For years, most staff meetings featured big boardroom tables, tons of chairs, seemingly endless reams of paper, pens aplenty, as well as an AV system and just enough laptops to help execute scheduled presentations. Oh yes, let’s also not forget about all of the people shoehorned into such a space.
While the camaraderie would often be present as teammates worked through brainstorming sessions and/or the evaluation of a project’s most recent results, sometimes it would quickly disappear. Staff would feel cramped, get cranky and wonder why the team meeting didn’t end 20 minutes ago. As we’ve all come to learn as business professionals, meetings in the flesh have a tendency to drag on longer than they need to.
Nowadays, virtual meeting technology is ever-present and allows companies to gather their staff online, versus a crammed boardroom. While some staff will welcome this change of pace for meetings, others might be a bit resistant. Thus, companies need to work hard to make staff feel comfortable with participating in group video conferences. Here’s how to do that:
Pick a Reputable Video Call Solution
First and foremost, the company needs to select a quality video call product that will help it easily connect staff members and management with one another. Banty, for instance, offers users an easy and secure online meeting platform meant for optimal communication and collaboration.
By picking a video conferencing solution as forward-thinking and inclusive as Banty, staff will quickly adapt to using such technology for team meetings.
Generate Awareness and Train
Once the video call solution has been decided upon by management, it is time to educate the staff on what to expect from virtual meetings.
Firstly, those responsible for selecting the online meeting solution should begin communicating with staff that it will soon be used for “x” staff meetings, “x” number of times a week. This will help staff begin to process what’s coming up for them, as opposed to catching them off guard.
Next, management should offer those new to online meeting platforms quick training exercises to ensure they are familiar with the solution, as well as how to access its critical features.
Make it Part of the Routine
Once the awareness campaign and training endeavours have reached a certain point, making virtual meetings part of the staff’s weekly routine is a good way to go.
As they say, practice makes perfect. The more members of the team that are encouraged to log in for a live video chat online with one another, the more comfortable they will gradually become with it.
The goal, ideally, is to have staff members not just feeling confident enough with the solution to merely use it, but to also be confident enough in using it that they begin to initiate video conferences themselves.
One caution, though: do not overdo it. Just like in-person meetings, everyone has a limit in terms of how many they can participate in during a week without feeling overloaded. When scheduling an abundance of video calls, always keep potential staff burnout in mind.
Promote the Work-from-Home Benefit
For those reluctant to familiarize themselves with video conferencing solutions for business, remind them that such meeting flexibility makes work-from-home opportunities more available.
Since some meetings need to be randomly initiated during the course of a typical business day, using a quality virtual meeting solution allows staff to participate in these gatherings regardless of where they are located.
This is a huge benefit, as it allows productivity to remain at a high level even when not everyone is able to be in the same building, at the same time.
