With the UK still in lockdown due to COVID-19, many businesses and employees are settling into a routine of working from home. To keep in touch with employees, customers and suppliers, many businesses and individuals have moved to online video platforms to engage, communicate and stay connected with their network.
Venture Beat have reported Zoom’s daily active users jumped from 10 million to over 200 million in March 2020.
With this is mind, we wanted to share some tips with you to make sure online meetings are being effective and productive for everyone:
- Embrace video calling – prior to lockdown many of us would have shied away from the camera (particularly if you hadn’t done your hair and makeup!) Although during this time we need to social distance ourselves from one another, video calling allows us to see each other and stay connected;
- Be present – as you would if you were in a meeting room face to face with the individuals on the video call, don’t hide away or do other work during the meeting;
- Use earphones/headsets – this will give you better sound quality and can also prevent you from getting distracted during the meeting (particular for those who have children at home);
- Mute the microphone when you’re not speaking – this can reduce the background noise on the call, and make it clearer for the person talking and others listening;
- Speak clearly and steadily – this will help to keep individuals engaged on the call and will ensure everyone can understand you;
- Have an agenda – this will give control to the flow of discussions during the meeting, and ensure other individuals required to participate are prepared. An agenda can also help to keep the meeting within a predetermined time frame controlling when issues are discussed;
- Establish etiquette guidelines – agree a system to give everyone a voice. Arrange ‘hands up’ signals to agree who speaks next and make use of chat functions to allow everyone to contribute;
- Engage with people on the call – it can be hard to listen online for a period of time. Invite people to give comments and ask questions. You could also look at chat facilities on the call or polls;
- Summarise – sum up the meeting and be explicit about any actions following the meeting, and by whom. If required circulate summary notes promptly following the meeting.
If you would like further guidance or support on this matter or require advice on other people management matters please contact Clover HR on 0121 516 0299 or email us at info@cloverhr.co.uk ©️ Copyright Clover HR
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