5 Common Virtual Meeting Mistakes To Avoid
Guest Post by Jenny Han
In the last few years virtual meetings have very much become the norm. They were adopted at first due to necessity, but now there's a lot of benefits to them.
You can meet with anyone around the world, all from your own home. As this tech is still fairly new, there are some mistakes that you may be making when it comes to virtual meetings.
Here are the most common mistakes being made right now, and how to avoid them.
1. Not Checking The Tech Before The Meeting
When planning a meeting, you'll be concerned about the content of it, and what everyone will get out of it.
What you may not have considered is that the tech itself could pose a problem if you're not ready for it.
Everyone has encountered stuttering video, freezing, sound cutting out, and so on. It's frustrating, and it'll hold up your meeting until you get it fixed.
A good way to avoid most of these issues is to run a tech check before you hold your meeting.
Have another participant join the meeting a few minutes before the meeting, and with them check if sound and video are working as they should.
2. Not Planning Meetings As You Should
A common pitfall with virtual meetings is that it's easy to treat them informally.
It's a mistake many make without even thinking about it, especially if you're holding those meetings from home.
However, because of this, it's very easy to not plan for them properly, and not get the desired results.
When planning a virtual meeting, you need to plan for them just as you would an in-person meeting.
Have an agenda, and share that with participants before the meeting itself. Stick to that agenda during the meeting, so you stay on schedule.
3. Not Dealing With Background Noise
As many found out in recent years, background noise is a real problem when it comes to virtual meetings.
When you're conducting a meeting out of the office, there are always going to be things going on in the background, such as traffic noise, other people in your home, and so on. It gets distracting and can make people lose focus.
“Before your meeting, ask participants to keep themselves muted unless they're speaking,” says Alan Marshall, an HR manager at Paper Fellows and Essay Services. “Turning off alerts on your device will help avoid issues as well.”
4. Not Backing Up Meetings
One of the real benefits of virtual meetings is that you can record them as they happen, and have them backed up.
That gives you the option to refer back to them whenever you need to. However, so many people don't take advantage of this when they're holding virtual meetings.
Having those recordings where everyone can access them is a real boon, so you should be sure you're doing this.
Every virtual meeting software will have options to let you record them, so you'll want to ensure you're using these when running meetings.
Once you have recordings, upload them to a central hub where everyone can access them when needed.
Having a tool that indexes these recordings is also useful, as it will make finding the meeting you want a lot easier.
5. Not Wrapping Up A Meeting Properly
Again, as many tend to see virtual meetings as more informal, it's very easy to just end them without wrapping them up.
This isn't something that you would do if you're running an in-person meeting, so you shouldn't be doing it in virtual meetings too.
“At the end of your meeting, always sum up what was discussed,” says project manager Fiona Lynch, from State Of Writing and Professional Essay Service. “This summary should include any action points you've discussed, and what should happen next.”
With the rise of virtual meetings, there was no doubt that there would be some teething troubles along the way.
If you're making any of the above mistakes, it's not something to worry a lot about.
Now you know what mistakes you're making, you can take steps to correct them. Use these tips to ensure that you'll run the best meetings that have the best outcomes with your team.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenny Han is a writer for Academic Writing Service and Buy Assignment. She covers online working and meetings. She's also a blogger for Ox Essays.