Combine Consulting, a Munich-based workplace strategy consultancy, collaborated with market research institute Appinio to survey 180 managers regarding hybrid meeting culture in German companies. The survey revealed that many managers encounter technical problems regularly. Furthermore, the sterile atmosphere and limited opportunities to include different participants were significant criticisms. As a result, hybrid meetings need to catch up to their potential to facilitate collaboration. Only slightly over 25 percent of managers surveyed needed help differentiating between the quality of face-to-face and hybrid meetings.
Remote meetings have identified technical difficulties as the main problems. While sound and picture issues account for 36 percent and 31 percent of problems, respectively, most issues relate to Internet connection quality, whether at home or in the office. The respondents also highlighted the need for etiquette improvement. Forty-two percent complained that meetings did not start on time, and around 30 percent preferred meetings not to overrun. Only 31 percent of respondents found it easy to participate in hybrid meetings, while a good third encountered significant problems joining meetings.
The survey was conducted among 180 employed individuals in Germany, at least at the middle management level, working part-time or full-time. The companies chosen for the survey were selected based on their offering of hybrid meetings for a specific period and their location in Germany. The decision-makers from these companies were asked eleven closed questions regarding hybrid meetings. On average, 62 percent of meetings in the surveyed companies were hybrid. Additionally, ten percent of participants reported that over 90 percent of their conferences were held in a hybrid format.