Workplace meetings: the ultimate guide

Workplace meetings are meant to bring teams together, spark ideas, and move projects forward. But too often, they fall short of that goal. With 80% of employees attending up to ten weekly meetings, you’d expect meaningful output to follow — but quantity doesn’t equal value. For starters, only 30% of those meetings have clear agendas*; this drains time, attention, and energy.

With remote and hybrid work becoming the norm, meeting overload is getting worse. And today’s professionals say half of their meetings are a waste of time.*

So, how do we fix this? 

In this guide, we’ll explore how AI and remote work trends are reshaping collaboration, break down the various types of workplace meetings, and share strategies for making them more efficient. 

If you want fewer pointless meetings and more meaningful work, keep reading — we’re getting straight to the solutions.

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*Leapsome’s Workforce Trends Report, 2023
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What is a workplace meeting?

A workplace meeting brings colleagues together, face-to-face or online, to discuss work-related topics. Some meetings follow set schedules (like weekly team syncs), while others are organized as needed — like strategy sessions or crisis management meetings. 

No matter the format, workplace meetings exist to align teams, reach decisions, and drive projects forward. When done right, they help teams avoid miscommunications, encourage accountability, and keep workflows and people on track.

🌟 Explore Leapsome’s library of resources on effective workplace meetings

✨ Download our free 1:1 meeting template to hold more meaningful check-ins and foster employee growth.

✨ Learn how to conduct impactful 1:1 meetings with our comprehensive, step-by-step playbook. 

✨ Make your meetings more efficient by leveraging asynchronous communication and cutting down on unnecessary calls.

✨ Discover how Leapsome’s dedicated Meetings module can enrich the way your organization collaborates.

Why is running effective workplace meetings so important in 2025?

Meetings should drive progress, not slow it down. When they’re effective, they fast-track decision-making, encourage innovation, and foster problem-solving. When they’re not, they cost companies millions in lost productivity — as much as US$100 million per year.

With tighter margins and growing pressure to deliver results, organizations are doubling down on ROI, efficiency, and smarter resource allocation. Meetings must serve a clear purpose, not just fill up calendars. In 2025, this means leveraging AI, finding better ways to collaborate, and making every meeting count.

What an efficient workplace meeting looks like

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• Has a clear agenda: Everyone knows what to expect, comes prepared, and can contribute meaningfully.
  
• Includes the right participants: Unnecessary meeting attendees lead to off-track discussions and wasted time.
  
• Is time-conscious and action-driven: Respects employee time and ends with clear next steps, so people walk away knowing what they’re supposed to do next. 

It’s just as important to spot a bad meeting as it is to run a good one — so you can make the best use of everyone’s time, avoid meeting fatigue, and develop an intentional culture of productivity. 
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What an inefficient workplace meeting looks like

• Lacks structure: A meeting that doesn’t have a clear topic or direction will make it harder for team members to focus and understand what they’re supposed to accomplish.
  
• Is longer than expected: When meetings run long, they cost companies time and money, harm productivity, and cut into employees’ workdays.
  
• Feels like a monologue: There’s no point in holding a meeting if it’s not meant for collaboration and allowing for questions and conversations. If this is not the goal, consider using email or another async method.
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The impact of remote work on workplace meetings

Remote work has transformed workplace meetings — making them virtual and easier to schedule. Though this helps businesses become more inclusive and dynamic, it can also mean more virtual meetings, which leads to “Zoom fatigue.”

With overly frequent video calls and check-ins, remote workers may struggle to focus and find time for their deliverable work. This leads to stress, lower productivity, a poorer employee experience, and even burnout.

That’s why today’s organizations need to rethink how they work together virtually. Canva’s Head of People, Jennie Rogerson, told CNBC how the company’s largely remote team maintains productive meetings: “Every meeting should have a goal.” No clear goal, no meeting.  

Rogerson also shared that Canva practices “no meeting Wednesdays” to combat overload. The aim is to improve quality and give employees no-distraction time for focused work.

Tammy Bjelland, a flexible work specialist, recommends using the “placeless taxonomy,” which categorizes purposes based on how difficult they are to achieve asynchronously to determine what requires a meeting. Bjelland also believes in encouraging employees to skip meetings where they don’t have a key role.
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How AI can help run better workplace meetings

We’ve all sat through meetings that could’ve been an email. Our 2023 Workforce Trends Report reveals that employees feel half of their meetings are a waste of time. To tackle this, many organizations are turning to AI. While not specific to meetings, 85% of professionals say AI helps them work more productively overall. 

