Whether you are working from home or making a video call from your office, it is important to conduct yourself with proper etiquette.
Even if you are new to virtual meetings and have trouble feeling natural in that environment, putting your best foot forward will help you maintain and develop better business relationships.
At Banty, we know a thing or two about hopping online for a call. As such, we are here to offer you advice on how to best conduct yourself in an online meeting room.
Be Mindful of Your Surroundings
If you are closing an important deal, it wouldn’t be proper to have cats crawling on your unmade bed amidst discarded laundry. That would be a strong example of poor video conferencing etiquette.
Instead, devise a plain-Jane background, or manufacture one that tastefully represents your personal and professional lives. This could include family photos, books, art, diplomas, and even a few fun knick knacks that might create conversation.
When working from home, sounds like doorbells, children, or your spouse being on their own video conferencing session could be picked up by your meeting participants. If you can’t find a quiet place around the home, pick up a nice set of headphones.
Since Banty meeting rooms feature high-definition audio and video capabilities, being mindful of your surroundings is worth considering.
Suitable Attire
Yes, it can be fun to joke about only sporting suitable attire from the waist up when the boss of your remote job wants to chat. However, the webcam can fall from your desktop and the mobile device can slip from your hand. During this chaos, your aged and stained sweatpants could make an appearance. This would strike many as poor meeting etiquette.
After inviting someone to your meeting room using the custom Banty.com URL you created (i.e., Banty.com/JoeSmith), dress the part. Understand the nature of your call and make wardrobe choices accordingly.
Don’t Talk Over People
Work from home jobs can make it difficult to initially understand how to properly communicate with someone. Thus, we can find ourselves not knowing when to jump in and make a point during an online business meeting.
Nevertheless, do your best not to speak over others – even if that means a little awkward silence. Not giving someone their fair chance to speak is rude and off-putting.
Banty helps promote this type of video conferencing etiquette with active speaker view. This tool can be used when you only want one meeting participant speaking at a time. If you’d like to add to the discussion, click the ‘raise hand’ button to indicate your desire to say something.
Be on Time
Being on time for a meeting is a must – especially if you are working from home and not having to deal with commuting to and from offices.
The beautiful part about Banty is that it has an intuitive scheduling feature that’ll keep track of your virtual meetings. What’s more, once someone accepts a video call invite from you, the details will be plugged into their Google Calendar.
Showing up late can give meeting participants a poor impression of you. We are here to ensure that this never happens.
Come Prepared
As a meeting host or participant, you always want to have your materials ready when it’s time to present. Make sure all files and/or websites are open and ready to share with others.
Banty’s screen share function allows everyone in the meeting to see what you are referencing or working on. Also, our digital whiteboard gives everyone on the team to map out ideas in real-time.
Participate and Be Attentive
Just because you may be working from home, doesn’t mean you should not take part in – and contribute greatly to – team meetings. What’s more, if you are a manager, it is equally important to empower your staff and encourage them to offer their insights.
To see who is participating most in a meeting and to discover who could have a bigger role, Banty’s online meeting platform can track speaker activity to see just how involved staff members are on the call and in the chat.
Banty has a number of solutions available to those who have mastered their video conferencing etiquette. Tap here to learn more about our offerings, including the 14-day free trial period for all new users.
