Five creative uses for video-conferencing

There are many great reasons for businesses to use video-conferencing to conduct meetings; video can be more engaging than audio-conferencing and more personal, so it’s not surprising that the most innovative companies are going beyond meetings and finding new creative ways to reap the benefits of video. Company meetings:  There are many reasons to get […]

There are many great reasons for businesses to use video-conferencing to conduct meetings; video can be more engaging than audio-conferencing and more personal, so it’s not surprising that the most innovative companies are going beyond meetings and finding new creative ways to reap the benefits of video.

Company meetings:  There are many reasons to get the whole company together for a meeting. It’s often the best way of giving out important information, and it brings together people who don’t usually work together to share ideas. Whilst small businesses can get everyone in a room over pizza, bigger businesses or those with remote or even international branches can’t. Taking the whole company off-site for a company meeting is expensive, which is why companies are turning to video-conferencing to create virtual company meetings. Video creates a sense of occasion around the meeting, reinforces teamwork and makes remote workers feel part of the company.

Recruitment:  Hiring can be time consuming and expensive, and getting it wrong can be disastrous. Recruitment mistakes cost UK businesses billions of pounds every year. One way of improving hiring decisions is to use video-conferencing: more personal than the telephone for an initial interview, a video-conference helps both candidate and recruiter get a sense of each other without the cost of a face-to-face meeting. It’s better for candidates too – research shows that 66 percent of candidates prefer to use video conferencing as part of the process– they don’t have to travel and it can be much more convenient and discreet. Once someone is hired, video-conferencing can also be helpful in on-boarding them and introducing other team members.

Training: Training is essential for businesses to get the most out of their employees, and to keep them up-to-date with industry changes and best practice. It’s also important for employee engagement and retention. But taking staff out of the workplace for training can be expensive, and someone has to cover their work whilst they are gone. Using video-conferencing makes training more convenient and enables staff to train together and simultaneously.  A study has shown that video conferencing can raise training efficiency by 66 percent over other formats because it is more engaging. It can also be easier for trainers to manage and to structure the question and answer process than in face-to-face training.

Supporting field based staff: Visibility of field-based workers can be a headache for back-office operations managers. Similarly, access to information whilst out in the field can be a problem for remote workers. Research shows that 50 percent of ‘best in class’ field service operations use or plan to use video collaboration tools. Video can connect experts to field workers in remote locations, which is particularly important in technical environment where they can demonstrate what needs to be done, or in cases of emergency or where there are safety concerns. Another advantage is that the video can be recorded for reasons of compliance and health and safety.

Company TV channel: Recordings any of these innovative types of video can be saved and used to create an internal ‘YouTube’ library of content. There are any number of potential uses for such a library, for example, international staff can access presentations in their own time zone, new hires can learn about the company, employees can access training, records can be kept for compliance purposes, or content can be used to engage and motivate employees.

If you would like to learn more about the Nuvias UC video product range, contact us today on 01635 552000