With such an ever-increasing emphasis on virtual meetings, especially with the rise of remote working and the lockdown procedures created by the impact of COVID-19, businesses and companies around the world and now looking not only how to implement virtual meetings into their operations, but also how to make them as efficient as possible.
Organising and running good virtual meetings is no easy feat, but with the right tools, software, and attitudes, it can be a comprehensive, complete, and secure experience for everyone involved. With this in mind, this is exactly what we’re going to be focusing on today.
Breaking Down Your Needs
As an entity who uses virtual meetings, you’ll be focusing on three core aspects when trying to make your meetings better. These are;
• Enable reliable and consistent virtual meeting experiences
• Make the meetings secure
• Reshape meeting culture to promote productivity
If you can get these three aspects in check, you’ll see a drastic improvement in productivity, meeting satisfaction, and efficiency. To help tick these statements, let’s dive into the eight ways you can start improving your meetings.
1. Meeting Culture
Creating a culture around your meetings is one of the most important places you’ll need to start. This means setting your intentions as to what the minimum standards of your meetings will be. For example, are you going to require video connections, or is audio-only enough?
Are your meetings going to be professional and formal, or is it acceptable, and maybe even fun and encouraged, to have everyone sitting around in their PJs, eating and drinking, and hanging out? This is up to you and will depend on what culture you want to create.
2. Using the Right Technology
There are plenty of apps and software applications out there designed to help you run virtual meetings, but since everyone will be apart, it’s important to ensure your staff is familiar with the software you’re using. From Zoom to Slack to Webex, it doesn’t matter what platform you choose, make sure everyone is competent using it.
3. Security of Meetings
Since you’re running virtual meetings, you’ll need to make sure they’re secure. This means ensuring that your meeting rooms are encrypted with passwords, and not anyone can join. You’ll also want to make sure that people are secure, such as having meetings in their homes and not just in cafes, etc. where anybody could be listening or using an unsecured internet connection.
4. Develop an Online Culture
Hand in hand with the first point on culture, you’ll want to think about what kind of culture your business promotes being online for work purposes generally. What times will you have your meetings, and what is suitable for everyone. You may have people working for you around the world, so you’ll need to find a middle ground that works for everybody.
5. Eliminate Unnecessary Attendees
While it can be tempting to just say to everyone in your team that they need to be present in the meetings, if some people don’t need to be in the meeting, simply tell them not to come. Only have relevant and necessary people in your meeting to ensure information is properly spread, and productivity is maximized.
6. Don’t Solely Rely on Digital Media
To spice things up and keep everyone interested, it can pay to use non-digital media during your virtual meetings. There’s nothing wrong with using whiteboards or holding up paper and printed papers to help display information. The more variety you use, the more people will be engaged with what you’re saying.
7. Check on your Team
While remote working is relatively old, it’s still rather new for a lot of people, and some people will have issues settling into it or by trying to figure out how it works. That’s why it’s important to check in with your team to see how they’re doing, whether they’re experiencing any problems, and then trying to resolve them, so everyone’s happy.
8. Encourage Personal Time
Finally, when you’re working at home, it’s easy to fall into the trap of just working all the time, especially when you’ve got things to do on your list and no boundaries set. This is why it’s important for you to encourage your employees or team members to have a healthy work-life balance. By being able to recharge, they’ll be far happier and far more productive.
