Eye contact at meetings must get the attention it needs

Remote work is here to stay but virtual meeting platforms have not addressed their key point of inferiority

- BIJU DOMINIC

A recent study shows that 96% of all companies in India are now back in office, in some capacity. But this does not mean that these companies have gone back to their old 9-to-5 work schedules. In many companies, more so in the knowledge sector, hybrid work has become the new norm. So, with many employees working from home, many meetings are happening over virtual meeting platforms.

Many corporates are concerned about the carbon footprints of their employees' air travel, even as corporate training modules are often run online. Such developments ensure that virtual meetings and classrooms are today's reality. Given the fact that traveling for a meeting within most Indian metropolises could take several hours, online meetings are a huge saving of time and effort. But do these savings in terms of fuel charges and time taken (with traffic-jam avoidance usually a big bonus in itself) justify virtual meetings replacing face-to-face meetings? Can virtual meetings engage participants to the same degree as in-person meetings?