For this year’s State of Meetings report, Calendly surveyed 1,200 business leaders across roles, departments, industries, generations, company sizes, and regions about scheduling, meetings, and productivity.
In 2024, we broadened our scope beyond last year’s “State of Scheduling” report to look at the broader meeting landscape: What types of meetings do people find most productive? How do meetings differ between remote and in-office workplaces? What cultural or generational differences dictate what kinds of meeting behaviors are appropriate?
The results reveal some mixed feelings: Perhaps most notably, 81% of respondents claimed more meetings would help them in some way — while some also reported that meetings reduce their productivity, or negatively impact their work-life balance.
Of course, not all meetings are created equal; there are good meetings and bad ones. Internal and external meetings are especially different animals. The meetings people love to hate are more often poorly managed internal meetings, whereas external meetings like sales demos, interviews, customer calls, client appointments, and so on — Calendly’s focus, and often the focus of the professionals we surveyed — spell revenue for many businesses.
The data confirms what we at Calendly have long believed: Meetings themselves are not the problem, and when we’re thoughtful about how we approach them, they can be the most enjoyable part of our workday. Toward that end, we’ve paired these findings with expert recommendations for conducting better meetings, so we can work toward a more engaging, productive, impactful future.
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Most people feel like more meetings could help
When asked about the ways in which attending more meetings would help them in their jobs, only 9% of people said they’re in too many meetings for that to be possible.
%
of respondents claimed adding more meetings would be beneficial to their work in some way.
How might more meetings help?
The majority also agreed that meetings are critical to making progress on team projects — 68% cited that as the most important reason for the meetings they attend.
When asked which kinds of meetings are the most productive, the most common answers were when meeting time was used:
For planning, goal or direction-setting
As a working session to problem solve or troubleshoot an issue
To make a decision
… which was true for both internal and external meetings.
What’s true of the most productive meetings?
Based on those findings alone, you might assume that as long as the meeting is being used to move work forward, agendas and follow-ups are just nice-to-haves.
Not so fast.
We also asked about what’s typically true of the least productive meetings, and these were the top three (once again, consistent between both internal and external meetings):
No follow-up notes, summaries, or action items shared after the meeting
Meeting is missing critical attendees and important decisions are stalled as a result
No agenda or pre-reading materials provided ahead of time
What’s true of the least productive meetings?
People reported feeling more engaged in meetings where they had an active role — especially brainstorming meetings and smaller meetings. During larger gatherings, such as “All Hands” meetings or presentations where the purpose is information sharing, people are less likely to be engaged.
What’s your engagement level for different types of meetings?
Takeaways and recommendations
Since most people agree that meetings can be a good use of their time — provided they’re good meetings — the question isn’t “how can we have fewer meetings?” but rather, “How can we make sure our meetings are productive?”
So what’s true of good meetings?
They provide opportunities to engage with peers and leaders
Attendees get a better sense of the work that’s happening
They drive work forward — meeting time is used for planning, goal setting, problem solving and/or decision making
Agendas and/or pre-reads are shared ahead of time, and follow-ups are shared afterward
Everyone who needs to be there is there (and people who don’t need to be there are not!)
Attendees feel like they have an active role, or reason for being there
If you’re the one responsible for calling a meeting — especially a recurring meeting — one simple way you can improve everyone’s workday is to run through the above list. Is everything in it true of the meeting you’re running? If not, what needs to change?
How the meetings we attend impact our lives
Similar to last year, the majority of us are spending three or more hours per week in meetings:
How much time per week do you spend in work-related meetings?
Most of us only have one or two meetings per day, although 46% have three or more meetings per day.
How many work-related meetings do you attend each day?
These numbers go up for certain populations:
Half of sales professionals are in five or more hours of meetings every day
The UK spends more time in meetings: 85% of UK workers spend three or more hours per week in meetings, compared to 78% of U.S. workers
59% of enterprise employees spend five or more hours per week in meetings (compared to only 32% of SMB employees)
When we asked people how the number of meetings they attend each week impacts their work-life balance, we saw a fairly event split.
And fortunately, most people feel that in addition to the meetings they’re attending, they still have enough time for other work and their personal lives.
