Hybrid working strategies: 10 top tips for hybrid meetings

What makes hybrid meetings different?

Running an all-remote or all-office meeting is relatively easy. Running a hybrid meeting, where you have a mix of people working face-to-face and remotely, is much more tricky. Disruptions, technological glitches, siloed conversations, communication mis-matches and potential ‘power divides’ all combine to exacerbate inequalities and distort the meeting dynamics.

Making sure that both those working in the office and remotely leave hybrid meetings feeling positive about a shared experience is critical to maintaining high performance.[1] Below are 10 ways to make your hybrid meetings effective, efficient, and enjoyable.

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Provide processes

Two thirds of employees desire to continue working from home for one to three days a week going forward.[2] A new era of hybrid working is being ushered in. So, how can you adapt your processes to this new normal?

1.???Establish meeting etiquette

When people are working in different locations with varied resources, potential distractions multiply. But, if managed right, this shouldn’t infringe on attendees giving hybrid meetings their full attention.[3] Start with some contracting around any interruptions people are expecting. This way, if they occur, they’re less likely to break the meeting’s focus.

2.???Make it a joint experience

To avoid creating meeting dominance for those sharing a room, keep everyone on individual screens with their cameras on.[4] Set the room up so people are facing one another in a circle, so office-goers can talk to and make eye-contact with both in-person and on-screen attendees.

3.???Designate meeting moderators

Research shows ensuring that all voices are heard in a hybrid meeting is essential to maintaining high performance.[5] Meeting moderators can help encourage a balance of voices in the room by monitoring the chat box and hands up function, as well as offering troubleshooting support for any technical issues. Some teams organise a rota for meeting moderators.

4.???Make time for feedback

Start the meeting with some contracting around preferred procedures, as this will establish the freedom to experiment and help discover which processes work. [6] This is especially useful when meeting with new people, as sharing tips and tricks across the organisation means people can learn best practices from one another.

Enhance engagement

In hybrid meetings, it can be easier to focus on those in the room instead of equally dividing your attention between office and remote workers. But, this can cause remote attendees to feel undervalued, which risks a free-fall in motivation. To avoid this, here are some ways to sustain engagement in hybrid meetings.

5.???Use inclusive questions

Working remotely can come with the cost of losing social cues and cause people to feel excluded, or like a fly on the wall, to those in the office.[7], [8] To bring everyone’s voice into the room and provide an opportunity for people to learn and stay connected, ask inclusive questions such as: ‘what’s one challenge each person has come up against this week?’ or ‘Let’s all discuss one thing new thing we have learnt about ‘x’’. It is often powerful to invite a remote team member to share first. ?

6.???Harness technological tools

Knowing your way around the technology you’re using in hybrid meetings can make them more engaging. For example, remove slides from the meeting screen when possible to avoid reducing remote attendees to tiny boxes for the duration of the meeting. Similarly, if planning an unstructured conversation, use breakout rooms to maximise participation. Features like emojis or gifs (where appropriate) can greatly add to making the meetings more human. ????

7.???Own the energy

In hybrid meetings the mood is more likely to be determined by office-goers, as they have access to a wider range of cues to express emotion.[9] To involve both parties in dialing up the energy, set clear meeting deliverables which require office and remote workers to problem-solve together. [10] This way, everyone is accountable for creating an energised environment. In addition, different remote/office based members other than the formal team leader should also be encouraged to introduce meeting slots around ‘fun-facts’, ‘team member spot-lights’, client stories etc. ???

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Conserve culture

The final key to successful hybrid meetings lies in acknowledging and addressing the impact this shift has on company culture. Try these tips to inspire and maintain a positive team culture during hybrid meetings.

8.???Tackle biases

Studies show office-based employees are seen as more ‘responsible’ and ‘dependable’. [11] To actively counter such biases manifesting during hybrid meetings, check who is responsible for any actions at the end of the meeting and divide these equally between office and remote workers for fairness. Where possible, get both groups involved in contributing to the design/outcomes of the meetings. ?

9.???Encourage casual conversation

Rituals, jokes and stories animate a team and ultimately build resilience, so should be actively encouraged in hybrid meetings. [12] To avoid excluding anyone, take a couple of minutes at the start of each meeting for inclusive informal discussion. During this time, make sure to actively engage remote workers in any side conversations or jokes.

10. ?Boost communication

Set aside some time during the hybrid meeting for everyone to share the headlines of what they’ve been working on. This can help remote workers stay aware of projects or events which office-goers might discover over a sandwich or overhear at the coffee machine. Perhaps create shared learning portals/WhatsApp groups to share questions, pieces of research, IT shortcuts etc. that the whole team can quickly access and benefit from. Remember a sense of unity is key for teams to be high performing. [13]

For more information on how to make your shift to hybrid working a success, head over to here to discover our white paper.

1. Sox, C.B., Crews, T.B., & Kline, S.F. (2014). Virtual and hybrid meetings for Generation X: Using the Delphi method to determine best practices, opportunities, and barriers. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, 15(2), 150-169.

2. Research survey commissioned by Robert Half. An online survey of 1,500 executives was conducted in November 2020, while the employee data cited in the report is an aggregate of results from online surveys conducted by Robert Half in Australia, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, France, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom during the November 2020 - January 2021 period.

3. Gr?nb?k, J.E., Griggio, C.F., Satt?i, B., & Klokmose, C.N. (2021). MirrorBlender: Supporting hybrid meetings with a malleable video-conferencing system. CHI’21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 451, 1-13.

4. Saat?i, B., Akyüz, K., Rintel, S. et al. (Re)Configuring Hybrid Meetings: Moving from User-Centered Design to Meeting-Centered Design. Computer Supported Coop Work 29, 769–794 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-020-09385-x

5. Saat?i, B., Akyüz, K., Rintel, S. et al. (Re)Configuring Hybrid Meetings: Moving from User-Centered Design to Meeting-Centered Design. Comput Supported Coop Work 29, 769–794 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-020-09385-x

6. Donia, M., O’Neill, T.A., & Brutus, S. (2017). Peer feedback increases team member performance, confidence and work outcomes: A longitudinal study. Paper presented at the Academy of Management Proceedings.

7. Yankelovich, N., Simpson, N., Kaplan, J., & Provino, J. (2007, April). Porta-person: Telepresence for the connected conference room. In CHI'07 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 2789-2794).

8. Yankelovich, N., Walker, W., Roberts, P., Wessler, M., Kaplan, J., & Provino, J. (2004, November). Meeting central: making distributed meetings more effective. In Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work (pp. 419-428).

9. Bartel, C.A., & Saavedra, R. (2000). The collective construction of work group moods. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45, 197-231.

10. Sox, C.B., Crews, T.B., & Kline, S.F. (2014). Virtual and hybrid meetings for Generation X: Using the Delphi method to determine best practices, opportunities, and barriers. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, 15(2), 150-169.

11. Elsbach, K., & Cable, D. (2012). Why showing your face at work matters. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53, 10–12.

12. Jetten, J., Haslam, C., & Alexander, S.H. (2012). The social cure: Identity, health and well-being. Psychology Press: Taylor and Francis Group.

13. Saat?i, B., R?dle, R., Rintel, S., O’Hara, K., & Klokmose, C. N. (2019, September). Hybrid Meetings in the Modern Workplace: Stories of Success and Failure. In International Conference on Collaboration and Technology (pp. 45-61). Springer, Cham.