Web Conferencing for Productivity

This is the first in a series explaining how web conferencing can help you realize the benefits of using remote workers while avoiding the common pitfalls of such an arrangement. As budgets continue to tighten, more businesses are utilizing telecommuting independent contractors or employees.

 The benefits of telecommuting are great. When companies use the services of independent contractors, they save overhead costs and avoid many regulatory concerns. When they allow employees to telecommute, they can often negotiate lower salaries in exchange for the privilege of working from home.

Recognizing Opportunity

Most businesses fail to utilize the opportunities telecommuting offers because they have no experience with remote worker management. Remote workers require a different type of management style that focuses on results rather than real-time observance of performance. Such concerns can be allayed by using web and video conferencing to communicate with employees in real time and check their work status.

Profile of a Telecommuter

Many managers have a misconception of what the average telecommuter is like. Telecommuters are not lazy, pajama-wearing slouches. They are some of the most driven and highest-performing employees in the American workforce. These individuals are tech-savvy, self-motivated, exceptionally productive and outgoing.

Employee Benefits

Telecommuters prefer working from home because it saves driving time and travel costs. In addition, it allows an autonomy and freedom not found in the office. This freedom translates in to happier and more loyal workers. The benefits of telecommuting drive them to work harder and produce more.

Offering the option to telecommute is an excellent way to attract top talent from all over the world. With video conferencing, you can conduct job interviews remotely and stay connected with workers everywhere through a simple, easy to use interface.

Web Conferencing Dos and Dont's

Web conferencing has many advantages, but it also has many pitfalls. Just like in-person meetings, there are some rules of etiquette that must be followed and other behaviors to avoid.

What you Should Do

Be sure to prepare your presentation well in advance of the conference time. This allows you to take the time to edit out any errors and ensure all the information necessary is included. Email necessary materials to attendees or post them online where they can be accessed easily before the presentation. Give attendees a day or two to read and absorb the material before the conference.

Being late to a web conference is just as embarrassing and unprofessional as showing up late to a face-to-face meeting. Show the attendees that they matter to you by arriving a few minutes early. You should already be on the line when attendees begin calling in.

Just as you would not want to hold an office meeting in a noisy cafeteria, avoid holding a web conference in your noisy living room. Be sure you have a separate room in your home where background noise is at a minimum.

What Not to Do

Try not to squirm around in your chair during the meeting, especially if it is made of leather. Your agitation and restlessness will be heard by others and may be distracting. Be still and keep a calm demeanor throughout the presentation, setting the tone for everyone else.

You would never go to a meeting chewing gum or eating, so don't do it in a web conference. While a glass of water is fine for keeping your throat moist, do not pop open soda cans or let yourself be heard snapping gum.

Avoid the temptation to make attendees "hold" during a meeting. Be well prepared in advance and there will be no reason to disrupt the conversation. By avoiding the use of hold, you are making the web conference as close to an in-office meeting as possible.

While web conferencing offers great benefits for long distance meetings, it is important to follow the rules of etiquette. By doing so, you take best advantage of this time and money saving technology.

Why to Use Web Conferencing and Webinars

Create Opportunity with Web Conferencing

Offering a free service is a great way to attract targeted leads to your business.  Webinars and free education classes can be formulated to target the audience you need to tell about your product. You can conduct such webinars and training sessions affordably by using web conferencing.

Demonstrate your Product

You may simply want to show customers how your product can improve their lives or solve a problem. You can demonstrate your product in a free webinar and direct them to your landing page after the presentation.

Pitch your Product

In business-to-business applications, webinars let you actively display the benefits of your product and answer questions in real time on a simple and easy to use platform. Leads will respond to your presentation and ask questions. This kind of client interaction provides valuable feedback and new ideas on how to market your product.

Generate Leads and Traffic

Such free webinars are also great traffic generators for blogs and other websites. By offering the free course in exchange for user emails, you begin to build a highly targeted email list with which you can build trust and later market your product.

Affordable Marketing Strategy

Webinars are much more affordable that PPC marketing in most cases. Rates are incredibly low and a simply fifteen minute presentation may be all you need to attract leads and traffic.

It is vital that your presentation be well thought out and be presented flawlessly. This is when you will want to be sure you use a service with 24/7 customer service available to help should any problems arise.

By combining your message with a webinar service with good customer support, you create a marketing tool for your business that attracts targeted leads, generates traffic and can ultimately lead to more sales.

