Companies that have managed to make effective use of video meetings have undoubtedly gained a competitive edge during lockdown.
Companies that have managed to make effective use of video meetings have undoubtedly gained a competitive edge during lockdown.
But making the transition to using what many employees regard as new technology is certainly not without its pitfalls. As American scientist Paul R. Ehrlich famously quipped, “To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.”
Fortunately, many of the considerations involved are matters of common sense, although you would be amazed at how many people are still continuing to make the same basic mistakes – including not being on time!
A key starting point in preparing for any internal or external video meeting is to get into the right mindset by dressing as you would do for the office – at least from the waist upwards – and choosing a suitable environment where you won’t be disturbed by background noises or wandering children or pets.
Your company’s normal offices that people visit will convey a corporate image. You should therefore try as hard as possible to recreate this.
A pile of dirty clothes or your partner’s hair products sitting in the background are, for example, unlikely to achieve this goal. So, tidy up or use the virtual background or blurred background features offered by some video conferencing facilities.
Make sure you also eliminate as far as possible the scope for being interrupted. Switch off personal phones, schedule deliveries for other times and obtain any required drinks and make any necessary trips to the bathroom before the session begins.
Laptops should be plugged in to avoid the possibility of running out of power, and other members of the household should be warned against using the internet during the meeting. Video conferencing uses a lot of bandwidth, so family members playing video games could cause a crash.
Test your camera, mic and internet connection in advance and, perhaps most importantly of all, make sure you close down other applications on your computer. As well as avoiding interruption, this prevents you from inadvertently sharing any client information.
All these steps are about limiting frustration. The more frustrated you get the less professional you will come across as and the more likely you will be to breach GDPR.
Nevertheless, it is still important to secure the phone numbers of any attendees before the session starts so that you can contact them instantly if there are technological problems – or if they fail to attend.
Also, well in advance, make sure you are confident that your video conferencing system is suitably secure and that you feel entirely comfortable using it.
Are you, for example, confident that you know how to send clients meeting invites, how to share your screen and how to restore connectivity if it is in fact lost? There are few short cuts with these practical considerations, but plenty of practice invariably makes perfect.
During the call itself it is important to avoid talking over other people, and there is much to be said for muting yourself when you’re not speaking so that other participants are spared from any noises emanating from your space.
Remember also that interrupting people can cause static, or make the audio become otherwise distorted, and that hand gestures and other body movements are more distracting on a video call than they are in person.
Getting to grips with these essential aspects of etiquette should pay dividends well beyond the end of lockdown because, although face-to-face meetings will hopefully be able to resume in the not-too-distant future, videoconferencing is still likely to retain an important place in the commercial world.
Even at a face-to-face business like Chase de Vere we fully expect to be making use of such technology when it is in the interests of our clients.
Meetings may, for example, need to be arranged at very short notice or some companies may decide they prefer to continue receiving our group presentations via webinar because they enable their employees to watch them in their own time.
Content correct at the time of writing and is intended for general information only and should not be construed as advice.