New research reveals office workers are spending more than 10 hours each week on meetings, with almost an entire working day spent on unnecessary meetings

26 February – UK office workers are spending almost an entire working day every week attending and preparing for unnecessary meetings, according to new research from meeting governance technology firm eShare out today.

The average office worker spends 10 hours 42 minutes every week, preparing for and attending 4.4 meetings, with 2.6 of those deemed unnecessary. With the average meeting revealed to have 6.8 attendees, this equates to annual staff costs for unnecessary meetings per business of £35,395.36, based on ONS average earnings data. With 5.4 million businesses in the UK, this means the total staff cost per year of unnecessary meetings is more than £191bn. Whether a startup or established company, businesses looking for advice on how they can avoid this unnecessary wastage, as well as advice on anything else, could get in touch with a business consultant like Peter Fleming Business Consultancy to see if they would be able to help guide them towards improvement.

“Even as an approximate figure, £191bn is an astonishing amount to be wasted in staff costs, time and resource that could clearly be much better spent elsewhere,” said Alister Esam, CEO, eShare. “The template for smarter meetings must start at the top – board level meetings must be efficient, essential and better managed, so that meetings elsewhere can follow that lead.” Presentation Design can help to streamline meetings, with better Powerpoint presentations helping to make points clearer and reduce reliance on paper.

The research also revealed that 70% of office workers believe there are too many meetings in a working week, with 24% saying that often the same results could be achieved with a few quick emails. 81% say meetings need a 21st century makeover, with 83% saying the meeting process has not changed since they first entered the workplace. It is this lack of modernisation that has resulted in such meeting inefficiency, according to eShare CEO, Alister Esam:

“We’ve all been in meetings that took scores of emails to confirm, that have a paper agenda, where people can’t recall exactly what the previous actions were and with meeting materials that have been amended at the last minute – these problems could all be addressed by a more digital approach. It’s a waste of money and resource and is hugely frustrating for all concerned. Addressing such inefficiencies could be the biggest single boost to productivity in UK business, whilst also improving areas such as governance and transparency, especially at board level.”