The hybrid meeting concept has become common in most business environments. As of 2022, approximately 78% of all workplaces offer hybrid working opportunities to employees, leveraging the benefits of both in-office and remote work.
Enabling effective hybrid meetings in today’s world requires companies to do much more than implement communication strategies between remote and in-office workers. To ensure every employee feels engaged in the meeting experience, organizations need to rethink the meeting room, implementing new tools and technologies which bridge the gaps between physical spaces.
As one of the leading innovators in the hybrid work landscape, Microsoft has worked extensively to empower hybrid teams over the last few years with software, AI, and innovative partnerships with hardware vendors. Here’s how companies can create more powerful hybrid meeting rooms with Microsoft Teams in the years ahead.
Enhancing Physical Meeting Spaces with Microsoft Teams
For most companies, building the ultimate hybrid meeting room starts with rethinking the meeting spaces available to office-based workers. Microsoft believes the ultimate hybrid meeting space will combine the physical and virtual worlds to make every employee feel like they’re sharing the same productive space.
To strengthen the connections between distributed employees, Microsoft has built various tools into the Teams environment, including an enhanced Microsoft whiteboard for visual collaboration and a refreshed “Surface Hub” environment. Microsoft also works with vendors in the AV space to offer a range of intelligent cameras to meeting rooms, which include features like automatic person recognition, AI-powered speaker tracking, and support for multiple video streams.
Intelligent cameras can be paired with Dynamic View in Teams, and business leaders can set Teams to automatically adjust different aspects of the meeting so remote participants can easily see the room and available content. Microsoft’s meeting tools include a range of AI components that help to boost eye contact and connectivity between different employees while allowing everyone to share and manage content cohesively in the same place.
Microsoft recently introduced the new “Microsoft Places” solution, which helps companies manage hybrid meeting rooms.
Microsoft Places is a “Connected Workplace” tool that assists with hybrid scheduling, intelligent booking for meeting rooms, and office coordination. The tool includes built-in wayfinding to help users find the right room for a meeting. Plus, space insights are available to optimize in-office huddle rooms and meeting rooms. Users can even track which team members are expected to be available in the office on different days.
Empowering Remote Workers with Microsoft Teams
To help position remote workers within the office on a virtual level, Microsoft Teams also comes with a wide range of tools specifically designed for distributed staff members. For instance, PowerPoint has the built-in “Cameo” functionality, seamlessly integrating Teams cameras into a presentation to help users customize how they appear on slides.
Microsoft Teams also has a phenomenal “Speaker Coach” application within Microsoft Teams, which uses AI to privately share guidance on pacing to remote workers, and notify them if they might be interrupting someone in a meeting. The technology also enables automatic lighting corrections, allowing remote workers to improve their visibility in any environment.
Microsoft Teams works with many external apps and tools to make accessing meeting rooms and collaborative sessions easier for every business user. Teams can connect to meetings from Apple CarPlay and make calls hands-free when they’re on the road.
Plus, apps built into Teams meetings are available to enhance real-time interactions, making conversations more engaging and interactive for all users. Teams can leverage real-time app content alongside their meetings using Miro, MURAL, and LucidSpark.
To assist business leaders in ensuring their remote workers don’t feel left out or isolated when working outside of the office, Microsoft also built an entire “Employee Engagement” ecosystem in the form of Microsoft Viva. This comprehensive toolkit provides business leaders with knowledge and insights into employee engagement. Plus, it ensures remote staff can stay up-to-date with company news, resources, announcements, and more.
Microsoft Viva even ensures employers can rapidly roll educational content out to team members regardless of where they are and keep track of employee progress.
Crafting Powerful Hybrid Meetings with Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams considers each employee’s specific use cases and needs in the business environment, regardless of whether they work in the office or at home. With solutions like Microsoft Places and Microsoft Viva, business leaders can keep track of the flow of employees throughout the workplace and beyond and use resources more effectively.
At the same time, Microsoft’s commitment to working cohesively with different endpoint vendors ensures business leaders can create a highly customizable stack of technology solutions for workers inside and outside the office. Companies can access everything from Microsoft Certified room kits and video bars to individual cameras, speakerphones, and headsets, which can all be remotely managed and monitored by business leaders.
Microsoft also ensures its technology is simple and user-friendly, further empowering companies in the new age of hybrid work. Devices are plug-and-play ready and able to integrate with various tools and services. Plus, the Microsoft Teams software can conveniently integrate with various apps and features for different teams.
Microsoft’s hybrid meeting room environment combines everything from exceptional audio and video quality to powerful, intelligent software to allow everyone in any meeting to feel fully present in the conversation and collaborative moment.
Building Hybrid Meeting Rooms with Teams
As the world of hybrid work continues to evolve, Microsoft is constantly partnering with innovators and investing in new solutions to bring team members closer wherever they are. By taking a holistic approach to hybrid work, Microsoft ensures every employee remains engaged in the workplace and company culture can continue to thrive, even in a distributed workplace.
