Company meetings are essential. Frequent meetings with your immediate team as well as whole company meetings is one of the most simple, free and beneficial ways to drive your company forward.
Meetings are important because it is a chance to bring everyone together and discuss how projects are progressing, new projects, current issues and it is a forum for new ideas.
What surprises me is that some studios do not have team or company meetings or even group dailies.
Individual dailies is not only sending a terrible message to your employees but it is wasting time and therefore money.
Benefits of team meetings and group dailies,
- Creates a team atmosphere.
- This team atmosphere then makes the staff feel comfortable with each other. Comfortable enough that they can approach each other without feeling intimidated.
- It creates a forum for discussion and ideas.
- Group dailies gives the team the chance to see what others are working on, creating a sense of trust. For example, Dave may have never known that Jim was such a great compositor if it weren't for group dailies. Now Dave can say, 'nice work Jim'.
- It shows the leadership of the group. Who is the direct supervisor? Who do I direct my queries to?
- Team meetings boost morale. They give the message that we are in this together and we will support each other.
- A chance for professional socializing. Jennie got married on the weekend or today is Ben's birthday. Employees appreciate when their personal life is recognized within the workplace.
- The 30 minutes it takes to have group dailies is much more time efficient than having individual dailies with 10 members of a team.
Company meetings are extremely beneficial to everyone in the company and they don't have to be any longer than 30 minutes.
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Benefits of company meetings,
- Creates a sense of community
- Introduce executive members of the company. Who is the CEO? Who is the HR Manager? Who does payroll?
- Who are the Supervisors of differing in-house projects? This is a chance for them to stand in from our the staff and give a short update on how the project is running. Did we win some new shots? This helps develop their communication skills as well which for members of management is crucial.
- Introduce new staff to the rest of the company.Who they are and what they are working on.
- The Sales and Marketing team can release any news on new work that might be coming in or how well previous projects did.
- Recognize good work. It is appreciated not only to the employee being recognized but to their peers. Share this good work with the whole company because Kate at front desk doesn't go to dailies but I'm sure she's interested.
- Develops communication and generates conversations amongst employees. Communicating with your staff is free and simple. The forms of communication you use as a leader will transcend to your employees.
- See what your employees think. This is again building trust and boosting morale as you are giving the employees a voice. It might be something simple as ideas for the Christmas party but employees will feel appreciated and respected.
Team meetings and company meetings are a great way to not only discuss work but it gives your employees a break. A break away from their screens to engage in real conversation. They can suggest ideas, listen to others and learn something new. It forces a change of thinking which clears their head and when they return to their screens they'll have an energized, clear mind.
See this link for the many benefits of face to face meetings
http://capsvan.groupsite.com/post/top-benefits-of-face-to-face-meetings
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