More Than a Gathering: The Importance of Regular Staff Meetings

Let’s be honest. Meetings are not everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s generally because they can devolve into hours-long gatherings that accomplish very little. And when your team members are busy with projects and keeping things running, wasted hours can be very frustrating.

But that doesn’t mean regular staff meetings aren’t important and necessary.

Meetings need to be effective, structured, and informative, requiring that team members leave with meaningful to-dos, but let’s take it back one step and consider why we need to hold team meetings to begin with.

Your business coaches at ActionCOACH RGV understand that quality meetings will drive your business success, helping to increase revenue and grow your company. Let’s learn how.

Why Regular Staff Meetings are Important to a Growing Business

Organizations that practice recognition generally see a meaningful improvement in employee performance, which correlates with increased sales and profit. Perhaps the most satisfying element of employee recognition is that not only do business owners see financial benefits, but you also make a real impact on the work/life balance of your team members.

• Keeps Staff Informed and Engaged With Projects
  Oftentimes, individual employees can feel disengaged from the bigger picture if they aren’t actively aware of what is happening in other departments or projects. Regular staff meetings can help keep all employees informed and facilitate the sharing of vital information that project leaders or team members need to know about their teams.
  
  Additionally, staff meetings can help get new team members up-to-date with important information and become more familiar with their peers.
• Builds Team Strength & Relationships
  The reality is that the pandemic has changed the way most businesses operate, which has opened the way for remote work. While remote work can be great for some employees, it doesn’t always allow for the building of work relationships and synergy.
  
  That’s where regular staff meetings come into play.
  
  Frequent interaction with their peers can help your employees build the connections that make for a strong team. Of course, the stronger the team dynamic, the more productive and successful your company can be.
  
  While there’s nothing like physically interacting with your team, video conferencing options using programs like Zoom can be just as effective.
• Opportunities to Solve Project Issues
  Communication is often a struggle for employees, especially for those who may not feel confident sharing their project issues or work concerns. Because staff meetings bring everyone together, there’s an opportunity to crowdsource solutions.
  
  Another benefit is that team members may be facing similar problems in their own respective issues. By working together as a unit, there’s a higher likelihood to resolve the issue. As the saying goes, “Two heads are better than one.”
• Encourages Inclusion & Idea Sharing
  Some employees may not feel comfortable reaching out to their supervisors or team leaders directly, thus great ideas may not be heard. However, by developing an inclusive and supportive environment during your staff meetings, you create an avenue for team members to get their thoughts and ideas out. Oftentimes by hearing others discuss their ideas, some employees will be more willing to give quality input that can improve your services or product.
• Two-Way Feedback
  Another benefit of holding staff meetings is that it opens up channels of communication for constructive feedback on projects. In these types of settings, it’s easier for team members to share their ideas and grow from each other’s insights.
  
  As a business owner, it’s also important to open the floor to feedback from employees to team leaders. Allowing for this type of two-way feedback keeps your employees engaged and makes them feel like their voices and opinions matter.
• Facilitates Meaningful Brainstorming Sessions
  Sometimes teams just need to talk it out. This may seem overly simplified, but consistently working on a given project can create a sort of mental block that doesn’t allow for the resolution of a specific problem.
  
  But when you get all of your employees involved, thinking critically and creatively, the potential is boundless. The opportunity to create great ideas increases substantially when you have all your team working together.
• A Great Environment to Celebrate Success
  Regular staff meetings can be a great setting to take advantage of when it comes to celebrating the successes your team has accomplished over the last week.
  
  We know from our past blog that employee recognition is important to the overall success of your business, so taking the time to acknowledge your team’s accomplishments during a routine staff meeting can help you reap the benefits that frequent staff meetings bring while improving employee morale.

Leading an Effective Team Meeting

A positive staff meeting can provide the boost of morale your team needs, ease frustrations, and help keep your team informed. In order to conduct an effective staff meeting, follow these tips:

• Plan Ahead
  The first step to holding an effective team meeting is to plan ahead and make some initial decisions, including:
  
  -The frequency of staff meetings
  -Determining who will need to attend these meetings
  -Select meeting topics
  -Prepare an agenda to share with your staff beforehand
  
  You’ll also want to consider the workload of your staff, the meeting location, and whether you’ll need any specific tech to help with presentations — which can be vital when some staff work remotely and others are onsite.
• Seek Team Input At Least a Day Ahead
  While building your agenda, you’ll want to reach out to your team and see if anyone wants to bring up specific topics, projects, or issues they are facing. This allows you to gain some insight into specific concerns that may arise during the meeting while also allowing you to add items to the agenda and plan accordingly.
• Use Your Time Wisely
  In a successful business, employees are always busy, and taking time away from important projects can get them behind on their responsibilities. That is why it is so important to use your time (and theirs) wisely.
  
  Make sure to always start your meeting on time — barring some sort of emergency or unexpected event. You’ll also want to want to move through the meeting effectively; as a leader, your job is to keep the meeting moving forward and redirect conversations when they get off track. This will also help to ensure your meeting ends on time.
• Switch Things Up
  Meetings can easily become monotonous gatherings where team leaders essentially hijack the conversation. Don’t allow this to happen! Add some variety to each meeting and make sure to keep things light when you can. Some ways to spice up your meetings include:
  
  -Keep a sense of humor
  -Celebrate team successes
  -Provide snacks or food for your team
  -Do a lightning round of updates
  -Run a quick team building activity
• Follow-Up on Key Points & Assignments
  Meetings shouldn’t be held just for the sake of holding a meeting. There needs to be meaningful follow-up on all assignments that were doled out at the meeting. Additionally, if team members had questions that weren’t answered during the meeting, then there should be follow-up with this as well.
  
  By reconnecting with your team and getting them the information they need, you’ll build better relationships and channels of communication.

Take Action & Grow Your Business With ActionCOACH RGV

Staff meetings can play a critical role in the success of your company and can help keep your team engaged and thriving. If you’re in search of additional insights into how you can hold quality meetings, how you can improve cash flow, and grow your business revenue, look no further than ActionCOACH RGV.

Our business coaches have years of experience helping entrepreneurs and company owners just like you, take their business to the next level.