2021 UPDATE: COVID-19 has increased the number of remote working employees exponentially, highlighting it can be done on a large scale. With this, the use of video conferencing solutions has been more widely needed to allow collaboration between employees and regular catch-up with employers. As many employees wish to remain in a remote working situation, now is the time to invest in bespoke video conferencing for your business.
Introduction
The way we work is changing. With companies based across the world, remote working and work-from-home policies, it can be increasingly difficult to maintain solid collaboration. Misinterpretation or missed thoughts can cause confusion among teams. Thankfully with the advances made in conferencing, the benefits of video conferencing are helping resolve these issues. Video conference benefits are plentiful and can have a huge impact on how your organisation communicates.
The coronavirus has meant that a lot of companies have turned to remote working a lot sooner than what they were prepared for. This can be a challenging time for some companies that are not used to having remote working employees. We’ve put together a few steps on ensuring that remote working helps your business run efficiently.
Communicate face-to-face as often as possible
Video goes a long way in giving you that personal experience. A large proportion of communication is non-verbal body language, this can often be missed when communicating only via email or an audio call.
Video calls make a huge difference when working remotely, you are able to keep your relationships with your colleagues and peers and maintaining a level of rapport that is very hard to imitate over the phone.
A weekly team conference, one-to-one calls and spontaneous huddles are all great ways of ensuring that your team is staying motivated and productive
Engage in Small Talk
Realistically there aren’t many company’s out there that don’t have a small level of social chit chat around the office. Those working remotely can often miss out on this social interaction which can decrease their wellbeing and overall mood.
The most successful companies rely on the ability of teams to collaborate, share ideas and rely on each other. The best way to do this is to allow your employees to engage in small talk and social chit chat. When video conferencing your employees and colleagues make sure that you are engaging with them on a social level as well as a business level, not only will this boost their mood and wellbeing, it will also have a huge effect on their productivity and motivation.
Be available and respond as quickly as possible
Another social benefit of working in the office is that you are often on hand for spontaneous questions and favours from a fellow co-worker, as a remote worker, this is considerably decreased.
Making that extra effort to let your colleagues know that you are there for those small questions and tasks will boost team morale and keep everyone motivated. Ensuring that you are as available as often as possible throughout the day via spontaneous meetings, team chats and even prioritising tasks to help others, can help everyone to feel connected whilst working remotely.
Take full advantage of your conferencing platform
Video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and BlueJeans have more to offer than just the ability to conference.
Everyone works differently, a lot of people like that visual interaction and the capability to see what you are talking about. Making sure that you take full advantage of the chats in the platforms and the ability to share screens and documents can give you that feeling of collaboration and a real-life experience.
Conclusion
There are numerous different platforms to assist your company to stay connected and motivated when having to work remotely. Remark Group have years of video conferencing experience dealing with business ranging from ten employees to 1,000. With an un-bias approach to hardware, we ensure that you receive the perfect solution for your company. Get in touch today to discuss your needs and requirements in conferencing. We can also offer virtual demonstrations of our video conferencing solutions to assist you in the decision making of which platform to go for.
