8 Ways to Make Staff Meetings More Memorable for Employees

If there is one thing that is part and parcel of business life, it’s meetings. Whether you want to share important company information, provide updates on a project’s status, or brainstorm new ideas, keeping your employees attention from start to finish can be difficult. In fact, you could hold a meeting and find attendees leave the room being no more in the know than when they first walked in!

It’s vital that your employees are focused throughout. If you find your current way of doing things is a little lacklustre, we’re here to help. Here are some ways you can transform how you run business meetings and ensure staff are on the same page as you. 

Use Humour

To keep meetings light-hearted and engaging, you can’t go wrong by adding a bit of humour into proceedings. We’re not saying you have to crack jokes every second. But, showing a bit of your personality and making employees feel at ease can do wonders for creating a more memorable experience. Even if you’re holding an important discussion, starting off with a joke can make attendees feel more comfortable. Even if your joke doesn’t get any laughs, at least you tried! 

Whatever you do, just make sure any jokes you crack aren’t at someone else’s expense. Also, don’t touch on any taboo subjects! As long as you remain professional while you make jokes, there shouldn’t be any problems. 

Plan a Creative Meeting Agenda

If you want your meetings to be creative and engaging, you need to kick things off with a creative meeting agenda! Doing this will show to attendees this meeting will be exciting and different from the norm. You don’t have to make substantial changes either. Merely adding some fun team meeting topics or adding a Q&A portion can transform what your staff get out of the meeting.

There are plenty of creative and fun meeting agendas to choose from too. For example, you could host a presentation on the topic of the meeting or create small groups who can brainstorm on the meeting topic. Just make sure any ideas are shared with the entire group.

Get Interactive

For meeting leaders who think talking at attendees for the entire duration is the way forward, it’s time to change your strategy. Put yourself in your employee’s shoes. If you were to go into a meeting and be talked at for the entire time without a break, your attention span will quickly wane. Thanks to technology, you can create more memorable meetings by getting interactive!

There are lots of tools and software you can implement into meetings that will spark creativity and keep employees engaged. For example, Vevox have word cloud polls that let you be as creative as you want. Their live word cloud can increase audience collaboration, break the ice, and set the tone for the meeting. Other interactive elements that can be used in meetings include Q&As and quizzes.

Choose a Different Location

Something as simple as changing where you house your business meetings can keep employees engaged and make the experience more enjoyable. If you’ve had tough meetings in the board room, staff may not be able to shake off these memories. This means when they walk into the room, they may feel anything but settled! For that reason, shaking things up and choosing somewhere else to conduct business can make all the difference.

If the weather is nice, why not step out of the office and host your meeting outside? Many businesses are thinking outside the box and hosting discussions in different environments. Whether it’s in a nearby park, business grounds, or even a library, the choice is up to you. When employees are in a different setting, they will feel more at ease. 

Provide Refreshments

For meetings that are going to run for hour after hour, you want to make sure your team are well-fed throughout. Employees need food and drink to boost their brainpower, stay focused and of course, get the most out of the meeting. With that said, providing refreshments is a no-brainer. You don’t have to put on a huge spread either! Simple things like tea, coffee, and snacks are sufficient enough.

Providing refreshments will keep employees energised and also create a more friendly and relaxed atmosphere. You could bring in lots of healthy snacks staff can tuck into during the meeting too. If you’re struggling to keep everyone focused, it may be wise to incorporate snack breaks, otherwise, you may have difficulty presenting the meeting if you can hear attendees munching away! 

Break Up the Meeting

It can be all too easy to overload your employees with information during business meetings. This can make staff feel overwhelmed and find it difficult to take what you’re saying in. The last thing you want is for anyone to leave the meeting with no clue what to do next! Therefore, breaking up your meeting is key.

You could break things up into smaller segments and incorporate short breaks. Doing so gives attendees a chance to refresh their minds and refocus on the meeting objectives. Make sure you thoroughly plan out what you’re going to say well in advance so there is structure to the meeting.

Do a Team-Building Activity

Team-building activities are excellent for encouraging participation and ensuring everyone is involved. You want employees to talk to one another, share ideas and give their viewpoints. Therefore, ensuring there are activities throughout the meeting is essential. What’s more, team-building exercises will provide opportunities to establish whether staff are actually listening and taking in what you’re saying.

The great thing about team-building activities is they can serve as icebreakers and make employees feel relaxed straight away. You may have some members of the team who have never interacted before. For that reason, bringing games into the meeting can improve communication and teamwork skills. Some examples you could try out include scavenger hunts, two truths and a lie, and a marshmallow challenge!

Follow Up

Finally, and most importantly, you need to make sure you’re following up with attendees after business meetings. Getting an idea of what your employees thought about the meeting and what they’ve took away from it is key to business growth. You want staff to open up and be honest about their experiences. It may be wise to do this via an anonymous feedback form. That way, staff can say exactly how they’re feeling without any repercussions. 

Before the meeting comes to a close, you could spend the last 5 minutes doing a round up. Try not to take any negative criticism to heart. As a business leader, you need to learn how to take and handle constructive criticism. You don’t want any attendees to feel out of their depth, so giving them opportunities to share their feedback is essential. 

Whether it’s an informal meeting or you’re getting down to serious business, you want to keep hold of your attendee’s attention span from beginning to end. For that to happen, you’re going to need to shake up how you do things. Taking any of our suggestions above into account and implementing them into your meeting strategy can make all the difference. Try any of them out and we promise you’ll wonder why you didn’t make changes sooner!