Virtual Meetings, Virtual Teams - Leveraging Web Conferencing

This is the next installment in an ongoing series devoted to helping you gain the advantages of remote workers while avoiding some of the common pitfalls most often associated with a virtual workforce. Today, we will discuss why web conferencing is usually the best way to communicate and collaborate with your virtual workforce.

Having a virtual workforce means there are many options available to you for communication. Unfortunately, too many managers rely on email to discuss work-related items with telecommuters. While emails may be the right course in some situations, real time communication through web conferencing is preferable.

The Problem with Emails

 Think about how you assign new work to your employees. By email, the instructions lay among many other requests in the employee’s inbox. According to Jon Reed, a successful telecommuter since 2000, “I think we need to step away from the expectation that email is the best real time medium for communication. I find that once I check my email, I can’t ignore the fifteen requests for various kinds of follow ups.” He continues, “…email can be uniquely time consuming, I try to limit my email sessions to a couple big binges every day. Without that I would never get my deliverables done.”

Use Web Conferencing for Assignments

A better way to step above the email jungle is to conference with your employee via the web. This way you can point out particular project points or goals and show the employee what is expected. This offers the employee a way to respond with questions immediately, rather than waiting for your email reply to get started. The result is greater productivity and fewer corrections to the work later.

Why Web Conferencing is Better than Phone Calls

Web conferencing has become so affordable it may even be preferable to telephone communications. On the telephone, you cannot show the employee the intended result of a project. However, when you set up web conference, you can point out particular points of discussion to the employee and devise a plan of action together, just as if you were standing in the same office.

Time Management for Remote Workers: Leveraging Communication Tools

Welcome to part four of our ongoing series looking at how businesses can use audio and web conferencing to leverage the benefits of remote workers while avoiding the common pitfalls of such work flow arrangements.

Time Management for Remote Workers

The biggest concern with virtual employees is how much they work. Such workers often work too much and can suffer from burn out. Some may wake up early and begin work. Without any distractions, they often find themselves forgetting to eat and working well past office hours.

This is where an afternoon web conference becomes most important. Have a quick meeting with your worker and ask about the day. Asses the employee’s emotional state and be sure they are not pushing themselves too hard. Casually asking what they had for lunch will help you be sure they are taking appropriate breaks.

Another way to help your employees maintain structure is to set up automated email reminders. Send one at break time, lunch and at the end of the day, providing a friendly reminder that it is time to rest.

 Stay Connected

 Use instant messaging to keep your employees connected. Allow a certain amount of freedom of personality in these messages. While they must remain appropriate, employees also need a way to joke about their work to release tension.

Include remote workers in company web conferences at least once a month and be sure to include a social time in that meeting where some simple game is played to encourage social interaction. You may also connect workers who live near one another and encourage them to socialize after work.

How to Manage a Virtual Workforce

This is the third in a series about how audio conferencing services and web conferencing can help you enjoy the benefits of remote workers while avoiding the common pitfalls of such working arrangements. This discussion focuses on integrating the remote worker’s office to meet the needs of your company.

Office Space

Any remote worker you hire should have a separate, fully functional home office, with all the machines and capabilities found in your office. This means ergonomically correct desks and chairs, quality telephones, fast computers, web cameras, broadband internet, fax capabilities, copy machines and the like. You must communicate all of these requirements to the employee and then verify they are in place.

In most cases, workers are happy to supply the necessary hardware at their own expense. If your company has specialized hardware or software that you will provide, be certain the employee signs a contract, specifying the rights and duties of each party in maintaining the equipment. You should also spell out what happens to such equipment should the employee relationship be terminated.

Training

Do not assume your employee knows how to use your company’s communications systems. Have a quick web conference to go over the different avenues of communication and address any training issues at that time.

It is also important that your telecommuters understand who your service providers are and how to use them. This can include mail services or office-supply vendors. Show employees the proper procedure for utilizing these services.

Hello, My Name Is…

Introduce the new employee to current staff with a photograph and bio. Open a dialogue by including the new employee in a web conference staff meeting as soon as possible after the hire. Connect the new hire with another worker who has been telecommuting for you on a long-term basis.

Settling In

It is best to get your employee up and running as soon as possible. Assign basic tasks that will familiarize the employee with your systems and then begin adding more complicated work as the days pass. Schedule fifteen minutes each afternoon for a web conference to address questions and direct work.  Finally, be sure to get them up and running with your conference call system -  conference calls are the great telecommuter equalizer as clients, workers and prospects are all dialed in, creating a veritable virtual office for communication and primed for collaboration.

