Donato BlandolinoTen managers, two hours of meetings a day, two and a half full-time positions. Why companies request more positions instead of reclaiming time, and which three checks will show you within a week what you are already paying for.
You hear it in every other plant. And in every other plant, people sit in meetings where they cannot make any decisions.
Do the maths: ten managers, two hours of recurring meetings a day. That is twenty hours, or two and a half full-time positions. Every day. They do not appear in any workforce plan, but they are gone. In this article, we at SMART iNTERIM explain why companies request more positions instead of reclaiming time, and which three checks will show you within a week what you are already paying for.
Why nobody looks at lost time
Resources are visible; waste is not.
A vacancy has a reference number, a budget and someone responsible for it. It appears in every report. An hour wasted today in a meeting with no outcome appears nowhere. On paper, it costs nothing and is therefore never scrutinised.
There is a second effect: a new hire takes months and costs money, but immediately provides a sense of relief. Reclaiming time costs nothing, but requires conflict because someone has to cancel meetings and scrap reports that others have introduced.
That is why more staff are requested instead of time being freed up. It is understandable, but still wrong.
Three checks for this week
You do not need a project or an analysis for this. Set aside two hours:
- Cross off every recurring meeting from the past four weeks in which no decision was made. What remains is your actual need for coordination. Meetings purely for sharing information should be an email.
- For every role represented in the room, ask: What happens if this person is not here? If the answer is “nothing”, they are in the wrong meeting. They are not redundant; they are being deployed incorrectly.
- Count how often the same figure is prepared in three different formats each week. That is not work; it is rework. And it usually ties up precisely the people you supposedly need more of.
How to tell that staffing is not the problem
Four signs suggest that you have a time problem, not a capacity problem:
- Managers do their actual work in the evening because the day is taken up with meetings.
- The same performance indicator appears in several reports with slightly different values.
- There are recurring meetings whose origins nobody can explain any more.
- There is no clear answer to the question of who would be authorised to cancel a particular meeting.
Where these points apply, an additional position provides short-term relief but makes the problem worse in the medium term, because another person gets drawn into the same meetings.
What this actually costs
Calculate it for your area. Number of managers multiplied by average time spent in meetings per day multiplied by working days. Divide the result by the annual working hours of a full-time position.
In most plants, the resulting figure represents a double-digit percentage of management capacity. It appears in no budget, and it is not theoretical. It is paid working time.
The difference compared with a vacancy: this capacity is available immediately. No job advertisement, no onboarding, no notice period.
Why it still rarely happens
Because cutting things is unpopular. Every recurring meeting has an originator, every report a recipient. Anyone who ends something takes something away from someone and has to justify it.
That is why most organisations do not lack understanding, but permission to stop doing things. This permission must come from the top, and it must be granted to a named individual, otherwise no one will use it.
How SMART iNTERIM approaches this
Before we endorse an additional position, we establish where the time you are already paying for is going.
This is not a cost-cutting exercise, but a question of sequence. An organisation that ties up its management capacity in meetings without decisions will continue to tie up that capacity even with more people. Only once it is clear how the available time is being used can we assess whether there really is a staffing shortfall.
We take on the role that is difficult to fill internally: the person who ends meetings and cuts reports, regardless of who introduced them.
This is uncomfortable, and that is precisely why it is often done by someone from outside.
Frequently asked questions about staffing needs and wasted time
How can I tell whether there really is a staffing shortfall?
First check how much management time is tied up in recurring meetings without decisions and how often the same data is prepared multiple times. Until this question has been answered, the actual need cannot be assessed.
Why do companies request more positions instead of reclaiming time?
Because resources are visible and waste is not. A vacancy has a budget and someone responsible for it; a lost hour appears in no report.
How much capacity is tied up in recurring meetings?
With ten managers and two hours of meetings per day, that amounts to two and a half full-time positions every day. In many plants, the share is a double-digit percentage of management capacity.
Are meetings inherently the problem?
No. The problem is meetings without decisions and participants without decision-making authority. A coordination meeting in which something is decided is time well spent.
Who is authorised to end recurring meetings?
In many organisations, this has not been clarified, and that is precisely the core of the problem. Permission must be explicitly granted and assigned to a person, otherwise no one will use it.
What is the first step?
Take your recurring meetings from the past four weeks and cut every one in which no decision was made. This takes two hours and provides a reliable starting point.
About SMART iNTERIM
SMART iNTERIM Management combines operational transformation with SAP and enterprise transformation in manufacturing companies, focusing on restructuring, plant set-up, plant relocation and process optimisation. We take responsibility for the outcome, not the recommendation, and work where value is created. From practical experience, not from a distance. Competence is a prerequisite; personality makes the difference. Speak to us before you approve the next position.
