Meetings will never be the same again

5 ways video has changed the way we communicate with colleagues:

Many of us will have spent many hours of our lives in meetings that could have been an email (or worse an instant message) or on conference calls that started late and overran because of a lack of agenda or because people are doing other things in the background, not actively listening and contributing. However I noticed recently how as we all transitioned to the new ways of working during COVID-19 that my meetings seem more productive, effective and shorter which got me thinking about how much more accountable and effective we’ve become on video calls. 

• Presenteeism: It’s no longer enough just to turn up

Remote meetings mean that people can, if they wish, do other things instead of listening: most commonly checking emails or messaging on their phones, but we all know the person that’s putting a wash on, making lunch or even completing a Joe Wicks PE class with their children. According to Harvard Business Review 65% of people surveyed admitted to doing other work and 47% admitted using the restroom! Interestingly almost 40% of people said they’d dropped of a call and pretended they’d stayed on, 27% had fallen asleep on at least one occasion.

It comes from a long standing business problem where activity is confused with productivity, combine this with a non-permissive culture (I can’t decline a meeting from my boss). However, participation in video meetings is rising and engagement now rivals face-to-face meetings.

• We can’t be faceless colleagues: cameras on

With many companies the move to web-based conferencing (Skype, Teams, Web-ex, Go-to-Meeting etc.) has been going on for some time, but until this full move to remote working has anyone else noticed how few people wanted to turn their camera on? I’ve been in loads of meetings where everyone just joins, camera off, because it’s accepted and even with all this new technology people don’t like change and ultimately don’t want to feel accountable by letting people see where they are and that they are actually paying attention.

• Facetime and saving face

We’ve all been on those conference calls, where it takes 5 minutes to get started as people arrive late and you get the constant *beep* X person has joined the call or people lose connection and *beep* X has left the call. I’m honestly not sure if that was better or worse than the ability to join and leave in stealth mode, so you never knew exactly who was on the call.

The fact that people can see you and you can see them makes you accountable to each other, you are in the room, you are present, you are seen. This means people see you arrive late or leave early, so we are more respectful of peoples time, you should feel more comfortable declining a meeting if it’s not relevant as there is little point in dialling in to see while doing something else in the background and I’ve heard a lot less of ‘can you just repeat that my line dropped’ to a question.

• Keep it snappy: 45 is the new 60

I have long wondered how all meetings seem to beautifully fill a 60 minute meeting with only seconds to spare. As I now spend my days hopping from one video call to another, I have put a limit on meeting durations. 30 minutes? I’m happy with that, and there are compelling reasons for keeping meetings this short. However, 30 minutes can cut short our strategy and ideation sessions so 45 minutes feels right to me, particularly as our concentration wanes after this time.

• Professional? Yes, but human too

I find it hard to believe that only is only 3 years ago that the whole world was shocked when a toddler interrupted a live BBC correspondent presenting by strolling in to the correspondent’s home office. The incident made headlines globally. Fast forward to May 2020 and I’m more surprised if a colleagues child or dog doesn’t join our conference calls. In these crazy times, it seems we are allowed to be human after all.

So what does this mean for us post-pandemic? 

We are doing more, faster and ultimately we are more productive, why? Because we are as accountable as we would be face-to-face and we are conscious to adding real value to our activities.

If we can take this personal accountability forward as part of our wider culture past COVID-19 lockdown, I think business will see a better activity to productivity ratio and if you’re a senior manager remember culture is driven from the top but needs to be lived by the whole company to drive success.

In Resource Solutions latest whitepaper, Interviews Without Boundaries, our innovation team explore the latest video interviewing and candidate engagement technologies. Talent and HR leaders looking to stay competitive are investing in putting their best foot forward with candidates using video and hiring managers expect the same from the candidates. Why can’t we apply some of the same principles with our internal meetings?

How are you making your video conference calls more engaging and productive? Comment below.