Excessive Meetings Cost Companies Over $1M Per Year

Credit: jagritparajuli99

Employees often joke that a lot of the meetings they attend could have been done through email instead of an hours-long video conferencing affair. A new study by software company Otter.ai shows that they’re on to something. It was discovered that companies with a workforce of around 100 could save about $2.5 million annually if they cut non-essential meetings. This figure shoots up to more than $100 million for enterprises with over 5,000 employees. The numbers were based on the average annual investment of companies per employee in meetings, which amounts to $80,000.

Otter.ai’s report also found that meetings make up a third of the workforce’s working hours. On average, an employee attends 17.7 meetings for a total of 18 hours each week. Managers with at least four direct reports participate in 21.3 meetings (22.2 hours) weekly while non-managers attend 14.4 (13.7 hours). With this, the higher an employee’s pay grade is, the longer the time they spend on meetings. And this costs companies more money.

Based on the accounts of employees, not all the meetings they attended were critical; they could have simply been kept in the loop via chat or email and the results would’ve been the same. Regular employees attend an average of 5.3 non-critical meetings (5.7 hours) per week while managers participate in 6.5 (7.5 hours). In addition, 43% of employees believe that they have too many non-essential meetings on their plate and 53% feel that they have to attend these even though they are not particularly relevant to the agenda.

There is a perception that skipping meetings could bear consequences for employees. The study reveals that 47% are hesitant to decline since they don’t want to incur the ire of the organizer, 45% feel that declining would give off the impression of disengagement, and 39% think that declining would put a burden on their coworkers.

The excessive number of online meetings potentially ties in with the proximity-based concerns harbored by company executives ever since the inception of remote and hybrid work at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fewer Meetings, More Productive Employees

According to a survey by Microsoft, 85% of business leaders find it hard to have confidence that their workforce is productive while working remotely. This perception was maintained despite 87% of employees reporting that they have been productive, with recent remote work and telecommuting statistics backing up their claims. Productivity paranoia has led managers to obsessively demand assurance that jobs are being done, and meetings have become a popular option for this.

Unfortunately for them, these affairs can serve as distractions to employees, especially to those who work on outputs that require long-term concentration. Otter.ai’s report shows that 84% of workers believe that skipping non-essential meetings would boost their productivity and 66% think that their engagement with work would increase. Moreover, 70% feel that they would be more satisfied with their jobs if they could decline non-essential meetings.

As such, there are ways to keep employees in the loop of non-critical meetings without forcing them to attend. Someone can summarize the points discussed and then distribute the text or document to all concerned parties after the meeting. After all, 46% of employees prefer this approach. Another method is to have employees attend only parts of meetings that are relevant to their jobs. This enables them to focus on their work more and minimizes wasted time on the company’s part.