Home ANTBITES (Media Releases) Your employees are wasting roughly a third of their work week on...

Your employees are wasting roughly a third of their work week on status meetings

1

Clarizen, a global leader in collaborative work management software, recently announced survey results that show workers in Australia waste up to 30 per cent of the work week (assuming a 40 hour work week) preparing for and attending status meetings  – on average 12 hours per week.

Preparing for these meetings often takes as long as the meetings themselves. 65 per cent of Australian workers who participate in conference calls report that they multitask during these calls.

Additionally, 89 per cent of those who work with teams in multiple locations are frustrated, most often by communication issues such as keeping everyone in the loop (18 per cent) and communicating with the team (18 per cent).

The latest Clarizen survey, conducted online by Harris Poll amongst over 2,200 employed adults ages 18+ across the U.S., the UK and Australia, tracked workplace trends, including organisational structure and specific job responsibilities.

What did this Clarizen survey find out?

The survey found that:

  • 67 per cent of employed adults in Australia report they attend status meetings for updates on specific projects, spending 3.9 hours each week in these meetings
  • 69 per cent of Australian workers report attending ‘general purpose’ status meetings, devoting an average of 4.1 hours weekly in these meetings
  • 65 per cent of Australian workers spend time each week preparing for status meetings, spending an average of four hours weekly doing so
  • 65 per cent of Australian workers who participate in conference calls with colleagues admit to taking part in other work-related or personal tasks while on mute during conference calls: 29 per cent respond to work emails, 18 per cent eat lunch, 13 per cent respond to personal emails, 14 per cent use the restroom (on mute)

“Over three years of studying status meetings in the U.S., the results have shown consistently that they substantially decrease the amount of time and energy workers can devote to completing actual, meaningful work and this appears to be so in Australia as well,” said Guy Shani, GM of Asia-Pacific and Japan, Clarizen.

“Solutions that drive productive, collaborative work can make a dramatic impact on the efficiency of teams by focusing meetings on strategy and planning vs. boring status updates.”

What else did this Clarizen survey find out?

Additional survey results:

  • 40 per cent of employed adults in Australia selected “collaborative” as their ideal workplace culture, whilst 17 per cent chose a “hierarchical” structure
  • Workers who participate in conference calls in Australia are more focused on conference calls than those in the U.S.: 65 per cent of employees in Australia and the UK admit to multitasking during these calls, while 74 per cent of U.S. employees admit to participating in other activities during conference calls (on mute).
  • Amongst those who participate in conference calls with colleagues, 38 per cent wait more than five minutes for everyone to join the call.

Clarizen’s collaborative work management solution offers an alternative to status meetings. By simplifying work, reducing communication overload, and providing extensive visibility at any level of the enterprise, everyone on a team can work more effectively, adapt to changes and achieve their objectives. To see how Clarizen can reduce organisations’ reliance on status meetings, view a product tour here.