Numerous advantages come from virtual meetings, such as lower
travel expenses, the ability to participate from anywhere in the world, quicker decision-making, improved team agility, and more chances for cooperation. According to a Doodle survey, remote group conferencing became so common during the epidemic that its usage rose by 613 per cent in 2020.
Business executives are still embracing virtual meetings as a crucial tool in their hybrid workplace toolbox after the pandemic. While keeping teams connected through online check-ins is essential, holding effective conferences can be difficult to organise.
Meeting effectiveness is only about 50%, and when the
y are conducted virtually, this number drops even further, losing firms time and money. So how can you make sure meetings are fruitful rather than just a waste of time and resources?
Here, we offer advice on how to transform dull online meetings into gatherings that are worth your team's time and effort.
Establish a Timeline with Clearly Defined Goals
Clarify the goal of your meeting before inviting anyone since meetings that deviate from their original objectives lose productivity. The focus topics and any material relevant to the conversation should be highlighted in your agenda.
Include the time allotted for each section so that participants can determine its significance. Give the group enough time to collaborate and participate so that everyone feels involved. Avoid taking on too much at once because you'll be more inclined to stray from the main goal of the meeting.
Participants should be informed of the agenda in advance so they will know what to expect and may participate right away.
Tighten Up Your Invitation List
According to research, the effectiveness of an online meeting increases with meeting size. Large meetings can be challenging to run and are more likely to experience interruptions and diversions.
Only those who contribute to the conversation, are affected by any decisions taken, or must be consulted in light of new facts should be invited. Participants are more likely to stay focused on the agenda if they are aware of their position in the meeting and why they were invited.
For individuals who are interested in the conversation, you may always provide a recording or transcript of the meeting.
Keep meetings brief and on schedule
If your agenda permits you to accomplish your meeting in 20 minutes, there is no need to automatically start the meeting at an hour. Because participants are under time constraints, shorter meetings may be more fruitful.
Remember to respect everyone's time by starting and concluding the discussion on the planned times as well as considering their individual time zones. A distant coworker who has to attend a meeting that starts or ends too soon might not be as motivated. Start your meeting on schedule regardless of whether everyone has arrived in order to keep your team's morale up.
Assign Roles and Manage Your Meetings Actively
Assign roles to participants to keep them engaged. This might be someone to update project documents, maintain track of time, and take notes. A secondary host could help you with managing attendees, speakers, presentations, files for screen-sharing, and any potential technical concerns. Take this into consideration when choosing your host.
As the host, it will be your responsibility to conduct the meeting by ensuring that talks stay on topic, keeping an eye on the clock, and giving everyone a chance to speak. Not only should you encourage participation from everyone, but you should also be able to politely cut someone off if they get off topic.
The meeting's host also sets the mood, so be sure to arrive with an upbeat, inspiring energy that promotes meaningful involvement.
Adopt modern tools to facilitate connection
Hybrid workers do miss the face-to-face interaction that comes with working together in an office, although appreciate the flexibility of remote work. As employees work together to achieve a common objective, they feel a stronger feeling of camaraderie, which supports productivity. This can be facilitated by using cutting-edge, current conferencing solutions.
Make an investment in cutting-edge camera and speakerphone solutions like those provided by MAXHUB for a motivated crew eager to collaborate. Technology like the UC M40 and the UC S10 Pro make it feel like everyone is once again in the same r
oom. They should have next-generation features that get rid of unpleasant interruptions and provide excellent audio and visual clarity.
To ensure that everyone, including your remote workers, feels connected and empowered to participate in the dialogue, your technology should be simple to use and enable seamless engagement.
Use video to communicate effectively
Your online meetings will come to life with the help of video conferencing, which will improve communication amongst your remote staff. Since everyone will be visible, you can monitor their responses in real time, and your team will be less inclined to multitask while having important conversations.
A highly engaged staff increases prospects for collaboration as a result of the video. As participants can interpret each other's social cues better than in audio-only conferencing, meetings are more interactive and organically flow. Meetings becom
e less awkward as a result, and presenters no longer feel as though they are talking into a void when they are silent.
Use Interactive Meeting Tools to Increase Attendee Engagement
In order to be productive at an online meeting, your team must be really involved. And participation in the discussion must be active for engagement to occur. If not, they'll likely be preoccupied with personal issues or side projects relating to their jobs.
Turning on your cameras is a fantastic place to start if you want more participatory meetings. To further engage participants, think about using visuals like charts, photos, and infographics. To solicit questions and input, use the chat box, a polling tool, or an app.
A flat panel interactive display that offers excellent sound and video quality and straightforward interactions is another certain approach to attract viewers in.
Notes and recordings from the meeting should be shared
Your meeting should provide results that you can act on in order to reach your productivity goals. Clarify these matters and those accountable before wrapping up
the session to ensure that everyone is aware of their responsibilities.
In order for your team and others to get access to the meeting recording, share it using a cloud-based platform after the meeting. Additionally, provide relevant documents and notes outlining action items and due dates.
Videoconferencing is essential for maintaining team communication, engagement, and clarity of purpose. But you can only do this if you employ the appropriate tools and strategies to make sure your meetings are fruitful.
At Merge Communications, our complete focus is to provide you with the latest digital technologies that allows your business to operate efficiently, profitably and professionally. Merge Communications has partnered with BlueJeans to rpvide New Zealand businesses world-class quality videoconferencing platform.
Call Merge Communications today!