How to Save Money in Your Staff Meetings

Author: Larry Chester, President

No one is ambivalent about staff meetings. You either think they’re critical to running your business, or you consider them a total waste of time.

Are your staff meetings an effective use of time and money for your company? Think about how long your meetings take. We have one client whose weekly staff meetings sometimes take 6 hours!! When you consider how much that meeting costs, it’s no joke at all.

How many people attend your staff meeting and what is their hourly rate? The owner @ $200/hour. 2 Exec VPs @ $80/hour; 3 middle level managers at $60/hour; 4 line supervisors at $45/hour. That’s a staff meeting with 10 employees, and a total hourly rate of $720. So, if your meeting lasts 3 hours, that’s a cost to the company of $2,160 every week that you meet.

Then consider this – at $2,160 per week, that’s $8,640 per month, and $112,320 per year. You might not be able to eliminate those meetings, but you should do everything you can to increase its efficiency, because it’s going to save you money.

1. Use an agenda. List the topics you need to cover. Everyone should know what you’re going to discuss.
2. Start on time. Don’t wait for the late comers. That extra 10 – 15 minutes is costing everyone valuable time, and wasting the company’s money. Start on time today, and the latecomers will be on time next week!
3. Put a time limit on each report. Give everyone the same 5 or 10 minutes to highlight what’s going on in their department.
4. Have a time allotted to the meeting overall. Use the timer on your phone. Pick someone as the timekeeper, and stick to the time allotted.
5. Take that topic off-line. If there’s something that requires a longer discussion between two people, let them discuss it outside of that 10 person meeting.
6. Schedule that topic for next week. A topic that needs research doesn’t need to be discussed at length at this meeting. Have someone bring the full details to the next meeting. Then everyone can weigh in.
7. Summarize the meeting. When it’s over, remind everyone of the important topics covered.

Staff meetings won’t feel like a waste of time if everyone contributes and feels part of the process. And, when that happens, it won’t feel so expensive, either.