Meetings Statistics in 2022: Meeting frequency, productivity, and the state of remote work

The way we work has drastically changed as many of us shifted into remote work (more than 4.7 million people in the US, and 16% of companies worldwide), but one thing has remained the same - we all need meetings. In fact, the need for meetings rose even further as we have less time face to face, and are relying on video calls to connect.

From 2020 to 2021 alone, the number of meetings in the workplace has increased by 12.9%

Now, Sesh was created with the intention of making all of your meetings better, so naturally we obsess over the current state of meetings. (We even have a slack channel where we regularly share the latest research.)

We've put together some of the most interesting meeting statistics finds from a variety of sources (all linked below) so you can get a true look into the state of meetings - and remote work - today.

Meeting frequency

We're having a lot of meetings.

• On average, most employees have 62 meetings per month
• People spend 1/3 of their week in meetings
• Collectively, 15% of an organization’s time is spent in meetings

According to Harvard Business Review, meetings are "essential for enabling collaboration, creativity, and innovation. They often foster relationships and ensure proper information exchange." They're certainly a huge part of where we spend our time.

Most of us would agree that meetings are necessary, but when interviewed, a lot of workers had differing sentiments about the effectiveness of them.

Let's take a look at some meeting productivity stats:

Meeting productivity

If you're wondering how to make meetings more productive, you're not alone.

• 1/2 meetings are considered to be a waste of time
• 73% of people admit to doing other work in meetings
• 47% of people feel overwhelmed by the number of meetings they attend

And what about employee sentiment?

• When asked to share what most impedes their productivity, the top response was unnecessary calls and meetings (35%)
• 45% of employees feel overwhelmed by the number of meetings they attend.
• At least 30% of workers believe that their ideas are shut down far too quickly in meetings

And how those meetings are ran?

• Only 37% of workplace meetings actively make use of meeting agendas.
• 73% consider having a prepared agenda as “very important.”
• 92% of meeting attendees value meetings as an opportunity to contribute to the organization

It looks like we have a lot to learn from the way people feel about meetings. Meetings are essential to a productive work environment, especially when it comes to collaboration, but that doesn't mean there isn't room to optimize.

We mentioned earlier that there's been a major shift in how we run meetings. We've moved into remote working which has completely changed the landscape of meetings and work in general. We've essentially had to re-learn how to interact with our colleagues.

And it looks like remote work is here to stay - let's take a look at the workplace:

Remote work

Is remote work here to stay?

• 30% of employees now work exclusively at remote companies
• Over 50% of remote workers started working from home since 2020
• 74% of remote employees who were not working remotely pre-COVID will remain in a remote role post-COVID
• A majority 57% of tech employees surveyed during the pandemic believe they are more productive when working remotely from home.

So to summarize - we're in a lot of meetings, some of which are considered ineffective. Many people are now working from home, so meetings won't be changing any time soon. Unless we work towards making them better.

How to make meetings more effective

The trick is to make meetings more fun and engaging.

Video conferencing is more productive (and pleasant) when:

• Each attendee benefits from it (attendees learned something, got clarity, etc.)
• There is a clear goal or purpose for the meeting, and it’s met
• Conversations outside of the scope of the meeting are discussed at another time

The key isn't to have more meetings, and it's not even necessarily to have less meetings — it is to have better meetings. If you're wondering "how to make meetings more effective," you're really asking "how to make meetings more engaging" and "how to make meetings more fun." Once you have those worked out, your meetings will go from being a frustrating necessity to a key part of your day.

That's what Sesh is working towards. We obsess over meeting culture because we're hyper-focused on making meetings - especially remote meetings - better.

Sesh is transforming the content of meetings with a new approach that automates the busy work and integrates best practices to help you run on time, get more done, and include everyone. Give it a try today and instantly improve your meetings.

Sources: Atlassian, Dialpad, Exploding topics, Inc.com, Meeting King, Robert Half, Cornerstone Dynamics, Zippia.