Businesses are now seeing and integrating new work dynamics as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a 2021 report by PwC, 83% of employees now have a positive attitude towards remote work arrangements. However, 87% of employees still believe that the office is important for collaborating with team members and building relationships. To compromise, more than half of employees said they expect to spend half their time in the office by the second half of 2021.

Because of these changes in attitude towards new work arrangements, a hybrid workplace is expected to be the norm in the new normal. While a hybrid workplace has its advantages, it also comes with a set of disadvantages, especially in terms of communication and collaboration.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the various challenges that hybrid work arrangements, particularly hybrid meetings, bring and how business leaders can implement effective steps to encourage successful collaborations among their employees.

Challenges that hybrid meetings bring

While web conferencing tools help both on-site and remote employees convene and collaborate, several roadblocks still prevent them from efficiently working together. Catering to two simultaneous meetings is one example.

According to Better Meetings Founder Lee Gimpel, hybrid meetings are usually manageable when they’re small―like when two people in one room share the same laptop and join a meeting with a few remote participants―but it’s a different story when dozens of attendees become involved. As hybrid meetings gain more participants, it becomes harder for meeting facilitators to moderate the discussion between on-site and remote workers.

In relation to the first challenge, technical difficulties and the lack of appropriate audio-visual equipment also hinder employees from both sides to fully collaborate. For example, remote employees may fall behind the discussion if they fail to hear what on-site employees are saying. Microphones on laptops can only capture so much audio output after all. Similarly, remote workers may drop out from meetings when their internet connection is poor.

There’s also the fact that not all meeting participants are eager to join the meeting at all, especially now that the average number of meetings that employees attend has substantially increased since the pandemic. A 2021 study by Virtira revealed that 64% of young professionals have had mental and emotional concerns when spending a long time in front of webcams for meetings over the past year. Remote workers may feel embarrassed showing up all the time due to several environmental factors such as the state of their backgrounds or disruptions from their family members.

How to run effective and inclusive hybrid meetings

Companies can implement certain steps to effectively run hybrid meetings and ensure that all participants are welcome in the conversation. Some of these steps include the following:

• Improve or invest in advanced meeting tools
  Remote employees go through the pains of asking questions like “can you hear me?” or “can I come back? I think my internet connection is unstable” whenever they attend virtual meetings. Similarly, on-site employees often have little to no equipment to facilitate hybrid meetings that remote workers can fully participate in.
  
  In an effort to avoid these problems, it pays for companies to invest in and deploy efficient meeting tools such as high-quality microphones, cloud-based streaming software, and advanced web conferencing features to their employees. It would also be best for on-site meeting facilitators to test their equipment before starting the meeting, and remind remote employees to do the same.

• Design meetings for all attendees

On-site employees can easily bounce ideas off each other when they meet in a room together. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, remote employees may get left behind due to various technical difficulties or other reasons. Employing survey tools and online whiteboards, as well as creating a discussion recap can help all meeting participants stay aligned. These practices put all participants on equal footing, thus making the meeting more productive.

It also helps to set expectations before starting a meeting. If meeting facilitators don’t require to have cameras on, they should make this known to remote employees.

•  Assign efficient meeting facilitators
  Last, but not least, business leaders should assign facilitators who can collect input from remote participants without them having to verbally speak up. Whether they’re a participant of the meeting itself or a different staff member, having a facilitator can guide the meeting and keep it on track.

As businesses continue to operate in the new normal, it pays for leaders to set effective and inclusive hybrid meeting practices to keep the productivity of their workforce going. Following the steps above can be a good start towards setting work efficiencies and adjusting to changing work dynamics.