Takeaways and recommendations
No one’s work-life balance should be suffering due to the number of meetings they’re in. Until everyone agrees that the meetings they’re in are worth their time, we have to hold ourselves and our organizations accountable for establishing standards for productive meetings. Steal these best practices to make your organization’s meetings better for everyone!
The impact of meetings on our productivity
Factors like role and company size impact how people feel about whether meetings make them more or less productive. A salesperson whose numbers depend on external meetings, for example, is going to feel differently than an educator with limited prep time!
A slight majority agrees that the meetings they attend positively impact their productivity.
Perhaps in an effort to offset their need for more non-meeting time to get work done — or as a way to deal with bad meetings, or meetings where they’re not needed — lots of people are multitasking during meetings, especially virtual ones.
%
of workers report multitasking often (34%) or always (18%) during virtual meetings with 2+ attendees.
How often do you multitask in virtual meetings with 2+ attendees?
It’s more difficult to hide multitasking during in-person meetings, so only 35% of respondents multitask “very often” to “always” in those.
Younger workers are especially likely to multitask.
%
of Gen Z workers are “always” or “very often” multitasking during virtual meetings, compared to 34% of Baby Boomers. During in-person meetings, 76% of Gen Z workers feel it’s acceptable to be on their phone for work-related tasks, compared to 55% of Boomers.
Takeaways and recommendations
Everyone deserves to feel like meetings make them more productive, not less. When you notice attendees multitasking during a meeting, that’s your signal to take a step back and ask yourself how to make future versions of that meeting more productive for everyone. What’s happening (or not happening) during the meeting that makes people feel like their attention is better spent elsewhere? Can you run a survey to get feedback from attendees on what they find most and least useful about the meeting? Do you need to ensure more people have an assigned role? When you address the root causes of bad meetings, you’ll be a hero to everyone else who’s been suffering through them!
Effective time and calendar management
The amount of time people spend on scheduling is a growing pain point.
%
of respondents are spending at least three hours a week just scheduling meetings — up from 36% last year.
How much time per week do you spend scheduling work-related meetings?
The numbers look better for workers in enterprise organizations, who are perhaps likely to have access to more sophisticated tooling (just 35% report spending 3+ hours per week scheduling meetings), and for Baby Boomers, who may have more senior roles that do not require as much active scheduling. (Only 24% spend 3+ hours per week scheduling).
Younger people, however, are more likely to set boundaries with their calendars and work than their Gen X and Baby Boomer counterparts.
%
of Gen Z respondents establish regular boundaries with their calendars, compared to 53% of Millennials, 48% of Gen-Xers, and 48% of Baby Boomers.
Do you actively establish any guardrails or boundaries around your calendar or block time to protect specific periods for focused work or personal activities?
Takeaways and recommendations
Gen Z has it right! Boundaries are a good thing — they ensure you have time to get the actual work done. If your remote workforce is spread across several time zones, consider establishing “core meeting hours” to ensure you’re respecting everyone’s schedules. Ensure individuals feel comfortable and supported blocking out focus time for deep work. Most scheduling tools even have boundary-setting features baked in — encourage your team to take advantage of their tech stacks to set their working hours, shorten default duration times for meetings, add buffer time between meetings, and so on.
Speaking of generational differences …
Some of the most interesting findings, in our opinion, had to do with how different age groups experience meetings.
Older workers are the least likely to believe that attending more meetings could help them in some way
While the majority still see value in benefits like increasing their visibility into others’ work, moving projects along, and connecting with colleagues, 37% of Boomers feel that they are already in enough or too many meetings for additional meetings to benefit them, compared to 16% of Millennials.
Younger workers are more likely to report that the meetings they attend enhance their productivity
70% of Gen Z workers and 60% of Millennial workers said the number of meetings they’re in enhance their productivity, compared to only 44% of Gen X workers and 37% of Baby Boomer workers.
The older you are, the more likely you are to handwrite your meeting notes
63% of Boomers report taking notes by hand, compared to 54% of Gen Z and Millennials and 59% of Gen X. Millennials are most likely to use AI or automated transcription tools for notetaking (32%), followed by Gen Z (28%), Gen X (22%), and Baby Boomers (18%). 70% of Gen Z respondents said they type their notes; only 35% of Boomers do.
