
An employee town hall meeting can benefit you and your business in more ways than one. But to make sure everything goes smoothly from the very onset of planning a town hall meeting, you should send out a thoughtful employee town hall meeting invitation.
Let’s break down why this matters, what should be included in a town hall meeting invitation, and what a sample invite could look like.
What’s the purpose of a town hall meeting invite email?
Generally speaking, a corporate town hall meeting is designed to give an update on the company and describe where the company is heading. Town halls will also reinforce key corporate messages and can strengthen the company culture. A typical feature is an open and honest Q&A – where employees will have the chance to ask questions about the direction of the company.
While town hall meetings can make employees feel more valued and help them better understand the company as a whole, these meetings can sometimes be a timesuck (and even frustrate employees in the process). This is why it’s incredibly important to keep everyone on the same page from the very beginning. The original invite can help with this.
Here’s what a town hall meeting invite sample should include:
- The goal of the town hall meeting
- The date and time of the meeting
- Whether the meeting is in-person, virtual, or hybrid
- Whether the meeting is mandatory or voluntary
- The town hall meeting agenda
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When are good times to hold a corporate town hall meeting?
As you prepare company town hall meeting topics and create your town hall meeting invite, keep this in mind: The timeframe you select matters deeply.
Team building means that you have to get your employees in a mood where they are ready to talk, ask questions, and contribute freely. Your leadership teams will want people to show up in a good mood and not view the entire town hall as a stressful burden.
At the same time, you need to strike a balance between setting a corporate town hall agenda and selecting company town hall meeting topics. You need to build business town hall meeting ideas that are useful and fit your company goals; however, they shouldn’t overburden your employees or make them feel too stressed about the company’s future.
Striking this balance can be a challenge, but by soliciting input from others, you can get the right balance of business town hall meeting ideas.
As such, the time you hold your corporate town hall meeting can be very important — perhaps as much as the company town hall meeting topics that you select. Here’s what to keep in mind:
- Consider holding a meeting in the middle of the day Monday or at the end of the day on Friday. This usually serves as a good starting or stopping point for the workweek.
- If you will host a remote town hall meeting, keep in mind that many of your employees may have to get their kids from school. Hosting a meeting when many of your employees can’t attend is a bad decision, and this will hurt the effectiveness of your meeting. Avoid scheduling a town hall meeting between 8an and 9am and 2pm and 4pm.
- Make sure to balance different time zones if you have a significant company with hundreds or thousands of employees across the United States or even the world. If this is the case, there’s almost no way that you can host a live meeting in a way that will be convenient for all of your employees. As such, consider alternative participation options. For example, are there ways that employees can submit their questions in advance? If questions don’t get answered during the live portion of the town hall, can you answer them at a later date, thus showing your employees that their opinions are still valued?
- If you can’t create an ideal time for your employees regardless of where they live, what alternative options do you have for participation? For example, can you host smaller meetings? Ensure that division managers are capable of meeting with others? Are there specific business town hall meeting ideas that you can have with smaller groups? If the meeting is recorded can they view the archive at a later time/date?
- Whatever time you decide to host the meeting, make sure that you are generally respectful of your employee’s time. Don’t waste their time by making them sit through presentations that are not applicable to them or their careers. Instead, customize your corporate town hall agenda in a manner that best respects your employee’s valuable time and reflects the information that they need to know.
Keep Reading: How to organize a town hall meeting for work
What is the best way to invite people to a town hall meeting at work?
Corporate town hall emails are usually the best way to notify employees of the upcoming event and to pump up attendance. An email is also convenient for tying the event into their work calendar and for quick reference in the future.
It’s also a good idea to print out the email and display it in various areas around your company. If you have an internal messaging platform or social channel, pin a message about the meeting and add a link for more information.
Corporate town hall meeting invite sample
A town hall meeting invite can be as simple as you want it to be. It’s the detail that matters. Here’s a quick, yet effective way to communicate an upcoming town hall meeting with employees:
ALL STAFF CORPORATE TOWN HALL
Presented by: NAME OF COMPANY
Corporate town hall agenda:
– Brief introduction
– Presentation of relevant information
– Q&A Session
Team members are encouraged to attend, to come with questions, and be ready to speak their minds candidly.
DATE & TIME (make sure to mention time zones if your company is large enough)
LOCATION (Include physical location or link to the meeting platform)
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Need help with an upcoming town hall meeting?
While town halls can be in-person, the majority of larger companies are opting for a fully virtual or hybrid town hall meeting. This way, they can have more employees in attendance and provide an easier, more convenient meeting hub for employees who likely have different work schedules, in different locations.
If this is the case, we’d love to help.
At ICV Digital Media, we take town hall meetings to that next level. We eliminate the need for unreliable 3rd party video tools with a custom-built virtual meeting platform. With this platform, you can easily manage agendas, invites, streaming, feedback, hosting, and more.
If you’d like to learn more about this service, give us a call or reach out to us online. We’d love to talk.