¾ Executives Admit Remote Workers Are at a Disadvantage

Over three-quarters of executives admit that remote employees are at a disadvantage, compared to those that work at the office, revealed a study on the consequences of remote and hybrid work.

Virtual and hybrid meetings may be the new normal; but they’re still not meeting executives’ expectations, according to the survey conducted by Wakefield Research for collaboration intelligence firm Vyopta. Around 77% say that participants who join meetings remotely are at a disadvantage compared to those who join in-person; including 23% who say they are very or extremely disadvantaged.

“Business leaders at large organisations spend about 75% of their professional time in meetings or meeting-related work,” pointed out Dr Joe Allen, Meeting Scientist and Professor at University of Utah Health and author of Suddenly Virtual: Making Remote Meetings Work and the upcoming Suddenly Hybrid. “To counteract the gap between in-person and online, executives are taking action to make virtual meetings as effective as being there.”

HYBRID-WORK COLLABORATION

The most commonly taken measures include prompting feedback from remote participants (66%); encouraging remote participants to join using video (65%); and keeping meeting links open until all or almost all participants have left the room (65%). When participants can’t get their cameras or mics working, the online chat function can be their lifeline. Yet 43% of companies are not having someone monitor the chat for contributions from remote participants; which is done by only 57% of companies.

The effort to make hybrid work all it can be means executives need to believe in their employees. Leaders surveyed said that confidence in a staff member’s ability to navigate remote collaboration technology is very or extremely important (89%); especially when it comes to making decisions about allowing staff members to work remotely. 

TRAINING FOR BETTER REMOTE COLLABORATION

It’s not just money being invested in collaborative tools, but employees’ time as well. Around 64% of executives say employees at their company receive formal training on how to collaborate with remote co-workers. The remaining 37% offer informal training or no training at all.

“This survey has surfaced a trust issue between management and employees. The expectations for remote and hybrid work are not clear and the lack of training on how to manage this new way of working is hurting everyone,” said Alfredo Ramirez, CEO of Vyopta. “While our company actually works in the collaboration space and is very familiar with the technology, we are now taking a hard look at our own processes; and have started new company-wide training this quarter on optimising hybrid and remote work and employee engagement as a result.”

Click here for more information. According to another recent study, hybrid working may inadvertently discriminate against individuals and groups, and drag businesses back decades. Click here to read more.