Written by: Nancy Buchan, Wendi Adair and Xiao Ping Chen
Workers who communicate with their colleagues mainly through videoconferencing are far less effective at building relationships than when the communication is done face-to-face, according to a study we recently completed and just submitted for peer review. We also found two important ways employees can overcome the downside of video meetings.
Workers in our study reported a sharp deterioration in their work relationships after more of their communications were done via videoconferencing during the pandemic, which our analysis suggested made the employees three times less effective at building relationships.
