The impact of meetings
Productivity is at the forefront of decision-makers’ minds in organisations. Why? Because productivity equals efficiency, engagement, and ensuring businesses have a competitive edge. Thankfully, new research has found exactly what these decision-makers should scale down if they want productive teams: meetings.
The research was conducted from 2019 to 2021, involving 76 companies and over 25,000 employees. The researchers requested these companies to have at least one meeting-free day per week and gathered data on how the businesses performed and how employees felt about their work.
The results were profound. Every metric the researchers studied revealed positive results, regardless of whether the participating company issued one meeting-free day or five. With fewer meetings, the researchers found that there was:
- Less micromanaging
- Decrease in feelings of stress
- Increase in work autonomy
- Increase in engagement
- Increase in productivity
- Increase in employee satisfaction
This new information suggests that keeping diaries meeting-free, even for one day a week, is worthwhile for both employee wellbeing and organisational success.
