ARE YOUR MEETINGS OVERKILL OR PRODUCTIVE; DO THEY HAVE PURPOSE OR IS IT ONGOING RAMBLING & REPITION THAT'S EATING INTO TIME & MONEY?

DON’T GET US WRONG, MEETINGS ARE NECCASSARY FOR A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS, BUT HOW OFTEN & HOW MANY ARE TOO MUCH?

We surveyed over 8,000 local employees, from upper management, to operators. Over 70% of those interview believed their company focused more on meetings than on new opportunities. Some said opportunities were missed and deadlines were even pushed out due to meetings taking up valuable time. If you find yourself meeting every week for more than 1 hour it also seems to make employees feel as if they’re not trusted. 

Personally I’ve found that a solid meeting is one that’s held at most bi-weekly for an hour, where tasks and planning is discussed, as well as reviewing recent projects. To be even more organized we’ve found that planning out a monthly strategy and then meeting to discuss has been the most beneficial and organized.

We’ll be sharing many statics below, but here’s one stat that really caught our attention; data shows that unproductive meetings are linked to roughly $37 billion in losses per year. 

Most employees in the United States (around 83%) spend up to 33% of their workweek in meetings. That stat was taken in 2o21 and the numbers have only gone up.

When determining the purpose of the meeting, repetition in messaging stood out the most. Employee’s stated, that many meetings are simply a repeat of what had been discussed just 3-4 days prior. Companies also found that an overabundance of meetings lights the spark that causes chaos an unorganized tasks. When you meet with a team every 4-5 business days management is more likely to shoot from the hip and assign tasks off an idea that just then popped in their head. Just 11% of meetings are considered productive, despite organizations spending around 15% of their working hours in meetings.

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PROVEN STATISTICS FROM UNPRODUCTIVE MEETING STRATEGIES: 2021 - 2023

$37 BILLION

Unproductive meetings cause just over $37 billion to be lost each year.

USA LIKES MEETINGS

There are around 55 million meetings held each week in the U.S. That’s at least 11 million per day and over 1 billion per year.

TODAYS AGENDA, MEETINGS

The majority (around 83%) of employees will spend up to 33% of their workweek in meetings!

WE DON'T MEET ENOUGH

Time spent in meetings has been rising by 8% to 10% every year since 2000.

TICK TOCK

The average employee spends at least 3 hours a week in meetings. 30% of workers report

I MEAN, I HAVE NOTHIONG BETTER TO DO

The average employee spends at least 3 hours a week in meetings. 30% of workers report that they spend over 5 hours per week in meetings.

I ENJOY HEARING MYSELF TALK...LISTEN

Organizations spend around 15% of their time in meetings. Surveys show that 71% of those meetings are created without a real plan and therefore unproductive.

WE DON'T MEET ENOUGH

24 billion hours are wasted each year as the result of unproductive meetings. Noting that 78% attending do not have a real need to sit in on it.

MON & WED

Mondays are been proven to be the day that employees have the most meetings, whereas Wednesdays are when they have the longest meetings. Often times companies do both.

DON'T FORGET TO PREPARE TOO

On average, a corporate employee spends 2 hours preparing for a meeting, and 4 hours in a meeting each week.

RAISE THE UNECCASSRY BAR

From 2020 to 2021, the number of meetings attended by workers has increased by 12.9%.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Studies show that overdoing meetings is a leading cause for employees to be unhappy and dislike their working environment, most commonly mentioned is they do not feel like their time is respected. 

SO, HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF A GOOD & QUALITY MEETING

  1. Schedule a meeting in advance that has purpose behind it, answers pressing questions and addresses pressing needs. 
  2. Respect everyone’s time, avoid walking out to deal with other issues or take other meetings in the middle of the one you scheduled. That eats in to time. Tell others not in the meeting that you will get with them once done.
  3. If you have regularly scheduled meetings space them out to bi-weekly or even every third week for anyone who would be better working rather than sitting in a meeting.
  4. Create an AGENDA. To ensure productive meetings, always create a well-defined agenda beforehand. This will not only set the direction and purpose of the discussion but also maintain focus, promote efficiency, and provide necessary context for all attendees.
  5. To ensure productive conversations, send required materials in advance, enabling attendees to come prepared for effective engagement. Send notes and details on what to expect in the meeting
  6. Start the meeting on time and end the meeting on time. It’s proven that meetings longer than 2 hours are ineffective. Discuss the most pressing items, save the rest for the follow up or next meeting.
  7. Stay on track, discuss what you need and avoid doing tasks during the meeting. A meeting is only there to plan tasks, let your team leave and complete them.
  8. End the meeting, don’t keep everyone guessing or wondering when they can get out of there.