Depending on what kind of business you're running, your day could revolve around meetings, from those with clients to some with your employees. They could involve an upcoming project or the week's schedule. However, are these really necessary? While meetings are dominant in the workplace, they shouldn't be for the following reasons:
1. They make people uncomfortable
Businesses have a variety of people filling a mixture of positions. Each job ultimately caters to the person's needs. Extroverted people take communication-heavy jobs, where they deal with clients, while introverted employees might stay more behind the scenes. This is impossible in meetings, where everyone is thrown together, according to Inc. Whether they have agendas or not, quieter, shyer workers will still struggle to express themselves in front of a room of people.
Solution – Have online meetings. Google Docs and Google Hangouts are great tools to use to collaborate from the comfort of your own desks. Everyone will have a chance to express their ideas without giving anyone anxiety.
2. They waste time
Work starts 9 a.m., but you have a meeting at 9:45. Chances are nothing is getting done before that. Your employees won't want to get deeply involved in a project if they're going to be pulled away while they're in the middle, Entrepreneur explained. If they did happen to start working, there's a good possibility that they'll lose their train of thought when they have to stop to go to the meeting. Meetings aren't exactly a productive use of time, either. They can wander off topic and you might not come to a conclusion in the time limit.
Solution – Once again, Google Docs is a life saver. Create a document and share it with all necessary people. You can give them a deadline, but don't require them to answer immediately. By allowing them plenty of time to come up with ideas and expand on others, you won't be interrupting their workflow, leading to better suggestions.
3. They lose company money
If employees are sitting in a meeting, that means they're not working. All that wasted time adds up – approximately 360 hours per year, according to the source. As you know, time is money, which means those 360 hours spent sitting in meetings loses your company a lot of cash. Executives spend 40 to 50 percent of their time in the conference room, and 34 percent of meetings are just wasted time. Nearly $37 billion is lost annually due to unnecessary meetings.
Solution – Don't call them. Nothing can be solved in a meeting that can't be answered in an email or with Google Docs, which will allow your employees to continue working and answering when they can.
Meetings can seem like an efficient use of company time, but they might be only hurting your business. Consider your employees and the type of business you have – those weekly discussions could be unnecessary. Most importantly, think of your financial plan and business banking and all the money you could be making if you canceled those meetings.