The future of work is hybrid. Although 98% of companies are encouraging team members to return to the office (at least part-time), only a third of CEO’s in high-revenue companies expect a complete return to the office in the coming years.
The good news is that enabling hybrid work, with the right hybrid meeting solutions, rooms, and toolkits, pays off. Hybrid workers are happier, more productive, and more creative. Plus companies can save significant money on travel, technology, and real estate.
The challenge is finding the right hybrid meeting room technology for your specific needs. Here’s your guide to comparing hybrid solutions.
Step 1: Identify your Hybrid Work Strategy
Despite the continued popularity of hybrid work, 68% of business leaders say they have no detailed vision for the future of flexible work. If you don’t know when and why employees will use office spaces, it’s impossible to design effective meeting rooms that address their needs.
Examine your current workspace, speak to your employees, and find out what kind of work needs to be done in the office and what can be completed externally. How often will your team members come to the office, and how many will use meeting spaces? Do you need large meeting rooms, or can you create more ad-hoc small meeting rooms and focus spaces?
When teams are in the office, which resources do they need to collaborate with hybrid workers, such as video conferencing tools, whiteboards, and presentation software? How will you manage your meeting rooms and ensure teams can book spaces effectively?
Step 2: Define Priorities for Hybrid Meeting Solutions
Once you’ve identified your hybrid work strategy, the next step is defining what you’ll prioritize when building your meeting rooms. In other words, what are your goals beyond enabling flexible work? Are you looking for a way to reduce operational costs?
If so, investing in BYOM (Bring Your Own Meeting) technologies and multifunctional equipment, like screens with built-in cameras and microphones, could save you some extra cash. Are you attempting to enhance your company culture by promoting inclusion? In this case, you might focus on meeting room solutions that use AI or extended reality to boost immersion in meeting spaces.
Maybe your focus is on sustainability. In that case, you’d choose hardware with a low energy consumption rate, and select software that allows you to automatically track device usage, and switch hybrid meeting solutions off when they’re not in use.
Step 3: Select the Right Hardware
Based on your research, you can begin to invest in the tools required to enable hybrid meeting rooms. You might choose an all-in-one meeting room kit, designed by the same company that offers your meeting room technology (like Microsoft Teams), or a partner brand.
You may decide to combine a range of technologies based on your specific needs, working with different vendors for cameras, speakerphones, and virtual whiteboards.
As well as considering your priorities when selecting hardware, make sure you focus on:
- Ease of use: Your team members should be able to easily access hybrid meeting solutions. Choose plug-and-play technology that requires minimal setup.
- Equity: Your hybrid team members should have access to similar hardware, whether working in the office or contributing remotely. Make sure everyone has similar tech.
- Integration: Hybrid meeting room technology must work with all the software your employees already use for meetings and collaboration.
Remember to consider everything from speakers and microphones to cameras, immersive displays, and accessories, like sensors for tracking meeting room occupants.
