Web Conferencing Tools for Interactive Engagement

Post by Alan

Web Conferencing Tools for Interactive Engagement

Interactive engagement is essential to a productive workforce. Over half of workers report feeling disengaged at work, which leads to everything from loss of productivity to unsafe work spaces and high levels of turnover. Web conferencing provides tools to increase employees’ interactive engagement by not only making productivity easier but improving quality of life for the workers.

Connect Workers in the Field

One of the ways web conferencing can increase interactive engagement is by connecting employees in the field with the home office and one another. The number of workers telecommuting or working from home is increasing as the price of fuel rises and people live farther from their places of business. Working from home at least part of the time can significantly increase productivity. Workers with some autonomy tend to be more engaged with their work and to have a better balance between work and home life, but many benefits of working in the office are lost. Teamwork, brainstorming, and camaraderie between coworkers among other things are not possible when someone is working at home alone. Video conferencing brings these opportunities back to the workers, by providing them with a face-to-face situation to discuss or share information. Workers who go to remote sites or who need to travel anyway as part of their job can remain connected with the office and get valuable, real-time feedback from coworkers or supervisors. The ability to see one another leads to more effective communication, which creates better interaction and higher levels of engagement no matter where the workforce is.

Increase Efficiency and Productivity

Many employees spend a huge chunk of their time sitting in front of a computer screen answering micro-conversations that are difficult to reference later and may not include everyone who needs the information. The average employee spends about 28% of their time answering emails, and about 19% simply searching for information rather than doing job-specific work. This is a huge time expenditure that could be streamlined by web conferencing. Rather than taking days to discuss something over a lengthy chain of emails and then following up to make sure everyone who needs to have the information is in the loop, a video conference allows for discussion and quicker decisions. Actually seeing people and not just the words in the email also helps clarify meaning so that misunderstanding and miscommunication are significantly reduced. By keeping communications efficient, workers are able to be more productive and to increase their job satisfaction as more gets done.

Opportunity for Continuing Education

Access to continuing education can improve the quality of the workforce in a business as well as worker satisfaction and engagement. When something new needs to be integrated into a business, web conferencing is one of the most efficient ways to bring information to employees. Rather than sending groups of people through pages of web browsing or tedious reading, a web conference allows workers to interact with the new information in real time. They can ask questions and get feedback about anything that needs to be clarified. Video conferencing also allows businesses to bring in outside experts or other contributors who can improve employees’ information access, or allow for better continuing education programs. By keeping employees well equipped, a business can see a huge increase in efficiency and productivity.

Unify Business Communications

Modern communication technology has progressed at an incredibly fast rate in the last two decades, starting with the addition of email and now with the addition of smart phones and instant social media connections, but many businesses still rely on outdated technologies. Businesses who do try to advance often end up with repetitive or overlapping programs that aren’t fully integrated with each other. This leads to a lot of inefficiency, which is exactly the thing that improved technology is supposed to alleviate. A video conferencing service like Blue Jeans Network offers a way to unify communications for meetings and other interactions by providing multi-platform capabilities. This means that anyone can be connected to matter what type of device they use. The ability to interact on a face-to-face basis with anyone no matter where they are via web conference effectively streamlines communication. Having a service that also integrates texting capabilities and the ability to share presentations, prerecorded video, and other media brings multiple technologies together. By connecting everything from dedicated video conference rooms to laptops, smart phones, and tablets, web conferencing can move a business seamlessly into full connectivity.

Engage the Workforce with Web Conferencing

Web conferencing can provide businesses with the tools they need to increase productivity and worker satisfaction through interactive engagement. Whether through connecting remote workers in the field with the home office or by making the office more efficient through educational content and unified communication, video conferencing is an essential tool for the modern business seeking to improve workers’ engagement.