Let's Not Meet On That - Accountemps Survey Identifies Managers' Biggest Meeting Pet Peeves

TORONTO, July 19 /CNW/ - Planning a meeting? Better start on time -- and have a good reason for scheduling it. Nearly three in ten (28 per cent) managers interviewed for an Accountemps survey said beginning or ending late tops their list of meeting pet peeves. Getting the group together unnecessarily was the second most common complaint, cited by 22 per cent of respondents.

The survey was developed by Accountemps, the world's first and largest specialized staffing service for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with more than 300 Canadian senior managers at companies with 20 or more employees.

Senior managers were asked, "Which one of the following is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to meetings?" Their responses:

Not keeping to the schedule, e.g., starting
                or ending the meeting late................  28%
               Meetings that seem unnecessary.............  22%
               Attendees using PDAs or laptops for
                non-meeting-related activities............  20%
               People interrupting each other.............  18%
               Meetings scheduled during lunch............   6%
               Other/Don't Know/No Answer/................   6%
                                                          -----
                                                           100%

"Meetings are an effective way to share news and discuss current issues - however, organisers are responsible for keeping meetings on track by following the agenda and being mindful of time constraints," said Kathryn Bolt, Canadian president of Accountemps. "It's essential to continually reassess the usefulness of all gatherings, especially long-standing meetings that are not due to a compelling need."

Accountemps identifies five signs that your meeting could be a time waster -- and offers suggestions for how to correct it:

1.  You've left nothing out. While you should have an agenda, it
        shouldn't look like a follow-up to War and Peace. The onus is on the
        organiser to determine what must be covered and what can be left out.
    2.  Everyone's invited. Scan your list of attendees to determine who
        really needs to be included in the discussion. Often, people are
        invited as a courtesy rather than necessity. A lengthy participant
        list also may indicate you are trying to accomplish too much in a
        single meeting.
    3.  It will run longer than an hour. It's hard to keep an audience's
        attention for an extended period of time. If you must schedule a
        meeting for more than an hour, try to get people to interact, offer
        them snacks or vary the speakers to help everyone stay engaged.
    4.  There are too many visual elements. Visuals, such as PowerPoint
        presentations, can be effective for simplifying complex ideas, but
        they also can bog down the discussion. Instead, distribute the slides
        to attendees before you meet to give them a chance to review and
        prepare comments in advance.
    5.  It's routine. If you have regularly scheduled meetings, you may want
        to determine if they are still necessary. For instance, if it's
        difficult to come up with enough agenda items for each gathering or
        the meetings are getting progressively shorter, you may need to
        adjust the frequency.

Accountemps has more than 350 offices worldwide and offers online job search services at www.accountemps.com. Follow Accountemps for workplace news at twitter.com/accountemps.

For further information: Nadia Santoli, [phone], [e-mail]