How to Set Up an “All Staff” Google Group in 5 Minutes

Are you sick of typing a dozen email addresses into calendar invites, hunting down external freelancer contacts, and praying you haven’t left anyone out when you email all your staff, or send a meeting invitation?

In this guide, I walk through how to create one automated contact address—like staff@yourdomain.com.au—that updates your team calendar, syncs meeting invites, and easily handles all-staff broadcast emails.

Step 1: Create your “All Staff” Google Group

Head over to your Google Workspace Admin console (admin.google.com). Creating a group is included in your standard Google Workspace subscription, so it won’t cost you an extra cent.

• In the left-hand menu, navigate to Directory > Groups.
• Click Create group.
• Name it clearly (e.g., All Staff) and give it an email address like staff@yourdomain.com.au. Add a short description, set your own email address as the owner, and click Next.
• Under Access settings, find the Who can post row and set permissions to Group managers and Group owners only.
• If you work with external consultants or freelancers and want them to be part of this group, scroll down and check Allow admins to add external members (leave “Allow users” deselected).
• Click Create Group.

Why Restrict Posting Permissions? Restricting “Who can post” to managers and owners prevents accidental reply-all or company-wide blasts from unauthorised senders.

Step 2: Add your members

• Click Add members
• Click Add members again 
• If you need to add external accounts then type their email address in the ‘Find a user or group’ field.

Otherwise, there’s a secret setting that means you never have to come in and update this group again for your internal users!

• Click Advanced in the lower left of the screen
• Check ‘Add all current and future users’. 
• Click Add to group

Step 3: Fix your team calendar sharing

Now that your group exists, you can set up your team calendar once and never touch the sharing settings again.

• Open Google Calendar in your account.
• If you already have a shared team calendar, click the three vertical dots next to its name on the left sidebar and select Settings and sharing.
• If you need a new one, click the + next to Other calendars and select Create new calendar.
  • Follow the steps to create a new calendar.
• Click on Shared with in the left hand side menu.
• Click Add people and groups.
• Instead of typing every individual staff email, type your new group email address: staff@yourdomain.com.au.
• Set your permissions. If you want staff to view events without editing them, leave the default setting and click Send.
  • If you want them to add events, select Make changes to events.

Note: Granting edit access allows members to delete events as well. If you want tighter control over your main schedule, keep the group permissions as “read-only” and grant edit permissions individually to specific managers.

Once sent, everyone in the group receives an automatic invite to view the shared calendar.

Step 4: Streamline meeting invitations and broadcast emails

With your Google Group active, company-wide communication takes seconds:

• Company-Wide Meeting Invites: When creating an event in Google Calendar, click Add guests and type staff@yourdomain.com.au. Everyone gets an individual invitation. If it is a recurring meeting, future staff additions automatically inherit the invite.
• Team Broadcasts: Need to send an update to the whole business? Type staff@yourdomain.com.au into the To field in Gmail. The email lands in the inbox of every internal team member and external contractor listed in the group.

Note: Unlike Google Contacts labels—which do not work reliably on mobile devices—Google Group addresses work inside the mobile Gmail app on iOS and Android. You can email the entire business straight from your phone on site.

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