If the pandemic had a silver lining, it was the realization that working from home — either a few days a week or full-time — improved work-life balance for employees without sacrificing productivity. Rather than having employees return to the office as before, businesses are increasingly adapting to meet their workforce wherever they are most comfortable using technology to facilitate hybrid meetings.
While digital transformation is an investment, the benefits of simultaneous in-person and virtual meetings outweigh the cost of change.
The Hybrid Workplace
As of this year, there are nearly double the number of hybrid employees as fully-remote workers in full-time positions nationwide — at 28.2% and 12.7% of the workforce. This represents a logistical challenge for HR and leadership teams in larger enterprises, as coordination becomes more complex with a distributed workforce. Collaboration technologies are designed to simulate the traditional office environment for hybrid or remote teams.
The primary means of synchronous communication (interaction between employees that happens at the same time) in the hybrid workplace is through video conferencing software. While meetings or team check-ins via video conference are largely a hot-button issue, the majority of hybrid employees (59%) agree that this form of communication is essential within their roles.
To ensure productivity and a competitive edge, businesses need to implement video conference room solutions that support seamless communication between coworkers while enhancing the way teams interact. Generic software packages may work for certain businesses, but others may employ an audio-visual (AV) integrator to guarantee that everyone is seen or heard in a hybrid meeting — wherever they are.
The Benefits of Hybrid Meetings
Hybrid meetings use AV technology to enable communication between in-office and remote team members. Compared to fully in-person or remote meetings, hybrid meetings offer a number of benefits to both companies and employees.
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Cost Savings
For businesses, hybrid meetings allow companies to downsize office space while retaining the same size workforce. Certain employees may be in the office full-time while others work remotely for most, if not all, of the work week.
Employees do not need to commute to attend a hybrid meeting. Whether they log in from home or on the go via their mobile device, employees save both time and travel expenses by leveraging technology to connect with their team.
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Convenience and Access
Employees can participate in hybrid meetings anywhere and on virtually any device with a camera and internet connection, allowing a greater degree of flexibility and inclusion. Hybrid meetings also make it easier for employees with a disability to express their opinion or provide input.
With a greater level of convenience and access, hybrid meetings play an important role in supporting work-life balance. Company culture, employee health, and work environment directly affect employee productivity. Hybrid meetings empower employees to make decisions regarding where and when they work.
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Engagement Tools
Unlike conference calls, AV conferencing software adds a visual layer of interaction. Besides letting attendees see each other’s faces during a meeting, AV meeting technology includes features like chats, screen or media sharing, breakout rooms, and polls.
Additionally, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) offer exciting new means of digital engagement. The technology allows users to engage with visual models or systems in entirely breakthrough ways.
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Post-Meeting Access
AV meeting technology can be recorded and saved for future viewing, allowing attendees to review important decisions at a later time. Additionally, this will enable non-attendees to review a meeting even if they could not attend the live session, either due to conflicting schedules or because they were busy.
While requiring non-attendees to catch up on missed meetings may prove cumbersome and unpopular, the ability to record meetings and share snippets greatly enhances accessibility.
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Collaboration
AV meetings are designed to make collaboration between remote team members easier. While whole-team meetings are not common, individual employees are free to set up one-on-one video calls with other team members according to their own project needs.
Additionally, AV meeting software facilitates interactions that might not have happened in the office — for example, between employees from different branches or departments. Left to interact as they please, employees are able to collaborate across silos in new and organic ways.
Invest in Digital Transformation to Stay Competitive
With the hybrid model quickly becoming the default, businesses will need to embrace digital transformation as a means to enhance productivity, collaboration, employee experience, and competitive edge within their industry.
Although the transformation represents an investment in both time and cost, it promises a number of benefits not possible with a traditional or purely remote workforce.
