Effective meetings have long been a crucial part of business communications.

For decades, companies have relied on meetings to share knowledge, unify employees, and align team members on crucial tasks. However, for as long as teams have relied on meetings, they’ve also struggled to ensure they’re getting the most value out of each conversation.

The impact of complex, unproductive meetings has become increasingly evident in recent years, as hybrid and remote work has increased the number of digital conversations we have every day. Since the pandemic, when companies began shifting into tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams for collaboration and business communication, meeting numbers have increased.

Today, “meeting fatigue” is becoming a real problem in the business landscape, prompting disengagement, burnout, and lost productivity.

So as the workplace continues to evolve, how can companies make sure they’re taking the right steps to minimise collaboration exhaustion?

Reducing Meeting Fatigue: The Initial Steps

Meeting fatigue is more than just a buzzword that started gaining traction throughout the pandemic; it’s an ongoing problem for businesses in the age of remote and hybrid work.

Microsoft’s Human Factors lab conducted experiments using EEG devices and found remote collaboration is more mentally taxing than communicating in-person. Additionally, video meetings, while beneficial for collaboration, cause more stress and exhaustion than other forms of work.

Eliminating meeting fatigue can be complicated. In any business environments, meetings will continue to be necessary in the years ahead, to keep staff members aligned. However, altering a few meeting strategies can be a great way to start making a difference to overall employee engagement.

For instance, businesses can reduce the number of unproductive meetings overwhelming today’s employees by:

  • Creating comprehensive agendas: Meetings that flick from topic to topic without a clear purpose are exhausting. Before every meeting, companies should be creating agendas which list the important topics to cover, and the goals that they want to achieve. Sharing this agenda with meeting attendees, and assigning a host to keep the conversation on track can ensure that meetings are more productive, quicker, and less frustrating.
  • Reducing meeting duration: Long conversations are exhausting in any environment. The perfect meeting duration can vary from one conversation to the next, but getting straight to the point is often crucial. Looking for ways to reduce the time employees spend in meetings ensures they have more time to focus on other tasks. Companies can reduce meeting duration by following agenda, using plug-and-play tools to minimize setup tasks, and even timing meetings with productivity tools.
  • Inviting the right people: While transparency is important in any business environment, not every employee will necessarily need to be present for every meeting. Ensuring only the correct employees are present for each meeting means team members who wouldn’t take anything away from a group conversation can focus on other work. Scheduling meetings at the right times, when crucial members of staff aren’t distracted, can be valuable too.

How the Right Video Technology Reduces Meeting Fatigue

While basic changes to meeting strategies can help to tackle the issue of meeting fatigue, the success of every conference will depend heavily on the technologies companies choose to use. For instance, many companies are already leveraging crucial features in video conferencing software like Microsoft Teams and Zoom to help keep team members focused and engaged.

These tools can include access to screen sharing and whiteboarding applications, allowing employees to bring more context into meetings. They can offer access to virtual assistants and bots which automatically transcribe and translate meetings, or create summaries with action points at the end of each conversation. The right tools can even eliminate the distractions in the background of a video, by allowing users to leverage blurring tools or virtual backgrounds.

Even the right meeting hardware can make a difference. For instance, a 360-degree camera, which automatically captures all of the crucial members of a team meeting, and sets the scene for attendees makes it easier for employees to focus on the conversation taking place. A game-changer for remote collaboration, according to Ray Zhu, CEO of Coolpo.io, is the right meeting hardware. Regardless of where they are located, employees can feel more connected and engaged with their co-workers thanks to a 360-degree camera that captures all attendees and contributes to a more immersive meeting experience.

Some of the most powerful video tools companies can leverage to reduce meeting fatigue include:

  • Powerful cameras: Effective camera technology can make or break the quality of a meeting. A 360-degree camera allows companies to rapidly and effectively capture visual information about everyone in a meeting room, to create a more inclusive experience for remote contacts. The right tools can even use intelligence to frame participants, follow them around the room as they speak, and organise visual content into the right structure for attendees.
  • AI technology: Artificial intelligence enhances meeting experiences in a variety of different ways. Not only can it automatically transcribe meetings and create notes for staff members, but it can also improve the outcome of a meeting, by improving picture quality, framing participants, and making it easier for team members to focus on the visual information they’re getting, without causing them to feel overwhelmed or distracted.
  • Plug-and-play technology: A significant amount of the time wasted in meetings is attributed to simply setting up conferencing rooms. In a world where meetings are happening more frequently, companies need access to tools that work automatically. A simple and streamlined solution that can work seamlessly with existing conferencing software reduces the need for complex setup and configuration, making meetings feel more natural.
  • Noise cancellation: Distractions are a major factor in causing meeting fatigue. Everything from activity in the background of a video stream, to echo and noise can harm the quality of a conversation. AI noise cancellation tools eliminate the distractions that would otherwise make it harder for employees to effectively share information.
  • Visual controls: As mentioned above, visual distractions can be just as problematic as auditory ones. Poor levels of brightness, contrast, or white balance in a video can make it harder to focus on employees, and cause headaches for meeting attendees. A system that automatically enhances video quality and allows users to adjust visual settings can help to make meetings more productive.

Meeting fatigue is a genuine and consistent issue in today’s world of hybrid and remote work, but it’s not a problem that’s impossible to rectify. With the right combination of policies and technologies, companies can ensure they’re making the most out of every meeting.



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