How are companies rethinking the meeting in post-COVID corporate America?
Among a new study's main findings is a familiar sentiment: The hour-long meeting is not very popular.
Dunkin Donuts would have us believe that “America runs on Dunkin,” but we know the truth: America runs on meetings. An Attentiv study from 2015 said there were close to 11 million meetings held in the country each day, and employees attended 62 meetings on average every month. Time spent in meetings has increased by ten percent year over year since 2000. The only thing seemingly more certain in American corporate life than meetings is expressing dissatisfaction about having so many meetings.
Related: ‘It’s difficult for women to speak up in virtual meetings’
The second quarter of 2020 has seen businesses implement radical changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. How have these changes impacted the dreaded meeting? To find out, events scheduling tool Doodle analyzed more than 30 million meetings booked on its platform during Q2 for its State of Meetings report.
Among its main findings is a familiar sentiment: The hour-long meeting is not very popular.
The study found that 30 minutes is the preferred meeting duration by 36% of the respondents, followed by 15 minutes at 31%. Traditionalists who can’t let go of 60-minute meets held firm at 20%, with 45 minutes and 20 minutes bringing up the rear at 4% apiece. The researchers at Doodle believe the 15-minute meeting has gained traction during the pandemic as a way to touch base quickly with the emotional needs of employees. Also, a type of 15-minute meeting is the “stand-up,” during which participants are required to stand as a way of keeping contributions concise.
Perhaps less surprisingly, Doodle discovered that virtual group meetings accounted for 41% of meetings scheduled in Q2 2020, and the number of virtual-only group meetings rose by 109% during that time. As a nod to the importance once again of touching base with employees, virtual one-on-one meetings rose by 136% compared to the previous quarter.
The researchers noted a trend toward smaller meeting group sizes. Nearly half of all group meetings (44%) during Q2 were made up of four to seven people, with 24% even smaller with four to five participants. Only 4% of meetings had 10 or 11 participants.
The most popular day for meetings in Q2 was Thursday, with Tuesday and Wednesday tying for second most popular. The preferred meeting time was between 12-2PM, followed by 9-11AM. Doodle notes that close to 7 percent of American meetings took place between 7-11PM. “While this might seem surprising to some, we believe this may actually contribute to the country’s overworking culture,” the researchers write. “Here’s why. Because Americans are scheduling so many meetings during the actual workday (between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm), they are purposely keeping their evenings meeting-free. But they are likely using that evening time to catch up on work they couldn’t finish due to the excessive number of meetings booked during the workday.”
“The report’s findings illustrate just how important and complicated meetings actually are,” says Renato Profico, CEO of Doodle. “Thinking it’s as simple as completing one task or using one tool is where many people go wrong. Rather, it requires a holistic approach – from considering factors, such as meeting size, duration, notice period and time, to implementing the right technology to optimize processes, save time and, ultimately, enable teams, colleagues and clients to work more collaboratively across the entire meeting lifecycle.”
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