Fast communication has made it possible for teams to work together better whether they are in the same office space or countries apart. Our team does both! We have our central office and a remote team. Thanks to the communication tools and processes we implement, working together just about the same and no one misses a beat. One of the most important tools we use is our video conferencing solution. Without this, communication does lose a certain personal touch and efficiency that affects overall productivity.
And it makes sense: over 93% of communication is nonverbal. When brainstorming and collaborating as a team with varying opinions, it’s important to use full communication via video conferencing. It changes the dynamic drastically!
Here are a few ways your team, in office or remote, can better use video conferencing solution to work better together and boost productivity
Brainstorm complex ideas via video conferencing for better results:
We’ve all experienced how frustrating it can be to try to discuss ideas with more than two people via and email thread. It’s incredibly easy to miss information, important files, and accidentally not CC someone important. Finding anything older than a few hours is a pain. Ideas get run over and forgotten. Whether you’re in office literally a few rooms over or countries apart, you will likely be communicating and collaborating online. With something the requires a ton of back and forth and multiple voices like brainstorming news ideas, email is impossible. Eliminate the struggle of email by using video conferencing for brainstorming whether you’re in office or remote. Just a quick 15 minute call to hash out ideas can replace hours of emailing back and forth and trying to piece together ideas in a thread.
Make video conferencing a priority for remote work:
Remote teams require independent workers who are self motivated and can manage themselves but still without fluid and consistent communication, it’s difficult to keep things moving in the same direction for everyone. It’s also important to keep personal relationships within your team strong despite distance. Video conferencing should be a regular part of managing your remote team. Plan a 15 minute beginning of the week recap at a time that works for all timezones before everyone breaks off into their own schedules. When discussing ideas and more complex things, make time to schedule in short calls rather than messaging back and forth. Especially with timezone differences, communicating simple things can take much longer than necessary.
Create more cohesion between departments with a video conferencing solution:
Even if your team is in office, how often is there communication between different departments and teams? Companies that have fluid and frequent communication between different teams come up with more ideas and solve more problems faster. If you don’t have the luxury of an open office situation to collaborate, video conferencing is a must for creating that same cohesive work flow. With video conferencing a regular part of how your company works, your team can call in anyone for meetings and expertise in decision making. It can help eliminate a ton of back and forth, future conflicts, and put your employee’s expertise together in an efficient way.
Use video calls in office with chat in eliminate internal email:
Obviously, if your team is in the same office, you don’t necessarily have the timezone problem remote teams struggle with but very little face to face communication happens still. Your team is likely still using email. It’s the least efficient way to communicate in office. Employees report spending up to 6.3 hours out of their day constantly checking and responding to internal email. After an email distraction, it takes 16 minutes on average to refocus. Eliminate email by implementing company chat for quick messages and then using video conferencing for discussion. This combination is faster, more intuitive, more organized, and much less disruptive than email and meetings. Employees don’t have to waste time constantly checking inboxes and scrolling through threads throughout the day. Plus, everyone stays in the loop in one central place.
Make video conferencing even more productive with Hibox:
The downside to meetings is that they are generally not very productive. Employees surveyed say that over half their meetings are a waste of time. You can use video conferencing to eliminate time-wasting and unproductive meetings. Your employees, whether in the same building or remote, don’t have to leave what they’re doing to go to a meeting. Video conferencing is also more inclusive and eliminates some of the bias and power structures associated with traditional meetings. Short video conferences are less disruptive to employee’s work flow. You can make these calls actionable by organizing them on Hibox where you can create tasks and share files during your meeting rather than in a “follow up” email after. Everyone has all the information they need at once in one central place and can see a clear path forward after your video conference. The best part? No one has to leave Hibox to jump on a video conference: task management, company chat, file sharing, and video conferencing are all in one platform.
Great management and productivity are a factor of how easily your team communicates and plans together. To boost your team’s productivity with video conferencing and make working together in one central place simple, try Hibox for free today for task management, company chat, file sharing and video conferencing in one.
