The negative impact of too many meetings

Research shows a high level of frustration among employees who feel their time is wasted in meetings. And it’s no wonder—people are having more work meetings than ever before. Senior executives, for example, are in nearly 23 hours of meetings per week. This is a huge jump from the 1960s, when less than 10 hours a week were dedicated to official meetings.

Almost one-quarter of professionals in the United States are in five or more hours of meetings per week. But it’s not just the number of meetings that impacts your bottom line. Unnecessary or poorly run sessions also have consequences, such as:

• Reduced productivity: More than two-thirds of respondents in a Korn Ferry survey say that too much time in meetings and calls prevents them from making a significant contribution at work.
• Disrupted workflow: Meetings scheduled throughout the day prevent employees from focusing on work that requires concentration. Some employees may delay starting large projects until their meetings are done.
• Long-term growth: Time spent in meetings takes away from other work that furthers a company’s mission. When aggregated company-wide, these wasted hours can have a huge impact.
• Talent retention: Employees frustrated by endless meetings, bureaucracy and lack of company growth may move elsewhere.

And if you’re wondering what does happen when employees find themselves in non-productive meetings, consider that:

• 90% say they daydream during meetings
• 73% do other work while in meetings

11 Practical tips to reduce time spent in work meetings

Meetings are an essential way for employees to communicate and share ideas, but only 50% of meeting time is well spent, according to Steven Rogelberg, a professor of organizational science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. By cutting down on unnecessary meetings and making the ones you do have more efficient, your employees can reclaim valuable work hours for other endeavours.

Here are 11 practical strategies to reshape your company’s approach to meetings.

1. Survey your employees

Invite staff to provide input about the effectiveness of meetings, especially recurring ones that are always on the calendar. Ask if the meetings are useful for furthering their work, and if not, why. Try to find out how it would affect them if a meeting is shortened or eliminated.

2. Determine the purpose of each work meeting

Respondents in Doodle’s global survey found that poorly organized meetings lead to:

• Lack of time to complete work (44%)
• Unclear actions and confusion (43%)
• Loss of focus on projects (38%)

To make the most of your employees’ time, make sure all meetings have a clear purpose and set of goals. Each person that’s invited should have a role to play in achieving these goals. Then, create a meeting agenda that outlines the desired outcome so participants know why they’re gathering. Distribute the agendas in advance with as much supporting information as possible.

3. Reduce the number of participants

According to Bain & Company, meetings are most efficient when there are seven or fewer participants. Each additional attendee beyond this reduces the ability to reach an effective decision by 10%.

Narrow your invitation list to those who can make meaningful contributions. For example, include staff who are:

• Empowered to make decisions
• Able to share knowledge or new perspectives
• Responsible for implementing results

Those who simply need to know the final outcome of the discussions can instead receive the meeting minutes.

4. Let your employees decide if they should attend

More than one-third of professionals accept an invitation to attend a work meeting even if they feel the session isn’t relevant to them. Create an environment where staff have the freedom to opt out if they:

• Feel their time is better spent doing other work
• Don’t feel they can contribute meaningfully to the topic
• Have participated in the relevant part of a meeting and want to be excused from the rest of the discussion

5. Learn how to keep work meetings on track

Try to stick to the agenda and keep the discussion moving forward during a meeting. If participants veer onto other topics—even if they’re important—consider tabling these issues another time to keep the current discussion focused.

Leading meetings is a skill; in fact, 75% of people don’t have formal training on how to effectively manage a meeting. Consider organizing a workshop on holding effective meetings to improve employee skills.

6. Distribute meeting minutes

Establish the habit of circulating meeting summaries to those who didn’t attend but need to know the outcome. While it may seem like extra work to write minutes, remember it’s more effective for one person to create a meeting recap than a dozen others to sit through the meeting for informational purposes. Meeting minutes also provide accountability and confirm next steps.

7. Specify certain hours for work meetings

One of the reasons meetings impact productivity is that they’re usually scattered throughout the day. Instead of trying to work between meetings, consider organizing meetings around your staff’s workflow.

Designate a block of time in which staff may schedule meetings—for example, 70% of professionals feel mornings between 8am-12pm is an optimal time to meet. This frees up the rest of the day for individual work.

8. Establish meeting-free days

You may find that efficiency improves when your employees have one or two days a week that are completely meeting-free. Staff can plan their time accordingly and devote these days to complex or creative tasks. Designers, programmers and coders, for example, often benefit from immersing themselves in projects without any interruption.

9. Limit the number of meetings

Another strategy to try if you feel your employees are having too many meetings is to cap the number of meetings each person can attend to two or three per day. You could also set a limit in terms of the number of minutes spent in meetings per week.

10. Determine if you can send an email instead

If you need to communicate with staff to provide an update or share information, email is usually the most efficient option. Information can be delivered succinctly and referenced when needed.

Email may not be the fastest way to resolve a complex issue. If your email has the potential to turn into a chain with lots of back-and-forth, it’s better to call a meeting. Quickly evolving, complex or sensitive matters are usually best tackled in-person, especially if the decision involves a large number of people.

11. Eliminate all meetings and start again

If you’re overwhelmed by your company’s meeting calendar, try eliminating all meetings from the schedule and starting again. This lets you consult with staff about which meetings are needed. Once you’ve determined a meeting is useful, reintroduce it to the calendar. Shorten the meeting length if necessary.

Frequently asked questions about meetings

How many meetings is too many?

There’s no standard number of meetings a business should hold. It depends on your company’s workflow and processes. Consider going to the source and surveying employees directly about whether their time is taken up by too many meetings. If they feel they’re unable to accomplish their core work because they’re always in the conference room, ask if meetings can be shortened, less frequent or eliminated altogether.

How often should you have team meetings?

The right number of team meetings is the minimum required to keep your business running smoothly. Keep in mind that this number can fluctuate, as you may need to meet more frequently if your work is seasonal.

The key to setting team meetings is to ask if each meeting has a purpose. Recurring meetings are often held out of habit even if they’re not essential. Only hold meetings that result in a decision or move a project forward. Informational meetings, such as status updates, can often be replaced with a shorter check-in. You could also use a project management tool or messaging platform to keep everyone in the loop in real-time.

How long is too long for a meeting?

The average length of a work meeting in the United States is 60 minutes, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right length for one. Steven Rogelberg suggests that people tend to indiscriminately book half-hour or hour meeting times because that’s the default on most online calendars. Instead of automatically choosing this option, decide how much time you really need based on the agenda. Then, reduce the meeting time by five or 10 minutes.

There’s an advantage to shorter meetings, as Peter Bregman points out. When every minute counts, people are more likely to be on time. Their attention is focused on the task at hand and agenda items move faster.