Poorly organised meetings are costing time and money for the UK’s employees, a new report has found.
Online scheduling platform Doodle has released its The Doodle State of Meetings Report 2019, based on data and new research conducted with 6,528 professionals in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, and the USA.
It found that employees in the four countries spend two hours every week in “pointless” meetings, adding up to 13 days over the course of a year. The average professional has three meetings each week, with an average duration of one hour per meeting. Those surveyed felt that two thirds of the meetings they attend are unnecessary.
Poorly organised meetings are seen as the biggest cost to their organisation by 40 percent of UK staff.
Over a quarter of all respondents (26 percent) stated that poorly organised meetings impacted their client relationships, while others feel they create confusion in the workplace (43 percent), and impact their ability to actually do their work (44 percent).
Supporting this is the finding that a third (33 percent) of professionals find themselves unable to contribute to most of the meetings they attend – suggesting over-invitation is a major waste of time at work.
Responding to the findings, Dr Sankalp Chaturvedi, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Leadership at Imperial College London, described what makes a good meeting.
He said: “The secret of a successful and time-efficient meeting is preparation. The agenda mustn’t be too long. Otherwise there’s a risk of spending too much time on the first items and later items are rushed. The agenda should be circulated well in advance, including the goals of what is expected from the meeting, and specific detail on the subjects and time allocation.”