Meetings are an expensive hobby
To begin with, a one-hour meeting with 5 employees costs hundreds of euros in wage costs. But changes also require preparation and post-processing time. They interrupt processes that require concentration and focus and, all in all, do not improve labor productivity. Add the wage costs including preparation and post-processing to the lost labour productivity and you come to the conclusion that that meeting with 5 people suddenly costs not hundreds, but perhaps thousands of euros. The motto is to be careful when it comes to meetings. Because meetings are therefore a very expensive hobby.
Meetings are not popular
Research shows that meeting is far from everyone's hobby. 57% of Dutch employees find meetings boring and 85% say they are more effective at their desks than during a meeting. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 70% think the free lunch is the most exciting part of a meeting. So many employees don't like meetings, but they still show up every time. The reason for this has also been investigated and is called FOMO - the Fear of Missing Out. No one dares say that a meeting is pointless for fear of social exclusion.
Qualitative meetings are possible
Despite these negative perceptions, there are also studies that recognize that well-managed meetings are indeed valuable. Nearly 65% of employees are enthusiastic about well-managed meetings. Effective meetings can contribute to information sharing, decision making, problem solving and team building. The quality and structure of meetings have a major influence on how employees experience them. Poorly organized or redundant meetings lead to frustration and a sense of wasting time. Well-managed meetings are often seen as useful and productive.
Care required
We can safely conclude that it is a good idea to use meetings carefully. Always ask yourself if a meeting is really necessary first. And if the answer is' yes', make sure you pay attention to preparation, (bege) direction and post-processing of the meeting.
Preparation and structure
The key words for meaningful meetings are Preparation and Structure. Set a clear agenda in advance with specific objectives for each agenda item. Share this agenda with all meeting attendees. Prioritize agenda items so that you can give enough time to the most important topics. Also let attendees know to prepare for the meeting. You can choose not to accept unprepared participation. At Tesla and SpaceX, for example, this is the most normal thing in the world.
Time (management) is of the essence
Time management during the meeting is also important. Short meetings of less than half an hour work best. You can use timeboxing to prevent discussions from taking too long. Also, think about the meeting time. Research shows that Tuesday is a good meeting day. The best time of day is at 3 p.m., but other times of the day will certainly work as well.
Invite only “essentials”
You prefer to meet with as few people as possible. That's why it's better to invite only the employees who can make a significant contribution during the meeting. It's useful if you determine certain roles in advance, such as chairman and time guard. A special role is that of a decision maker. The decision maker is responsible for reaching a conclusion.
Use technology
Using technology can also take your meetings to the next level. When structuring your meetings, for example, you can prepare an annual review in your ISO2HANDLE platform. Through that overview, you can ensure that structural meetings are centrally planned and that all relevant participants are invited. You can later add calendars, action and decision lists, and reports to individual meetings. The advantage of this approach is that you finally get rid of all those agendas, lists and reports lying around on hard drives or in semi-structured Teams environments. Another advantage is that you can demonstrate in your ISO9001 audit that your most important meetings are properly prepared, conducted and documented. In addition, you can immediately convert the action points from each meeting in ISO2HANDLE into tasks for the appointed employees. Then, via this platform, you can easily monitor whether tasks are being picked up and completed. If necessary, the system automatically sends notifications to remind employees to pick up or complete tasks.
Want to know more about how the ISO2HANDLE quality management platform can contribute to the quality of your meeting structure and individual meetings? Then let me hear from you. We'd love to show you what we mean.
