Meetings
Effective meetings are important for the success of any organization. The procedures and etiquette for meetings around the world vary so as a job seeker or employee in Canada, it is important to understand how meetings are done in order to be an effective participant.
Well organized meetings are important for the success of any business.
Everyday around the country, people spend countless hours in meetings. Meetings have a bad reputation and yet they are indispensable.
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.”
– Dave Barry
According to the HR Council of Canada, (Community Foundations of Canada ©), in its article ‘Workplaces that Work – Effective Meetings, “Despite the daily onslaughts of e-mails, phone calls and memos, meetings are still one of the most effective ways that people share and exchange information, get feedback, plan, collaborate and make important decisions for their organizations.”
The statistics speak for themselves; one in five workers spends more than 20% of their time in meetings and 7% of workers spend sixteen to thirty-two hours a week in meetings. That’s a lot of time to spend away from your job if the meetings are not useful and productive.
In addition to 25-50% of meeting time being wasted, there is the financial cost of the meeting which companies incur. Here is an example from the website ‘Meeting King’.
“For example if you have a management team with 5 people at an annual salary of $100,000 per person and they spend an average of 15 hours a week in meetings, your weekly meeting cost for only these people is $4,076 and your annual costs are a shocking $212,000! If you can reduce that by 40% you are saving $85,000 per year!”
– meetingking.com
Despite costs and challenges, in the team-oriented culture of the Canadian workplace, meetings are an integral part of the day-to-day organization of a company.