Why All Hands Days Are Essential For Our Agency

At Yozu, we know how quickly priorities can shift in the hustle and bustle of a busy agency. Staying in regular contact with our team in a hybrid working environment is critical.

So, All Hands meetings are an important platform for our leadership team to provide transparent updates on key projects, business goals, and challenges. These sessions help our team stay informed and ensuring everyone understands our direction.

Remote Beginnings

We have been running all hands meetings for many years now – we initially started holding de facto All Hands meetings remotely as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic to find an efficient way of keeping everyone at home in lockdown feeling connected to the business.

Meeting regularly to discuss current activities, celebrating successes and looking at what’s next provided incredible value to our whole team. We also held remote ‘Show-zu’ remote meetings on a monthly basis, which had a slightly different focus. These showcase meetings provided 4 or 5 people the chance to deliver a short talk about any subject that was important to them personally, or relevant to our business.

When we could go back to the office, we naturally combined the two activities and Yozu‘s monthly All Hands meeting was born.

How We Run All Hands

Finding time is the first challenge! We endeavour to hold a meeting every month – and generally do – unless we run into busy holiday months. We also like to run All Hands shortly after our Board meeting, so the team will get to hear about any newsworthy updates hot off the press.

Over time, we’ve made All Hands both more visual and more inclusive. We use Canva to create a slide deck and start preparing content about a fortnight before the meeting day. Slides will be a delicate balance of well-crafted visuals and a smattering of gifs and emojis to add some spice!

Our regular format allows each of our leadership team to provide a short update in each business area, but also to bring the wider team into delivery too. Whether it’s a talk on a particular tech stack we use like Ruby on Rails, or a demo of some milestone client work we have successfully delivered – the team are involved as much as anyone in creating a connected experience.

We don’t forget about anyone working remotely either, we use our #general channel in Slack to share audio and screen displays so everyone can be a part of the updates.

The Benefits of All Hands in a Business

Any business or organisation big or small can run their own All Hands meetings – it’s a simple case of finding the appropriate frequency, content and delivery method that fits for the specific group.

Here’s the main benefits of All Hands as we see it:

Creating Alignment Across Teams

In software agencies like Yozu, different teams—development, design, product, and QA—often work on separate initiatives. However, success depends on how well these teams align with the agency’s overarching goals. During our All Hands meetings, we emphasise how individual efforts contribute to the bigger picture. This alignment ensures our collective work drives toward the same vision and values.

Strengthening Team Bonding

We view all-hands meetings as a chance to bridge communication gaps between departments, especially in our hybrid work environment. These gatherings give team members an opportunity to connect with colleagues they may not interact with daily. By fostering camaraderie, we create a sense of belonging and a collaborative spirit that translates into better teamwork across the board.

Promoting Recognition and Motivation

Celebrating successes is integral to Yozu’s culture. All Hands meetings are our platform to spotlight achievements—whether it’s launching a new application, receiving great client feedback, or solving a tough technical challenge. Public recognition boosts morale and inspires team members to continue excelling.

Guiding You Through Your All Hands

Feel like All Hands is an activity you’d like to start too? Here’s our advice to get started:

1. Setting a Clear Purpose

Each meeting should have a recognisable and relevant format. For Yozu, this includes business updates, department progress, success stories, and a look at upcoming goals. By keeping the purpose clear, we maintain productive and engaging sessions.

2. Choosing an Inclusive Format

Our All Hands Meetings provide inclusion to those attending int he office and at home. We ensure remote employees can join seamlessly via platforms like Slack, while those on-site gather in person. We’ve also supported our team living further afield to attend the office by compensating their travel costs in certain circumstances, so they can at least meet in person a few times a year.

3. Encouraging Participation

Interactive meetings are the most impactful. At Yozu, we encourage team members to ask questions to support understanding. This ensures everyone has a voice, promoting valuable discussions that keep the team informed and engaged.

4. Recognising Achievements

Recognition should be a highlight of every All Hands meeting. Whether it’s celebrating an unsung hero or spotlighting a team’s project accomplishments, taking the time to acknowledge efforts that contribute to the company’s success will make employees feel valued.

5. Focusing on the Future

Beyond reviewing current progress, it’s healthy for your leadership team to always looks ahead. All Hands meetings are a great platform to share upcoming opportunities, outline strategic goals, and inspire excitement about what’s next.

6. Making it Engaging and Fun

All Hands meetings should also be entertaining and easy for the team to engage with. It might be sharing some (approved!) personal news about a team member or showing some photos from a team night out. Keeping the content interspersed with authentic team news will help to build a closer team overall.

Together, Stronger

We’ve made monthly All Hands meetings a cornerstone of our culture. These gatherings contribute directly to who we are as a team and form a part of our identity.

By dedicating time to connect, celebrate wins, and share what’s next, we cultivate a stronger, more cohesive, and more motivated team as a result.

If you’re looking to enhance communication, foster collaboration, and boost morale in your business, we’d strongly recommend making these meetings a regular feature, and hopefully the results will speak for themselves.