Meeting room 3.0: home working at the office

For many firms, hybrid working has become part and parcel of their staff policy. It makes sense, as 53% of all employees say they expect to be able to work from home¹, and of those who have the choice, 70% prefer to do so three days a week². At the same time, many people are being confronted with the technical limitations of hybrid working. For instance, 91% of home working employees say they are frustrated with inadequate meeting tools³ and, as a result, they increasingly elect to meet in person. This contradiction is also known as the hybrid working paradox: although hybrid working is widely adopted, there is a desire for more human contact.

More than just technology

So how can companies tackle this paradox? How can they respect the wish for more home working without sacrificing personal contact? The answer lies in a new approach to hybrid meetings that takes not only the technical but also the human aspect into account. There are three central factors:
 

1. Parity
   All employees must feel appreciated and heard during the meeting.
    
2. Accessibility
   The meeting must be accessible for all participants, regardless of their location. Every participant must have access to the proper tools and technologies.
    
3. Equality
   During the meeting, all participants must see and hear each other in the same way. They must be able to communicate at the same level and there must be room for non-verbal communication.

Meeting room 3.0

In addition to the human aspect of hybrid meetings, choosing the right tools and technology is essential. Investing in a new type of meeting room can optimise the quality of interactions. Depending on the size of your company, you can create a mix of innovative meeting rooms, from focus rooms for one to three people, to large meeting rooms with a capacity of 15 or more. To meet the needs of your employees, you can choose to fit the meeting rooms with either a bring-your-own-device or standalone video conferencing solution.

With the former, every participant brings their own laptop and connects it to the video conferencing system. This replaces the camera, microphone and speakers of individual devices, providing superior video and audio quality. A standalone solution works through a fixed computer in the room, so meetings can go ahead without additional devices. Generally, these solutions use licensed, platform-specific applications such as Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex.

Thanks to the video conferencing solution, employees who are joining remotely get a full picture of the room and can hear every contribution, leading to greater engagement. By adding a ClickShare solution, you can easily share digital documents, both in the meeting room and beyond.

1 Gallup. “The Future of Hybrid Work: 5 Key Questions Answered With Data.” Published 2022.
2 Directions 2021 The Rapidly Evolving Future of Collaboration and Conferencing; NB Webcam Study
3 Freshworks, State of Workplace Technology April 2022