Hiring Telecommuters Over the Phone

This is the second in a series about how audio and web conferencing can help you realize the benefits of hiring remote workers while avoiding the common pitfalls frequently cited by those making such hires.

When interviewing candidate for virtual work, it is vital you look for certain qualities that will ensure you gain a highly focused and productive worker. Not only will you want to set up a web conference to assess the employee's attitudes and communication style, you will also look for particular personality traits and skills.

Personality Traits

Candidates for virtual work must understand your mission and take it up as their own calling. Look for candidates whose rewards systems are dependent on internal factors, not outside approval. Find out what types of work they truly love to do and make sure those jobs fit in with the job description.

You should also look for confidence in your virtual workers. They must be able to evaluate difficult situations and make good decisions. Be sure to find out about past difficulties and how the candidate handled those problems.

Skills

Virtual workers need superior communications skills to be effective. In order to assess such skills, be sure to communicate by all channels in separate interviews. Exchange emails, schedule a telephone interview and perform the final interview by web conference - allowing for the candidate to share past work, documents and other relevant items. During each interview, ask questions about specific workflows and motivations, and then observe the employee's communication skills.

Technology

If the candidate does not have an in-depth grasp of technology, telecommuting will not work. They must learn and apply new skills quickly. They must understand email, web conferencing and telephone communications. Find out about the employees preferences in hardware and software to see how deep the understanding of technology goes.

Web Conferencing and Telecommuting

This is the first in a series explaining how web conferencing can help you realize the benefits of using remote workers while avoiding the common pitfalls of such an arrangement. As budgets continue to tighten, more businesses are utilizing telecommuting independent contractors or employees.

The benefits of telecommuting are great. When companies use the services of independent contractors, they save overhead costs and avoid many regulatory concerns. When they allow employees to telecommute, they can often negotiate lower salaries in exchange for the privilege of working from home.

Recognizing Opportunity

Most businesses fail to utilize the opportunities telecommuting offers because they have no experience with remote worker management. Remote workers require a different type of management style that focuses on results rather than real-time observance of performance. Such concerns can be allayed by using web conferencing to communicate with employees in real time and check their work status.

Profile of a Telecommuter

Many managers have a misconception of what the average telecommuter is like. Telecommuters are not lazy, pajama-wearing slouches. They are some of the most driven and highest-performing employees in the American workforce. These individuals are tech-savvy, self-motivated, exceptionally productive and outgoing.

Employee Benefits

Telecommuters prefer working from home because it saves driving time and travel costs. In addition, it allows an autonomy and freedom not found in the office. This freedom translates in to happier and more loyal workers. The benefits of telecommuting drive them to work harder and produce more.

Offering the option to telecommute is an excellent way to attract top talent from all over the world. With video conferencing, you can conduct job interviews remotely and stay connected with workers everywhere through a simple, easy to use interface.

Web Conferencing versus Boardroom: Don't Let Meetings Sap Productivity

Even if you frankly ask your workers what the most boring parts of their jobs are, would you get an honest answer? Probably not. The truth is, most workers abhor boardroom meetings. A presenter stands at the head of the room with a prepared speech and all eyes do their best to stay open as participants do their best to stay engaged in the speech. Even the best speakers can have difficulty maintaining an engaged audience.

Fear not, there is a way to keep your audience’s attention without hiring creative talent to write a screenplay. By using the interactive features in a web conference, you allow your audience to participate in the meeting on a deeper level. With desktop sharing, whiteboards and instant messaging, you can offer the audience chances to participate in the meeting. Not only will this ease boredom, but your employees will walk away with a deeper understanding of the subject matter and a more focused approach to their jobs.

Because you can share your desktop, it is a good idea to break the ice with some humor. This may mean showing a comedy clip, or playing a quick game of hangman online. Use the shared desktop feature to warm up your audience and make them feel engaged. It will go a long way towards creating a more entertaining and useful conference.

You can also use the whiteboard to help employees focus their attention on the subject matter. Write down a question or idea related to the discussion topic and then ask each participant to write down his or her answers or ideas. This warm up gets participants thinking about the problem or topic and focused on learning more.
Instant messaging is useful for encouraging employees to share ideas while avoiding disruptions to the meeting. Ask attendees to use this feature when an idea comes up.

If they believe you will actually read their messages, they are much more likely to listen to what you have to say and respond with their points of view. Be sure to follow up on instant messages by email after the meeting. This type of encouragement will ensure continued active participation from your employees who will be glad your meetings are no longer so boring!