As we move further into a world where working from home is more common, and a world where being disconnected from work simply because you’re travelling just isn’t acceptable, businesses are looking for ways to develop better communications between employees. Whether the focus is on collaboration, remote interviews or just making sure there’s an easy way for everyone to keep in touch businesses are turning to technology such as video conferencing.
But why are businesses turning to a more expensive way of handling communications? It boils down to a number of key reasons which can broadly be categorised as “ Cost Saving” and “Increased Productivity”.
Cost Saving Benefits
- Reduces Travel Costs
If you’re looking for other savings other than time then video conferencing has you covered as well. There are significant cost savings to be found from using video conferencing as the reduction in travel means that less money is spent buying tickets or reimbursing expenses.
- It helps reduce your carbon footprint
If your business is looking to try ad reduce its carbon footprint then Video conferencing can be a surprising way to help achieve your aims. Studies have shown that driving an hour to a meeting uses up to 1000 times more energy than a video conference. This means that if you’re able to cut down the number of business meeting you’ll be able to make a significant improvement to the carbon footprint of your business as well.
Productivity Benefits:
- Efficiency
The old way of doing business with ace to face meetings results in a lot of wasted time. Travelling to and from meetings is time that could be spent on other more productive activities. With video conferencing the travel to the meeting is removed and you still get the benefit of a face to face conversation.
- A more engaging set meeting format.
Audio conferences can be very difficult for people to engage with. The lack of face to face contact results in people zoning out, checking their emails and just generally disconnecting from what\s going on around them. With vide conferencing through the video element produces an additional contact point on the screen and increases the “pressure” to maintain engagement. In short people are more likely to treat it like a regular conversation which means they stay engaged longer.
- It gives more structure to meetings.
As everyone in a video conference is likely to be in different locations the start and end times of video conferences meet to be more defined than a lot of face to face meetings. They have to be set up in advance as well, with agreement from everyone as to where and when the meeting will end. This added structure means that everyone knows that they need to keep the meeting moving along and results in a decrease in small talk and time wasting. Less time wasted means more efficient meetings, which means a more productive team overall.
- It boosts employee retention
On the face of it this might seen to be an odd claim but th face that employees are these days focused on generating a solid work/life balance, and if you don’t help them enable that then you run the risk of losing people, and if you lose people then your productivity takes a hit as you have to hire, replace and train up new employees.
But how does video conferencing help with work life balance management? It provides employees with mobility and flexibility as well as more control over their work days. If they don’t need to make a trip for that meeting it means they’re more likely to get home at their regular time, leading them to feel like their work life balance is good. This then keeps them around in the business and ensures your productivity is maximised.
For more information on how you can build up your business using video conferencing technology, please get in touch with our team.
