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Time spent in meetings can either push your organization's goals forward, or
waste time and productivity.
In fact, unproductive meetings cost businesses in the United States upwards of
a year. While this sum may seem astronomical, it’s not unrealistic. Just think
of how many canceled or unnecessary meeting occur at your workplace. According
to a
article, unnecessary or
waste $25,000 annually per employee — adding up to $101 million a year for
organizations with 5,000 or more employees.
Keep reading as we learn more about the current meeting landscape across
America while diving into some of the most jaw-dropping meeting statistics.
Meeting behavior trends: Fellow study
1. How much time are managers spending in meetings?
There's no denying that meetings are a necessity, especially in an
ever-changing work landscape that continues to embrace both hybrid and remote
work models. Despite the importance of meetings, many people fail to recognize
just how much time managers are spending in meetings, which can cost your
organization tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Fellow's 2024 State of Meetings
found that managers and directors spend an average of 13 hours per week in
meeting, which represents over 20% of the workweek.
found that in 2020, this was only 25%. Not only do these staggering meeting
statistics pose a threat to your bottom line, but there can be additional
consequences to them—like poor performance, burnout, meeting fatigue, and
more.
2. How much time do employees spend in meetings?
When looking at time spent in meetings, non-managers need to be considered,
too.
suggests that in 2023, 12% of non-managerial employees spend more than 15
hours a week in meetings; in 2019, this number was just 9%.
This not only means that your organization is losing tens of thousands of
dollars from year to year in costly meetings, but it also means your workforce
may not have the time necessary to focus on deep work or recharge. To mitigate
these risks, it’s important to tale action if there's too many meetings
without results while creating a culture that prioritizes intentional
meetings.
3. What’s the average meeting length?
Fellow's meeting statistics from our
report showed that too many meetings are still too long. And this actually
varies by company size.
We found that medium-sized companies — 200 to 999 employees — book the most
meetings over 30 minutes at over 25% of total meetings. These numbers also
vary by region, with European companies most likely to book long meetings. As
well, at companies with 1,000 or more employees, over 20% of meetings are over
one hour.
Remember that meeting for a long time doesn't ensure productive meetings. The
time employees spend in meetings is only worthwhile if there are clear meeting
objectives. Rather than scheduling meetings for the default of 30 or 60
minutes, consider shaving off 5 or 10 minutes and seeing if that keeps
meetings productive.
4. What percentage of meetings have more than eight attendees?
Many people hosting meetings fail to be meticulous with their guest list.
Instead, they end up inviting employee after employee and before long, there
are more than eight people in attendance in several meetings.
published in Harvard Business Review shows that when a meeting has eight or
more attendees, its at a higher risk of being ineffective.
Fellow's
found that across all company sizes, 80.8% of meetings have fewer than eight
attendees, compared to an average of 19.2% of meetings with eight or more
people.
Eight meeting attendees making an average of $70,000 per year that meet twice
per week for one hour would cost your organization a whopping $28,000! Check
out our
to learn exactly how much it costs to host meetings with more than eight
attendees at your organization.
5. What percentage of meetings have no end date?
If you're responsible for facilitating a number of meetings or recurring
meetings, it’s likely that you’ve failed to schedule an end date. Instead,
these meetings live on your team members’ calendars for months on end, taking
up time week after week whether the meeting continues to be necessary or not.
Fellow found that 92.4% of all meetings don’t have an end date, leading to many drawbacks including reduced productivity, disengagement,
burnout,
meeting overload, inefficient meetings, and difficulty planning.
General statistics on meetings
Up to 36.2 million US employees will work remotely by 2025.
71% of senior executives say meetings are unproductive and inefficient.
47% of professionals stated that Monday is the worst day to host a meeting.
35% of employees say fewer people in attendance equates to more successful
meetings.
72% of professionals say that having clear objectives is the key to hosting
effective meetings.
Employees reported their work-life balance satisfaction rose from 62% to 92%
when meetings were improved.
67% of professionals state that having a clear
is the most important element when hosting effective meetings.
Only 37% of workplace meetings actively use meeting agendas.
82.9% of professionals believe that not all video meetings require video.
58% of introverts experience Zoom fatigue compared to 40% of extroverts.
83.13% of employees spend up to one third of their workweek in meetings.
55% of remote employees think that a majority of meetings could have been an
email.
54% of professionals believe they attend more meetings than they did before
the pandemic.
55% of employees multitask while attending meetings.
58% of employees report that their meetings last over 30 minutes.
21% of professionals take Zoom meetings while walking or jogging.
15% of remote workers perform house chores during online meetings.
42% of Zoom users say they’ve attended a virtual meeting from their beds.
45% of employees feel overwhelmed by the number of meetings they attend.
The average executive manager
spends at least 12 hours in meetings per week.
35% of employees state that two to five hours spent on meetings each week
are not beneficial.
65% of employees state that meetings prevent them from completing their own
work.
Since the start of COVID-19, 50% of employees have had at least one to three
hours of virtual meetings per week.
31 hours are spent on unproductive meetings monthly.
47% of professionals complain that meetings waste their time the most at
work.
45% of professionals feel overwhelmed by the number of meetings they attend.
71% of professionals waste time every week due to unnecessary or cancelled
meetings.
The average professional spends an hour and 9 minutes simply preparing for
each meeting.
40% of professionals waste up to 30 minutes just searching for a
collaborative space for meetings.
64% of senior managers state meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.
65% of senior managers state meetings keep them from completing their own
work.
62% of senior managers state meetings miss opportunities to bring the team
closer together.
Only 17% of senior leaders report that meetings are productive uses of group
and individual time.
65% of employees say that meetings are an escape from their own work.
39% of meeting attendees admitted to dozing off in the middle of a meeting.
15% of remote workers do house chores while participating in Zoom meetings.
54% of professionals spend more than 30 minutes in each meeting they attend
daily.
In the coming 3 years, virtual meetings will become 50% of overall virtual
events.
37% of workers believe that unproductive meetings are the biggest expense
for their company.
Meetings take up about 35% of the time for middle management staff and 50%
of the time for higher management.
50% of employees have participated in at least one to three hours of Zoom
meetings each week since COVID-19 began.
Have these meeting statistics inspired you to spark positive change?
The numbers are staggering, with most meeting statistics pointing towards the
inefficiencies of meetings. While the majority of meetings being held lack
direction, clarity, and productivity, they remain a necessity. So, what’s the
solution?
A great place to start is with an AI note taker like
Fellow. Fellow can autojoin meetings in Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to
provide an AI summary, transcript, and recording. That means you're free to
focus on the meeting.
The latest meeting statistics show that unproductive meetings are costly, but
Fellow ensures meeting efficiency with collaborative meeting agendas, meeting
feedback, and meeting metrics. Plus, with Fellow, missed meetings are no big
deal because the central meeting recap library means employees can catch up on
what was missed.
Make your meeting time count and
get started with Fellow today.
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