Meeting Cost

In-Depth Definition

Meeting cost is a useful metric to understand the true expense of synchronous communication. By tracking meeting load against outcomes, teams can identify expensive recurring syncs that could be replaced by async updates.

How It Works in Practice

• Each attendee's hourly cost is derived from salary, usually annual pay divided by working hours in a year.
• Those hourly figures are summed across everyone in the room and multiplied by the duration.
• Recurring meetings are then annualised, which is where the figure usually becomes uncomfortable.
• Preparation and recovery time can be added, since a meeting rarely costs only the time on the calendar.

A Worked Example

A weekly one-hour status meeting with eight mid-salary attendees costs eight person-hours each week, or over 400 person-hours a year. That is roughly a quarter of a full-time role spent transmitting information, most of which could be read in four minutes. The point is not to ban the meeting but to know its price before defending it.

The Common Mistake

Using the number to shame rather than to decide. Publishing meeting costs to embarrass organisers makes people schedule shorter meetings with the same problems. The useful use is comparative: this recurring sync costs the equivalent of a part-time hire, so is it delivering that much?