The end of the year is near and it’s time for New Year’s resolutions! If you are a manager seeking to increase productivity and engagement with your employees, you may want to consider the frequency and format of meetings in 2023.
According to a recent article in Inc, “research shows 90 percent of employees feel meetings are ‘costly’ and ‘unproductive,’ and they’re right: employee productivity increases by over 70 percent when the number of meetings is reduced by 40 percent.”
We believe meetings should be goal-oriented and structured to foster inclusive dialogue.
Meetings should be used to benchmark progress, address challenges, and build a culture that values all employees.
We like a suggestion in an article from the New York Times, “Leave the last few minutes of every meeting to discuss the next steps. This discussion should include deciding who is responsible for what, and what the deadlines are.”
Employees want to know who is responsible for what. Outlining clear expectations, deadlines, and deliverables along with direction on who is responsible provides employees with a sense of ownership. Empowering employees to own their work builds morale and motivation. It also creates a culture that values the employee’s skills and contributions to the team and the company.
Taking time at the end of the meeting to review the next steps also opens the door for discussion if an employee is feeling overwhelmed or underprepared to take on the task at hand. Communication is key!
Here are our tips for conducting meetings that drive production and employee engagement:
- Purpose – Don’t hold a meeting for the sake of meeting. Establish achievable goals for the meeting. Create an agenda so everyone knows what to expect and to ensure meetings are efficient.
- Align with goals – Too often managers work with their teams to establish goals for the year and then quickly forget about them. Don’t set goals and forget them! Meetings should be used to help team members work towards their goals.
- Celebrate – It can be easy to dive right into business, but employees can quickly become demoralized if they feel like they are just a cog in the wheel. Good managers develop authentic relationships with employees, and take time to show appreciation for accomplishments big and small.
Finally, if you are a distributed, hybrid workforce manager, don’t forget about those workers out in the field or working from home. Fostering trust and inclusiveness is critical to ensuring all employees feel valued and supported.
Contact us today to learn more about our modern approach to performance management and development and how it solves for retention. Don’t just take our word for it, see what our Customers have to say.
