While meetings are a necessary part of office jobs, studies have shown that meetings can reduce employees’ productivity and motivation if they’re poorly-scheduled, unnecessary, or simply bad. It’s time to take back the office meeting and make it more effective for everyone! From our leading London recruitment agency, these are our top tips to ensure better meetings in your organisation.
Tip #1 No meetings for meetings’ sake
Meetings cost time and money, so if they’re not adding value to the company, then they shouldn’t be happening. Before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself “Do we really need this meeting?” Even Elon Musk identified problems with meetings for meetings’ sake in a leaked Tesla memo. He advised against big meetings, too many meetings, frequent meetings, and meetings for non-urgent issues. If you work in office manager jobs, do you have weekly team meetings just for the sake of it?
Tip #2 Limit the attendees
If you genuinely need a meeting, then only invite those who really need to be there. You can even cost this up by calculating the salary of the attendees for that hour or two, which is a sure-fire way to figure out whether those attendees truly need to be there. One suggestion is to allow employees to politely leave the meeting if they’re not adding value. Likewise, it’s assumed that a manager always needs to be present at meetings, but do they really?
Tip #3 More power to everyone
It’s long been the case that those in manager jobs control company meetings—whether they’re needed, how they’re run, and so on. However, it’s time for that to change! If you’re the CEO, instil a company culture where meetings are only held when necessary, and empower your managers and staff to make decisions about meetings. If you’re an office manager, ask your staff for ideas on how to make meetings more productive. If you’re an employee, suggest positive solutions for meetings to your manager.
Tip #4 Keep it snappy
Nobody likes meetings that drag on and on—they sap energy and motivation. If there’s a standing agenda that forces everyone to talk about unnecessary things, scrap it. Only talk about the important issues. To keep everyone focused on the matter at hand, all attendees should leave their phones and laptops at their desk. If necessary, set a strict time limit for the meeting—with an alarm that goes off when the time expires.
Tip #5 Stack them together
A recent study found that employees are less productive before a meeting because they feel they can’t start longer tasks. To resolve this, scientists recommend stacking meetings together, rather than spacing them out. If you work in PA jobs or TA jobs where you schedule arrange the meetings, can you stack them to avoid productivity lulls in between them? Can you schedule them for first thing, before staff start the day’s work?
Tip #6 Make them interesting
Meetings can be notoriously boring, but they don’t have to be. You can make them more interesting by having active meetings, walking meetings, meetings outside on sunny days, or have working lunches where you order pizza for the attendees. Interesting = more motivation!
For more tips on workplace wellbeing, stay tuned to the Love Success blog. If you’re looking for your next temp PA job, your dream permanent PA job, or an office support role, get in touch with the team at Love Success today.
Love Success is a leading PA and secretarial recruitment agency in London.
Our recruiters can help you find secretarial jobs, office support jobs, and top PA jobs in London.
View our latest job opportunities here
PA Jobs l Executive Assistant Jobs l Office Support Jobs l Top PA Jobs
Secretarial Jobs l Marketing & PR Jobs l HR Jobs l Finance Jobs