Increasing Employee Engagement During Leadership Meetings

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the third largest public transportation agency in North America. During their regular leadership meetings, all 1,600 leaders gather to share updates, discuss the latest issues and align with the organizational strategy.

Traditionally, TTC did not see a high engagement during the meetings. The meeting participants had the opportunity to ask questions but most were reluctant or perhaps not interested in putting their hands up, explained Jessica Kosmack, Senior Communications Specialist at the TTC.

To address this, the TTC leveraged Slido to get more employees to participate actively. As a result, they increased the number of questions from only a handful to over 100 and brought people’s real concerns to light. Get inspired by the TTC story.

Battling low engagement during meetings

The TTC’s aim was twofold. First, the management wanted more employees to speak up and ask questions during meetings. Second, they wanted a tool that would help them compile and sort the collected data effectively.

We wanted the ability to provide the questions we received with the right answers and share them with the participants after the meeting, noted Jessica.

The ultimate goal was to uncover the issues that were on leaders’ minds and gather views in real time.

Increasing participation with live Q&A and polls

To kick-start conversations, the TTC used Slido to collect questions during the Q&A. The meeting participants were able to submit them anonymously using their own devices and the questions were displayed live on presentation screens.

We've tried many traditional ways to collect questions via email or using physical question boxes. Overall, Slido got us the highest amount of questions in the shortest amount of time, Jessica continued.

In addition to questions, the management asked the audience to vote in polls to engage them with the content. Once the meeting was over, they also used polls to collect feedback.

After each meeting, it is important for the TTC to be able to analyze and distribute the results efficiently.

Slido makes it very quick and easy to collect and sort the questions afterward. We can download and share them with the subject matter experts and then send their answers to the participants, explained Jessica.

The result: From 5 to 100 audience questions

Slido helped the TTC to start a dialogue with its employees by increasing the number of received questions. The option to ask anonymously also reflected in their quality.

We definitely received more questions because it was easy and you didn't have to attach your name to it. The anonymity provides a real level of honesty, Jessica added.

Creating a safe space for an honest conversation gave people a chance to bring up the issues they were perhaps hesitant to ask about.

The collected questions revealed unexpected knowledge gaps within the leadership. It was an eye-opener, shared Jessica. We needed to figure out how to improve our communication channels outside of leadership meetings.

These new insights have helped the management improve the way they share information with their employees.

As Jessica summed up, Where Slido helped us the most is in uncovering these gaps and the need to communicate certain types of information more strongly or more frequently.