A Forbes survey suggests that over 70% of employees don’t enjoy meetings. According to the same survey, the percentage of employees who dislike meetings with HR is within the same range.
While meetings are a more efficient means of discussion than emails, they are disliked because most fail to produce a conclusion. As an HR professional, you can promote employee satisfaction by reducing the number of meetings you schedule with employees. However, if that’s not possible, you can still help eliminate employees’ negative feelings toward meetings by ensuring every meeting has a goal.
Here’s how setting a goal for every HR meeting helps:
Decide Meeting Attendees
Defining a goal for an HR meeting narrows down the individuals who must attend it. Without a specified purpose, the HR team can invite all the employees to the meeting even when they will not contribute to the meeting.
For example, an HR meeting to communicate new workplace policies, which ends on the note’ the team leads for each department will help with the transition or any confusion’ doesn’t require all employees to be present. It would only create confusion for junior employees. Instead, it only requires the attendance of team leads who will be helping the employees implement new policies.
Team leads, and managers know their team members far better than administration or HR personnel. Therefore, they also communicate new information to their team members more efficiently. As an HR professional, you may believe you must communicate the new policies to employees. But identifying the purpose of the meeting allows you to understand that the responsibility to implement new policies isn’t yours and that team leads play a more significant role.
Identify Meeting Frequencies
By deciding a goal for every HR meeting and narrowing down its attendees, HR personnel can determine the correct frequency of the meetings required. Let’s continue the example of setting up a meeting to introduce new workplace policies. In this scenario, you may not realize how many meetings must be scheduled to ensure success.
More meeting attendees means greater schedule adjustment and lower work output for the day. Not to mention, there may not be a big enough meeting room available at the workplace to fit all the employees. Meetings held over zoom can also suffer from poor connection, resulting in poor communication.
Furthermore, not allowing junior employees to ask questions may appear displeasing. On the other hand, allowing all employees to ask whatever they want can result in chaos, miscommunication, and wastage of time.
Develop Meeting Agenda
Meetings scheduled without a specified goal often experience awkward pauses and end on unsatisfactory notes. On the contrary, an HR meeting scheduled for a specific purpose allows every attendee to prepare meeting agendas, stay focused, and reach a productive and optimistic conclusion. It fosters brainstorming and creativity and encourages productivity.
Developing an agenda before the meeting also promotes scheduling the meeting at an optimum time and for a fixed duration. It promotes a solution-oriented approach and helps employees become more mindful of how they spend their time at work.
Finally, implementing an open-door policy can significantly help HR personnel reduce the number of HR meetings required and solve workplace issues more efficiently on a one-on-one basis.
