Meetings - are they wasting your time?

Where would your business be if you didn’t have meetings - every business needs to schedule a certain amount of time out of every week to old meetings with clients, customers managers, etc.  But did you know that on average you are wasting around an eighth of the week arranging meetings?

Research from Doodle, the Web 2.0 resource, has discovered that by simply planning for meetings, small businesses waste a staggering 5 hours every week.

Doodle discovered that around 75 per cent of managers and administrators out of 2 and a half thousand spent 5 hours a week organising conference calls and meetings.

Five wasted hours a week equates to a massive waste of £16.3 billion a year for the industry and is the same as £3,932 of the average manager’s wage.

So if meetings are wasting so much of your businesses’ time and money, why not find out exactly what you should be doing to make the meetings count.  Business etiquette is important to make sure that meetings don’t run on for longer than they should and you get as much as you can out of every one…

Formal or Informal

Before the meeting you need to be clear on how formal the meeting will be - make sure everyone that attends the meeting is also made aware as well!  Make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding the likes of dress code for example so there is no confusion.

Be Prepared

It is a good and wise idea to prepare a meeting agenda in advance that you can pass around to all who are attending.  Set a duration time, start and finish within the set time and cover all the outlined objectives - everyone will be happier!

Invite the Right People

You need to give more thought than you might think to who you want to invite to your meetings.  You will need to include a representative from every aspect of the working business to make sure that action is taken after the meeting.

Agree To Agree And Leave It At That…

There is no need to spend 10 minutes discussing why a decision has been agreed upon - if an agreement has been made then move on to the next issue.  Imagine how much time you will be saving - you’ll flow straight through the meeting objectives.

Any Other Business Doesn’t Have To Be A Bore

AOB sections of meetings can feel like they are going to go on forever - they don’t have to!  Have a bit of control and take charge…at the beginning of a meeting ask what points are going to be raised and then get the group to prioritise by using a time limit for the section.

Are you worried?

Do you worry about the length of your meetings?  Are you going to implement some changes?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

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