Two HR leaders discuss best practices for meetings with people working at home and the office
In the early “chaotic” days of the pandemic, one employer quickly decided to implement “no-meeting Wednesdays.”
More than two years later, this practice continues, says Klaryssa Pangilinan, head of people and culture at Daily Hive in Vancouver.
“The purpose of them is really to allow people to know that they’re not going to get bothered that day: it’s fully just to get their work done. The standing meetings, the weeklies, the monthlies shouldn’t be happening that day and it’s just a day where it’s fully yours,”
This has allowed the digital publisher to get a grip on the number of meetings being held, while still allowing flexibility, she says.
Distractions rule
But a new survey finds that getting video meetings right is an elusive prospect.
Seventy-six per cent of respondents said they are more distracted during video meetings than in-person meetings, according to a survey released by Showpad, a sales enablement technology firm headquartered in Chicago.
The survey — which heard from 1,012 employees between July 1 and July 15 — also showed that almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of workers turned off their video during meetings to do other things such as look at their phones (65 per cent), talk to someone else (47 per cent) or check in with social media (44 per cent).
“We find ourselves meeting more often because we want to create connection, and the way to do that is via tools like Zoom, but with that comes some fatigue of feeling like: ‘I’m always on camera, and that’s really exhausting,’” says Kelli Koschmann, chief people officer at Showpad in Chicago.
“And even when we’re in person now, we still ultimately often have folks who are joining remotely.”
In addition, 27 per cent of respondents had to shut off video due to something embarrassing happening at home or forgetting to press mute and saying something insulting (24 per cent) or when pets enter the meeting uninvited (20 per cent).
How to improve meetings
All of these clearly indicate the age of video meetings needs work to become truly successful. But how exactly?
Planning is important and always a key to success, according to Pangilinan.
“It’s important to ensure that meetings have a purpose, they have an agenda, because sometimes those standing meetings, maybe they’re not needed; maybe there’s nothing to talk about because we’ll just show up because it’s in the calendar.”
It could also be a matter of not automatically organizing a formal meeting when you want to have a conversation with one person, though that can be challenging in the hybrid environment, according to Pangilinan.
“Is that something that could be a five-minute chat if you went up to someone’s desk?”
Employees should also be allowed to decline invites when it makes sense, she says.
“Letting people know that they can say no to meetings is super important because if they can’t attend, or they don’t need to attend, they can review the meeting notes and they can be filled in without spending 30 minutes in a meeting room.”
With hybrid and remote work not going away anytime soon, the way that meetings are conducted may need to change as well, says Koschmann.
“Even in the same room, we have a practice at Showpad of joining one face per screen, meaning if we’re sitting in a shared conference room and there’s 10 of us, we all have our laptops in front of us, and we’re logged into Zoom.”
“The reason we do that is to create inclusion, and the experience of those who are joining remotely so they can see facial cues, and they can jump into the conversation and feel much more connected,” she says.
