01732 759725 36 RESEARCH According to new research from Brother UK, office workers are complaining about wasting too much time in calls and catchups, which is stopping them from getting their work done. Waffling colleagues, too much small talk, poor meeting facilitation and late joiners are cited as the biggest culprits Meetings need to be shorter The research also uncovered a poor standard of meeting facilitation. More than half of the respondents said they attend too many unengaging and poorly structured meetings, with this figure rising to 67 per cent among remote workers. Phil Jones, Managing Director at Brother UK, said: “It’s clear that the UK’s meeting culture still heavily contributes to workplace productivity. Bringing people together will always be an important part of culture, problemsolving, building relationships and developing new customers. Many meetings could be shorter and provide people with more free time to focus on delivery. “Our findings also uncovered that meetings that overrun and waste time have a negative impact on our morale and attitudes at work. Half of the respondents (54 per cent) admitted that they feel frustrated, with 27 per cent feeling demotivated and 25 per cent going as far to say they think less of their colleagues. “There is still work to do to right the UK’s meeting culture, even in our own business. Greater consideration on time, place and how to better facilitate calls and catchups will help nurture more productive meetings, more often,” he added. Most productive The research found that office workers see morning, in-person meetings with strict agendas and actions notes as the most productive. The findings also reveal that almost nine in 10 (88 per cent) respondents agreed that timekeeping is important to holding a productive meeting, followed by keeping to a strict agenda (78 per cent), circulating actions notes (74 per cent), putting laptops and phones away if in person (73 per cent) and keeping cameras on if virtual (61 per cent). When asked when respondents feel most productive in a meeting, the majority (87 per cent) say they are at their best before midday, with 9am-11am the most productive period. Jones continued: “Office productivity is our business, and we know that improving it is an evergreen ambition for businesses across the country. Fortunately, they can turn to new tech, insights from psychology and feedback from their own people to pinpoint best practice meeting culture. “Our hardware, services and solutions form part of the apparatus that helps office workers to be efficient. But there are broader opportunities for improving productivity beyond the reach of technology for all businesses to embrace.” www.brother.co.uk The research, part of Brother’s Meaningful Meeting Manifesto campaign which polled 2,000 UK office workers on work meetings and the impact on productivity revealed that UK office workers believe that meetings need to be shortened to tackle an overload of calls and catchups that drag on productivity. More than half of respondents (55 per cent) complained they waste too much time in in calls and catchups, which is stopping them from getting their work done, with a similar proportion (57 per cent) saying they only attend a useful meeting once a week. Two-thirds (67 per cent) believe faceto-face meetings are more productive than meeting virtually, even among staff working remotely (57 per cent) and four in five are confident that shorter calls and catchups would achieve the same outcomes, creating more time to deliver their responsibilities. Worst culprits for timewasting Respondents cited waffling (59 per cent), too much small talk (48 per cent), late joiners (31 per cent) and people not paying attention (31 per cent) as the worst culprits for timewasting, with almost half (43 per cent) convinced that colleagues try and do other work during most meetings. More than half of the respondents said they attend too many unengaging and poorly structured meetings, with this figure rising to 67 per cent among remote workers
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=