The True Cost of Meetings - Arrgghhh!
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!
The true cost of meetings comes from ‘unacknowledged overheads, lost productivity, the time absorbed and the acceptance of arbitrary meeting lengths’. Scary figures!
Businesses need a meeting cost analysis tool that helps them capture and see those costs and thus drive more efficient behaviour.
Here’s an example calculation of how 2MuchTalk can make meetings more effective.
Apex Enterprises’ Sales Department (it’s always Apex in the old black & white movies) consists of six team members. Four are based at the City headquarters and two at regional offices. They have a face-to-face team meeting each month. The meeting has always taken place from 1pm-3pm in a hired meeting room near to head office. They’ve never thought about how to cut meeting costs. If asked, they’ll probably cite the cost of the food and location.
However, 2MuchTalk establishes that the true cost of their monthly team meeting is £1,350.
The calculation is as follows:
Participants – 6 Employees
Time – 16 hours (combined)
- Meeting Time - 2 hours per employee = 12 hours
- Travel Time - 2 hours each for employee #4 & #5
Participants cost - £800
- Employee #1,# 2, #3 & #4 - £50 p/h
- Employee #5 & #6 - £100 p/h
Travel - £400
- Travel time - £300 (lost time spent travelling)
- Travel expenses - £100 (approx 125 mile round trip at 40p per/mile, per/person)
Expenses - £150
lt;li>Room - £120 (£60 p/h)
- Lunch - £30
TOTAL MEETING COST - £1,350 (as long as they don’t run over time, of course)
After reviewing the cost of the previous team meeting using 2MuchTalk, Apex’s team leader realises that next time around they could save £940 by making the following changes:
- Reducing meeting length and being tighter on the agenda
- Only inviting essential team members to the meeting, freeing others up to get on with their job – though everyone needs a bit of face-to-face team time it doesn’t always have to be every single month!
- Using webcams or conference calls so team members that are based off site can attend the meeting virtually and avoid the travel time and cost
2Much Talk establishes the true cost of their improved monthly team meeting is just ££410.
The calculations are as follows:
Participants – 5 (Employee 3 is not essential for this meeting this month)
Time - £5 hours (combined)
- Meeting - 1 hour
- Travel Time – 0 hours (Employee 4 & 5 join the meeting virtually)
Participants Cost - £350
- Employee 1, 2, & 4 = £50 p/h
- Employee 5 & 6 = £100 p/h
Travel - £0
Expenses - £60
- Room - £60 p/h
- Lunch - £0 (Arrange the meeting at a different time)
TOTAL MEETING COST - £410
Making this change every month could potentially save Apex £11,280 per year!
That’s enough for a great Christmas party, or an investment in new IT equipment, or Mr Apex comfortably paying back that bank loan instead of struggling a to repay a bit every month.
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