Fairwai, a new all-in-one tool designed for smooth collaboration between teams working on a hybrid mode

The “future of work” is hybrid. According to a study conducted by Cadremploi x Boston Consulting Group, 78% of French people aspire to this work model, the implementation of which has been greatly accelerated by the impact of the coronavirus.

At first glance, this new mode allows for a better balance between private and professional life. It also implies more flexibility for the employee. Picking up a parcel at the post office, picking up a child at school, playing sports… Remote work facilitates these daily actions. In the past, companies allowed it on a one-off basis. Today, they allow it several days a week. Some, like Alan, have even made it a standard. However, this new way of collaborating is not without its problems.

Indeed, how to work efficiently when you don’t see each other every day? How do you communicate remotely without losing clarity? How to align a team when everyone works isolated?

To simplify this so-called “hybrid” work for “fragmented” teams, many tech companies have positioned themselves in the niche of tools that support remote work. Thus, video conferencing has become an essential means of communication in companies since 2019.

Today, these platforms are counted by ten, but the best known are probably Zoom, Whereby, Google Meet or Microsoft teams. Chat, live chat, document or screen sharing, the creators of these tools have designed features that simplify remote exchanges. It is undeniable that these and many other tools have enabled a boom in remote collaboration. However, they are not able to address emerging issues.

Zoom fatigue increases the already existing aversion of employees to meetings (1). Moreover, an overload of work tools, both synchronous and asynchronous, can lead to employee dispersion (2). This is why Fairwai was designed (3). This new all-in-one tool aims to facilitate collaboration and team alignment (4).

1. Zoom fatigue” and employee aversion to meetings

Every employee has probably heard of “Zoom fatigue.” In 2019, communication professor Jeremy Bailenson, founder of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (USA) studied this phenomenon. He then published a study in the journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior of the American Psychological Association.

Indeed, certain characteristics of these new remote work tools cause anxiety, fatigue and even burn-out in the most extreme cases. Bailenson has identified various reasons for this.

Videoconferencing puts more strain on the eyes than a face-to-face exchange. In fact, there is an increase in the amount of eye contact. Moreover, seeing each other constantly is exhausting, especially since, depending on the quality of the camera or the surrounding light, some people may feel physically devalued.

Video conferencing also reduces body mobility. The employee sits for dozens of minutes, sometimes even hours. They are not looking at a group of people, but at a screen. As a result, video conferencing involves a higher overall cognitive load than a face-to-face meeting.

Basically, employees were already showing a dislike for meetings in general.

“Too many meetings kill the meeting, I hate meetings”.

Long before the advent of hybrid work, these complaints were commonplace. Meetings are thus seen as “office hell”. Managers would organize too many unproductive meetings. These meetings are useless and do not lead to any decision making. This is what an article in the Seattle Times in 2021 reveals. Very often, nobody defines the agenda and the meeting drags on. This is also what H., former Human Resources Manager for a large association group, explains: “The meeting participants were always too many. Everyone took advantage of the meeting to make their little complaint to the HR Director, which meant that the discussions dragged on and did not at all respect the agenda initially set. As a result, at the end of the already stressful two-hour meeting, only 30% of the points had been discussed, which led to the planning of a new meeting to finish and make a decision on the progress of the project. In other words, the meetings were totally inefficient and tiring and I began to have a deep-seated fear of “wasting my time”. However, I had no choice but to attend.”

What about virtual meetings? Are the complaints similar?

While virtual meetings always start on time because of their link to the digital calendar, they can also generate other issues. More often than not, they are plagued by technical problems. Sharing a screen can be difficult or impossible depending on the type of browser used. The employee must sometimes share his entire “desktop”. This can lead to problems of privacy or data confidentiality.

Julien, Financial Director for a French startup, testifies: “One day, I inadvertently revealed some information. I wanted to share my screen with my interlocutor and I was forced to share my entire screen, i.e. the desktop and not a single window. Information leaked. I got hot. From now on, I always check several times before clicking on ‘share screen’.”

There are also concerns about tool matching. What if the other person prefers Teams and you don’t have a Microsoft account? This diversity, in addition to slowing down the flow of work, poses real problems.

2. Does an overflow of collaborative tools lead to a harmful dispersion?

Ten years ago, when an employee wanted to create a document or a procedure, he simply opened a Word page. He would then share it with his colleagues via e-mail. In the digital world, many computer tools designed to facilitate collaboration between employees abound. For example, to create a document, share it and co-work with his peers, an employee can use Notion or Google Docs.

To chat live, they can choose between Whereby, Skype, Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, Around.

To chat asynchronously with colleagues, Slack undeniably reigns over the Startup world. But there is also competition from Google’s instant messaging system, Hangouts, Microsoft or Atolia in France, Rocketchat or Chanty.

In addition, there are specific tools dedicated to certain professions. Figma, Miro or Whimsical for product design. Airtable or Maze for user testing or analysis. Finally, there are dozens of these solutions.

So, are we overwhelmed by an overflow of digital tools, each linked to a single mission?

