One of the most common challenges businesses face is the constant push to save money. While there's no universal formula, there is one area I always focus on with every company I work with: the "meeting money pit."
We're all guilty of it. Scheduling a quick half-hour here, a team meeting there, a huddle, a briefing... before you know it, your entire week is consumed by meetings. And while some meetings are necessary, we've all seen those social media jokes about how "that meeting could have been an email." I bet you’ve thought it on more than one occasion too!
When assessing process improvements or cost-cutting opportunities, we often look at downtime or stoppages and consider how we can better utilise that time, or often how much a particular blockage in the process is costing the company. However, something that's often overlooked is right there on your Outlook calendar: the sheer number of meetings you're attending. And it's not just you—it could be everyone in your organisation. Have you ever looked around the room or virtual table and noticed seven staff members attending a meeting and wondered, "How much is this meeting costing the company?".
This is what I refer to as the "meetings money pit."
Let's take a typical example: a weekly team meeting with seven members that lasts an hour. In effect, you're spending an entire workday's worth of staff resources on that meeting. The critical question is, was it worth it? Did you achieve seven hours' worth of output from your team? Did they arrive at a conclusion that would have otherwise taken an entire day? Only you can answer these questions.
In monetary terms, if each person on that team is on say 35k per annum, and works a 35-hour week, that’s around £20 per hour. So, your hour-long team meeting of 7 has cost the business £140. That might be money well spent but again, only you can answer that question.
When looking for ways to save money, save time, or improve productivity, the first place to start is your calendar. That doesn't mean you should cancel every single meeting and just get on with your work—while that might sound appealing, it's not entirely practical. However, consider these alternatives: Can you shorten your hour-long or morning-long meetings to 30 minutes or even less? Could the meeting have been an email instead? Could that email have been a Teams message? Or could that Teams message have been a quick 3-minute phone call?
The value of each meeting is down to you as the organiser and as the team or individuals participating. So, of course, I’m not saying axe your team meeting as, when you have a strong agenda, they can be extremely valuable.
Some things to think about when scheduling your next meeting: