With the work from home culture burgeoning with every passing day, let’s look at some tips on how we can ensure efficient and effective use of video meetings.
Video helps to gather perspective
In our workplaces, we are accustomed to being in direct contact with one another and meeting in person which helps us understand a lot of things with much more clarity. Email, texting or calling up your co-workers to discuss things doesn’t always suffice in getting across information as clearly. Video calling enables people to gain the perspective of the participants in an effective and seamless manner. When people are visually connected, conversations flow much more smoothly.
Choose the appropriate video meeting software based on your team’s needs
You should be able to decide on which video conferencing platform will most enable you to make your flexible work arrangements work best. For this, you will have to consider a few requirements –
Check if your video meeting platform can cater to the number of employees and company members on the call. Zoom Video, for example, has gained a reputation for being one of the best platforms to cater to large groups of people without compromising on audio and video quality, although there may be other limitations.
- If you need to share multimedia files or presentations, opt for a video meeting platform that will allow you to share as you speak. This avoids the need for you to have to point the camera at a projection screen during the meeting.
- With video conferencing, you can go one step further and record the entire meeting. This will allow you to playback important points you may have missed.
- Yet another important aspect of video conferencing is screen sharing. If you wish to conduct a meeting in which you are required to share some instructions from your own screen, you will need to find a platform that can enable the same. Microsoft Teams is a good software for this purpose.
- Be sure you understand the security features of the various platforms.
How you can prepare for a video meeting
It is important to be prepared for a telework meeting to ensure that everybody is comfortable with this form of communication while also setting the right example.
- First and foremost, understand the requirements of the meeting. If you are sharing files or opting for screen sharing, all the participants will need to have enough bandwidth to avoid any latency delays.
- Next, you need to test out your video conferencing equipment. For this, you can simply carry out a trial run with a few coworkers to ensure that your video is clear and you are audible.
- Set an agenda well in advance to give everyone enough time to prepare themselves and have points of conversation laid out and ready. This way, employees can feel the responsibility to contribute their ideas to the meeting.
- To better manage video calls, enforce hand-raising so as to avoid any overlaps in conversations. People will feel a lot more comfortable in sharing their ideas this way. You can also go one step further and elect a meeting facilitator. The facilitator can help to summarize ideas shared, compare people’s perspectives, confirm actions that will be taken, and ensure that everybody feels heard.
Be a good participant
Demonstrating good video etiquette is equally important for hosts and the participants involved. This includes – being on time, wearing the appropriate work clothing, testing out the camera lighting and microphone well in advance, paying attention to the screen, muting yourself when you are not speaking, and avoiding noisy background environments.
With the help of these above-mentioned tips, your video meetings and remote work efforts will be well worth the time.
You may also be interested in our Work from Home Tips posting.