Future professionals in any field must be adept at using video conferencing technology, in order to deliver a range of benefits to their company. Replacing more tedious, time-consuming and expensive methods of group conferencing, web-based video chats will become standard for handling communication over both long and short distances. Here are five ways you can help your company by knowing all the ins-and-out of using video conferencing technology.
Benefit #1: Reducing business trip expenses
Staging important conferences with principals flung across the globe can be exhausting for any company budget. Learning to use video conferences to connect employees and managers at different company branches can reduce these travel expenses. The heart of most business travel is communications anyway.
So, skillful knowledge of how to communicate using web conferencing tools, which includes swapping files and presentations in real time, can eliminate the need for the majority of trips. This saves time and allows workers to be more productive. Beyond yoking employees, your use of video conferences can also allow global partners, clients and customers to interact with company representatives, preventing the need to book a flight or a hotel stay.
Benefit #2: Interviewing Prospective Employees
The internet makes it possible to receive applications for job openings from all over the world. For the most elite prospects, you might want to fly a candidate in for an interview. That costs money, but interviewing that same candidate via a video conference won’t cost much. Many businesses are using web conferencing to make it easier to vet applicants from other states or countries in a fast and cheaper way.
Even for local job candidates who are able to meet a human resource manager in person, the use of a video conference can allow executives in remote locations or other offices to participate in the interview.
After the interviews are over, video conferences, which are easy to record, can help narrow down the field to the best choices. Hiring managers can re-watch parts of the interview and allow conference recordings to aid the decision-making.
Benefit #3: Efficient Inter-Office Teams
It’s not unheard of for employees in different offices to be assigned to the same team for marketing projects, research projects, new product launches or other duties. Such dispersion can make it impossible to share ideas and exchange updates regularly.
Email can handle some duties but are too impersonal. As a professional, you can help teams set up conference rooms through video conferencing apps. These digital rooms can be restricted to only team members and provide an online workshop space, enabling quick brainstorming sessions or long meetings. Teams are able to work together throughout the day and over several days without losing time commuting.
Benefit #4: Making the Company Eco-Friendly
Promoting the widespread use of video conferencing in your company helps create a “green” company environment. The company saves gas and reduces emissions by decreasing vehicle and plane use. They also save paper by relying more on the sharing of digital files; there’s no need to run off copies of forecasts or financial reports for dissemination. Most video conference software allow uploading, downloading, texting or emailing of data during conferencing without reducing audio or video quality. Energy overall will be reduced.
Benefit #5: Managing contract workers
Often businesses have workers that aren’t formal employees but contract or freelance workers. Individual workers are often home-based while contracted agencies based in their own offices where they have to stay to be available to other clients. Both need a way to communicate regularly with the company contact.
Traditionally, contractors just pick up a phone, fax over documents or email attachments. Occasionally, they may drop by. However, video conferences, can replace the phone, fax, email and that occasional sit-down. Since most web conferencing software comes with smartphone apps, contractors can stay in touch and turn in project work on the go.
Not all employees will be proficient in managing and setting video conferencing programs. The future professionals who do will be coveted assets for their employers.
