“Yes, we can hear you.”
If your mic is muted, someone will tell you— no need to ask! And 9 other things you can do to make your remote/hybrid work meetings more productive.
17 May 2022
Introduce the people in the room
When on a video call it might not be immediately clear to remote attendees what colleagues are joining from a meeting room.
Send out an agenda before the meeting
Be respectful of people's time, not everyone might be working the same hours. People can contribute their updates in meeting notes or skip a meeting where they are not required.
Record a meeting when possible
If possible, record meetings as video or take detailed notes. This allows people to easily follow up afterwards and feel in the loop if they were not able to attend.
Give opportunity to remote employees to speak
It happens that people in a meeting room together can dominate the conversation and alienate remote attendees. Try to make an effort to specifically ask if there are questions or feedback from people not in the room.
Clearly communicate and give feedback
It is easy to miss non-verbal queues or body language when not in the room with others. Try to make an effort to communicate clearly. e.g. long answers, excitement, boredom
Rotate meeting times
If dealing with teams that are geographically spread out, try to schedule your meetings at different times of the day to make sure it's not always the same people that need to work early or late.
Be considerate about requiring webcams to be on
It's good to set some expectations about whether people are required to be on camera. If people are joining calls after hours or might have family moving around the house it can be perfectly fine to let them have their camera off.
Meetings are not the only form of communication
Sometimes teams default to holding a meeting when a simple announcement email or quick informal poll on internal chat would be enough. Give everyone time back by only scheduling meetings when necessary and cancelling meetings proactively when there are no updates.
Yes, we can hear you
Most video conferencing software lets you quickly check if your camera and audio are working before joining a meeting. While we've all gotten used to saying it, there's no need to ask if you can be heard or if your slides are showing, so we can all relax and not spend the first 5 minutes asking the same question. People will interrupt you if there's a technical problem.
Socialise with remote team mates
Remote colleagues can feel less of a social connection with people in the office, try to make some time at the start of the meeting to do small talk and catch up on what's happening. If not as part of meetings, setting up virtual coffee chats can make a team feel more included.
