The world is facing challenges unseen in modern times and the coronavirus crisis is a story with an unclear ending. What is clear is that the human impact is already tragic, and that companies have an imperative to act immediately to protect their employees, address business challenges and risks, and help to mitigate the outbreak in whatever ways they can. The digital workplace is thus entering a new reality, as more physical barriers are being put between employees, partners and suppliers across offices, countries and continents. Yet organizations need to sustain, and even increase, levels of communication to manage their business. As a consequence, virtual meetings are becoming critical. We have compiled our top 5 tips for you to run the most efficient effective remote meetings to ensure business continuity, productivity and collaboration at times when organizations are unable to gather everyone in one and same location.

1. Optimize your meetings with video conference

In times where most employees are working remotely, ‘face-to face’ like meetings are important for productivity and human connection. There are countless tips on how to best organize a remote meeting, but we believe that it should start with video. Indeed, video adds an important dimension to virtual meetings, and if you normally don’t turn your video feed on – this is the time to start. Other great tips for video conference include muting yourself when you are not actively engaged to avoid background pollution, and the use of a headset for better audio quality. Screen sharing can be a powerful tool to make sure everyone is on the same picture. So if you are presenting or referring to a particular asset, share it. It might save time and avoid confusion.

2. Use your meeting room’s assets

If there are still a few working from the office and collaborating with remote workers, either quarantined or working across other geographies, now is the time to use all assets in your meeting rooms. If your rooms are equipped with back cameras, that is a valuable feature. Make your remote participants feel more included and see the bigger picture. All you have to do is to choose the back camera and adjust it in the optimal angle so that remote participants can picture not only the content displayed but also get a better feel for what is happening in the room. This allows remote participants to see content shared with a better perspective and get a better sense of the real-life interactions in the room. For more interactive sessions, combine the use of your back camera with a touch whiteboard application if your rooms are touch enabled or simply enlarge your Trello board, point to content and move the picture-in-picture (PiP) as you speak. Be mindful of how people will see you and the content, so adjust lights and camera angles to ensure that all participants see clearly.

3. Be savvy with a collaboration platform

There are countless great communication and collaboration platforms (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Trello or Slack to name a few), but in times as today’s – be savvy and be consistent with one. Opt for a reliable application that won’t crash during calls and that can support all remote working workflows such as instant messaging, video calls and collaborative work with document storage, sharing and editing. A strong rationale for choosing one platform is also to ensure that people get accustomed and confident in the technology. With one platform, they won’t waste meeting time downloading a new app, or wondering where the meeting might be or stressing about sound and camera configurations. Now is the time to be practical, efficient and ease people’s lives.

4. Make sure you have a plan

Every meeting, physical or virtual, needs an clear agenda with your plan and the desired outcomes for each meeting. If you are the one calling a team meeting or setting up a call with a customer, make sure to share the agenda in advance. Each item on the agenda should be covered and notes taken accordingly. If the agenda is too long, it might be a good idea to split the meeting in two to avoid losing peoples’ attention. Equally, the aftermath of a meeting is as important as the preparation, so be sure to follow up quickly with your notes, actions for each participant and next steps.

5. Don’t forget meeting etiquette

Finally, productive and efficient remote meeting means you need a strong meeting etiquette. Basic things will be more important, so clear your working space and background, make sure to wear appropriate clothing and be on time. As if you were in a meeting room, don’t be on your phone or browse the web.

We are here to help and will continue to share advice and support to all digital and remote workers to help navigate in times of disruption.

Find out more about the Cyviz Easy Platform.