The state of meetings in hybrid work

Should you have cameras on or off in an online meeting? For years, teams have been debating this exact question.

Many who want cameras on claim that it boosts communication through better understanding of facial expressions and body language, while many who prefer cameras off find that thinking about how they’re seen on camera distracts them from actually focusing on the work.

In our survey, employees overwhelmingly agreed that using video has an impact on how they perceive their colleagues in online meetings.

More specifically, they agreed that their colleagues using video seem more competent, more engaged, and more trustworthy in meetings than those who don’t use video.

The return to the office has not been as abrupt as the remote work transition. Employees have trickled slowly back to their workplaces over months or even years, and because of this, there hasn’t been a pressing need to learn how to use meeting room technology. It has also usually been absent in old office space. In fact, 31% of employees say they’re hesitant to take meetings from a meeting room because they’re less comfortable with the technology compared to just using their own laptop.

While we’ve seen that many employees are hesitant to take meetings from meeting rooms because they’re not comfortable with the technology, many more simply don’t have the option.

Only 15% of employees say that all of their office’s meeting rooms are equipped with video cameras for online meetings. This translates to roughly 100 million meeting rooms around the world waiting to be optimized for hybrid work. Access to video-equipped meeting rooms is one of largest barriers that employees are currently experiencing in their return to the office.