Two consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic are that:
Two consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are that:
1. More people are working from home;
2. Less time is being spent in meetings.
Working from home is potentially more productive than working in an office because there are many distractions in an office environment and the employee has slightly more control over the home environment. Employers may be concerned that employees will use working from home as free time but there’s a solution for that issue which I’ll mention later.
Fewer, smaller and shorter meetings would almost certainly increase productivity because quite a few meetings are unproductive, meaning that they produce nothing useful and consume enormous amounts of time. In a well-run meeting, only one person can be productive, i.e. speak, at one time. in a poorly run meeting, several speak at once, reducing the chance of a useful product. So a meeting of 10 people for 2 hours potentially wastes 18 person hours.
The most wasteful meetings are those which convey information. Information is better communicated through email or some other communications technology. The most useful meetings are those which result in one or more decisions which require the participation of everyone in the meeting.
The Perendie platform ® shows what everyone’s producing and what’s likely to happen, allaying employers’ fears that employees are idling, without the cost and bureaucracy of a management hierarchy. It links every outcome, activity and resource, giving purpose and direction to Microsoft Teams and Slack channels. It enables productive remote working and meetings.