Recently, you learned about meeting scheduler tools from Ceci Dadisman but do you ever wonder how much it costs in labor to hold that meeting? Thanks to a handy web app from Harvard Business Review, you can find out in less than a minute.
The web app is fully responsive so it works in all browsers across all major devices; meaning no need to download platform specific apps (hooray!). It’s designed as a mobile first user experience so it works like a dream on smartphones.
- Select meeting duration.
- Select number of attendees.
- From here you select the estimated salary level for each attendee. It’s worth noting that the calculator automatically multiplies each salary by 1.4 to accommodate the value of benefits. Don’t worry about being overly precise, ballpark estimates are plenty for this sort of application.
- You’ll notice the total cost value change with each new salary.
- After selecting the final salary, the calculator automatically loads the next screen and you can select the cut your costs button to see about removing or replacing attendees.
- Would a subordinate position be just as useful at the meeting? If so, use the replace
- Use delete to remove someone entirely.
- You’ll see the before/after total cost values change in real time with every edit.
[button link=”https://hbr.org/resources/html/infographics/2015/11/meeting-cost-calculator/index.html” bg_color=”#EB4C41″ border=”#EB4C41″]Bookmark HBR’s Meeting Cost Calculator[/button]
This is a brutally honest tool. I often use rough calculation of people-hours/days in large meetings. 10 people with a 15 min waste time because some attendees (or the boss) are late equals 150 min or 2 hrs 30 min. That is often enough to raise eyebrowse 😉
It is nothing if not sobering. At the same time, it can certainly help underscore the value of meetings that really are needed and/or produce a savings far in excess of related labor costs.