Diversity, equity and inclusion are a high priority for virtually every company. And so they should be: according to the 2021 CNBC | Survey Monkey Workforce Survey, the majority (78%) of workers say it is important to them to work at an organisation that prioritises diversity and inclusion, and more than half (53%) consider it to be “very important” to them.
One of the ways companies are failing to demonstrate equity and inclusion is in their approach to hybrid meetings.
With hybrid work here to say, hybrid meetings are now the norm. And they’re significantly more complex than in-person or on-line meetings to master.
If you’ve ever remotely attended a hybrid meeting, you might have experienced how inequitably in-person and online participants are treated. All too often, remote participants are forgotten, ignored, talked over, excluded and penalised for not being in the room.
It’s happening without those in the room even realising it.
We trawled the internet to find the best advice on how to ensure your hybrid meetings are effective and engaging for all – in person and remote – participants.
1 Provide strong facilitation
Bob Frisch and Cary Greene, Partners, Strategic Offsites Group
Managing a hybrid meeting is harder than when the whole group is in person or on Zoom together. One person — a staff member, an outsider or a meeting participant — should be assigned to guide the conversation and keep it on track.
Despite the effort you may put into meeting design and logistics, it remains far too easy for in-person attendees to dominate the discussion. A facilitator should draw the remote participants in, keep them engaged and ensure their voices are heard, not interrupted or talked over. At times, the facilitator may need to call on in-room or remote participants to ensure that all voices are heard.
2 Strictly manage meeting time and attendance
Evan LePage, Senior Content Manager, Unito
In an office environment, all participants know that a meeting’s late to start when they see an empty board room. But all the person at home sees is their own face staring right back at them. This is just one example of why it’s important to strictly manage meeting time.
In general, it’s hard to take part in really long video calls. It’s tough on the eyes and drains focus. So plan meetings to be as short as possible. Then, when you’re in the meeting, make sure to stick to the agenda and keep to time. Everyone — no matter where they’re located — will appreciate that. It can help to select a timekeeper to move things along.
Then there’s meeting attendance. With hybrid meetings, really spend extra time considering your attendee list. Make sure to invite only those who absolutely need to be there in order to achieve the desired outcome of the meeting. Feel free to make other attendees optional if you want to be inclusive. This ensures that you’re not forcing employees into a bunch of meetings where they might be unable to provide value.
3 Ensure you’re still face-to-face
Antonia Bowring, Principal, ABstrategies LLC
Re-arrange your meeting room so that everyone physically present is facing the video screen. Ideally, you’ll be positioned in a semi-circle. The net effect is that all the participants are in a circle and people feel more included. They can see what is in front of all the meeting participants (including whether they are checking their phones or laptops!).
4 Discourage side conversations
Carrie Williams Howe, Owner, Carrie Williams Howe Consulting
If hushed conversations are taking place so that those on the phone cannot hear them, you have an equity issue on your hands. If important topics are being addressed during breaks, folks who are not there drinking coffee with you are not able to participate. Be vocal about this – ask people to speak up so others can hear them; or update virtual participants on break-time conversations when you re-group. There is no harm in saying, “Hey Corin, you’re making a really great point there but I don’t think folks on the webinar could hear it; can you repeat it so we can all benefit from that point?”
5 Notice people unmuting themselves
Ayesa Lubag, GlueUp
Another great way to ensure that remote participants feel appreciated and heard is by looking at the screen for cues that someone wants to speak up. Depending on the video conferencing platform, participants can either unmute themselves or use the ‘raise hand’ feature. You can then say: “Aaron, you seem to have unmuted yourself. Would you like to add anything?”
6 All remote colleagues turn video on
Anonymous, Timely
It may not be fair, but when a remote employee attends a meeting and doesn’t turn their video on, there can be an unspoken sense that they don’t want to participate. If their microphone is muted too, it can seem as though they’re not there at all. Whenever possible, remote colleagues should keep their video on so everyone can see they are engaged in the meeting. Reading facial cues becomes especially important when everyone is on mute.
7 Rate the meeting
Jessica Wishart, Product Manager, Rhythm Systems
As your team is figuring out a new format, it’s a best practice to collect some feedback from the participants. An easy way to do this is to ask everyone to write down a number 1-10 to rate the meeting’s effectiveness. Ask each person to share their number and a short sentence explaining why they gave that number. You can collect these after the fact and read them or save the last five minutes to share in the meeting. Use this feedback from the team to ensure you’ve done a good job including everyone and make adjustments to improve as you learn what works and what doesn’t for your hybrid team.
8 Recognise the risks of creating a two-tier team and strive to mitigate them
Robert Hooijberg and Michael Watkins, IMD Business School
This requires leaders to establish ground rules that encourage balanced participation and to ensure that the remote participants are minimally disadvantaged as much as possible. Scheduling some meetings within regular working hours for the remote participants, even when it inconveniences the team members at headquarters, also helps. It’s hardly fair that remote employees must always come to leadership team meetings late in the evening when they are likely already fatigued from a long workday.
9 Ensure roles and responsibilities are clear (and visible)
Dr Penny Pullan, Founder, Making Projects Work
Ensure that roles and responsibilities are clear, agreed and shared out amongst all of the team. While it might be easy to ask someone in the meeting room to write down actions on a flip chart, this makes it harder for remote team members to read. A better choice is for someone in the room to share actions on a shared screen, so that everyone can see it. This has the added advantage that the actions can be shared electronically immediately after the meeting too!
10 Use the buddy system
Anonymous, Hugo
With the buddy system, you assign an in-person meeting attendee to be a remote person’s “buddy”. Typically, the pair stays connected with a chat which gives the remote attendee an in-room representative. If your remote worker has a question or missed something, the in-person buddy can help make sure their remote buddy is heard.
11 Make remote participants full sized
Anonymous, UCL Human Resources
Give remote participants a greater presence in the room. Use the main screen to show life size images of the remote participants. Additionally, it may be beneficial to set up two monitors – one on each side of the room. Large images can provide a constant reminder to include at home attendees in the conversation with visual cues being more important on a hybrid call. There are times when some staff members prefer to not turn on their cameras, so allow the option of not being on camera to create a more inclusive environment.
12 Pause and ask remote participants for input
Erin Fradelos, Senior Director, Global eCommerce and Digital Marketing, Owl Labs
Some people may have feelings of anxiety about speaking up in a meeting where they aren’t physically present. Remote workers are not able to pick up on normal body language and social cues as well as those who are in a traditional meeting.
This could mean that valuable input could be withheld. To avoid this, pause the meeting periodically and solicit opinions from your remote participants. This shows them that their thoughts are valued and keeps them more engaged throughout the meeting.
