What Is an All-Hands Meeting? A Guide to Company-Wide Alignment

Also known as an all-hands, town hall, or company-wide meeting, all-hands meetings refer to gatherings where every employee—all hands on deck—comes together to hear important updates, celebrate wins, and engage with leadership.

With teams increasingly distributed across different locations and time zones, these structured touchpoints have evolved from occasional gatherings to strategic communication pillars.

In this guide, we’ll explore what makes all-hands meetings effective, what to include in your agenda, how to run them inclusively, and how often to schedule them for maximum impact. You’ll also learn practical strategies to transform these gatherings from one-way broadcasts into dynamic, engaging experiences that strengthen your company culture.

Why all-hands are important

Beyond alignment, these meetings foster transparency and strengthen company culture in ways that day-to-day communications often can’t. When teams are navigating new priorities or adapting to evolving market conditions, they rely on these gatherings to ensure everyone understands not just what’s changing, but why it matters and how their individual contributions connect to the bigger picture. These meetings create a shared context that helps prevent information silos and keeps teams aligned on what matters most.

They also strengthen company culture and build trust in leadership—something many organizations struggle with. In fact, when a 2021 Gallup Panel survey asked employees if they strongly agreed with the statement that they trusted their company’s leadership, just 23% said yes. Regular all-hands meetings offer an opportunity to bridge that trust gap through consistent, transparent communication and authentic moments of connection.

When done well, all-hands meetings can:

• Promote company-wide alignment on goals and strategic priorities.
• Builds trust through transparent leadership communication.
• Create space to celebrate milestones and team achievements.
• Encourage employee engagement through questions, feedback, and participation.
• Support cross-functional visibility by highlighting work across departments.

What to include in an all-hands meeting

The most effective all-hands meetings balance structure with flexibility to create space for both planned content and organic discussion. The difference between a meeting that energizes your team and one that hemorrhages attention often comes down to including the right elements in the right order.

Here are some key elements to consider including in your all-hands agenda:

• Company-wide internal communication and strategic announcements that connect daily work to bigger goals.
• Key performance highlights and metrics that provide context on business health.
• Department updates and cross-functional spotlights to break down silos.
• Recognition for individual or team achievements to celebrate wins publicly.
• Live or asynchronous Q&A with leadership to address concerns directly.
• A preview of upcoming initiatives and goals to build anticipation and alignment.

How to run an engaging and inclusive all-hands meeting

Even the most carefully planned all-hands meetings can fall flat when they lack interactivity or follow rigid formats that don’t engage participants. Many leaders find their company-wide gatherings become one-way broadcasts rather than meaningful exchanges. Small adjustments to your approach can transform these crucial touchpoints from passive listening sessions into dynamic conversations that energize your team and strengthen your culture.

Share the agenda ahead of time

Distributing your meeting agenda at least 24–48 hours before the all-hands creates space for thoughtful participation. When team members know what topics will be covered, they can prepare relevant questions and contributions rather than processing information in real-time. This advance notice also builds anticipation and signals respect for everyone’s time by allowing participants to organize their thoughts and schedule accordingly.

Rotate speakers to amplify diverse voices

When the same executives dominate every all-hands meeting, valuable perspectives remain unheard and engagement inevitably drops. Inviting different team members to present updates or share project highlights brings fresh energy to these gatherings. This rotation of speakers ensures various departments feel represented while exposing the broader organization to different areas of expertise, as well as viewpoints that might otherwise remain siloed.

Use live Q&A, polls, or chat features

Interactive elements transform passive listeners into active participants, particularly in remote or hybrid environments where engagement challenges are amplified. Digital tools like live polling during key decision points or dedicated Q&A segments create two-way dialogue rather than one-way broadcasting. Chat features provide alternative participation channels for team members who may hesitate to speak up verbally but still have valuable insights to contribute.

Follow up with key takeaways

Summarizing major announcements, decisions, and action items in a dedicated Slack channel or canvas creates a searchable record that team members can reference. That follow-up step ensures critical information reaches those who couldn’t attend live and reinforces important business messages for everyone, turning a one-time event into an ongoing resource.

How often should you host an all-hands meeting?

The quality of your all-hands meetings ultimately matters more than their frequency. A thoughtfully planned quarterly gathering that genuinely engages participants and drives alignment delivers more value than weekly sessions that feel rushed or redundant. Consider experimenting with different cadences to find what works for your company, and be willing to adjust as your organization evolves. Remember that all-hands meetings represent an investment of collective time—make each one count by focusing on meaningful content rather than adhering to an arbitrary meeting.

• Weekly. Best for small teams or startups with fast-moving priorities where quick pivots and real-time updates prevent misalignment.

• Biweekly. A good rhythm for mid-size companies balancing time and impact, providing enough space between meetings for meaningful progress.

• Monthly. Ideal for larger organizations with slower cycles, allowing sufficient time for departments to gather substantial updates.

• Quarterly. Useful for enterprise-level companies to communicate big-picture strategy and long-term roadmaps.

How Slack powers effective all-hands meetings

Slack transforms all-hands meetings from isolated events into continuous conversations that connect teams before, during, and after the gathering. For distributed teams spanning multiple time zones, Slack is a digital work operating system where meeting preparation, live interaction, and follow-up naturally flow together. Eliminating the common disconnect between what happens in the meeting and the actual work that follows, Slack makes the all-hands experience more valuable for everyone involved.

• Share and collaborate on meeting agendas in shared canvas, allowing teams to contribute topics and questions asynchronously before the meeting starts.
• Use threads, channels, and an AI meeting note taker to gather questions before or during the meeting, creating space for thoughtful contributions from team members who might not speak up verbally.
• Summarize key outcomes using workflow automation to recap meeting notes, set up notifications, and organize important decisions and action items.
• Provide follow-ups and resources in dedicated all-hands channels where conversations can continue and teams can access recordings, slides, and related shared documents.

The most effective all-hands meetings don’t end when the calendar invite does. They spark ongoing conversations, keep priorities front and center, and create space for connection across teams. Slack helps turn these moments into momentum—making it easy to prep, run, and follow up on your all-hands in one place.

From building the agenda to sharing recaps and resources, Slack keeps everyone aligned before, during, and after the meeting. Ready to make your next all-hands more impactful? Start by running it in Slack today.