Younger workers are particularly enthusiastic about using AI for productivity
When we asked what benefits of using AI for productivity they're most excited about, 64% of Gen Z and 59% of Millennials called out smart scheduling assistance (compared to 43% of Gen X and 40% of Boomers). Boomers were most likely to report being unsure or unexcited by using AI for productivity (24%), compared to 3% of Gen Z, 5% of Millennials, and 13% of Gen X.
Boomers are the most focused on keeping the agenda on track
When asked when it’s appropriate to intervene during meetings, 65% of Boomers reported feeling it's appropriate to intervene “when the agenda is running off course or the current discussion is ‘over time’” (compared to 44% of Gen Z and Millennials, and 55% of Gen X).
Takeaways and recommendations
The future is digital — and pro-meeting.
All ages in the workforce need to be aware of generational differences, both accommodating others’ preferences and challenging themselves to try new ways of doing things.
Meeting etiquette depends on who and where you are
Another area we were fascinated to learn about: which behaviors different groups of people find acceptable or unacceptable during meetings.
What’s OK vs. not OK to do during virtual work meetings?
What’s OK vs. not OK to do during in-person meetings?
U.S. workers skew slightly more accepting of various meeting behaviors than their U.K. counterparts
72% in the U.S. feel it’s OK to eat off camera, for example, compared to 64% in the U.K. And in person, 68% of U.S. workers are OK with using a phone for work compared to 60% of U.K. workers. 76% of U.S. respondents said it’s fine to leave the room to take an urgent call; that was only OK by 70% of U.K. respondents.
Remote workers are more comfortable declining meetings
75% of workers in fully remote roles feel it’s appropriate to decline a meeting if it’s scheduled over another meeting — higher than people in fully onsite roles (63%) and people in hybrid roles (69%).
Education professionals are choosier about meeting times
68% feel it’s not OK to schedule during the lunch hour; 67% feel it’s not OK to schedule before 8 a.m.; and 72% feel it’s not OK to schedule after 5 p.m. Compare that to 53%, 55%, and 56% of tech workers, respectively.
Baby Boomers are less likely to approve of “al fresco” meetings
56% of Baby Boomers find sitting outdoors or away from the workstation during virtual meetings unacceptable, compared to 44% of Gen Z, 41% of Millennials, and 47% of Gen X workers.
Takeaways and recommendations
The meeting behaviors people find acceptable or unacceptable are highly cultural and variable across organizations — the norm in a remote tech company is not going to be consistent with the norm in a small family business across the ocean. Consider your workplace’s culture, and the culture of those you meet with externally.
How different teams and roles experience meetings
Different professionals meet for different reasons — recruiters schedule lots of interviews; SDRs schedule lots of demos; CSMs schedule lots of customer calls. And those are just the external meetings!
We cut all the data you see in this report by the departments we surveyed (of course, there are many others — this is just a snapshot!) to get a feel for how distinct roles experience meetings.
Sales
%
Sales professionals have the most meetings of every role we surveyed — half of them spend five or more hours in meetings every day.
%
The majority of salespeople admit they sometimes work longer hours due to the number of meetings they attend. (Makes sense for commission-based roles — whatever it takes to close those deals!)
%
Sales have the highest percentage of meetings with people outside their organization. 41% of Sales pros report that at least 41% of their meetings are with external-only attendees.
Customer support and success (CX)
%
CX professionals have the lowest boundaries around their calendar time of all of the roles we surveyed, with 50% admitting they never or only occasionally create boundaries to safeguard specific time.
%
Out of all the roles we surveyed, CX spends the least amount of time scheduling meetings: 68% of CX professionals spend less than 2 hours per week on scheduling (compared to, for example, 50% of sales pros who fall into that category).
%
of CX professionals report that at least 41% of their meetings are with internal-only attendees. CX has the highest proportion of meetings with people inside their organization. (HR is a close second, with 73% in that same group.)
Human resources
%
of HR professionals believe that the meetings they attend impact their work-life balance.
%
HR professionals reported the highest productivity enhancement for team projects: 71% feel the number of meetings they attend positively impacts their ability to move team projects forward.
Marketing
%
Marketers were the likeliest to report that the meetings they attend help them move their individual projects forward — 69% of them believe that to be the case.
