In his words, it is major international companies that are generally more familiar with this form of communication: it was something they encountered at the end of the 1990s and start of the 2000s, when they began to set up teams across the world. This is why now these companies are managing such new challenges better than others.
'But, Russian companies, that until now worked only in face-to-face mode, and in online mode a little during crises, they are experiencing difficulties with unsuccessful attempts to transfer their normal ways of communicating into a hybrid format. For many of them it doesn’t work, so they are choosing either online or offline modes so that efficiency doesn’t suffer,” said Evgeny Kaganer in his comments to the newspaper Vedomosti.
In the article about hybrid work and the rise of inequality among employees, the newspaper examines the results of a McKinsey poll according to which 90% of all companies around the world will be introducing some kind of combined work for their employees in the near future. It is anticipated that 21-80% of time will be spent at the workplace, depending on the employee’s position and area of activity. This will make companies reconsider their approach to business events, meetings included, and develop new rules for communicating in a hybrid format.
As Evgeny recalls, video-images are less informative than face-to-face communication. They don’t fully convey gestures and facial expressions, and the speed of responses is reduced. The most difficult thing with online communication is to intervene in a conversation and interrupt someone, which makes online participants at such hybrid meetings that much more passive.
To avoid this, in the opinion of Skolkovo’s Dean, companies need to think through everything beforehand and get the rules of hybrid meetings across to their employees. These rules should cover how and for what length of time each participant can speak in a meeting and what the procedure is for handing over to someone else. The best thing would be for each meeting to have a moderator, who organises and manages the whole process, is Evgeny Kaganer’s advice.
