As a growing company with offices in two states, leadership recognizes the importance of keeping all employees engaged in company meetings by continuously reassessing best practices. After an annual retreat in November 2017, it was acknowledged that our company meetings were in need of a format change. We went from having a 2-hour long, bi-weekly meeting where everyone ran through each item they were working on, to having a more efficient 1-hour weekly meeting. Here’s how:
- Have sub-teams get together to dive deeper into conversations about the week’s “happenings” before the company meeting so each individual knows what their tasks are for the week. Coming prepared allows all teams to use company meeting time to discuss wins, ask urgent questions, delegate rush projects, see which client projects overlap in multiple departments and determine flexibility needs for that week.
- Video and teleconferencing tools such as Skype and Slack allow Small Giants to have face-to-face conversations, screen share and trouble shoot with remote employees.
- Our office manager prepares a meeting agenda each week to keep us on track during the hour of time we set aside. Our agenda covers team wins, active clients, workload reports, team member capacity, blog opportunities and upcoming events.
- Each week a different team member facilitates the meeting in an effort to give everyone the opportunity to be hands-on and work on their presentation skills.
- The facilitator is also responsible for preparing a simple team-building activity to help Small Giants maintain and grow its company culture. Examples include sharing fun facts about team members, playing games, and sharing industry news or educational opportunities.
- In our collaborative environment, each employee is valued and speaks their mind. Every meeting includes time to share announcements or spread some love by recognizing a teammate’s recent hard work and success.
Picturing yourself at a Small Giants company meeting? Check out our open positions: https://www.smallgiantsonline.com/careers/.