AI tools can streamline and improve meetings by:

• Generating automatic notes & summaries — AI can summarize meeting notes and condense key points, allowing participants to focus on the conversation rather than jotting things down. 

• Creating easy follow-ups & accountability — Tools like Leapsome Meetings leverage AI to auto-generate follow-up tasks, assign responsibility, and outline next steps. 

• Integrating goal setting — Cutting-edge HR platforms leverage AI to help teams set polished objectives and display them alongside their meeting agendas, helping people stay motivated and aligned.

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Leapsome Meetings keeps conversations focused, makes action points clear, and empowers teams to do their best work together.

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What are the different types of workplace meetings?

To run meaningful and purposeful meetings, it’s crucial to match the meeting format to the specific goal — whether it’s sharing updates, solving a problem, or driving strategic alignment.

Let’s break down various kinds of meetings and discuss how to make the most of each.

1. 1:1 meetings & check-ins

1:1 meetings are private meetings between managers and their reports to discuss progress, tackle challenges, and explore professional development opportunities. They’re a great way for managers to get to know their reports, build trust, foster growth, and give constructive feedback. 

💡 “Great leaders are really excellent at one-on-one meetings. They point out areas of concern, but always leave the other person more motivated and knowledgeable than before.” 

— Oliver Aust, bestselling author and founder of the Speak Like a CEO Academy

How to run effective 1:1 meetings

• Organize recurring 1:1s and stick to your schedule to build trust and consistency
• Let employees take the lead by setting the agenda
• Go beyond status updates and tasks and ask about specific challenges, areas of interest, and personal development‍
• Ask thoughtful questions that spark meaningful discussions, such as:‍
  • What part of your work energizes you the most lately?
  • Is anything slowing you down or causing frustration right now?
  • Do your current goals at work reflect your strengths and interests?
  • How can I better support your professional development?

Skip-level meetings

Skip-level meetings are when senior leaders connect directly with employees who don’t report to them to gain unfiltered insights, improve transparency, and build trust and engagement. They help leadership understand workplace culture, People issues, and employee sentiment.

💡 “The success of skip-level meetings hinges on a leadership mindset that values humility, authenticity, and a willingness to listen. These qualities transform skip-level meetings from transactional interactions into meaningful opportunities for connection and growth.” 

— Dan Freschi, Leadership & Team Development Executive

How to run effective skip-level meetings

• Ask open-ended questions to get insights you might not have expected and uncover organizational blind spots 
• Set the right tone by emphasizing the goal is to listen, learn, and improve the organization and keeping the discussion conversational rather than formal
• Follow up on feedback to show employees their voices matter
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Team or department meetings

Team meetings are meant for alignment and collaboration. Managers may communicate updates, check in on project and initiative progress, and bring forward issues to discuss. Team members might contribute their own agenda points and share goal progress. 

Amazon runs Weekly Business Review (WBR) meetings, during which teams analyze key metrics, track performance, and identify action items. They follow a sharply structured agenda based on data-driven insights.  
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How to run effective team or department meetings

• Organize your agenda in order of priority to ensure you cover all the most pressing topics
• Encourage all team members to participate actively. 
• Rotate the meeting leader to help employees develop their communication and leadership skills
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All-hands meetings

All-hands meetings are when the entire organization comes together (usually monthly or quarterly) to share business updates, discuss strategic plans, align on goals, celebrate wins, and reinforce company culture. While it can become more challenging to organize all-hands meetings as your organization grows, they make people feel united, informed, and motivated for what’s to come. 
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How to run effective all-hands meetings

• Share information in an engaging way with direct customer feedback, data visualizations, and short video clips
  
• Be transparent about company performance, updates, and future plans
  
• Incorporate interactive elements like team-building activities, polls, Q&As, and fun breaks to keep everyone active and engaged
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Performance review meetings

While many people might not think of performance reviews as traditional meetings, they’re still worth a mention here. They happen on a consistent basis (often bianually), and provide an opportunity for managers and their reports to discuss performance, share praise, talk about challenges, and brainstorm development opportunities. 
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How to run effective performance review meetings

Akinyi Gloria Onyuka, HR Strategist, shares three tips for improving the feedback you share in performance reviews:

1. Be generous — Focus your feedback on the good. Instead of saying, “You need to improve your communication,” you might say, “You’ve got great ideas, and with a bit of fine-tuning in how you present them, you’ll be unstoppable.”
2. Acknowledge consistency — Be sure to recognize people who are reliable and meet deadlines without making any noise.
3. Support growth — Go beyond tracking KPIs and looking at metrics; focus on how you can help your reports move forward in their careers. 

