A new poll of 2,000 hybrid and remote employees reveals that 8 in 10 people feel anxious or worried about attending day-to-day work meetings.
The white paper titled ‘Zoomed In, Zoned Out’, compiled by Craft Docs, reports on workers’ attitudes towards business meetings and other daily workplace processes in 2023.
A quarter of workers (25 per cent) surveyed said they didn’t receive any value from the last five meetings they’ve attended and only two in three people (66 per cent) believe they contributed any value themselves.
However, only one in five respondents (22 per cent) believe they always attend meetings fully prepared, highlighting the need for more effective planning and organisation across teams and wider businesses.
In addition, 72 per cent believe that within the last two weeks, they have attended at least one meeting that could have instead been communicated via an email or other form of written communication.
Collaboration tools
Six in ten workers said they amount of hours they spent in meetings could be reduced by sharing written status updates and important information ahead of the meeting or using collaboration tools to communicate instead.
A spokesperson for Craft Docs said: “Our new report highlights the need for a large number of teams and organisations to rethink how they communicate and share information and ideas across their businesses.
“Unsurprisingly, a large number of respondents aren’t seeing much value in either the quantity or quality of meetings they attend and believe there aren’t enough processes in place to ensure everything is being communicated effectively and time is being used efficiently.
“However, a staggering 74 per cent of our survey respondents think that simply sharing written status updates and important information ahead of the meeting could reduce the number of hours they spend in meetings each week, and a further 70 per cent stated they would like to use collaboration tools to communicate asynchronously instead.
“This implies that these fairly straightforward and cost-effective tools and processes aren’t already being utilised by the majority of teams, which highlights an urgent need to reimagine how we do business meetings in 2023.”
