And according to this survey, ‘…only 17% reported that their meetings are generally productive uses of group and individual time.’

Running meetings whilst making them streamlined and effective has become even more difficult in the age of COVID-19 and remote working. But certainly not impossible.

Remote meetings have become commonplace for offices due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a transition to working remotely or from home. While the future is never certain, it seems likely that remote or hybrid working arrangements will be here to stay. ‘Over 70 percent [sic] of workers want flexible remote work options to continue…’ according to Microsoft.

Remote meetings give staff the opportunity and access to stay “at work” and in the loop, even if isolating or working interstate (or overseas). The work/life balance that remote working can offer is one that both businesses and employees have grabbed with both hands, and it is important to afford your team this opportunity where possible.

Plus, better meetings leads to better job satisfaction. ‘A study by Steven Rogelberg, of the University of North Carolina, and colleagues showed that how workers feel about the effectiveness of meetings correlates with their general satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their jobs…’

Here are some key principles of effective meetings, even if your team is remote.

Running efficient meetings is vitally important. It is crucial to get the maximum “bang for your buck” in terms of time, which is why effective planning is a huge step towards improving meeting effectiveness. Coming into a meeting with a clear plan and agenda allows you and your team to progress through items quickly and efficiently, avoiding uncertainty on what topics will be covered and wasting valuable meeting time.

Another key principle of effective meetings is ensuring that your team ends the session clear on what they need to follow on with and are aligned to the same objectives. The true measure of the effectiveness of your meeting is the end result – and a team on the same page is one of the best results possible.

Running effective meetings is no small feat and often sets a good manager apart from a great one. There are countless hacks to improving meeting effectiveness in small-to-medium-sized teams, goal setting being one of them.

Setting goals is an effective way to get your team working towards a common objective and allows celebrating wins regularly, which is shown to be good for team morale. There are countless online resources relating to goal setting in business and many different formulas. Among the most popular are SMART goals, which encourage realistic goal setting and journaling to keep track of short-term goals. For longer-term goals, experts recommend breaking them into a series of attainable, more immediate tasks.

You might like to read our article on five common mistakes in goal setting.

Regardless of whether your team is in-person or remote, it is crucial to ensure your meetings are having an impact. Whether you’re looking to boost productivity, foster collaboration, or delegate tasks, your meeting is the place to do it.

Ensuring your team is working well together and are clear on their upcoming tasks is an excellent objective for your meetings. This time is also well-spent by building a harmonious and productive workplace culture, while it also serves as an opportunity to lay out expected standards in punctuality and organisation.

For efficient yet impactful meetings, follow our meeting workflow. The meeting workflow feature allows you to actually execute all the goals that you have, through a planning feature (both quarterly and annually), so you can run an agile business.

Running a timely meeting and building a culture of everyone arriving on time and ready to go (where possible) cuts lost time at the beginning of meetings and sets the tone.

Workfacta is a software platform designed with efficient meetings in mind. As we continue to get used to remote and hybrid working arrangements, it is vital we appreciate the role software can play in keeping meetings running smoothly.

Workfacta can align your team with the same objectives, track and measure their goals, and execute plans efficiently and effectively. It is the premier software for team meetings – linking to your business goals, boosting efficiency, and delivering you the minutes within seconds of completion, so you know exactly how your team is tracking. We designed it for managers with teams in mind.