After the pandemic hit, about 71% of Americans were forced to work from home in order to remain employed. Zoom became all the rage for classrooms, conferences, and any other gathering suddenly converted to a virtual platform.
But let’s be honest- Zoom meetings are terrible sometimes. They can be unproductive, uncomfortable, and unfruitful. If you’re wanting to improve the Zoom experience for your workplace, here are 3 ways you can make these virtual meetings more effective.
1. Keep Cameras On
The best way to ensure engagement is to ask everyone to keep their cameras on throughout the meeting. Seeing other people engaged encourages a higher degree of participation than just using sound.
You can even set requirements for backgrounds so that everyone can tune in from a focused environment. For example, you can ask all meeting attendees to be in an enclosed room, to use headphones, or to submit notes on the topics discussed.
2. Send a Schedule Beforehand
The best way to make sure that a Zoom meeting is efficient is to have a schedule handy. Outline how long it’s expected to take, along with time markers of different topics that need to be covered. Make sure that all contributors are aware of when they will need to speak.
This schedule can be emailed out to all the meeting attendees prior to the meeting. All members will then be able to follow along as the call continues and won’t interrupt the time with questions about the meeting’s flow.
3. Avoid “Short” Meetings
If you can predict that a meeting will last less than 45 minutes, it’s best not to coordinate the meeting. Blocking out the time to sit down for a Zoom call greatly interrupts the workday of the people you work with, and you want to make sure that a call like that is worth the break in focus.
Set up an effective system for updates and notifications that don’t require as much conversation. This can be done via email, text, or another communication app such as Groupme.
