Provisional Blog

Most people don’t look forward to company meetings. Why? Even though they’re an essential part of doing business, they’re also usually long and dull.

So what can you do to spice up your meetings? Here are some tips:

Prepare and send out an agenda ahead of time.
If people know what topics you will cover, they will mentally prepare ahead of time – which will lead to a more productive meeting.

Plan to keep your meeting short, from 30-60 minutes.
After that one-hour mark, you tend to start losing people. If you have to hold a meeting that you think will run longer, consider breaking it up into two sessions.

Start meetings with an icebreaker.
Depending the meeting’s topic, go around the table and have each person share their experiences. For instance, if you’re meeting about improving customer satisfaction, have each attendee tell the group one positive and one negative they get in terms of feedback from your customers.

Use creative presentation methods.
Don’t lecture your employees. Use a range of presentation methods to keep them interested and to inspire discussion. It never hurts to add a little bit of humor into the mix, as well. (No off-color or inappropriate jokes, though.)

Change your meeting venue.
Instead of always meeting in the conference room, take your employees to lunch to meet about the topic. The flow of conversation and feedback is easier in a more relaxed setting. Or, if the weather’s nice, go outside. You never know, a little fresh air could offer a fresh perspective.

As a Northwest staffing agency, we know that your time is valuable – and the last thing you want to do is waste it on unproductive meetings. Instead, spice up your meetings a little so they are both more effective and more enjoyable.

Layoffs. Cost cutting. Hiring freezes. They all have the same negative impact on employee morale. However, slowdowns may actually provide an ideal opportunity to fix what’s broken and emerge stronger than ever from the recession. Here are five strategies that can help:

#1. Set the tone among your staff.
You don’t want rumors running rampant in the office. So be as honest as possible with employees about where the company stands. Explain both the challenges and opportunities that will be faced in the near future. Always try to be as reassuring and transparent as possible.

#2. Get your employees involved in problem solving.
Make sure your employees understand how their individual jobs connect to the bigger picture. Then ask them for feedback and help in reducing inefficiencies, cutting costs, and increasing profits.

Engaging your employees in this way will help them to feel more invested in the company. Plus, since they’re on the front lines everyday, they may be able to offer you a more accurate idea of what’s working and what’s not in their individual departments or positions.

#3. Hire top talent.
For some companies, hiring is out of the question right now. But for others, the recession is an ideal time to hire since there are more qualified employees on the job market than ever before. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can recruit A-level talent at a B-level salary. If you do, as soon as the economy picks up, that talent will be out the door, in search of greener pastures.

#4. Keep critical talent happy.
Sometimes it’s easy to fall into the mindset that employees are happy to just have a job during a recession. But the reality is that cuts, freezes, and layoffs may cause some of your critical talent to look for opportunities elsewhere. So it’s important to keep them happy – whether it’s through a promotion, bonus, or employee recognition program.

#5. Seek out new opportunities.
A recession may not sound like the best time to take on new initiatives, but if you’re going to emerge from the slowdown in a stronger position, you need to remain competitive.

So look for situations where your competition is unable to address customer needs and enlist your employees to go after those customers. Or ask staff members to spend some time now to research and develop new products or services. Even if you can’t afford to launch anything at the moment, doing the legwork now will reduce the time to market later. In addition, employees will feel energized and reassured by these plans for growth.

If you’re searching for additional strategies for managing employees in a downturn, please contact Provisional. As the Northwest’s leader in specialized recruiting and staffing services, we have plenty of tips and advice we can offer related to effective employee management techniques. We can also help you recruit high quality talent for your company.