Posts Tagged ‘performance’
I was reading Seth Godin’s blog today on “The new standard for meetings and conferences” and it reminded me of my dislike for unproductive meetings. We have all been to a meeting at some point and got up at the end wishing we could tell the meeting organizer, “Thanks for wasting my time!” Meetings can eat up valuable time and resources in an organization if not properly managed. The worst time eater are out of town meetings that accomplish very little.
I used to work for a telecommunications Company and upon merging with another Company, they were flying employees from both Corporate headquarters back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth again. Everyone was complaining of the complete uselessness of the time spent traveling – because most were expected to complete their work regardless of the “lost” time. Typically, employees would fly down on Tuesday evening, meet with people Wednesday and Thursday and fly back Thursday afternoon. They would only be in meetings about 5 hours on Wednesday and 2 to 3 hours on Thursday. The rest of the time was spent traveling or having a “business lunch.”
All of this was costing the Company tons of money. Not just the travel and meal cost, but the inordinate amount of lost productivity. And with employee morale already skiddish with the impending merger, all of these additional job pressures did not help retention.
As Seth points out, the standards for great meetings and conferences have changed. If you are going to consume someone’s time, make sure you are well organized and accomplish something of substance during the meeting time. As far as travel is concerned, the cost of quality video conferencing equipment will quickly be dwarfed by the cost of flying all over the place. Many meetings can accomplish just as must via video or teleconference as they do in person.
The funny thing about my story above is that I was working for a telecommunications Company, yet they still insisted flying people all over the country for meaningless meetings that could have easily been done through teleconferencing – at virtually no cost to the Company.
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Our offices have been using a dual monitor setup for a number of years now. While I do not need any extensive research to tell me I am vastly increasing our productivity (I can see it myself everyday), there are several studies that are coming out that are promoting the advantages of dual monitors.
In a recent study from the University of Utah, people using two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those that used a single 18-inch monitor. For the many businesses who are strapped with the need for additional personnel, they must ask – do I really need employees or do I need the proper equipment for the employees I have.
Microsoft Researchers conducted user studies at determining the effectiveness of adding a second monitor to your workstation. Their findings report that dual monitors increased productivity anywhere fro 9% to 50% depending upon the person performing the tasks and the type of task.
The bottom line is that if you are even able to squeeze a mere 10% more productivity out of an employee, your cost savings can be extraordinary. For more information on the Microsoft study click here.
I have been to numerous tax and accounting conferences and in the technology portion, dual monitors is always the strongest point of emphasis that is made. There are always the usual doubters – people that have been doing things the same way for 40 years and refuse to change anything. There are two additional things that are always consistent in these discussions. The first thing is that there is never anyone in the room who has gone to dual monitors that will not rave about them. Secondly, there is not a single dual monitor user in the room that will EVER let you take their dual monitors away from them – me included. I hope to have three monitors before long!