💬 Want help to develop your organization’s performance review questions? We’ve got a free, downloadable template for that.

Standup meetings

Standup meetings are short syncs (daily or weekly; often in agile teams) where team members share quick status updates. Whether these happen remotely or in person, the goal is to keep everyone clear and aligned on progress, issues, and next steps. They’re most effective when they stick to a very short time limit of 10-15 minutes. 
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How to run effective standup meetings

Aaron Upright, Co-founder of ZenHub, proposes the following best practices to make the most out of standup meetings: 

• Focus on blockers and topics that require deeper discussion
• Use AI tools to record and transcribe your standups automatically 
• Make standup timing flexible and schedule them when they make the most sense for your team (and embrace asynchronous standups where appropriate)
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Problem-solving meetings

A problem-solving meeting focuses on uncovering root causes, devising solutions, and preventing and managing ongoing issues. 
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How to run effective problem-solving meetings

Effective problem-solving requires logic, facts, and pragmatism. However, personal experiences and biases often shape decision-making without people realizing it, leading to subjective choices instead of objective solutions. 

To counter this, Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education suggests using the “ladder of inference” to improve group reasoning. This framework helps teams challenge assumptions and take a more rational approach to problem-solving.

Meeting hosts might use the following tactics in dedicated problem-solving meetings:

• Seeking out diverse perspectives 
• Clearly outlining the core issue upfront
• Separating facts from beliefs, assumptions, and interpretations in discussions 
• Avoiding premature conclusions
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Brainstorming meetings

A brainstorming meeting is a collaborative session where teams generate ideas, solutions, and strategies. The goal is to encourage creative thinking, explore diverse perspectives, and build on ideas. 
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How to run effective brainstorming meetings

Alan Zucker, project management coach and consultant, believes brainstorming sessions must break away from rigid business structures. 

To do so, he suggests:

• Encouraging silent idea generation by having participants write ideas on Post-its, then grouping and prioritizing them
• Scheduling meetings when energy levels are high (in the morning or after lunch)
• Using a neutral facilitator to encourage open participation

“Brainstorming is a creative process. Design an event that breaks down the strictures and structures of the business environment.”

— Alan Zucker, Founding Principal at Project Management Essentials

Make every meeting count with Leapsome

Meetings are essential for decision-making and team coordination — but without proper planning, they can become time-wasters. With clear agendas and the right technology, meetings can shift from aimless discussions to focused, efficient, and valuable alignment sessions.

Leapsome Meetings makes that shift possible. Our tool helps today’s teams develop meaningful agendas, add talking points, assign task ownership, track goal progress, and integrate feedback. And it even leverages AI to summarize meeting notes, identify follow-up tasks, and outline the next steps.

The most successful organizations prioritize strong collaboration — and meetings are a key piece of the puzzle.

🚀 Run meetings that drive growth 

Leapsome Meetings helps teams align and collaborate so they can do their best work.

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Frequently asked questions about workplace meetings

How to reduce meetings in the workplace?

To reduce meetings in the workplace, you might:

• Make agendas a requirement — No agenda, no meeting. Ensure meeting leaders establish their meeting objective(s) before scheduling.
  
• Use asynchronous collaboration tools — There are many ways to exchange information without having a meeting. Use Slack or Microsoft Teams to share updates, record Looms for specific feedback or process walkthroughs, or leverage project management tools to monitor progress.
  
• Establish a maximum — Allocate a fixed number of meeting “credits” per week or month to encourage prioritization.
  
• Set meeting-free days — Dedicate certain days of the week to deep work (e.g., “no meeting Wednesdays”).
  
• Ensure all key elements are present — If core participants, documents, or information are missing, reschedule.
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How do ineffective meetings impact the workplace?

Ineffective meetings negatively impact the workplace as they harm productivity. They waste people’s time, disrupt their focus, and cost organizations as much as US$100 million annually. 

Studies also show that poorly run meetings reduce employee well-being and increase burnout. Many workers report stress due to excessive or unnecessary meetings. Dysfunctional meeting behaviors like off-topic discussions, complaining, and lack of clear actions are also associated with lower market share, reduced innovation, and unstable employment.