Research Outline

Freshfields Future of Work

Goals

To provide articles, advice, expert opinions, charters, and guidelines about hybrid working, especially the challenges of holding and running effective inclusive meetings where some attendees are in the office and others are remote. An ideal response will include good articles from credible business publications on how to navigate the return to work, particularly holding effective and inclusive hybrid meetings. The articles, charters, and guidelines will be used to design a charter or a set of principles to help a leading law firm deliver a great client experience when having post-pandemic meetings.

Early Findings

Data Availability

  • There's a plethora of information, articles, insights, expert opinions, and best practices on how to host and run effective and inclusive hybrid meetings during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Post-Pandemic Hybrid Meetings Articles/Expert Opinions

  • The folowing are some articles from credible business, industry, and news publications about the future of hybrid meetings and how to navigate the return to work:
    • 1. Future of Work: Hybrid Meetings Will Bring Balance to the Workplace: This article was published on All Work, an online publication dedicated to the future of work, and it explores how hybrid meetings will bring balance to the future workplace.
    • 2. How to Host Effective Hybrid Meetings: This article was published by The International Workplace Group and it provides 10 tips for successful hybrid meetings.
    • 3. How to Host Virtual/Hybrid Meetings: This 21-page Google Doc is written by Blueprint for Change, an open library of advocacy how-to’s, and it contains tips on how to host and run effective hybrid meetings.
    • 4. Is Your Team Only Partially Remote? Here’s How to Run Effective Hybrid Meetings: This article discusses the challenges of running hybrid meetings and offers six solutions/tips for running effective hybrid meetings.
    • 5. (Re)Configuring Hybrid Meetings: Moving from User-Centered Design to Meeting-Centered Design: This academic/research article explores how companies and institutions can shift from user-centric designs to meeting-centric designs when holding hybrid meetings during and post-pandemic.
    • 6. How to Manage a Hybrid Team: This Havard Business Review article explores tips and solutions on how to manage a hybrid team in the post-pandemic work environment.
    • 7. How to run effective hybrid meetings: This article contains tips on how companies and institutions can hold effective hybrid meetings.

Examples of Hybrid Meetings Guidelines/Charters

  • Some examples of guidelines and/or charters created by different companies and organizations to guide hybrid meetings during and after the pandemic include:
    • How To Guide: Hybrid Meetings by MPI Foundation and Mediasite: This document contains the guidelines to holding effective and inclusive hybrid meetings "based on author experience, a survey of 1,794 meeting professionals and delegates and 37 indepth interviews with meeting professionals who have conducted hybrid events and delegates who have experienced them."
    • Mondelēz International commits to flexible working: The company signed a flexible working pledge to guide remote working. One part of the pledge states that peopel should "plan meetings only between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm local time and not expect same-day responses on after 6:00 pm requests."
    • Uniliver Hybrid Meetings Terms: Unilever N.V published this document with terms and guidelines on how hybrid meetings should be held.
    • AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. Hybrid Meeting Terms: this document contains the terms and guidelines on how the company's hybrid meetings will be run during and after the pandemic.

Summary of Our Early Findings Relevant to the Goals

  • During the first hour of research, we provided some articles from credible business publications on how to run effective post-pandemic hybrid meetings. We also provided examples of hybrid meetings charters, terms, and guidelines from different companies on how to run hybrid meetings.