The hybrid meeting room continues to evolve as companies and employees prioritize flexible work. Organizations may be encouraging teams to return to the office part-time, but most agree that the future of work is hybrid.
Unfortunately, many meeting rooms still aren’t equipped for hybrid work. In fact, one study found 72% of employees are optimistic about returning to the office, but only 47% believe their work environments actively support hybrid workers.
The good news is there are plenty of ways for companies to transform the meeting space for hybrid team members, leveraging the latest immersive, intelligent, and inclusive tech.
Here’s why you need to invest in hybrid meeting rooms this year.
1. Flexibility, Adaptability, and Resilience
The modern workplace faces many challenges, from rapid employee turnover to talent shortages and budget restrictions. Hybrid meeting room technology addresses all of these challenges. A hybrid-first approach can allow employees to use their preferred devices and tools in meeting spaces with BYOM and BYOD tech.
Plug-and-play technology even empowers companies to transform any space into a meeting room without technical support. This means that instead of managing large meeting spaces, organizations can create more flexible focus rooms and ad hoc spaces for interactions.
Hybrid meeting rooms also give staff members the flexibility to choose how they’d like to attend a meeting based on various circumstances. For instance, with tools like Microsoft Places, teams can choose when to attend an office based on which other staff members will be present.
Hybrid meeting rooms also make offices more adaptable, ensuring team members can still participate in meetings when they cannot visit the office. This reduces disruptions in the workplace.
2. Hybrid Meeting Rooms Reduce Costs and Emissions
We’ve already noted one way hybrid meeting spaces can reduce costs: by enabling teams to use their own equipment and eliminating the need for dedicated meeting spaces. However, a hybrid-focused office design can also reduce costs in other ways.
Companies can use all-in-one tech and multifunctional displays to reduce the need for additional equipment in office spaces. They can experiment with hardware as a service and hiring options when they know they need additional tech for comprehensive meetings and training sessions.
Hybrid meeting room software can even give companies access to usage metrics and insights that help them allocate resources more effectively. Tools like Logitech Sync make it easy to monitor device and space usage in real-time. There are even tools that allow you to automatically switch off devices when they’re not in use, reducing energy expenses.
Plus, these tools also minimize carbon emissions, while hybrid meeting rooms, in general, reduce the need for travel, helping companies reach their sustainability goals.
3. Improved Engagement and User Experiences
Companies need to deliver exceptional experiences to encourage employees to return to the office, even part-time. Employees don’t want to return to the office to use meeting room equipment that’s completely different from what they have at home or difficult to set up.
To enable agile working experiences, vendors are producing convenient plug-and-play meeting room technologies that can easily sync with the software and devices employees already use. This makes launching a meeting extremely convenient and straightforward.
With the right software, employees can book spaces in advance, configure them to their specific needs, and eliminate the need for complex initial set-up experiences. This all leads to a better employee experience, as well as improved engagement during meetings.
If you take advantage of the latest meeting room technology, such as AI copilots, you can even eliminate common frustrations like the need to take notes during meetings. This means employees can spend more time focusing on the conversation.
4. Hybrid Meeting Rooms Boost Creativity
Creativity and innovation can thrive in a hybrid workspace. Hybrid meeting rooms don’t just allow people from different environments and sectors to easily connect and share ideas. They also make it easy for these team members to experiment with different concepts.
Companies can use solutions like Microsoft Teams Immersive Spaces to create team bonding sessions and allow staff members to collaborate on product designs and wireframes. They can use virtual whiteboarding solutions to enable brainstorming sessions and creative projects.
With flexible hybrid meeting rooms, companies can enable teams to bring their own devices and software into meetings to share ideas in different formats. This paves the way for rapid innovation and discovery in hybrid spaces.
5. Enhanced Productivity and Performance
Though many employers have often expressed concerns about the impact of hybrid work on productivity, studies consistently show that hybrid team members are often more productive. Hybrid workers are happier, more engaged, and less likely to burnout than their colleagues.
Creating rooms that enable hybrid meetings also ensures every employee can engage in critical conversations, regardless of their location. Field workers, remote workers, contractors, and others can all interact easily with in-office employees, allowing for more productive meetings.
Hybrid meeting room technology also often comes with various tools that can help boost productivity and performance. These can include AI-powered transcription and translation tools that can summarize meetings and assign action items to team members.
They can enable rapid file and screen sharing from any device and integrate with other essential software to offer instant access to crucial information.
6. Hybrid Meeting Rooms Improve Inclusivity
Hybrid work may benefit companies and employees alike, but it does present challenges. Inclusion can suffer in a workspace not equipped for hybrid work. Video tools, immersive technology (like Microsoft Teams Immersive Spaces), and cloud services help reconnect teams.
There are even AI solutions that can help teams feel more connected by tracking speakers intelligently, presenting video feeds in a way that elevates “eye contact,” and more. Extended reality tools can take this functionality even further, allowing team members working remotely to feel like they share the same office space as their colleagues.
Moreover, the right hybrid meeting room technology can improve inclusivity for all types of employees. Staff members can leverage real-time translation and transcription tools to help enhance their understanding in meetings and reduce the risk of issues.
Invest in the Future of Hybrid Meeting Rooms
Hybrid work isn’t going anywhere. Even with return-to-office mandates, most companies know that they need to enable flexibility to engage, attract, and retain team members. However, for hybrid workers to thrive, they need the right technology.
Investing in hybrid meeting room solutions ensures that companies can effectively empower their workforce and unlock greater levels of productivity and creativity.
