Poorly implemented meeting room technology could be costing businesses thousands of pounds a year in lost employee time, according to UK AV specialist Universal AV.
The company says three in four meetings now experience at least one technology failure, with an average of 11 minutes lost during affected meetings. It argues that the cumulative impact can amount to three working days per employee each year.
Shelley Townend, marketing manager at Universal AV, said one of the underlying problems is technology being selected without sufficient input from the employees who will use it.
“One of the biggest issues we see is organisations selecting technology before fully understanding how employees will use it day to day,” she said. “Senior decision-makers often have a clear vision of what they want to achieve, but the people who will actually use the solution aren’t always involved early enough in the process. This can result in technology that looks impressive but doesn’t fit naturally into existing workflows or staff training processes.”
Universal AV estimates that even relatively short technical delays can have a significant cumulative cost. Based on two employees earning the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour losing ten minutes at the start of a meeting, the company calculates that £4.24 of employee time is lost.
If the same delay occurs across ten meetings a week, that rises to more than £2,200 annually, according to Universal AV, while meetings involving six employees could push the equivalent annual cost to around £6,600.
Townend said organisations should also distinguish between successfully installing new AV technology and achieving effective adoption among users.
“Adoption should be measured, not assumed,” she said. “Return on investment depends on employee engagement, not just whether the installations are technically in place.”
She added that organisations should establish the specific problem they are trying to address before selecting technology, while considering who will use the systems, how existing workflows will change and how success will be measured following deployment.
“The best technology often goes unnoticed because it simply works,” said Townend.
Universal AV recommends demonstrations, testing, workshops and training ahead of wider technology rollouts. The integrator recently adopted this approach during a project with the University of Leeds, where Microsoft Teams solutions were standardised across small meeting rooms, with the company reporting stronger user buy-in and confidence following the deployment.
