Virtual Meetings, Virtual Teams - Leveraging Web Conferencing

  

  

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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.