As employees return to the office in droves, providing them with a better meeting experience will help foster trust and productivity. Optimizing hybrid meetings is an excellent way to do that.
Ensure all meeting attendees, in-person and remote, can hear each other using high-quality audio. Establishing clear rules for speaking, such as raising a hand to speak and keeping side discussions out of the meeting, can also help.
Streaming
As work-from-home options become more commonplace amid the pandemic, hybrid meetings provide an excellent opportunity to connect with remote employees. They can foster a sense of teamwork and collaboration that may be difficult to achieve with in-person meetings alone.
The key to success is having a meeting leader who understands virtual meeting etiquette and has the technical skills necessary to resolve any issues during the meeting. This person can also ensure that all attendees use the same videoconferencing platform for a seamless experience.
Onsite attendees must remember that their virtual counterparts aren’t in the same room and can be oblivious to how their actions might impact those attending remotely. It’s helpful to have a “remote champion” who monitors the meeting for hiccups like this and encourages participation by providing ways to engage remotely (such as having participants raise their hands or chat). Having a platform that allows you to create custom virtual meeting experiences is essential.
Recording
Providing remote team members the option to join in-person meetings allows them to balance their professional and personal priorities. It also eliminates the stress of making childcare arrangements, car maintenance, or other commitments that often prevent people from attending onsite meetings.
Ensure everyone can hear your team members in hybrid meetings using Neat conference speakerphone or high-quality microphones (laptop mics don’t cut it). This will ensure that the output of one participant doesn’t drown out the input of others and improve audio quality.
Allow remote team members to express their ideas in the meeting using a virtual whiteboard or chat function. In addition, please encourage them to use the mute button sparingly and only when necessary. It’s a good idea to devise a safe word you can all call out if someone goes off on a tangent. That will help keep the conversation focused and productive.
Collaboration
As more companies embrace remote work, it’s vital to use meeting tools that support collaboration. Hybrid meetings can help optimize team productivity by allowing for flexibility in scheduling and location. They can also provide a more inclusive environment for onsite and remote attendees.
Participants can communicate via audio and video during hybrid meetings, allowing face-to-face interaction with colleagues. However, it’s important to remember that some meeting etiquette may translate poorly to the virtual setting. For example, reminding attendees to mute their microphones during presentations or discussions is crucial if they are in different rooms.
It’s also essential to have a meeting facilitator to ensure everyone’s voice is heard and the agenda is met. A great facilitator will also be able to gather comments and feedback from remote attendees, making them feel included and valued. This will ultimately lead to more productive meetings and a better work culture overall.
Participation
With many employees working from home during the pandemic, hybrid meetings have become essential for team collaboration. Hybrid meetings help reduce a variety of workplace and travel costs, and they also promote organizational inclusivity.
However, just like any other business meeting, specific challenges can occur during a hybrid meeting. One issue is that in-person attendees can forget that remote participants are not in the same room, and they may unknowingly exclude them from the meeting.
To mitigate these problems, assign a remote facilitator to the meeting. This person can ensure that remote participants have their concerns addressed and that they can participate effectively in the meeting. Another useful measure is using a conferencing solution that allows for participant analytics so companies can collect reliable data and develop metrics for improving hybrid meetings. This will enable the company to cultivate a productive, effective, and inclusive culture of remote work and hybrid meetings.