Shopify, an e-commerce company based in Canada, just released they are encouraging employees to “Just say no to meetings in 2023”. At first glance, this may sound like a workplace dream but we’re here to give an HR expert opinion on this.
We’ve all been in those meetings where you’ve thought to yourself “this could’ve been an email”. There’s also the opposite side of the spectrum where missing meetings or not meeting can make an employee feel unvalued.
Recent studies show that employees spend an average of 23 hours per week in meetings. So, is getting rid of meetings altogether the best choice? Or is this just an incredible opportunity to, as we say at Leath HR Group, “Do Better in 2023”?
Greg and Amy from Leath HR Group weigh in:
“What Shopify is doing seems more like Group Punishment for wasteful meetings. My belief is that you can get further and faster with a good meeting, but it has to be a GOOD meeting.”
– Greg Mosher, Senior HR Consultant with Leath HR Group
9 times out of 10, good planning, preparing, and knowing how to execute productive and meaningful meetings will alleviate inefficiencies and foster productivity.
“Getting rid of all meetings is treating the symptom and not the disease. There is a delicate balance between collaboration and autonomy. I see places where there are too many meetings just means there is a lot of analysis paralysis and isn’t clear who needs to be in the room, so they just invite everyone. It almost becomes the entire org is a group project, which defeats the purpose of hiring talented people and letting them do their jobs. Canceling them all with more than 2 people is a pretty drastic response. The right approach is to get better lines of where collaborative input is needed and where individual execution is needed and remove the rest that lies in between.”
– Amy Conway, Senior HR Consultant with Leath HR Group
How to have a productive meeting:
- Create an agenda of topics you want to discuss and share before the meeting.
- Include the key players who need to be included in the discussion.
- Have a note-taker who documents decisions, action items, and other helpful notes that can be shared.
- Don’t have meetings just to have meetings, be intentional about the topic up for discussion.
- It’s okay to have informal meetings (check-ins), they are great for building relationships and culture.
To sum it up, we believe good meetings are key for collaboration and building rapport between your team members. Be intentional and prepared and watch how productive you feel after your meetings.
At Leath HR Group, we help businesses across industries from manufacturing, fintech, legal, healthcare, and academia. We help our clients develop cutting-edge people strategies that ultimately attract and retain the talent they need for growth and success. With over 5 years of business, decades of experience under our belts, and numerous awards, we are confident our team at Leath HR Group can help you with your people processes!
