Work meetings aren’t as useful as you think. In fact, they’re actually a huge waste of both time and money for your company.
Over-hiring, failing to take advance of an employee’s skills and talents and poor marketing practices are just some of the wasteful costs that businesses are accruing.
In order to cut costs, employers are increasing their employees’ workloads, expecting them to work harder and longer, all while paying less and cutting back benefits such as paid vacation and bonuses. Unsurprisingly, this only leads to high staff turnover and the staggering costs involved in hiring somebody new.
If your business is looking to cut costs, don’t turn your attention to staff pay cheques, or the unpaid overtime policy. There is one small change that you can make to provide your employees with more time to work, without increasing their hours – ditch meetings.
On paper, work meetings seem important. They allow quick and effective sharing of ideas. Likewise, they allow staff to hammer out plans and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
However, most of the time, they are actually a massive waste of time and money.
Why the majority of work meetings aren’t worth having
30 minutes out of your day probably doesn’t seem like much. However, when you add up the cost of each and every person in the room, it is easy to work out just how much poor quality meetings are costing your company.
Not all meetings waste money. On occasion, they are necessary. However, the majority of them aren’t for these three reasons:
Too much time is wasted ‘brainstorming’
Thinking up ideas on the spot and throwing them around the room is a great way to waste time that could be spent being productive. This will only lead to many poor quality ideas that offer little to no actual value. Therefore, to avoid this, inform staff of the goal of the meeting in advance, allowing them to plan ahead and come to the table with something useful to offer.
Discussions aren’t always relevant to everybody
Sometimes it’s better to discuss things with each person separately. Even if everyone in the room is working on the same project, their roles are often vastly different. A designer doesn’t need to sit for half an hour listening to the editorial team discuss and vice versa. Their time would be better spent elsewhere.
People try to use up their time
When booking a meeting room, it is usually done in half-hour increments. It’s difficult to predict how long a meeting will last. However, more often than not, the key points will be discussed before the time slot is up. Rather than ending the meeting early, people often try to fill the gap with unnecessary discussion or water-cooler gossip.
Meetings don’t have to be a waste of resources. It is possible for employees to get twice as much out of a meeting half the length. However, it is only possible if the bulk of unnecessary gatherings and useless discussions are cut out first.
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