Less meetings for more vitality

Increasing vitality is a necessity. According to research by TNO and CBS, 1.3 million people experience burnout symptoms. On average, we sit for ten hours a day. Working from home more often means less physical activity. In a recent international survey by Qualtric, over 30,000 respondents answered the question “What do I need to avoid burnout?” by prioritizing ‘Systems and procedures that reduce unnecessary work,’ with wellness facilities being of least importance.

What are ING and VodafoneZiggo doing to enhance vitality? And what is the research institute The Workplace Vitality Hub, an initiative by FITT (Fontys, IMEC, TNO, and TU/e), Twice, and High Tech Campus, doing? Making meetings more effective for a better employee experience emerged as a priority for all of them. Technology and data have aided them in this endeavor, as revealed during the “The Future of Work” seminar organized by The Growth Lab at Microsoft. Here, experts, scientists, and industry professionals share their experiences and perspectives on the future of work. The first seminar focused on vitality and technology. “Data leads to awareness and prompts actions for improvement,” says Joris van Hulzen from VodafoneZiggo.

“Technology has led to a significant increase in sedentary behavior,” says Marieke van Beurden, manager of the Workplace Vitality Hub at the High Tech Campus of TU Eindhoven. “With our mobile devices, we can do everything from the comfort of our couch or office chair. However, this lack of movement is detrimental to our health. In our living lab, we explore interventions to promote vitality, with data as our starting point.”

TU Eindhoven: Booking work walks

“We’re researching office furniture that enables standing work without straining the back. Integrated sensors in chairs monitor heart rate, breathing, and body posture. The chair can then send signals prompting mini breaks. We’re also investigating how to incorporate more work walks, not only during lunch breaks but also for meetings. Setting a clear route with a duration, such as 25 minutes, proves helpful. It’s also beneficial to be able to book work walks as meeting locations in the scheduling system.”

“To feel vital, it’s also important to work in daylight,” continues Van Beurden. “This can be simulated in the office. We looked into the ‘powernap.’ Particularly, women felt unsafe to relax lying down in the office. We examine the conditions required to make it accessible: better privacy and emphasizing relaxation over sleeping. Noise is another issue for many employees. Especially after COVID, employees experience more noise and disturbances in the workplace. When you’re busier and more stressed, noise becomes more intrusive.”

ING: Reducing two hours of meeting time

Alexander Stolze, head of vitality Benelux at ING, says, “Like the rest of working Netherlands, some of our colleagues at ING Nederland experience one or more burnout symptoms, which we find unacceptable. After an initial exploration, we’re now focusing on prioritizing work. To achieve this, we want to make meetings more effective. Our first step is to save two hours of meeting time per week per person. While it may seem little, the cumulative impact is significant if everyone participates. Technology greatly aids us.

“We’ve employed design thinking—a creative problem-solving method focusing on the end-user—to collect ideas from employees for solutions. We’re currently testing these ideas. Some solutions have multiple variations, and we assess which ones resonate best. We’ve created a ‘meeting manifesto’ with nine points, starting with ‘consider meeting alternatives’ and ‘avoid multitasking,’ and ending with ‘don’t forget to have fun.’ In the meeting invitation template, you can indicate each person’s role, allowing them to prepare accordingly.

“We’re also providing everyone with personal insights into their meeting behavior, with privacy protection. We’re introducing a meeting poll where participants can rate the meeting with stars, providing feedback to each other. We’re piloting opening up calendars to each other. Focus time can also be booked in your calendar and must be respected by others.

“We conducted a pilot with headsets that reduce ambient noise. We quickly realized that employees prefer having their own headset rather than a departmental one. We’re also launching an awareness campaign, ‘Let’s stop glorifying being busy.’ With this campaign, we aim to change the perception that ‘being busy’ equals ‘being successful and important.’ Setting priorities, saying no, and focusing on what truly matters lead to better performance for our employees in the short and long term.”

VodafoneZiggo: Less multitasking during meetings

Data revealed that in parts of our organization, 37 percent of meeting time was spent multitasking,” says Joris van Hulzen, senior manager of organization development & people analytics at VodafoneZiggo. Especially in meetings with more than eight participants. Additionally, the amount of multitasking among senior management was up to twice as much as elsewhere. If there’s a lot of multitasking, one may question the value of attending a meeting. This prompted us to focus on more effective collaboration.

“We now provide insights at team and organizational levels: meeting duration, number of participants, participating business units, total meeting hours, and how much occurs outside regular work hours. We extracted this data from our Microsoft system. Our works council supports this initiative, as it benefits our employees. After a year of piloting with a select group, we’ve expanded this initiative across the organization.

“Employees and teams were surprised by the insights provided by the data. This awareness sparks discussions about these insights, leading to changes: do we really need two people in this meeting? Can we make it more concise? What’s required for that? We encourage buffer time, so meetings aren’t scheduled back-to-back. We schedule meetings for 20 and 45 minutes instead of 30 or 60 minutes. This is also part of our ‘meetings guidelines’: a set of meeting principles that help make meetings more effective. We now provide teams with insights into their collaboration patterns every quarter, and teams use this for their growth goals: where do we want to be next quarter?

“In parts of the organization where we use these collaboration insights, we’ve seen a 5 percent reduction in meeting hours and a 10 percent reduction in large meetings. Multitasking has decreased by 22 percent, and meetings outside office hours by 13 percent.”

HR Tips: Working with data

What can other organizations learn from these companies? Five tips:

Tip 1: There’s a wealth of data available in your systems, often more than you realize and not being utilized. Start by unlocking and linking this data before seeking new sources or conducting surveys.

Tip 2: Prioritize your actions. It’s better to focus on one or two priorities than to implement a wide range of interventions.

Tip 3: Use design thinking and ideas from employees to generate solutions. Test them in pilots. This increases the likelihood of success.

Tip 4: No matter how much technology and data you have, it’s a supporting tool, not an end in itself. Ultimately, it’s about having conversations with each other.

Tip 5: Your data may develop in the right direction, but it’s only successful if employees perceive it as an improvement. Therefore, inquire about employees’ experiences.