Meeting Equity: why does it matter for hybrid teams?
Think about the last meeting you sat through in a physical office or boardroom. Who was involved and what were they doing? Do you remember?
Regardless of the topic or type of meeting, most of us are familiar with the typical cast of characters; you have the main speakers, the question-askers, the note-takers, the intent listeners, and the floaters that don’t really participate in one way or another.
The one thing each of these people have in common is a shared experience. They are in the same room, probably in the same type of chair, seeing the same screen, whiteboard, presentation, or chart. The lighting is the same for everyone, and depending on the size of the boardroom, chances are volume isn’t a problem either.
The traditional boardroom meeting was structured on the value of equality. Meeting roles aside, everybody had (more or less) the same experience. Meetings built on equality used to work (kind of). Traditional meetings had their own issues; too many, too expensive, too inefficient, and so on and so forth, but we managed all the same.
Then things got complicated. The pandemic shifted how we worked — almost universally. Concepts like remote work and video conferencing became the norm, not just rare occurrences usually reserved for huge multi-nationals and board execs.
All of a sudden, the focus for the average worker shifted from “do you hate meetings?” to setting up your home office and tips to stay productive while working from home.
Society and the business world quickly got pretty good at working virtually and maintaining productivity. But then another issue arose: meeting equity.
So what is meeting equity?
Meeting equality is fairly easy to attain — stick everyone in the same conditions in the same room.
But as remote work took the world by storm, all of a sudden we weren’t all in the same conditions. We were in home offices, sitting at kitchen tables, out on the balcony, in our cars, and everywhere in between.
This is where the issue of equity initially arose. Now, suddenly, 10 people in a meeting might have 10 different experiences. Everything from internet connection and time of day to headphone quality and screen size started to matter in meetings.
As much as patchy internet and frozen video calls made life miserable, at least we were all pretty much in the same boat.
However, even as more and more businesses go back to work, the massive adoption rate of the hybrid workplace model has thrown another curveball at us: a growing divide in meeting equity.
Now, those same 10 people in our meeting are having vastly different experiences across the board:
4 in-office workers are back to a more traditional meeting: same boardroom, same internet, same video screen.
3 are dialing in from home with static where the speaker’s voice should be.
2 remote team members hear everything but can’t get their video to work.
The last one is five time zones away and will be stuck watching the recording tomorrow.
The reality is, employees in every situation — remote, hybrid, or in-office — are at risk of falling victim to the increasing gap in organizational equity.
“The risk of hybrid meetings is that in-person attendees become anonymous faces in a room, while remote attendees are left speaking into a void, not knowing if they are seen or heard, or how to jump in and take a turn.”
— Jaime Teevan, chief scientist, Microsoft
What can you do to promote meeting equity?
Every organization should be considering equity in their meetings — regardless of workplace structure. Step one is developing and committing to a plan that will ensure all employees have equal and fair experiences throughout the business.
But beyond acknowledging it, here are a few steps you can take directly to start having more equitable meetings:
1. Invest in the right tools
Providing employees with the hardware and tools they need to contribute consistently is a key factor. Whether it’s company-provided computers, one-click meeting software, or visual collaboration tools like Stormboard, technology will likely be the foundation of any equity action plan.
2. Stop ignoring audio and video
Most of us are probably sick of saying “your video is hard to see” or “I can’t hear you.” Traditional conference rooms and even home offices were built for working in-person, or occasionally on a conference call. Promoting better equity in meetings can be as simple as improving microphones, speakers, and cameras. Considering making webcams and headphones part of employee equipment packages from Day 1 to improve meeting experiences across the board.
3. Refine your physical spaces
In the past, when a conference room was being designed, it probably involved a long table, front-of-the-room flatscreen TV, and maybe an overhead webcam mounted somewhere. Setting up meeting spaces with eye-level cameras, centralized microphones, and more natural seating positions makes remote participants feel more involved and engaged and in-person attendees less awkward about maneuvering in front of cameras or presenting to a group.
4. Plan and build for future needs
If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that you can never be over-prepared. For months after COVID-19 struck, many of us were scrambling for software and tools that would allow us to stay connected from our homes.
Evidence shows that hybrid work is here to stay — no matter what your workplace model is now, preparing for a future of hybrid and/or remote work is an absolute necessity. This might include re-evaluating what your employee benefit & compensation package looks like, or it could mean evaluating new software.
Regardless what your future looks like, scalability and the flexibility to accommodate hybrid employees should be among your highest priorities.
5. Tools alone don’t solve complex problems, collaborative cultures do
Adopting shared visual workspaces (aka. digital whiteboards) has become one of the first steps businesses take in developing digital transformation strategies. Because of the large-scale and instant impact on meeting efficiency, inter-department collaboration, synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, digital whiteboards have become synonymous with collaborative work.
While the most obvious solution is to invest in better hardware, improved A/V capabilities, and consistent meeting software, these things alone will not be enough to improve collaboration in a hybrid world.
If meeting equity is about leveling the playing field for a more connected workforce, then it makes sense that collaboration should be a — if not the — key area of focus.
Part of building a more equitable culture starts with understanding the concept of inclusive collaboration.
“It means leveling out the opportunities to contribute and add perspective to a project, regardless of rank in the organization. ”
Providing scalable, flexible, and dynamic collaboration software like Stormboard is the easiest, and arguably most impactful way to promote collaboration. Put simply, collaboration software is designed to eliminate technical and physical barriers between offices, departments, and teams.
Stormboard gives employees at any rank, level, or position an equal (and equitable) opportunity to have their voices heard and ideas discussed — no matter where they are located.
Collaboration software, if used correctly, is a cornerstone to building equity not just in meetings, but across entire organizations.
Start building a more equitable workplace with Stormboard today
Our expert team has helped tens of thousands of businesses worldwide build more collaborative cultures and change the way people work together.
Schedule a no-obligation product tour with our experts to see how virtual collaboration software fits in with your meeting equity strategy.
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Sign-up for a free 30 day, full-featured trial of Stormboard’s business plan and see for yourself the difference collaboration can make in meeting equity and inclusive collaboration.