Town Hall Q&A Curation SOP

Standard procedure for collecting, categorizing, prioritizing, and preparing town hall questions, including handling sensitive topics and drafting responses.

Steps

• Collect town hall questions from approved channels
  The coordinator collects all town hall questions from approved channels, such as the intake form, shared inbox, live event submissions, and manager submissions. The coordinator records each question with its source channel, submission timestamp, and any available context needed for later review.
• Remove duplicates and merge similar questions
  The coordinator reviews the working list and identifies duplicate or near-duplicate questions. The coordinator merges similar questions into one master entry and notes the number of related submissions so the response reflects audience demand.
• Categorize each question by topic
  The coordinator assigns each question to a topic category such as strategy, benefits, compensation, policy, operations, culture, or change management. The coordinator adds a secondary tag when a question spans multiple topics.
• Screen for sensitive or confidential topics
  The coordinator reviews each question for sensitive content, including personal employee matters, legal exposure, medical or accommodation issues, active investigations, compensation disputes, and security concerns. The coordinator flags restricted items, limits distribution to authorized reviewers, and routes them to HR, Legal, or another competent person according to the escalation matrix.
• Prioritize questions for response order
  The coordinator prioritizes questions using agreed criteria such as employee impact, urgency, frequency of submission, strategic relevance, and whether the topic requires pre-approval. The coordinator marks questions as high, medium, or low priority and records the reason for the ranking.
• Draft concise responses for approved questions
  The coordinator drafts responses for questions cleared for answer. The coordinator uses clear language, confirms facts with source owners when needed, avoids speculation, and keeps the response aligned with leadership messaging and company policy.
• Escalate unresolved or high-risk questions
  The coordinator escalates questions that are outside the approved response scope, require legal review, involve confidential employee matters, or need executive approval. The coordinator records the owner, due date, and any interim holding statement to use if the question is raised live.
• Finalize the town hall Q&A package
  The coordinator compiles the final list of questions, approved responses, escalation notes, and speaker cues into the town hall Q&A package. The coordinator confirms approval status, version control, and distribution list before release.