher over company mandated items to just having a celebration of a job well done.

We recently held a staff meeting, our staff meeting was needed as to set the tone for expectations, as well as other regular items. It is good to have these meetings when you very first take over a location. The manager of the location I am currently working at never had a chance to have one of these meetings.

We held the meeting before the location opened for business so we would not be interrupted by normal operations. When you have a meeting it is great to involve as much leadership as possible to the situation. It can instill confidence in the staff that everyone is on board, and on the same page.

Although you might want every part of leadership involved, it is important to make sure that the head leader, in this case my immediate manager over the location, is leading the meeting. That way there is no cross message of what is being portrayed to the staff. The vision of what the company or location wants to happen becomes more clear.

In these meetings it can be beneficial to build openness and morale by telling everyone that their feedback and questions are encouraged, that we do not get to have these very often, etc.

We held the meeting, and got some good questions and feedback from the staff.

Keep in mind bringing food, coffee, etc to these meetings lifts spirits and can keep everyone awake in case the topic becomes dull to someone!

We provided donuts and drinks.

Think about what your staff would enjoy, what would make them happy the most and lift spirits. Even if the meeting is to deliver bad news, more than ever you need to try and keep spirits lifted among your team.
Here is a book on staff meetings I have been told is very effective in aiding them. I have not personally read the book, but have heard more than once that it contains valuable information.