Once your company has decided to make video calls part of day-to-day operations, there is no doubt how you do business will be forever changed. Management will have the power to host more meetings without the requirement of everyone needing to be in the same room, at the same time. Employees, meanwhile, could find themselves no longer having to commute in-and-out of the office five days a week.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, as virtual meetings have become interactive and engaging spaces companies can use to improve work habits, team relationships, not to mention staff-wide communication.
With that said, you can’t just have a video chat free-for-all at your place of business. Certain rules, limits, boundaries, and expectations need to be implemented and managed. Otherwise, the video call app usage of your team could cause more distractions than tangible benefits.
Have Everyone Use the Same Online Meeting Platform
There are a number of video meeting services to choose from. As a result, employees will invariably have a preference of which one they want to use. While that is understandable, having everyone use the same video chat app is a policy you need to enact.
This will result in less confusion when meeting invites go out and create a more unified workflow internally. If a chunk of your staff isn’t immediately comfortable with the virtual meeting solution decided upon, offer comprehensive training.
Give Everyone Fair Virtual Meeting Notice
Unless an urgent video call is required to resolve an issue, have management and staff agree to giving one another enough notice to confirm a meeting, then prepare themselves for it.
Since we don’t have access to the calendars of everyone we work with, there is no predicting how their availability looks, or which other tasks they have going on. As such, if you send out a meeting invite at noon, request a 2pm, or 3pm start time. This will give a person enough time to see an invite, then schedule their afternoon accordingly.
Set Tight Meeting Schedules
Video conferencing solutions for business are so great nowadays, it is easy for many people to get very cozy in a virtual meeting and have it last for an inordinate amount of time.
Whether a meeting is meant to be long or short, the organizer should implement a timeframe for it. Outlining the fact that an online video chat is meant to last ‘approximately 30 minutes’ keeps everyone on task, and doesn’t monopolize someone’s time too much. Keeping a meeting’s length open-ended can lead to less focused conversations.
Introduce Virtual Meeting Best Practices
Once staff management has its team fully engaged in video calling, additional training should be offered as a way to develop a best practices model. This can cover everything from how to use proper body language during a live video chat online, to the significance of being on-time, understanding the technology, and when scheduling a video meeting is appropriate.
Devising such best practices will make the staff meetings held over video far more organized and comfortable to be a part of. What’s more, having amazing virtual meeting etiquette is something that will go a long way toward impressing clients you frequently converse with online.
Banty has a variety of video conferencing services available to businesses, enterprise companies, as well as medical practices.
Tap here to learn more about them, as well as the 14-day free trial that is available to all new Banty users.
