How to meet productivity in meetings head-on

Sam Liang at Otter.ai outlines some of the often simple ways that team meetings can be made more effective

Meeting culture is stifling workplace productivity. Research we conducted this year into meetings found that employees are spending on average over a third of their time in meetings, of which 31% are deemed “unnecessary”.

With 84% of employees saying their productivity would improve if meeting cadence is reduced, it’s clear that this is one aspect of your business that must be tailored to be as efficient as possible - and there are data-proven ways of doing so, to ensure the benefit for your employees, and your business.

Cut unnecessary meetings, where possible

On average, employees reported that 5.7 hours of meetings per week could be skipped, as long as teams are kept in the loop. By decreasing the number of meetings in the working week, we can make a positive impact on productivity. Instead of trying to work on tasks between calls, employees will be able to give all their attention to their priorities, keeping them focused and at their most productive. 

While decreasing meetings enables employees to be more productive generally, it will also improve the effectiveness of the meetings deemed necessary to go ahead. Workers spend around 70% of their time in unnecessary meetings multitasking. Since studies have found that multitasking inhibits productivity by as much as 40%, it is clearly counterproductive to employees to attend meetings where they will spend time working on other tasks.

Reducing the frequency of meetings, therefore, will ensure that attendees are attentive, collaborative and productive in the meetings they attend.

It’s up to managers and business leaders to closely assess the number of meetings employees have each week. But while reducing meeting hours might help your employees avoid multitasking, evidence suggests that going even further with reducing meeting time will benefit them too. Experts have claimed that even 15-minute meetings have the power to be productive, serving to ‘bond teams, keep projects on track, avert misunderstandings and more’.

These check-ins can be even more vital to employees that work from home (currently, 14% of the UK workforce works completely remotely, and 24% are hybrid workers). If meetings must be frequent, there’s no reason they can’t be short and snappy - this is still in line with employee productivity. 

Use proven methods for effective meetings

But just as important as meeting frequency and length is the activity within the meeting itself. While there’s no need to ‘reinvent the wheel’, there are a number of methods proven to boost productivity in meetings.

One is the 80/20 rule, or the Parento Principle, which theorises that 80% of outcomes are derived from 20% of causes. This means when setting an agenda for the meeting, ensure that the most important 20% of tasks are discussed first so that if the meeting runs over, time has been spent efficiently. Agendas ensure participants know what is expected of the meeting, and the chances of the conversation going too off-topic are decreased. 

Time management tools and apps are useful for this, and there are many available, but even sending a short email ahead of the meeting is effective. 

Further simple implementations for improving meeting productivity is to create clear expectations for your meetings. Starting and stopping on time, for example, might seem like the obvious thing to do, but ensuring these boundaries are kept means employees know for certain how to structure their working day.

Ensuring that quality notes, action items, or meeting summaries are circulated is essential to make your meetings more productive and actionable. In fact, 71% of professionals would skip non-critical meetings if they received “high-quality notes” after.

Automating this process with technology ensures you don’t miss anything and enables meeting attendees to maintain their full attention on the meeting agenda, further improving productivity levels. The key is to assess exactly who needs to be in the meeting, and why; employees who may not necessarily need to be present can be kept in the loop by being given the automated meeting summary afterwards – ensuring efficiency all around.

Tailor to your businesses’ own needs 

Ultimately, productivity looks different for each business. Fortunately, managers don’t have to become economic or statistical experts to ensure their current systems are efficient and meet the company’s needs. There are many ways to ensure that productivity during meetings can be efficiently increased while keeping your employees’ needs at the top of your priority list.

The first is to revamp the meeting culture in your organisation and identify the unnecessary meetings that are stifling workplace productivity. Then it’s about making the necessary meetings as effective and productive as possible with clear structure and expectations.

Oftentimes, the most useful changes appear simple, but offer tangible results, helping you and your team save time and increase efficiency.

Sam Liang is CEO of Otter.ai

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com