Six Practical Ways To Engage Employees In Virtual Meetings 

Communication is the foundation of every organisation, and it becomes more convenient with the advent of the latest mobiles, which have higher quality, efficiency and productivity. All these features promote the wireless sending and receiving of payments, leading to business development and other fields of online earning.

Working from home or remote work is now gaining traction and becoming a common practice in many industries. There is the experience of a fair share of benefits while working, but sometimes workers feel less engaged because they are not in the office with their team. This condition becomes worse during online meetings. Here is how to engage employees in virtual discussions.

Always Be Fully Prepared

Before having a virtual meeting, make sure you have done your homework and clear the agenda points to discuss. Indicate the meeting goals and check the forum’s tools to ensure they are working correctly or not. Oftentimes, due to disturbance of setup and improper outline agenda, employees lose interest. Their attention gets diverted to other things.

The complementary material you used should be understandable and even better, visual. Use up-to-date tools or modern internal communication tools. It will help you keep workers engaged and allow them to join the conversation with devotion.

Try To Make Them Feel Valued

Everyone deserved to feel appreciated. Look for simple acts to show your employees that they are valuable. Try to pay full attention to the person who is presenting or discussing something with you. If anyone has made an extraordinary effort, then recognise it.

The major problem faced during virtual meetings is miscommunication. Employees mostly feel hesitant and think they can’t talk to the host. Make sure that you are available for one-on-one sessions to solve their issues and to consider their concerns.

Gamify Your Teamwork

This tactic is good at encouraging the loyalty of employees. Gamification techniques in a non-gaming environment engages workers in a fun way and teamwork always builts a sense of responsibility and cooperation. Conduct fun interactive polls and surveys. Competition and reward for daily activities are also helpful strategies to motivate workers in the meeting, so they pay full attention to you. Randomly assign tasks to employees in meeting and divide them into teams to complete them in a given time. Add some fun to grasp the attention of employees.

Care About Their Health And Celebrate Their Small Achievements

One thing should always be there in your mind that while you want your team to be professional, they are still human and have emotions. Celebrate their small moments to motivate them to recharge their battaries. Before starting or ending the meeting, spare some time for employees. Ask them about their health and wellbeing or if they are facing any issues regarding their tasks. If someone has a birthday, then wish them well!

During meetings, if it’s getting boring, then let them a break of 5 to 7 minutes and ask for their personal experiences about any meaningful things or opinions about any entertaining issue. It will grab their attention back into the meeting.

Permeate Your Efforts Fully

Virtual meetings require strong communication. So, make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute. Meeting etiquette should be the priority because sidebar chats will prevail over the main topic without them. Most of the employees will disengage in meetings because of being unable to contribute. Make some rules and stick to them because your values will determine how they treat one another.

Collaboration To Keep Everyone Involved

Collaboration is the best way to engage employees. Avoid doing all the talking yourself while presenting or hosting. The meeting should not be like a boring lecture. If you are giving a presentation or having a discussion, then after a few minutes, take a pause and ask if workers have any questions or everyone is following or not.

For better results, assign more responsibilities to employees rather than more work. For example, give employees different tasks to do in a meeting and inform them about it before the meeting starts, i.e., who will take notes, do the follow-up, etc. Encourage group participation and ask for suggestions as well to boost up their morale.

Conclusion

Don’t be the reason for employees’ disengagement during virtual meetings because of your actions. Try to avoid unnecessary announcements during the conference and choose the email option for that. If you want to make your attendees interact, then make sure their voices and opinions are heard.

Author bio: Mary Jean

Photo Credits: Pixabay

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