Business bosses are rethinking the amount of time their teams spend in meetings, according to new research. A study commissioned by IT firm Parity highlighted that UK staff spend the equivalent of eight weeks a year in face-to-face meetings.It revealed that as a result of the recession, businesses are instructing staff to reduce the number of face-to-face meetings they hold in a bid to cut down on costs and maximise productivity by keeping staff in the office.
Simon Wayne, managing director at Parity Solutions, said: "While people may think they prefer the traditional meeting format, face-to-face meetings often end up wasting vast sums of money in travel costs and unproductive 'dead time', and could just as well be hosted from employees' desks."However, the study suggested that this could be an unpopular move, with 89 per cent of respondents stating they prefer meeting with someone in person. The firm suggested that technology could be used to hold virtual meetings such a teleconferences and webinars instead.
Gareth Osborne, Director General of APA agrees that Technology can be used to reduce some of the burden meetings place on senior managers but would encourage PAs not to drop meetings all together, he says, “Meetings are an essential part of relationship building and lasting partnership need people to look into each others eyes when they are making a commitment – I hope there never comes a day when you can do every thing via the ether!”
APA
APA
1 comment:
This is great news if true. I remember a wonderful John Cleese Video Arts training film called 'Meetings, Bloody Meetings' that taught how to ration the need for meetings and played on all the people who spend their life going to or organising meetings (even volunteering to lead them) but never contributing. It is like an advanced form of skiving!
One of my own great PAs (Faye) used to ration me on meetings when I was in the office. We pre-agreed a 'time budget' which dictated how I wanted my week's worth of time allocating (40% with clients, 20% with staff, 20% with Partners and suppliers and 20% for the Board, Projects, new ideas and us) and they she would swap and trade slots while generally keeping within that model. If I was in the office I would have no more than 3 meetings per day; totalling no more than 4 hours, and boy did she keep me to it!
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