A new report based on a survey of 2,000 hybrid and remote employees reveals that 8 in 10 people often feel anxious or worried about attending day-to-day work meetings.
The white paper titled ‘Zoomed In, Zoned Out’ has been released by Craft Docs, the company building the future of documents, and reports on hybrid and remote workers’ attitudes towards business meetings and other daily workplace processes in 2023.
When respondents were asked if they often feel anxious or worried about attending day-to-day work meetings, 39 per cent said they strongly agreed whilst another 42 per cent said they somewhat agreed. Only 9 per cent said they somewhat or strongly disagreed with the statement*.
These anxieties are felt by both managers and team members, as 83 per cent of managers agreed with the statement and 71 per cent of team members.
The report also reveals that a quarter of workers (25 per cent) believe they haven’t received any value from the last 4-5 meetings they’ve attended and only 2 in 3 people (66 per cent) believe they contributed any value themselves.
The problem with these sentiments may lie in the fact that only 22 per cent of respondents believe they always attend meetings fully prepared, highlighting the need for more effective planning and organisation across teams and wider businesses.
In addition, 72 per cent believe that within the last two weeks, they have attended at least one meeting that could have instead been communicated via an email or other form of written communication.
60 per cent also believe the number of hours they spend in meetings each week could be reduced, for example by sharing written status updates and important information ahead of the meeting or using collaboration tools to communicate asynchronously instead.
A spokesperson for Craft Docs comments: “Our new report highlights the need for a large number of teams and organisations to rethink how they communicate and share information and ideas across their businesses.
“Unsurprisingly, a large number of respondents aren’t seeing much value in either the quantity or quality of meetings they attend and believe there aren’t enough processes in place to ensure everything is being communicated effectively and time is being used efficiently.
“However, a staggering 74 per cent of our survey respondents think that simply sharing written status updates and important information ahead of the meeting could reduce the number of hours they spend in meetings each week, and a further 70 per cent stated they would like to use collaboration tools to communicate asynchronously instead.
“This implies that these fairly straightforward and cost-effective tools and processes aren’t already being utilised by the majority of teams, which highlights an urgent need to reimagine how we do business meetings in 2023.
“These are likely just some of the reasons why such a large majority of workers often feel anxious or nervous about attending day-to-day work meetings. We believe that better tools and more effective communication strategies could help alleviate some of these anxieties.”
For more information, please see the report in full: https://www.craft.do/
