With work forces transitioning into remote working, many managers are in a unique position of learning to manage effectively in an entirely different setting. Here are some tips and tricks for keeping your workforce engaged on virtual meetings to ensure productivity.
Turn your video on
Although getting out of your pajamas and getting camera-ready might sound like a pain, it can help your collaboration efforts. Being able to read body language can help with communication, and it also can hold your teammates (and yourself) accountable to pay attention-leading to shorter meeting times, freeing you up for additional work.
Utilize tools to keep your audience engaged
- Ask your teammates to respond to questions using the messaging feature or the annotate feature.\
- Use whiteboarding to brainstorm together during a meeting
- Use interactive polls to collect information
Work on structure
- Send agenda/topics ahead of time: This will help keep everyone on task, make sure that materials are prepared in advance of the meeting, and keep everything short and sweet.
- Focus on conversations – not PowerPoints. Not only will this ensure that everyone is participating in the conversation, but it also will move you out of the “presenter vs. audience” mindsets and lead to better collaboration.
- Send out a summary after the meeting or consider recording the meeting to send out later as a reference.
Get Creative
- Consider breaking up a weekly meeting you may have regularly scheduled into more frequent, shorter “touch-points.”
- If you are a manager, schedule virtual “office hours” that employees or customers can drop in on and ask questions. This can be less intimidating than a set meeting, and also helps provide support for your employees during a tough transition.
