Meetings cost around £16,000 per employee each year, claims survey

According to a new survey from conference call provider Powwownow, travel costs and time spent on the road and in meetings cost UK companies just under £16,000 per employee each year.  And, because each businessperson attends an average of 207 meetings annually, taking up around 80 working days (plus the five days spent travelling between them) of their precious time, firms are missing out on the cost savings offered by alternative such as conference calls.  While an average six person meeting costs around £395 in the physical world, a comparable conference call costs just £46. The survey also found that the top tenth of business people spend an average of £4,800 on travel each year.

The research also found that found a fifth resent the time wasted travelling to meetings, with just under  half (45 percent) claiming they get less work done on days they leave the office to attend a meeting. Over a third (35 percent) of respondents claimed meetings put them under additional time pressure and a further third (35 percent) said they impeded them in completing other work.