Some people call it “bulimia”. In fact, this multitude of tools can lead to friction when it comes to sharing. As a result, the employee is scattered among various tools. They juggle between platforms that work differently or have different locations. Switching from one window to another, searching for information, logging in with their login… All this implies a certain mental skill which then generates fatigue. Not to mention the problems of data fallibility for the company. Or of dispersion on different supports. This dispersal then leads to an increase in the complexity and weight of everyone’s work. The overabundance of tools within a company can even paralyze decisions. The best thing to do? Sort out the situation to avoid dispersion and acquire a powerful all-in-one tool that can cover several needs at the same time.

3. Fairwai, a tool designed to provide solutions to the problems generated by hybrid work

In the era of hybrid work, Michaël Guerrand, founder of Fairwai, has taken an interest in the problems that can slow down performance and paralyze decision-making. What emerges from his reflection is edifying: meetings are often too long, poorly framed and, above all, do not lead to any decision making. The tools are too numerous and this variety leads to a scattering of resources that hinders individual and collective efficiency. In addition, employees have difficulty aligning themselves with a project. Indeed, during video conference meetings, employees can feel apart, not necessarily very involved. The reasons for this often lie in the lack of preparation of a project and the lack of transparency between employees. Or, in some cases, to poor communication or communication that is not adapted to the situation.

Basically, employees want to spend less time in meetings and manage their projects in a more fluid way. To do this, they want to be able to prepare themselves better. But also to communicate better before and after. They want to be flexible and to be able to work in synchrony as well as in asynchrony on the same project so that they don’t have to spend all day in meetings and can produce.

For Michaël Guerrand, Fairwai, the all-in-one collaboration tool is an answer to the “future of work”.

“Because, from now on, EVERYTHING goes through a meeting: a contract, a project, a decision, a problem, an informal discussion, a recruitment, a presentation. No more attaching links, searching for documents, sharing your screen, copying and pasting. Don’t spend your time on Zoom or Google Meet, try Fairwai…”.

This new solution will allow each person to easily work on a project, a mission in a collaborative way, from the same tool or to easily manage a project.

4. Fairwai, the innovative solution that brings together all the ingredients for good collaboration

Michaël imagined this solution as an alternative to Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. It is aimed at companies seeking to better organize the hybrid work of their employees and to improve the efficiency of collaboration on various aspects.

How does it work? First of all, around the document. Fairwai simplifies document sharing and co-editing in a few clicks.

Secondly, on synchronous and asynchronous communication. The Fairwai user has the possibility to advance on his projects by communicating asynchronously with his interlocutors through the editing notifications or the annotation function. There is no need to find a common time slot and make a multitude of video points to progress. Thus, employees organize live meetings only for decision making. To prevent meetings from dragging on or being unproductive, the organizer creates an agenda and an invitation that he shares with his colleagues. Colleagues can read the agenda and invitation beforehand and intentionally participate in the exchange. The tool also provides a unique project meeting template. This template contains the objectives to be achieved and the decisions to be made, on which each participant can publicly add his or her notes. Finally, it is of course possible to create a private note, invisible to others, from the same window.

The document is thus the new backbone of the meeting. The camera is now only a secondary detail. There is no need to share your screen, thereby risking revealing confidential or private information. Each speaker sees himself or herself through a small moving bubble on the meeting window, thus avoiding revealing themselves or seeing themselves in close-up for long minutes.

After the meeting, each participant has access to the same document and can add information if they wish. If a participant edits the document, the tool sends a notification to their peers.

But if alignment and collaboration work within teams of the same company, Fairwai’s founder also created the tool to facilitate customer relationships. So, the user can share a mockup, a plan, a contract through the tool. This creates a common space where both parties can interact on neutral ground and communicate asynchronously. Moreover, the tool even makes it possible to securely sign a document electronically.

The first users of Fairwai have adopted it very quickly: “We took over projects from another team: we wonder how it was done, a bit scattered, whereas with Fairwai if a team takes over the project, we see everything that was done easily” says M. Product Designer at Doctrine.

“To be on a single interface, it’s great” enthuses L., Project Manager at Mes dépanneurs.

“On your meeting database, of course you could do the same thing in other tools, but you’ll have to search for documents and information everywhere” explains R., Product Manager at Lucca.

Finally, most companies have allowed telecommuting, thus setting up a hybrid mode with a few days of mandatory presence on the premises. Employees have adopted it and even approve of it. If video conferencing tools have allowed, at first, to take up the challenge of remote communication, the problems remain.

Teams are not only spread out, but also work on many different tools.

Investing in a single solution specifically designed to facilitate collaboration in the era of hybrid work avoids dispersion. A single solution facilitates collaboration for more efficient employees on a daily basis. Moreover, a single tool with various functionalities can also reduce a company’s recurring costs. Fairwai facilitates synchronous and asynchronous communication within the same project. It reduces friction and allows the gathering of all the collaborators around the same tool. Bringing people together and communicating smoothly also means increased investment and a stronger sense of belonging to a team. With Fairwai, teams finally have the means to carry out all the actions necessary for the success of a mission.