By Amy Kim, CEO of Jugo
As the new world of hybrid working continues to turn in earnest, companies are starting to realize all is not as it seems. While it may be the answer to a better work-life balance for the individual – is it damaging team collaboration and the ability to deliver results efficiently?
The ‘hybrid’ working environment has opened the eyes to a new way of working for the global workforce. In-office days are balanced with the seminal ‘WFH’. Two days in, three days out – with infinite variations of the theme. For many, this re-dressing of the work-life balance has been a beacon of hope through the cracks of pandemic pressure. Where light at the end of the tunnel was once dim, the silver lining of a permanent hybrid work environment has shone through.
Yet, while a re-controlling of one’s own time against outputs it may indeed provide – as companies are starting to realize – it’s the impact on wider team collaboration that is taking a hit. In a recent report from Barco’s ClickShare Hybrid Meeting Survey, over 70% of workers “...still struggle with the frictions and technical challenges that come with hybrid engagement.” Zoom in further, and it’s the experience that’s seemingly to blame.
Meeting the Hybrid Challenge
Hybrid meetings require both physical and ‘remote’ or ‘virtual’ stakeholders to deliver the meeting. And while both are connected via standard video-conferencing platforms – it’s the former who wins the upper hand.
As humans designed to tell stories and ready both verbal and non-verbal cues, in-person stakeholders will take natural control of the meeting. They’ll share glances, talk in real-time (with no lag), expand on information and offer opinion through gestures and comments effortlessly, all from the comfort of the same room. Meanwhile, their remote counterparts are left to connect the dots – raising virtual hands and unmuting themselves in the hope they’re both seen and heard before the moment passes. All too often, it does.
What’s left is a fracturing experience. One where the in-person crowd are, at best, oblivious to the growing frustrations of their remote colleagues; at worst, resentful of the ‘additional work’ they’ve put into the meeting. As a result, the hybrid meeting dynamic falls foul of its intended purpose: to collaborate. In its place, the bitter taste of time wasted and the dreaded follow-up meeting is left in its wake.
Defining the Experience Standard
And yet, just as companies have overcome the hybrid working model at the individual level, so too can they win at the team level and unveil new ways to collaborate. Setting new practices for those team-critical meetings is a decision to hold them wholeheartedly in person or virtually. With the right planning and communication in place, the hybrid individual needn’t be displaced from their working pattern – a mere alignment of schedules can do wonders for the collaborative soul.
Without fail, protecting a strong culture starts with ensuring a strong employee experience. Companies getting this right have already made their play and are empowering their teams with tools, locations and platforms to support entirely in-person or virtual experiences for the meetings that matter – setting expectations that if you want to succeed, you need to collaborate. And to do that, you need a consistent, engaging experience across all stakeholders.
Organizations need to focus on building a virtual ecosystem and experience that support the future of hybrid work. We know that not all meetings can be one or the other. But we know the important ones will be. And for those taking place in a virtual forum, the days of Zoom are not enough. Clear agendas, seamless functionality and truly exciting ways to display, communicate and collaborate on ideas and strategy should all be considered part of a company’s employee experience standard.
By creating an immersive environment for participants and presentations to genuinely interact – all while empowering the ability to truly collaborate with both visual and sentiment-based cues – we can ignite engagement and provoke productivity at the team level, mitigating the hybrid meeting challenge and creating a new standard of collaboration that resonates far further than just to teams and departments – it ripples out into real-world results.
About Jugo
We believe having a purpose is vital for today’s sustainable business. Talent wants meaningful work, customers want inspiring experience, and society wants responsible companies. Humans need to communicate. Workforces want to collaborate. Businesses strive to win. Jugo is designed to bridge the intersection of all three – providing the complete virtual experience ecosystem for the future of hybrid work.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.