10 Ways to Increase Meeting Productivity

Meetings are all a part of work life, discussing important aspects of your business with employees that should help to improve business relationships and work ethic. However, some meetings feel like they take forever and leave employees feeling uninspired and unmotivated, reducing productivity within the workplace.

Increasing meeting productivity is the ideal way to encourage morale among employees, encouraging company-wide collaboration and creativity that will help to boost your business.

At Us&Co we’re big believers in creating productive meetings that leave your employees feeling inspired, but how can you bring this productivity into the workplace? We have come up with our top 10 ways to boost meeting productivity in the workplace, so you can find the right fit for your business.

1. Creating Time

Time may not seem like an issue, but if you are planning a meeting you need to ensure that it will not affect anyone’s schedule, or cause stress to employees that are already struggling to cope with their workload. 

Put all meetings into employees’ schedules, creating designated times for them to attend these meetings. Ensuring your employees have the time in their schedule for important meetings is a crucial step towards productivity and avoiding employee burnout.

Allow employees to come to you with any scheduling conflicts and give them the leeway to step out of meetings if needed, without worrying about consequences. If they must attend a meeting, try to work with their schedule to ensure they feel motivated when meeting time comes around.

1. Only Schedule Meetings When Necessary

Have you ever heard mutterings of “That meeting could have been an email”? If so it’s an indication that you could cut down on the number of meetings you hold, only planning meetings where necessary.

Holding meetings that your team finds unnecessary can leave them feeling like time is being wasted.

1. Create A Meeting Agenda And Stick To It

When planning a meeting you should have a clear agenda in mind. Think about the purpose of the meeting and create a detailed agenda to send to employees that allow attendees to prepare for the meeting in advance. 

Creating a relevant agenda is the ideal way to keep your meeting on track and to ensure your meeting stays within time and purpose. 

1. Limit Meeting Attendees

One way to boost meeting productivity is to limit the number of people invited to attend the meeting. By only inviting a select few key attendees you can ensure you follow your agenda with those most likely to help gear the meeting towards your desired outcome.

Inviting too many attendees to your meeting can leave you with a room full of people who are unclear on the meeting’s purpose or their involvement, reducing productivity when they could have been working on something else instead.

1. Ensure The Meeting Space Meets Your Needs

If you are planning to hold a productive meeting you need to ensure that your chosen meeting space has the facilities and features needed.

Whether you are having a meeting in your own meeting room or looking for one to use outside of the office, having issues with the space will have a negative effect on the productivity of attendees. 

Ensure that if you plan to use technology, your meeting space has the required resources. Technical difficulties can lead to frustration and a lack of motivation in meetings, making the meetings take longer than planned.

1. A Change of Scenery

Sometimes meetings can feel draining and repetitive, mixing up your meeting scenery can put a stop to these productivity issues. Why not try out a new meeting space for a fresh change of scenery? A new setting can help to engage and inspire attending staff for a productive meeting that leaves everyone feeling motivated and ready to get back to work.

Another way to add productivity and a change of scenery is implementing standing or walking meetings. Standing meetings get people up from their desks and help to keep the meetings short, whereas walking meetings are a fantastic opportunity to get out of the office and into the fresh air and sunlight. 

1. Keep Meetings Short And Sweet

Keeping meetings short and concise whilst following your pre-arranged agenda can boost productivity and reduce scheduling stress amongst attendees. 

If you keep a meeting short, attendees will be motivated to get through all of their discussion points within the time frame, creating a productive meeting that doesn’t take up too much time out of people’s schedules.

Focusing on a single topic per meeting allows attendees to hyper-focus, without going off on tangents that leave the meeting feeling unresolved by the end of the given period.

1. Create A Phone Free Zone

Removing phones from meetings is a great way to focus attention on the topic at hand. 

Using phones during a meeting is unnecessary and can show a lack of respect for those speaking when used. Try having a phone basket in the meeting room, or encouraging attendees to leave their phones at their desks while the meeting takes place to avoid any distractions.

1. Create Action Items

Ending your meeting with a recap of the discussion and a selection of tasks for attendees to complete can leave everyone feeling motivated and ready to work

Create a series of action items for everyone that attended the meeting, these items will motivate and inspire attendees whilst managing the workload brought on by the meeting. 

1.  Recap

Once your meeting is over send out a recap of what was discussed and the mentioned action points to all attendees. Sending out the meeting minutes ensures that attendees remain motivated to complete the task at hand, resulting in a meeting with a productive outcome.

Participate In Productive Meetings At Us&Co

At Us&Co we provide flexible workspaces and meeting rooms that are the ideal space for productive meetings. Conveniently located in both London Stratford and Monument, Us&Co’s affordable meeting spaces are the ideal change of scenery for your next meeting.

Get in touch with our friendly team to book your next meeting at one of our excellent spaces, or check out our selection of meeting rooms today.