Five Best Practices for Video Meetings at Your Company
Video conferences are a great way to make the most of working from home. After all, as useful as phone calls and emails can be, video conferences can help you share information in real-time in a way that’s not possible with other methods of communication. However, you also need to make sure you’re following these best practices for video meetings to get the most out of them.
1. Learn More About Your Software
Take some time to learn more about the software you’re going to be using for the video meetings. After all, one of the main problems that tends to arise with video meetings is that, quite simply, people don’t know how to use the video meeting software. If you take some time to become familiar with the usage of the software, you’re less likely to have problems during the actual meeting.
2. Check Your Video Camera
How many times have you been in a video conference where people have to take 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the call to fix their video camera? It happens very frequently, and it can have a significant impact on the mood of the meeting. Before you sign into the meeting, make sure you’ve checked that everything looks great on your phone or computer’s camera.
3. Test Your Audio Settings
Next, you need to test your audio settings. How often have you had the awkward conversation with another coworker that you can’t hear them in the video call? Run some tests with your microphone to make sure that the microphone is working and the software is picking up the sound. If you need to, you can try calling someone directly before the meeting to make sure everything works well and there aren’t any hiccups in the process.
4. Make Sure You’re Connected to the Internet at Fast Enough Speeds
Depending on your internet speed, you may need to make sure your internet speed is high enough to get you through the video call. Video conferences can take up a lot of bandwidth, so if you’re worried about your home’s internet speeds measuring up, you may need to ask everyone else in the home to stay away from other internet-intensive activities like video streaming and online gaming.
5. Reduce Background Noise
Everyone is usually going to have some amount of background noise that they can’t prevent; if a loud motorcycle rushes past your home while you’re talking, after all, you can’t exactly stop it. However, you can do whatever’s possible to avoid excess background noise. Let other people in the home know you’re on a video call, move pets into another room, and make sure you know how to mute yourself when you’re not talking.
Conclusion
Overall, there are plenty of ways you can make video meetings less stressful and less complicated to deal with. In general, as long as you’re able to make sure your computer or phone is working properly from the beginning and you know how to create a good environment to have your video conference in, there shouldn’t be any serious problems. With just a few extra minutes every time you set up a video conference, you can maximize your productivity in every chat.