What modern board work really demands

No two board seats demand the same output. Between board packs, committee prep and actual meeting hours, your real commitment depends entirely on the type of board you join. Assessing your true capacity isn’t just wise, it’s essential to fulfilling your duties. 

For Iyla Davies OAM FAICD, every new board opportunity starts with the same question: Do I have the time to do it justice? 

Davies holds directorships on four boards and currently dedicates around two or three days a week to managing the various commitments. She spends more time preparing for meetings than attending them – about eight hours of reading for a three-hour meeting – but says many factors can influence the workload.

“Much of the work depends on the context, such as the maturity of the board and the quality of the papers,” says Davies, a non-executive director of Queensland Museum and UQ Residences, as well as a trustee director of Mercy Ministry Companions and a member representative of Catholic Education Queensland. 

“Plus, is the organisation in the middle of restructuring, strategic planning or handling a crisis? When a crisis hits an organisation, the time commitment, in my experience, is substantial. As a director, your availability is mandatory and critical at those times.”

How much time does a board role take?

Counting board seats in a portfolio is easy, but tallying the hours, decisions and responsibilities behind them is much harder. 

Data from the AICD’s 2025 Remuneration Report shows the median workload for non-executive directors across all sectors is two days per month, or three days for those at companies with revenue of $1 billion or more. Chairs, unsurprisingly, spend three to five days per month on board work, but this also tends to increase in line with the size and scale of the organisation. 

When it comes to monthly meetings, an average of three hours per meeting was reported by non-executive directors. For those at the larger organisations, this increases to a maximum of 11 hours for chairs and seven for non-executive directors. The number of formal meetings per year ranged from six to 11. 

The workload for directors of not-for-profit boards tends to be higher, with the AICD’s NFP board Not-for-profit Governance and Performance Study 2025-26 showing almost 20% of directors spend more than six days per month on a single NFP. 

Nicolle Rantanen Reynolds FAICD sits on five boards. She is chair at Clayton Church Homes, deputy chair at Golf Australia and a non-executive director at LLL Australia, where she also chairs the audit committee. She says her time commitments fluctuate depending on factors like organisational complexity and committee responsibilities.

“In the last two weeks of the month, I’d probably spend between 30 and 40 hours a week on board matters, because most of my boards meet monthly and review their financial position in the third week, ahead of the board meeting in the last week. But in the first two weeks of the month, I generally spend about 20-25 hours.”

Rantanen Reynolds adds that the workload tends to be much heavier in the first six to 12 months of taking on a new role. 

“You have foundational work to do to understand the business as well as the industry and the nuances of the organisation,” she says. “Committee roles obviously add work, but sometimes they spread the workload more effectively.”

Paul Masi FAICD spends an average of 20-25 hours a week on board matters, depending on organisational complexity.

“If the organisation is in the middle of an acquisition, for example, there will be a much higher workload,” says Masi, chair of Greenwich Capital Partners and a non-executive director of Investment Services Group, FCX, Shaw and Partners, and Girls and Boys Brigade.

“Juggling is part of the job. You need to try as best you can to allocate yourself to the most important issues. Unfortunately, you do get conflicts where everything’s important, but the truth is, it just comes with experience, and also your own personal nature.”

Do you have capacity?

Every new board opportunity requires assessing whether you have the time and capacity to fulfil your duties. 

“For me, it really boils down to whether I find an organisation interesting or have an affinity with it,” says Masi. “There tends to be a line that runs through the businesses I’m involved in. A lot of the background knowledge has already been done, and I have some experience with the nature of that business, organisation and industry, so I’m able to bring something to it.”

Rantanen Reynolds notes that capacity isn’t “just about whether there’s a blank day in your diary”. 

“You need enough time and headroom to deal with the unexpected,” she says. “If something goes wrong or two boards have an issue at the same time, you need the space to give them the time they require. That’s why I’m always reassessing the balance.

“I have a tendency to want to help, especially with purpose-driven organisations.  That’s where it takes discipline to say no, because most of my executive career was about saying yes to any issue or challenge. You have to ask yourself: While I’d love to do it, and I know I can make a difference, is it the right thing for both me and the board?”

Audit and due diligence

Before accepting a new board role, Masi recommends doing an “audit about what you want to do with your time and life”. 

“That includes your personal stuff,” he says. “You end up having to spend more time than you realise just being in touch with management at different layers and at different times, so I suggest starting with a personal audit of your own time. Will you find that business or industry interesting? Does it play to your natural interest, and does it play to your historical skill set?”

Davies also recommends due diligence to ensure you understand the organisation, its level of complexity and any other factors that could influence your workload.

“You’ve also got to look more at your own commitments, as you don’t want to be so committed that you don’t give enough time to yourself,” she says.

“Board roles are a serious time commitment – and they’re hard work. I find it incredibly rewarding and that’s what keeps me on them. It’s worth the time.”