Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with dozens of business leaders whose companies are adopting a hybrid model going forward. One of the most common topics that comes up is how to optimize meetings for hybrid teams.
It’s true that in some ways hybrid meetings won’t be that different, especially if your business already had a “digital first” approach before the pandemic. But in the hybrid workplace, meetings may frequently include two very distinct groups: office workers who are able to meet together in-person, and virtual employees who must dial-in remotely.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, fairness issues will almost certainly arise if the same group of on-site staff consistently attend meetings together, while their remote counterparts dial-in. Let’s examine this issue more closely, and discuss some ways you can create more fair and effective meetings for your hybrid teams.
There’s no denying the fact that facetime matters at work. A recent study from my company Workplace Intelligence and Kahoot! found that 83% of HR leaders say face-to-face communication is important to be successful at their company. Nearly three-quarters of employees (72%) agreed with this sentiment.
This means that your remote workers will be at a disadvantage, since they’ll have far fewer opportunities for in-person interactions than your office-based staff. One of the key ways they can get much-needed facetime is during meetings — in fact, this may be the only time remote employees see their colleagues (albeit via video). And with workers now spending eight hours per week in meetings, it’s critical that you optimize this key touchpoint so that your remote staff are on a more even playing field.
To better understand this issue, we asked over 800 HR leaders how meetings should be held when some employees are remote and some are in the office. Here’s what they said:
Frankly, we were surprised that leaders were almost evenly split between the first two options —we anticipated that more people would say that all employees should participate virtually. But in many ways, it makes sense that leaders are divided on this issue. Companies of course want to provide a fair meeting experience for their remote staff. But at the same time, the whole point of having people go back to the office is so they can spend time together in-person again — so why force on-site employees to retreat to individual workspaces for meetings?
I want to examine both sides of this debate. What I’m hearing from many workplace experts is that eliminating any unfair advantages should be absolutely paramount in the hybrid workplace. In my recent conversation with Robert Glazer, he recommended having all team members join from their desks via their personal computers, rather than having remote employees awkwardly join a video call with their colleagues in a conference room. “It’s much easier to include everyone when you have everyone on a level playing field,” he emphasized.
But I’m also hearing some leaders say that it doesn’t feel right to force office employees to dial-in separately if they’re all in the office together. However, the reality is that even with the best technology, allowing on-site staff to convene during meetings will never be completely fair. In-person attendees will have opportunities for sidebar conversations and chats that remote attendees won’t be part of. And if managers prefer to attend meetings in-person, that means they’ll get more facetime with their office-based employees — yet another way that remote workers will be at a disadvantage.
So I think we have to acknowledge that this set-up will never truly put remote workers on an even playing field. With that in mind, my recommendation is that meetings should be run remotely whenever possible. But I know that this won’t always make sense, so let’s look at 5 ways you can maximize fairness during hybrid meetings.
The tips I’ve shared can certainly go a long way toward improving fairness during hybrid meetings. However, you should continue to keep a close eye on things, including how often remote attendees speak up and whether those attending in-person are frequently having sidebar conversations before, during, and after meetings. If it’s clear that hybrid meetings are giving office employees an advantage — even if it’s a small one — then the best approach is to have everyone dial-in from their own workspace.
I'd love to get your thoughts on this — what’s the best set-up for hybrid meetings? How is your company approaching this? Let me know in the comments on LinkedIn!
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