Collaboration plays a crucial role in the success of any business. It fosters teamwork and drives productivity towards achieving common goals. Moreover, it improves employee satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty towards the company.
It’s no surprise that remote working is one of, if not the most popular, ways of working now. Because of this, virtual collaboration using tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom has been normalized. But while this helps with work (and is a big part of making flexible work possible), it can’t replace the personable experience and creativity that can only be found when people work together face-to-face.
In this blog, we will examine the potential negative impact of virtual collaboration on businesses and highlight key strategies for making face-to-face meetings successful in an era of flexible work.
7 reasons why in-person meetings are better
Firstly, virtual collaboration has merits in the right circumstances. If a meeting is going to be more formal, with a well-planned agenda and only a few people talking most of the time, then there’s no real difference between having it in person or online.
However, virtual participation is possibly not the best format for meetings that are more fluid, creative, or where many employees will be involved. There are seven main reasons why:
- Body language: In virtual meetings, you generally only see the person’s head, neck, and shoulders. You can’t usually see their hands or any other movements they may be making with their bodies. Not understanding this body language makes it much harder to understand emotion, feeling, or context behind what is being said.
- Stilted conversations: Anyone in a virtual meeting will understand the frustration of too many people talking simultaneously or the awkward silence when nobody knows who can speak next. This conversational flow is much easier to adjust when everyone can see each other in a room, not as a bank of thumbnails on a screen.
- Technical mishaps: Whether it’s unreliable internet connections, problems getting everyone logged on, or even simple human mistakes like forgetting to come off mute, all sorts of tech-related problems simply don’t exist in physical meetings.
- External distractions: Every remote employee’s home working environment will be different, and there are almost no limits to the things that can distract them: partners, children, pets, visitors at the front door, background noise, and more.
- Builds loyalty and trust: Employees can quickly feel isolated when working remotely and shut off face-to-face contact for long periods. In-person meetings keep them engaged and connected with their team and with your wider workforce, building a better relationship.
- Face-to-face can be more productive: Working together in person removes the rigidity of communicating through emails or video calls. Team members who can see and talk to each other will find it easier to streamline their communications and collectively innovate to develop new ideas.
- Easier to focus: When different teams work together (for example, Marketing and Sales), doing this in meeting rooms is much easier than on large video calls. Office-based work helps teams stay functional and aligned with the work of others.
How to get in-person meetings right
Despite the potential limitations of virtual meetings, ensuring in-person collaboration runs smoothly means much more than just bringing everyone into a meeting room. The ideal setting and environment for an in-person meeting will vary depending on the people involved, the content, and the intended outcomes. To ensure that meeting organizers get this right every time, they should be given as much flexibility as possible in three areas:
- Type of meeting space: Companies should explore different specifications and meeting spaces to maximize the choices available for different meetings. These could include large conferencing rooms, smaller indoor meeting spaces, and informal breakout zones with more comfortable seating where employees can feel more relaxed.
- Ease of space access: Searching and booking these workspaces should be as effortless as possible. Ideally, organizers would have access to a workspace booking platform where they can check the availability and details of a workspace, check the availability of attendees, and book at the appointed time in a matter of moments.
- Booking of equipment and services: At the same time as booking the workspace, organizers should be able to reserve any related equipment or services that can make the meeting even better. This could include audiovisual kits like large monitors for presentations or even catering if a meeting occurs over breakfast or lunch.
While virtual collaboration has its place in the modern workplace, the undeniable benefits of face-to-face interaction for fostering creativity, building trust, and enhancing productivity cannot be overstated. By strategically incorporating in-person meetings into your work culture and providing employees with the tools and flexibility to optimize these gatherings, businesses can reap the rewards of stronger collaboration and increased employee engagement. It’s clear that while technology has transformed the way we work, the human connection remains an indispensable component of business success. Get in touch with Condeco by Eptura to see how to best balance your workplace strategy.
