What are the phases of effective remote meetings?

Meetings are an integral part of professional life. Whether it be remote working or full-time office working culture, discussions happen in every case. Almost every one of us has felt occasionally that some discussions in the meeting are totally a waste of time because they do not stick to the agenda and lack accurate outcomes.

Employees starting with remote work need to be careful while setting the expectation from the working environment. They cannot replicate the same experience that they had in the office. The face to face interaction with the team members during the online meeting seems like the best experience of the day when the employees are working remotely. But it doesn't mean that virtual meetings are always necessary. We need to know the best tips for organising online meetings for hassle-free working and effective remote team management.

It is the responsibility of both managers and employees to develop the skills to communicate effectively in a remote working scenario. When the team members are sitting miles away from each other, it becomes the responsibility of managers to ensure that the meeting is actually effective. This can be done by following three simple phases of conducting effective remote team meetings.

Phase 1 - Make sure to prepare

The first step to prepare for an online meeting is almost similar to what managers do in office meets. They have to send out a calendar invite with correct details so that no additional explanation is required. Also, the organizer needs to mention the agenda and required tools for the discussion so that participants can prepare in advance. The agenda should cover two major points - the purpose and objectives of the meeting.

Before starting the meeting, managers should create a document to know how much time they have and will they be able to cover all the topics in the decided time frame.

Phase 2 - Start the actual meeting

Once the preparation is done, it's time to begin the actual meeting process. The organizer of the discussion should ensure that he or she has given enough time to all the other participants to prepare themselves. Before starting the conversation, managers should ask employees to minimise all the other apps that they are using. Doing this will help them concentrate on the meeting.

It is often observed that attendees follow this habit of multitasking while attending virtual meetings, but it's not good for them. So managers need to ask their employees to avoid it because they can never follow the same practice during offline meetings.

Phase 3 - Don't forget to take follow up

Once the manager is about to end the call, he or she should ensure that everyone understands what they have to do. Also, supervisors should send the minutes of the meeting to every participant or mention the key pointers in group folders so that everyone can read them.

Conclusion

Sometimes even after following all these three phases, it becomes difficult to conduct an effective remote team meeting. It happens because of a lack of data and insights related to every employee's work and progress. Also, in some cases, people lose track in between the meeting or might face some technical glitch.

Therefore, many organisations are using remote workforce management software for having accurate real-time data and insights. These online tools help in the betterment of both the company, as well as its employees. Everyone can track their progress and access reliable information and data. By using the information, managers can make required changes in the working pattern, and employees can accept the feedback as one of the ways to their career growth.

Digital Marketer Health food blogger fitness enthusiasts health blogger