Many thanks to Anna Chalmers (UIT) for taking the following notes:
Remote, Hybrid, In-Person? Let's keep everyone engaged and build community!
Challenges There are vast differences in the experience of attending a meeting in person versus over Zoom. Fully remote employees (who weren’t always remote)find it difficult to maintain a connection when they're unable to catch up with their colleagues in person. Experience a disconnect when new staff is hired.
What tactics or strategies have you used to build an inclusive environment in the hybrid experience?
Team Experience/Community Building: Establishing relationships when employees are remote and/or new. Maintaining connection
Daily team meetings Monday through Thursday for 15 minutes in the morning.Allows folks to connect, get questions answered, and keeps remote employees in front of mind ( especially when decisions are often made in person; it allows information to be shared )
Add socializing to team check-ins: Spend the first 5 minutes just catching up. Or have a check-in meeting that’s not work-related. This builds trust and therefore makes it better to work together. Not everyone has to share, but overall the experience builds camaraderie.
Semiannual (2x/year) all team members on site: Flying out team members on-site (particularly around work events e.g. holiday parties) so they can have a couple of times a year to bond and connect.
Games over Zoom on a semi-regular basis.
Conversation exercise for team connection: Ice cream/chicken/Quokka. Basically discussion around something good that happened to you/something frustrating/something you learned.
A quokka
Over Zoom work hours: AKA Hell Hours. Weekly meetings where teams just work together over Zoom. Not necessarily collaborative, just working on their own tasks while online together. They can chat, joke around, and ask questions just like they would in an office environment.
Utilize Slack: Using Slack as you would interact with colleagues in person. For example, saying “Good morning” and “Good night,” communicating appointments, and jokes, etc. Folks can then interact with Slack messages. 👍
Zoom lunches: Share a meal over Zoom. Maybe budget out for Doordash gift cards for the team.
Mentioning of lack of engagement in Zoom hangouts with members of staff. Some stated that Zoom fatigue could be the main culprit. Some don’t want to be on Zoom hanging out when they’ve been in Zoom meetings all day.
Main takeaway: it’s difficult to find a solution that everyone will enjoy/like.
What are some best practices for hybrid meetings?
The hybrid work experience is not going away anytime soon, and some folks don’t have the option to attend in person. For example, this year's IT Unconference had more remote RSVPs and more remote attendance than in-person.
Created AV best practices in a hybrid meeting environment: Cross-talking of attendees in the room is inaudible for attendees over Zoom. A microphone should be used to hear in-person attendees' contributions to the conversation.
- Invest in soft cube mics?
- Consider room size
Moderator’s responsibility: Watch for Zoom attendees who want to contribute to the conversation. Keep things equal amongst attendee contributions. Have someone monitor the Zoom chat for questions.
Hybrid Etiquette: In-person participants should have the same meeting etiquette as Zoom participants. For example, raise your hand, use a microphone, don’t talk over one another. Zoom participants will feel like they have space to comment equally. Establish these ground rules at the beginning of the meeting or build a culture of etiquette so everyone is aware of the rules beforehand. Communicate the rules prior to the meeting.
Brainstorming sessions: In-person attendees can contribute to brainstorming on a whiteboard. Zoom attendees can brainstorm on a shared document (e.g. Google docs). Then the notes can be consolidated into one shared document.
Main takeaway: plan for a hybrid event. Assume an event or session is hybrid in the early stages of planning. Prioritize technology so any issues can be resolved beforehand, and plan for troubleshooting during the event.
Camera on or off?
Having one’s camera on seems to encourage engagement, builds connection, and is helpful for folks who struggle to hear one another over Zoom. However, many experience Zoom fatigue from having their camera on all the time. Additionally, some mention a “speaking in an arena” feeling when having their camera on during larger meetings.
Establish a culture of having a camera on when speaking: Folks can turn on their camera when contributing to the conversation, but then turn it off once they complete their thought. This builds engagement and helps ease Zoom fatigue. Obviously, there are instances where folks do not need their cameras on e.g. feeling under the weather, eating lunch, etc.
Big meetings vs small meetings: Smaller meetings could be a camera-on situation, whereas big meetings where there’s a presentation leave wiggle room for cameras off.
Avoid the “big head”: Format the meeting so a Zoom attendee’s face isn’t projected over the screen as one big face. See example below:
Accessibility in meetings
There was a discussion about how hybrid meetings promote accessibility. Kevin Murphy shared that there are resources on the Office of Digital Accessibility website.
Here is a link to resources about accessible virtual meetings. It includes video resources, strategies, and tips for before, during, and after a meeting.
