Have you ever stopped to think about the price tag attached to a staff meeting? If not, you’re in for a surprise. The average salary cost of a meeting is an overwhelming $338, according to an infographic published by Attentiv. A total of 63 percent of meetings don’t even have a pre-planned agenda, serving as kind of an invitation to waste time.

In total, an average of 11 million meetings are held each day in the U.S. This means people are attending 55 million meetings per week, 220 million per month and more than a billion per year. All of this togetherness doesn’t necessary equal productivity, as participants consider 33.4 percent of this time a waste.

People don’t feel like they get a lot out of a meeting when there’s no published results, one person dominates the time, it’s disorganized, ill-prepared and no decisions are made. Additionally, most meetings last an average of 31-60 minutes, which can quickly add up to a huge portion of a person’s workday.

4 Ways to Have More Efficient Meetings

Tired of wasting your resources on ineffective meetings? Use the following four tips to make better use of this time:

Don’t Invite Unnecessary Attendees

Before sending invites to a meeting, double check the list of attendees to ensure everyone really needs to be there. Not only does inviting unnecessary people waste their time, it can also cause the meeting to drag on longer.

Always Create an Agenda

It’s hard to stay on track when no one really knows what the meeting is about. Create an agenda and send it with the invite to make sure everyone comes prepared.

Start on Time

There’s always going to be at least one person running late for the meeting, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait for them. Get started on time and fill latecomers in afterwards. There’s no need to punish those who were punctual by taking even more time out of their day.

Make People Stand

Holding standing meetings is a great way to have an efficient meeting. People are much less likely to ramble on or go off-topic when they’re not sitting comfortably in a chair.

 

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