We all know it’s true, but exactly how much stress is there regarding the technology in the meeting room? And how much does it cost a company?
Barco puts their finger on it: 9 in 10 office workers experience technology-related stress in meetings. More importantly, 12% report their meeting room technology struggles actually lost business for their employer.
Barco research shows people’s heart rates reached 179bpm when struggling with technology during a meeting (resting heart rates are around 60-100 bpm). Barco had Mind Lab looking at people’s reaction to technology going wrong in meetings. 27 participants took part in the study, all of whom work in offices, holding meetings and giving presentations at least once a month.
Participants were connected to equipment measuring their electrodermal activity and heart rate. They were given two presentation scenarios – one in which the technology was set up with a Barco Clickshare device to work seamlessly, and one in which they had to set up technical aspects themselves. Their stress levels were recorded during both sessions and compared.
The research agency Vanson Bourne interviewed 1000 office workers across the UK, US, France and Germany who run, present at or attend meetings (March 2016).
Their research shows two thirds of business people are forced to take time away from their work to grapple with meeting room technology-- on a regular basis.
The biggest challenges for employees globally were sharing content and screens, and finding the right cables to connect to in-room devices. In trying to deal with tech problems, staff waste significant amounts of their worktime: 66% try to fix problems themselves, 50% call IT/tech support, 29% end up giving up with the tech and going to the infamous plan B.
15% even postpone meetings until technology problems can be fixed. The vast majority of us (88%) actually pre-prepare for technology failures: 50% prepare hand-outs as alternatives, and 47% coordinate with IT in advance, and 42% even do a tech rehearsal.
As a result of struggling with technology in meeting rooms, nearly a quarter (24%) of office workers missed important deadlines--and some have even missed out on personal opportunities like promotions (13%).
74% of respondents believe meeting technology should be taken more seriously.
So what does all this data mean? Well, Barco hopes it is giving you ammunition to sell ClickShare, Barco's wireless presentation and collaboration system that allows any meeting participant to share (at the click of a button) content on the central meeting room screen.
Investing in meeting room technology which works at the click of a button not only significantly reduces stress from office workers but also has a positive outcome for businesses growth-- and the bottom line.
Corporate buyers like detailed ROI proposals and now you have such research to lean on. Find a business with old technology in the meeting rooms and attack with numbers that show the purchase of stress-free meeting room technology pays for itself.
Go Barco Studies Tech Stress in Offices
