How Regular Meetings Can Affect Productivity

Motivation and a sense of responsibility are not the only determining factors of your staff's productivity. The organization of work, however structured and logical it may be, can be detrimental if it does not consider the employee's personality.

The web design company from our today's case is our long-standing customer. They started using CleverControl in 2017 when their team consisted of only five people, including the director. Since then, their startup has grown into a small company, as has grown their client base, the complexity of orders and, consequently, the staff. If previously the employee could quickly discuss the ongoing project with the director or the colleague by the water dispenser or during the break, the larger team required other forms of organization. The director decided on obligatory daily briefs and monthly meetings; besides, employees arranged their own meetings when they needed to discuss the current task. In the end, the employee could have two-three meetings per day. For some employees, the opportunity to present the results of their work, participate in live discussions and feel a part of the team was a huge motivation and inspiration. Others, on the contrary, did not welcome the new workflow.

The director noticed that one of the senior employees who had been there since day one showed lower productivity than usual. The director inspected the logs gathered on the employee's computer by CleverControl and found a frustrating pattern. Significant periods of inactivity or unproductive activity followed each meeting the employee had to participate in. The employee browsed through news websites and forums or played small games before returning to work about an hour after the meeting.

The employee was introverted, little communicated with his colleagues on topics other than work and preferred to work alone. He confessed that each meeting, especially a spontaneous one, drained and derailed him and the employee required time to regain focus. This case made the director reconsider the workflow to take into account employees' personalities. The introverted employee was permitted to visit only the obligatory meetings where his presence and expertise were absolutely necessary. Also, the director worked towards decreasing the number of briefs.

• Activity monitoring

  Long periods of inactivity attracted the director's attention to the employee's lack of focus during the workday.
• Tracciamento dei siti web visitati

  Unproductive websites were another concerning sign of the employee's lack of engagement.
• Events log

  Analysis of the employee's activity on the computer helped to reveal the reason for his unproductivity.