Meetings are a big part of office culture, with recent statistics indicating that the average worker has a total of 8 meetings per week, with 41% of these lasting between 30 minutes and an hour for companies of all sizes in 2019. However, despite all this time being spent in meetings, 47% of employees admitted that they felt this activity wasted their time the most at work. So, how can you get your meetings back on track to being productive with the right meeting management software (also sometimes referred to as meeting planning software)?
Having days filled with meetings has long been a part of the status quo for many office workers, and this is something that hasn’t changed with many of us having spent the majority of the past year working remotely. In fact, for many organizations, daily video meetings have become a vital tool for keeping us connected with the rest of our team.
In the office, communication is constant. It’s as simple as having a general chat while you work, walking up to someone’s desk when you need to ask a question, or engaging a teammate in a conversation about what you’re working on as you grab a quick coffee on your break. With remote working expected to be the new norm for many businesses going forward, using meeting planning software can ensure that when you do meet with your team, the interactions you have are actually productive.
With that in mind, here are some of the reasons why you should invest in meeting planning or meeting management software for your team, as well as some of the key features you should look out for when deciding which tool to choose.
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Why do you need meeting management software?
Whether you love them or dread them, there’s no denying that meetings are an important part of office life – especially now that many teams are distributed across various locations. Even before COVID-19 forced the majority of office staff to work from their homes, many larger organizations already had employees working from various offices in different locations.
Meetings give us the opportunity to share information with others both quickly and easily, as well as allow us to switch off from distractions for a set amount of time and focus our attention on the topic at hand. This makes them vital tools for helping us to make important decisions or simply ensure that everyone is up to speed with what has been done and what needs to be completed next when working on a project. However, meetings need to be planned and managed correctly to ensure that they are actually effective.
By using dedicated software for your meeting planning and meeting management, you can set a clear agenda in advance of any meeting, which will help you to keep them efficient and focused and ensure that nothing vital gets left out of the conversation. Additionally, by choosing meeting planning software that also enables you to host video calls in the same app, you can make sure that everything you need for your meeting to run smoothly is easily accessible, and that you are also able to share information with attendees of your meeting at the click of a button.
As an example, Ayoa is a great work management tool that incorporates meeting management alongside its collaboration and task management features. With the ability to use various boards to brainstorm ideas, create plans and manage projects and tasks while you host video calls, you can make planning, managing and hosting a meeting a seamless experience.
What really matters when choosing meeting management software?
Now that you know the benefits of meeting planning and meeting management software, what features should you look out for when choosing which app to go with? Here are just some of the capabilities that should be a priority.
Being able to share your plans with others
One of the reasons we love Ayoa’s meeting management and planning software is that it’s easy to create detailed agendas for meetings and share them with others. Whether you choose to put yours in the format of a mind map or an online whiteboard or opt to use their pre-made Meeting Agenda template (with helpful prompts of what you need to consider), creating an effective plan is as quick and simple as choosing a board and adding your information to it – whether this is in the format of the text, lists or files. When you want to share your meeting plan with others, you can simply invite them to it (and it’s free!).
The ability to host video meetings
Although many of us began working from home as a temporary measure, some organizations are already letting go of their physical offices to cut costs and will continue to give their staff the opportunity to work remotely full time after the pandemic has ended. Ensuring your meeting planning software also has built-in video chat capabilities will save you time and money as you will only need one app to manage every aspect of your meeting.
Having a place to take meeting notes
One of the main reasons that meetings are unproductive is because proper notes aren’t taken during the session. This means that many of the great ideas you discussed fail to be turned into actions, and you may be missing out on great results. Ayoa offers a pre-made Meeting Notes template that includes dedicated sections for you to ensure that all the important details of your meeting are recorded, and these notes will be stored in a secure online platform that everyone who attended will be able to access.
Tools that let you turn your notes into tasks
Another factor that can make workers consider meetings to be a waste of time is that even if notes are recorded during the session, they’re not passed onto other members of the team to be explored further or even turned into actionable tasks. So, by the time you meet again, you won’t have made as much progress as you expected! Fortunately, Ayoa eliminates this issue by letting you turn your notes into tasks in a dedicated project task board – whether you added them as a branch of a mind map or as a sticky note on a digital whiteboard. You can then set start and due dates for each task, as well as assign them to others, and add reminders, attachments, notes, and more to keep you and your team on track.
With the right meeting planning software, you will never need to have a time-consuming and unproductive meeting ever again! Choose your Ayoa plan to gain access to all the tools you need to make every meeting a smooth and efficient experience for your team.
