Meetings are great and are necessary to advance a project or organization. However, unlike many things, too many meetings is bad. Bad for morale, bad for productivity and bad for your bottom line.
In the US alone we “enjoy” 11 million formal business meetings each day and we waste $37 Billion in unnecessary meetings every year.
Funny, shocking and Interesting statistics on meetings
- 37 percent of employee time is spent in meetings
- managers attend more than 60 meetings per month
- 47% consider too many meetings the biggest waste of time
- 39% of meeting participants admitted to dozing off during a meeting
- Over 70% brought other work to meetings
- it is estimated that 25-50% of meeting time is wasted
- The researchers found that the more meetings employees attended, the more exhausted they felt and the higher they perceived their workload to be.
How much do your meetings cost and how much do you waste?
I have jokingly called meetings the biggest expense you cannot see on your P&L. To help you understand your meeting cost we have a simple meeting cost calculator.
Opportunity for gains
It is obvious that you can gain a lot by improving your meetings, by having less meetings and by being selective on who to invite.
- 73% consider having a prepared agenda as “very important.”
- 92% of meeting attendees value meetings as an opportunity to contribute to the organization
Good meetings are good for morale, company culture and overall (financial) performance. Read more on how you can improve your meetings.
Sources for statistics on meetings
http://business.salary.com/why-how-your-employees-are-wasting-time-at-work/slide/9/
https://e-meetings.verizonbusiness.com/global/en/meetingsinamerica/uswhitepaper.php
http://www.keyorganization.com/time-management-statistics.php
http://officeteam.rhi.mediaroom.com/meetings
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastianbailey/2013/08/08/just-say-no-how-your-meeting-habit-is-harming-you/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherfrank/2012/05/05/the-4-question-meeting-you-cant-be-brilliant-alone/