Staff doubt value of meetings
By Ruth Sullivan in London
Published: October 31 2006 02:00 | Last updated: October 31 2006 02:00
Eight out of 10 employees say at least half of their corporate meetings are unproductive and waste valuable working hours.
A new international survey of 2,000 workers in 13 countries by Robert Walters, the recruitment group, questions why so many meetings are set up.
While meetings have an "essential" role in business, with executives typically attending two or three a day, Susan Major, the company's human resources re-cruitment director, agrees they are pointless if "nothing comes out" of them.
Sectors surveyed by web poll included accounting, finance, banking, IT legal, sales and marketing, and human resources. The findings come at a time when employees in many countries are trying to achieve a better balance between their work and personal lives.
Cultural differences also emerge in employee attitudes. South Africans led the list of workers who found meetings the least productive, with 83 per cent stating they did not achieve work goals. They were closely followed by the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.
In Japan, where doing business often involves large meetings, 61 per cent of employees found at least half their meetings ineffective. Ireland and Luxembourg were closest to the Japanese view.
Robert Walters suggests good agenda planning and preparation can reduce employee frustration. So can cutting the number of participants, training those who lead meetings, and banning mobile phones and Black-Berrys to help keep participants focused.
Clear evaluation of the discussion at the end of the meeting is essential.
开会有意义吗？全球上班族表示怀疑
作者：英国《金融时报》鲁斯?沙利文(Ruth Sullivan)
2006年11月3日 星期五
有八成的员工认为，他们公司至少一半的会议是没有意义的，纯粹是在浪费宝贵的工作时间。
人力资源集团Robert Walters最近对13个国家的2000名上班族进行了一次国际调研，研究企业界为什么有那么多会议。
虽然会议在企业中具有“重要”作用，高管们通常每天要参加两三个会议，但Robert Walters人力资源招聘总监苏珊?梅杰(Susan Major)承认，如果这些会议没有任何成果，那它们就毫无意义。
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Robert Walters通过网络进行的这项调查涵盖了会计、金融、银行、IT法律、销售营销和人力资源等领域。而在目前，许多国家的上班族都在努力尝试，希望在工作和私人生活之间实现更好的平衡。
员工的态度也存在文化差异。在觉得会议最没用的名单中，南非工人名列榜首，83%的受调查者认为会议没有达到工作目标。紧随其后的是美国、香港和新加坡。
在日本，经商办企业经常需要召开大型会议，61%的日本员工觉得至少一半会议没有效果。与日本人的观点最为接近的是爱尔兰人和卢森堡人。
Robert Walters认为，良好的日程安排和前期准备可以降低员工的失望感。因此，减少与会人数、培训会议主持、禁止开会期间使用手机和黑霉(BlackBerrys)等措施，可以帮助与会人员集中注意力。
而在会议结束时，对会议讨论内容进行明确评估，这一点非常重要。
以下是员工认为会议无用的全部国家名单，按比例高低排序：
南非：83.67%
美国：81.82%
香港：81.71%
新加坡：81.41%
澳大利亚：79.74%
比利时：79.61%
荷兰：78.70%
法国：78.69%
英国：78.62%
新西兰：77.50%
卢森堡：73.68%
爱尔兰：66.67%
日本：61.70%
