Half of UK workers admit forgetting remote colleagues in hybrid meetings 

More than half of UK workers admit they have forgotten to involve remote colleagues during meetings, raising concerns that hybrid working is creating a “two-tier workplace” where employees joining remotely are at a disadvantage. 

According to research from Jabra, 51 per cent of UK employees have overlooked remote participants during meetings, while 55 per cent of remote attendees struggle to hear people in the room and 48 per cent find it difficult to identify who is speaking. 

The findings suggest that, while hybrid working has become embedded across many organisations, meeting practices and technology have failed to keep pace. 

Almost half of remote workers globally (46 per cent) said they had felt like a “second-class” participant during hybrid meetings, with 55 per cent of hybrid workers reporting feelings of exclusion compared with 38 per cent of fully remote employees. 

The impact appears to extend beyond employee experience and into productivity and wellbeing. 

The research found that 86 per cent of UK workers experience “meeting dread”, while almost half (47 per cent) reach their limit for meetings within two hours. 

Many employees also leave meetings without a clear understanding of what happens next. Globally, 66 per cent said they finish meetings with unclear action points, while 59 per cent require additional follow-up meetings to clarify discussions. 

Jabra estimates that inefficient meetings cost a UK organisation with 2,500 employees around £2.7m a year through lost time and productivity. 

The challenges appear more pronounced in larger organisations. Employees working for businesses with more than 1,000 staff were almost twice as likely as those in smaller organisations to report inconsistent meeting room technology. Remote workers in larger businesses were also significantly more likely to report feeling like second-class participants. 

The findings highlight a growing workplace wellbeing issue as organisations continue to balance office and remote working. Exclusion from meetings can affect employee engagement, belonging and psychological safety, particularly for remote workers who may already have fewer opportunities for informal interaction with colleagues. 

The report also found that while AI meeting tools are gaining attention, adoption remains limited. Nearly three-quarters of UK workers have tried AI-generated meeting summaries, but only 24 per cent use them regularly. Privacy concerns, uncertainty over workplace policies and doubts about accuracy remain significant barriers. 

Jabra argues that organisations should focus on improving meeting culture and ensuring all participants can be clearly seen and heard before relying on AI to solve engagement challenges. 

“We’ve treated bad meetings as an irritation, not a financial risk,” commented Holger Reisinger, Senior Vice President Jabra Enterprise Video Business Unit. “If your people are dreading meetings, you’re already paying the price – and it’s a clear signal that organisations need to completely rethink and re‑envision their meeting culture, supported by technology that lets everyone be clearly seen and heard.”

The research was conducted by Toluna on behalf of Jabra among 2,318 knowledge workers across the UK, US, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark and India.