Ensuring a successful virtual meeting when working from home:
It’s not new news that Covid19 has changed the way we work and expedited what the Future of Work looks like for New Zealand. There is a bigger appetite from employers to offer flexible work from home solutions for staff. In a recent report from Otago University 69% of people indicated they would like some level of working from home in the future.
Remote working isn’t something that can be setup and productive overnight. It takes principles, practice and patience.
Remote meetings can be terrible and unproductive if they aren’t set up right.
Whether its technology crashing, background noises or battling to get a word in. There is a huge upside in getting a remote meeting right. This gives your business greater flexibility enabling staff to work from home. Employers are seeing great benefits from offering a flexible environment including staff retention, greater talent pool and increased productivity.
Meetings are an investment.
When your team has an hour meeting the investment can be well over $1,000. A quick calculation of hourly rates and people in the room demonstrates the need to make each meeting count.
What can you do to get the most out of a remote meeting?
Here are our Top Five tips:
1. Ensure your team knows how to correctly use their video conferencing software.
Making sure background noise is minimal, the angle of their camera is optimal and your household internet enables a good connection. There are lots of great platforms for video conferencing including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack.
2. Discuss roles and workplace etiquette in meetings.
Make sure everyone knows their role in the meeting, set a clear agenda and ensure everyone has a chance to contribute and be heard.
3. Come to the meeting prepared.
The best meetings, even ones that aren’t remote have a clear agenda that is agreed ahead of the meeting. Ensure this is circulated, and read by each meeting participant. This ensures everyone is on the same page going into the meeting.
4. Create a separate home office space.
Choose your home office space wisely, make sure it’s an environment you can be productive in and switch off the outside world easily.
5. Online meeting follow ups.
Hold everyone accountable after the meeting with a clear action list against the meeting agenda. Consider including deadlines for actions and reference these points in your next meeting.
Running a successful virtual meeting does take some practice but setting up these guidelines with your team from the start will ensure you can confidently work from any location.
