Pointless meetings no joke during a recession

One in four meetings are a waste of time, according to a new survey, and during the economic downturn this is damaging both company performance and staff morale.

But while a lack of focus is mainly to blame, there are plenty of other reasons for so much productivity being sucked up in worthless talk-fests that take up valuable work time.

The Robert Half 2009 Workplace Survey found that New Zealand’s finance, accounting and HR managers think more than one quarter – 25.7% - of their meetings are a waste of time.

Frequently the finance, accounting, HR and executive-level managers Robert Half surveyed don’t even know why their meetings have been called in the first place.

And they often feel people are involved who simply don’t need to be there.

Robert Half senior manager Megan Alexander says that in the middle of a recession, when many companies are operating on reduced staff numbers, managers need to think carefully about why they are calling meetings and what they want to achieve.

“All our surveys show that staff are feeling under more stress and feel under pressure to achieve more with fewer resources,” she says.

“If they are compelled to attend meetings they feel are pointless they will simply feel even more stressed.”

At some companies, meetings become such a habit that no one stops to ask whether there’s even still a compelling reason to hold them.

“But now is the perfect time to re-evaluate your meeting schedule and analyse which ones are really necessary, and which are not the most efficient use of resources.”

She suggests using email to share information that doesn’t require any significant group input.

New Zealanders frustrated by useless meetings shouldn’t go to Australia (34.5%) or Britain (32%), where time-wasting meetings are even more common.

The Swiss are the worst offenders, however – 38.8% of meetings there are considered a waste of time.

Those who value efficiency should head to Luxembourg, where only 13.7% of meetings are time-wasting.