%
Marketers are the most likely to intervene during meetings “when someone asks a very unrelated question” — 41% feel that’s appropriate, compared to 32% of Sales or HR professionals.
Future focus: The role of AI in improving meetings
People are more excited about AI’s potential to make scheduling easier than they were just one year ago.
![[SoM] 2023 vs 2024 - Top 3 benefits](png/som_landing_page_graphic99ae.png?q=85&fm=webp)
What benefits of using AI for productivity are you most excited about?
People are also hungrier for AI’s potential to give them time back. Like last year, the top three areas respondents would invest AI-driven time savings include strategic planning, creative projects, and professional development. Unlike last year, close to half of all respondents indicated interest in this stuff — compared to only about 17% in 2023. That’s a big leap in a short time!
If AI could significantly save you time at work, what would you choose to spend your freed-up time on instead?
Takeaways and recommendations
AI isn’t just a buzzword anymore. We’re still in the midst of an AI boom, but now — with data showing, for example, increasing interest year over year in smart scheduling solutions — we know AI-powered solutions are more than a passing fad. They’re only going to grow in volume, in capabilities, and in value, as employees find their favorite ways to work AI into their workdays.
How to make meetings better for everyone
Whether we're building relationships or making decisions that drive results, meetings are an opportunity to work toward the goals and outcomes that motivate us at work. You can take steps before, during, and after each meeting to ensure you’re making the most of that opportunity:
Before the meeting:
Ask yourself what the objective of your meeting is, and whether it’s truly necessary to meet, or if your goal can be accomplished some other way (e.g., a Loom, an email, a direct message). Every meeting should have a clear goal that its attendees are uniquely positioned to help achieve.
Share an agenda and any pre-reads, so everyone knows what the goal of the meeting is and how they’ll be expected to contribute. Define owners for each agenda item and give speakers advance notice (with reminders) so they can prepare. Set time boundaries for the topic so speakers know how much time will be dedicated to each topic.
Automate your meeting reminders and ask pre-meeting questions with Calendly Workflows, so you can reduce no-shows and save time on admin tasks.
During the meeting:
Set the tone — for a virtual meeting, consider playing some music or putting an “icebreaker” question on the screen for people to interact with in the chat.
Keep an eye on the vibes. Are people multitasking or are they engaged? Do you see head nods? Don’t be afraid to get feedback and adjust on the fly — if you’ve been presenting for a while, pause and check in: “Is this helpful?” “What questions do you have?” Or ask the group to engage in the chat with a question or reactions.
Stick to the agenda — when a topic is running over its allotted time, determine how to wrap up that conversation elsewhere so you can get to everything.
Use AI recording and transcription tools to take notes, provide summaries and action items, and remove transactional tasks so team members can contribute to the discussion. These are especially helpful tools in remote work environments where attendees are distributed across time zones and moving quickly.
After the meeting:
Reference any recordings and summaries to ensure you captured all next steps.
Follow through on the action items you documented during the meeting — not only will you be moving work forward, you’ll be assuring your attendees that the meeting was a good use of their time!
Automate follow-up messages, including thank-yous for attending.
Ask for feedback, then act on it. Run a quick survey or reach out to a few experienced people to share constructive feedback. If you receive feedback the meeting isn’t working, dig into the why. Share the feedback and proposed solutions with the group and ask for thoughts on how to make the meeting even better. And then (most importantly) follow through!
By being intentional in your preparation, execution, and follow-through, you can drive better outcomes and create more productive relationships both within and outside of your organization.
Get started with Calendly for free
Ready to make meetings better for you, your team, and everyone you meet with?
Ready to make meetings better for you, your team, and everyone you meet with?
Appendix
Methodology and definitions
Calendly’s State of Meetings Report was conducted by an independent research firm, Brand Over Matter, who fielded a survey from June 25 to July 25, 2024. The firm collected responses from 1,244 workers across the United States and United Kingdom within a variety of industries, roles, and sized companies. Participants were asked to self-identify job roles and titles, industries, company size, and working location.
Demographic data
Generation
Location
Job setting
Company size
Department
Industry
Seniority level
For media questions or inquiries, please contact media@calendly.com.
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