After a year of massive changes in workplace culture and technology, many companies are gearing up for another adjustment as workers start returning to the office.
There are many meeting options now on the table, including remote meetings, hybrid meetings, and in-person meetings. You may need help determining what type of meeting works best and what type of collaboration your employees prefer. Barco has some insights for you.
The Barco Meeting Barometer is a quarterly meeting quality index that tracks how employees feel about their current meetings and what they want to see from meetings going forward.
The Barco Meeting Barometer Uncovers Key Meeting Trends
While some employers assumed in-person work had become a thing of the past, video call fatigue and remote work burnout have taken their toll. According to research conducted by Barco, more than half of workers report they are excited to return to the office. In fact, 51% of them cited the ability to meet face-to-face with colleagues as the main reason.
Here are some other key trends the Barco Meeting Barometer revealed:
- Workers are struggling with virtual meetings. Employees aren’t just tired of Microsoft Teams calls and Zoom meetings. They are also struggling with the technology to host and participate in these remote meetings productively.
Only a quarter of meeting participants think it’s easy to connect to cameras, speakers, and other AV peripherals in their meeting rooms. At the same time, 64 percent say it’s challenging to move between meeting rooms with different technology setups.
- Employees are craving engagement. According to the Barco Meeting Barometer, the quality of meetings fell in 2020 because engagement suffered when all work suddenly went remote.
A desire to regain some of that engagement is what’s driving people back to the office—and back to in-person meetings.
You Can Deliver the Hybrid Meetings Employees Want
There is some good news for employers even as satisfaction with virtual and hybrid meetings has taken a dip. Eighty percent of employees say that investing in easier-to-use technology will make both virtual and hybrid meetings better.
Key action items for employers include:
- Preparing meeting spaces to accommodate both in-person and remote meeting participants
- Catering meeting room technology to BYOD technology requirements
- Investing in wireless and touchless and other technology solutions that allow meeting participants to join video calls without connecting any cables
In the post-COVID return to work, understanding and tracking evolving meeting trends is critical. AVI-SPL and Barco can help you stay in the know and upgrade your meeting solutions. Learn more about Barco’s innovative collaboration solutions today.
